The Maschen disc brooch (german: Scheibenfibel von Maschen) is an
Early Medieval
The Early Middle Ages (or early medieval period), sometimes controversially referred to as the Dark Ages, is typically regarded by historians as lasting from the late 5th or early 6th century to the 10th century. They marked the start of the Mi ...
fibula
The fibula or calf bone is a leg bone on the lateral side of the tibia, to which it is connected above and below. It is the smaller of the two bones and, in proportion to its length, the most slender of all the long bones. Its upper extremity is ...
, which was found in 1958 during
archaeological excavation
In archaeology, excavation is the exposure, processing and recording of archaeological remains. An excavation site or "dig" is the area being studied. These locations range from one to several areas at a time during a project and can be condu ...
s of the late
Saxon
The Saxons ( la, Saxones, german: Sachsen, ang, Seaxan, osx, Sahson, nds, Sassen, nl, Saksen) were a group of Germanic
*
*
*
*
peoples whose name was given in the early Middle Ages to a large country (Old Saxony, la, Saxonia) near the Nor ...
grave field
A grave field is a prehistoric cemetery, typically of Bronze Age and Iron Age Europe.
Grave fields are distinguished from necropoleis by the former's lack of remaining above-ground structures, buildings, or grave markers.
Types
Grave fields can b ...
near
Maschen
Maschen is a village in the municipality of Seevetal in Harburg district in the German state of Lower Saxony. It lies south of Hamburg on the northern edge of the Lüneburg Heath and within the commuter zone of the city of Hamburg. Maschen Marsh ...
, in the
Lower Saxony
Lower Saxony (german: Niedersachsen ; nds, Neddersassen; stq, Läichsaksen) is a German state (') in northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ...
district of
Harburg,
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
. On its face side, the fibula shows an unidentified
saint
In religious belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of Q-D-Š, holiness, likeness, or closeness to God. However, the use of the term ''saint'' depends on the context and Christian denomination, denominat ...
with a
halo
Halo, halos or haloes usually refer to:
* Halo (optical phenomenon)
* Halo (religious iconography), a ring of light around the image of a head
HALO, halo, halos or haloes may also refer to:
Arts and entertainment Video games
* ''Halo'' (franch ...
. It was found in a woman's grave of the beginning of the
Christianization
Christianization ( or Christianisation) is to make Christian; to imbue with Christian principles; to become Christian. It can apply to the conversion of an individual, a practice, a place or a whole society. It began in the Roman Empire, conti ...
of
northern Germany
Northern Germany (german: link=no, Norddeutschland) is a linguistic, geographic, socio-cultural and historic region in the northern part of Germany which includes the coastal states of Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Lower Saxony an ...
, and is in the permanent exhibition of the
Archaeological Museum Hamburg in
Harburg, Hamburg
Harburg is a Boroughs and quarters of Hamburg#Boroughs, borough of the city of Hamburg, Germany. It is also the name of Harburg (quarter), Harburg quarter in the borough, which used to be the capital of the Harburg (district), Harburg district in ...
.
Discovery
The
cemetery
A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite or graveyard is a place where the remains of dead people are buried or otherwise interred. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek , "sleeping place") implies that the land is specifically designated as a buri ...
was located on the western fringes of the ', an approximately mountain range which is running out on the ' some southeast of the village center of Maschen. During
sand
Sand is a granular material composed of finely divided mineral particles. Sand has various compositions but is defined by its grain size. Sand grains are smaller than gravel and coarser than silt. Sand can also refer to a textural class of s ...
extraction from the Fuchsberg for the construction of the nearby
Bundesautobahn 1
is an autobahn in Germany. It runs from Heiligenhafen in Schleswig-Holstein to Saarbrücken, a distance of , but is incomplete between Cologne and Trier. B 207 continues north from Heiligenhafen to Puttgarden, at the end of the island of Fehm ...
