Viking oval brooch
The woman’s dress fastener, worn in pairs at the shoulders, with animal ornament in cast bronze.
Oval brooches are the commonest women’s jewellery of the Viking Age and have been found by the thousand in graves from Iceland to Russia. The type shows where a woman came from. Examples are in the Swedish History Museum in Stockholm.
Materials: Gilt bronze, sometimes with silver wire
Manufacture: Cast in a clay mould from a wax model, often in two shells; gilded and sometimes trimmed with silver wire.
The domed, tortoise-like shape with pierced animal ornament.
The pair: one brooch at each shoulder held up the strap dress, often with a bead string between.