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ACTA ARCHAEOLOGICA LUNDENSIA SERIES IN 8°, No. 27 Vendel period bracteates on Gotland On the significance of Germanic art Märit Gaimster Almqvist & Wiksell International Cover: Salin 1904. © Märit Gaimster Printed by Wallin & Dalholm Boktryckeri AB, Lund 1998 ISBN 91-22-01790-9 CONTENTS Preface I. Introduction. The study of Germanic art ..................................................................................................... 1 II. Iconocraphy 11:1. Germanic art and Pagan religion ................................................................................... 13 ll:2. Germanic art and contextual iconography 21 11:2:1. The Scandinavian gold bracteates: the problem of systematising meaningul images ....................................................................................................... 22 ll:2:2. The iconography of the gold bracteates ................................................................... 36 ll:2:3. Germanic art and Pagan mythological tradition ........................................................ 48 ll:3. The Gotland E-bracteates and Vendel period art ........................................................ 71 11:3:1. Establishing an iconographic perspective ................................................................. 73 ll:3:2. The design on the E-bracteates ................................................................................. 93 ll:3:3. Symbolic imagery in Vendel and early Viking period art .........................................108 III. Chronology 111:1. The chronology of early medieval Scandinavia ..........................................................133 111:1:1. Style and the dating of the Vendel period ................................................................134 111:1:2. Attempts towards a new Vendel period chronology ................................................144 lll:2. The chronological significance of Germanic art .........................................................154 lll:2:1. The dating of the Scandinavian gold bracteates .....................................................155 lll:2:2. Style II and Vendel period disc-brooches .................................................................166 lll:2:3. Gotland and the Vendel period chronology .............................................................175 IV. Art and society IV: 1. Germanic art and social interpretations ......................................................................203 IV:2. Iconography as a critical approach ..............................................................................211 IV:2:1. Cult-practices and mythological tradition .................................................................212 IV:2.2. Germanic art and regional organisation ...................................................................223 IV:2:3. Art and society: a Gotlandic perspective ..................................................................236 Swedish summary .................................................................................................................251 Catalogue. E-bracteates and major types of H-bracteates .................................................273 Abbreviations .......................................................................................................................281 References ..............................................................................................................................282 PREFACE This book ows its existence to a comment by Professor Åke Hyenstrand, at the symposium “The Birth of the Middle Ages”, at Krapperup Castle in Scania, in June 1988: “why don’t you write about the E-bracteates? Nobody writes about the E-bracteates”. You will have blissfully forgotten that comment, Åke, but here is the book! That it came to be about iconography, however, is the result of my friendship with Dr. Charlotte Behr. Without our many long and inspired talks through the past five years, while consuming gallons of tea, this would have been a very different story. This book also ows its existence to my family, friends and colleagues, who have supported me in many wonderful ways. In particular I would like to thank my tutor, Professor Johan Callmer for his patience and humour through the years, my fellow student Eva Andersson for her friendship and help with innumerable tasks, and my mother, Sonia, for being a wonderful and supportive mother, both economically, practically and emotionally. The book is dedicated to my father, Sölwe Thurborg (1932-1990), who taught me to find joy in the smallest things. Through the years I have had financial support through Lund University, Bokelunds historiska-geografiska stipendiefond, Hilma Borelius stipendium, Carl Stadlers fond för arkeologisk forskning, Hildebrandsfonden and Birger Nermans fond. A substantial grant was awarded to me from the Svea Orden. The printing of the book was made possible through a generous grant from Kungliga Gustav Adolfs Akademien för svensk folkkultur. For reaching this final stage, however, I owe my thanks to many people. To Tina Borstam for her excellent drawings of E-bracteates and several belt-buckles. To my husband David, Charlotte Behr, Morten Axboe and Birgitta Hårdh for reading through my manuscript, commenting on it and helping me sorting out both my swenglogemnan and my messages. To Gary Brown, Peter Moore and Dr. Frank Meddens at Pre-Construct Archaeology for helping me getting a handle on my computer. And to Dan Ptacek, who kindly helped me print out my final manuscript in the middle of the construction of the Greenwich Millenium Dome: it’s a good omen. London, February 1998 Märit Gaimster I. INTRODUCTION The study of Germanic art The Germanic art from the early Medieval period (c.400-800 AD) is mainly known from ornate metalwork in the form of dress-accessories, amulets and warrior-equipment. It is particularly associated with the animal styles that were defined by the Swedish scholar Bernard Salin in 1904 (Fig.1). Identifying the development of a characteristic animal art in Scandinavia during the Migration period, Salin named this Style I. The further development of the Germanic animal art, belonging to what is today known as the Vendel period, he defined as Style II and III (Salin 1904, 206-90). In Scandinavia, the quantity of Vendel period art was dramatically increased with the excavations at Valsgärde in the 1920s and 30s (Arwidsson 1942a-b; 1954; 1977; Olsén 1945). The finds from these boat-burials, of the same type as those discovered at nearby Vendel in the 19th century (Stolpe & Arne 1912), led to a subdivision and re-definition of Salin's styles as Vendel styles A-E (Fig.2). Vendel style B corresponded to Salin's Style II, while Vendel style E comprised most of his Style III. The transition from Style I to Style II was identified in Vendel style A (Arwidsson 1942a, 18-21; cf. chapter IV:1:1). Reflecting the evolutionary ideas of his time, Salin’s perception of art was as a purely aesthetic phenomenon, subject to universal laws of change. The three successive animal styles were modelled on the idea of an archaic, a classic and a Hellenistic phase in Antique Greek art. Each of Salin’s styles so represented a natural process of degeneration, leading to the renaissance and development of a new form of expression (cf. Karlsson 1983, 96). Salin’s method to explain and study the Germanic art was hailed by archaeologists and art- historians at the time as ground-breaking (Ehringhaus 1996, 115-19 with further ref.). The perception of the animal styles as ornamental and subject to aesthetic principles of expression, was further developed by the German art-historian Alois Riegl. To explain the character of the animal art, Riegl introduced the horror vacui as a formative principle (Riegl 1923, 13; cf. Haseloff 1979, 105). Although the idea of a strictly typological development of style was soon modified, the legacy from Salin was retained in the understanding of a slow and continuous development behind the Germanic art. Together with the typological method, i Fig. 1. Salin’s animal styles, a) Style I; b) Style II; c) Style III. Scale: 4:5. developed by Oscar Montelius, the animal art offered a means of establishing relative chronologies (cf. Mackeprang 1952; Åberg 1924). Today, the passive understanding of style has been challenged through a critical view of the production, use and meaning of prestige objects in early medieval society. In place of the conventional view of the ornate metalwork as commercial workshop products, reflecting a neutral fashion, their social and political functions are acknowledged (cf. Andrén 1991; Fonnesbech Sandberg 1991; Gaimster 1991). This has led to a re-definition also of art as a 2