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Dr. Martin Rundkvist is a Swedish archaeologist, journal editor, public speaker, skeptic, atheist, lefty liberal, bookworm, and father of two.
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Category: Archaeology • Sweden
Posted on: May 3, 2007 9:05 AM, by Martin R
Using my friend Stefan's home-made illuminated drawing pulpit (tried & true), I've traced a photograph of the new-found Kaga foil-figure die to make it easier to understand the motif. The drawing will appear in a short paper in the summer issue of Fornvännen.
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Comments
Nice button-on-bow brooch!
Posted by: Lars L | May 3, 2007 3:02 PM
I can't help it. That just sounds so much like "Take a look at that ass!".
Posted by: Martin R | May 3, 2007 3:18 PM
Well, I get the impression that she is sitting on the loo. If that is the case, I wouldn´t be looking that direction... :-)
Posted by: Lars L | May 4, 2007 2:21 AM
I'm gonna invade your hall, slaughter your retinue and take a dump in your high seat, Lars.
Posted by: Martin R | May 4, 2007 4:52 AM
Well, I think Lars is just envious for not finding the first evidence for the use of WC high seats from the Merovingian period! ;-)
Very nice Button brooch indeed! It provides some nice typo dating.
Since the brooch seems to be such a prominent feature, and probably important, I think we could make a fairly good assumption that it could be a representation of Freyja, wearing the Brisingamen.
Has there been any study about how brooches appears in connection with female depictions?
Posted by: Mattias Niord | May 4, 2007 7:12 AM
The seminal study is Birgit Arrhenius's 1962 paper "Det flammande smycket" (in Fornvannen, where else?). But there are probably also numerous later contributions. Margrethe Watt certainly has ideas about the attributes of the characters depicted on foil figures.
Posted by: Martin R | May 4, 2007 7:36 AM
Well, interesting. But something should be done more coherently. After all, this is one of the few ways by which we could try and trace back a goddess of such importance as Freyja into the earlier centuries.
Britt-Marie Näsström strongly advocates that she represents the Great goddess type of divinity and that she was know by many names. I think that these many names may be signs of an attempt to bring together several "Great goddesses" into one by late viking age "thinkers" or more likely later chronicler who wanted an ordered structure.
The important piece of jewellery is something that keeps occuring through history and in archaeological finds, especially in connections with what seems to be depictions of female dieties, whatever they where called.
But then, most males wanna write of spears and swords and thundering gods, don´t we, Martin?
Why is there so many things that NEEDS to be researched and why am I not able to do anything of it?
Posted by: Mattias | May 5, 2007 8:41 AM