Maschen disc brooch
The disc brooch of meshes is a disc brooch of the early Middle Ages, which was found during the excavations of a late Saxon burial ground in stitches, district of Harburg, in Lower Saxony in 1958. The fibula shows on its face side, an unspecified identifiable saint with a halo and a woman had been added during the beginning of the Christianization of Northern Germany. She is shown in the permanent archaeological exhibition of the Archaeological Museum Hamburg in Hamburg- Harburg.
Fund history
The cemetery was on the western spur of the mesh Hall Onen, an approximately 63 m high ridge, 1200 m southeast of the village Maschener expires with the 23 m high Fuchsberg. On the Fuchsberg 1958 were discovered one two Bronze Age grave mound in the degradation of sand for the construction of the motorway. Subsequent excavations revealed that both grave mounds were disturbed down to virgin soil, and except for a few fragments of pottery and a razor from several burials on the hill revealed no further findings. 20 m north of the hill the first grave digger body of the late Saxon burial were recognizable when pushing the humus layer. In addition, 80 m east were at a Abgrabungskante also visible soil discoloration, the instructions on grave pits. When introduced three-week rescue excavation succeeded in stitches the first time the complete excavation of a late Saxon burial ground in northern Germany with 210 examined graves. Of these, 21 were created in south-north direction and 189 in the west-east orientation. The disc fibula from mesh was found in the grave No. 54, a wealthy woman funeral. Location: Coordinates are missing! Help mit.Koordinaten missing! Help.
Findings
The disc fibula from mesh lay with the face side on the chest of the dead. The brooch has a diameter of 30 mm and is made in different colored enamel in pits and cell fusion technique on a copper support. The copper base of the fibula is can- shaped, in it the enamelled plate was placed on a pad of clay and fixed by umbördelen the projecting edges. The needle apparatus of the fibula is not obtained, the resulting hinges indicate that it was a needle with spiral spring. The metal parts and the enamel inlays are slightly weathered. A radiological examination revealed that the email edition has a thickness of 0.4 mm. The exposed surface of the fibula is decorated with a highly stylized chest portrait on a red background now. Face and neck are made of now greenish white enamel. The eyes and nose region is formed by a swinging bridge made of copper, which expire in loops as stylized eyes. To the head of a kind of nimbus is whitish to pale blue enamel shown. The upper body is semi- elliptical and two running from the neck in a wide arc toward shoulders copper bars which also end at the shoulders in loops and breaks. The region around the collar of the figure now consists of light blue to turquoise enamel, the breast region below the copper lands now consists of dark blue enamel.
Interpretation and Meaning
The figure on the disc fibula from mesh is interpreted by the mind as an unspecified identifiable saint because of the nimbus -like ornament, possibly embodies the figure of Jesus Christ himself, the addition of the primer indicates that the buried was an early Christian who be promised a salutary effect of the figure shown on the fibula, as the fibula was found with the image side to her chest. The dating of the tomb was due to the geographical orientation of the tomb and its location in the burial ground in the time between 800 and 900 AD to the disc brooch from meshes are so far about 100 compared findings known, but so far all of them were from scattering or surface finds and no grave could be assigned, resulting in a more precise dating of this type fibula difficult so far. The end of 2012 a further, largely identical, comparison piece was found on a building plot in the village Tostedt Todtglüsingen. The repair shop or shops these so-called saints fibulae are presumed in the Lower Rhine area and the conspicuous accumulation of discoveries in the Lower Elbe region suggest that they enjoyed a special popularity here.