Gotland Bear Head Brooches - Pair

This is a pair of brooches based on an example from gotland, which is now in the british museum and is likely to date from the 11th century. They are designed to be used as a pair, for fastening a hangaroc, the outer dress worn by norse women. The bear head style of paired brooches used for this purpose are particular to the island of gotland, in the baltic, where the design is clearly derived from fibula, or bow brooches of the period before the viking age. The presence of knotwork in the urnes style indicates that this particular brooch dates from the 11th century, at which time the oval brooches, used more widely across scandinavia, britain, and ireland for the same purpose, had fallen out of use, presumably along with the dress they were intended to fasten. The people of gotland, in the viking age, had benefitted from being at a crossroads of trade in the baltic sea, and showed an incredible amount of wealth, as seen from the sheer quantity of silver hoards from the island. This seems to have meant that they did things a little differently there, even down to using different styles of brooch from those in mainland scandinavia. However, these people were traders themselves, and no doubt travelled far and wide from their home, so these brooches could easily have been present in towns and markets outside gotland. The original brooch that this pair is based on was found on gotland, but was part of the private collection of james curle, fsa, in britain. It was acquired by ...

This is a pair of brooches based on an example from gotland, which is now in the british museum and is likely to date from