engleski

South-eastward penetration of the “Western fashion” in the Late Middle Ages: annular brooches found in Croatia and neighbouring countries

Annular brooches are a class of objects similar to buckles, consisting of a frame of various shapes and a revolving pin, whose bed is defined in a certain way. Originally they served for fastening clothes on the chest below the neck or on one or both shoulders. However, their positions in certain graves suggest that they may have been used in different ways. The observed area has yielded round annular brooches with a wide and straight frame with hexagonal and semi-circular cross-sections ; rhombic, six-foiled, six-pointed brooches ; brooches with six-pointed frame whose arms were double connected ; eight-pointed, cordate and zoomorphic brooches. This presentation will show the distribution of individual types of annular brooches in Croatia and the neighbouring countries (Hungary, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Slovenia), based on the published material. The obtained picture will demonstrate that there are big differences in the distribution of annular brooches in general, as well as in some of their types in the observed area. The different level of research and publication of material is not the only reason for this situation. What can we conclude from this about the directions and mechanisms of the spread of this fashion from Western and Southern Europe towards south-east? We can observe that older specimens, found in hoards from the time of the Mongol invasion, were made of more expensive materials, which were later followed by cheaper imitations. Who were the agents behind the spread of this fashion? May we think of itinerant craftsmen and local workshops? What could have caused different degrees of acceptance of individual types of annular brooches in different areas, but also the different practices of their wear, meaning, the different functions that were attributed to them? These are the questions to which this presentation will try to give answers.

annular brooch ; inscription ; Middle Ages ; identity

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