, two
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...
tumuli
A tumulus (plural tumuli) is a mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds or ''kurgans'', and may be found throughout much of the world. A cairn, which is a mound of stones buil ...
were discovered in 1958.
The following excavations revealed that both grave
mound
A mound is a heaped pile of earth, gravel, sand, rocks, or debris. Most commonly, mounds are earthen formations such as hills and mountains, particularly if they appear artificial. A mound may be any rounded area of topographically higher el ...
s were disturbed to the undisturbed ground. Except for a few
ceramic
A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcelain ...
vessel shards and a
razor
A razor is a bladed tool primarily used in the removal of body hair through the act of shaving. Kinds of razors include straight razors, safety razors, disposable razors, and electric razors.
While the razor has been in existence since before t ...
from several later
burial
Burial, also known as interment or inhumation, is a method of final disposition whereby a dead body is placed into the ground, sometimes with objects. This is usually accomplished by excavating a pit or trench, placing the deceased and objec ...
s on the hill, no further
findings were recorded. While pushing off the
humus
In classical soil science, humus is the dark organic matter in soil that is formed by the decomposition of plant and animal matter. It is a kind of soil organic matter. It is rich in nutrients and retains moisture in the soil. Humus is the Lati ...
layer north of the tumuli, the first late Saxon flat graves appeared in the ground. Additionally some soil discolorations appeared at a brim of the sand mine some east, indicating burial pits. During the initially launched rescue excavation, the complete burial site were excavated and documented in a three-week operation. It was the first fully documented late Saxon burial site of northern Germany so far with a total of 210 examined burials.
21 burials were oriented in south-north direction and the majority of 189 burials were created in west-east orientation. The Maschen disc brooch was found in the grave No. 54 of a wealthy woman.
Findings
The Maschen disc brooch lay with its face side down on the woman's chest. The brooch has a diameter of and is made of different colored
vitreous enamel
Vitreous enamel, also called porcelain enamel, is a material made by fusing powdered glass to a substrate by firing, usually between . The powder melts, flows, and then hardens to a smooth, durable vitreous coating. The word comes from the Lati ...
in
cloisonné
Cloisonné () is an ancient technique for decorating metalwork objects with colored material held in place or separated by metal strips or wire, normally of gold. In recent centuries, vitreous enamel has been used, but inlays of cut gemstones, ...
technique on a
copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...
plate. The copper base of the brooch is can shaped, and the enamel plate was fixed in the copper base on a bed of
loam
Loam (in geology and soil science) is soil composed mostly of sand (particle size > ), silt (particle size > ), and a smaller amount of clay (particle size < ). By weight, its mineral composition is about 40–40–20% concentration of sand–sil ...
by
flanging
Flanging is an audio effect produced by mixing two identical signals together, one signal delayed by a small and (usually) gradually changing period, usually smaller than 20 milliseconds. This produces a swept comb filter effect: peaks and not ...
the protruding edges of the bases wall. The needle apparatus was not preserved. The remaining hinges indicate that it was a needle with a coil spring. Both the metal parts and enamel inlays are slightly worn. A
radiological
In physics, radiation is the emission or transmission of energy in the form of waves or particles through space or through a material medium. This includes:
* ''electromagnetic radiation'', such as radio waves, microwaves, infrared, visib ...
examination revealed that the enamel layer has a thickness of .
The front face of the disc brooch depicts a stylized chest portrait on a now red background. The face and neck of the portrayed person are made of now greenish white enamel. Its eyes and nose region is formed by a curved bar made of copper, ending in two loops as stylized eyes. Around the head a kind of halo is shown, made of whitish to light blue enamel. The upper body has a semi-elliptical shape. The body is decorated by two widely arced copper bars from the neck towards the shoulders, which end there in small loops. The area around the neck of the figure is made of now light blue to turquoise enamel. The lower chest area, below the copper bars, is made of a now dark blue enamel.
Interpretation
Due to its halo-like ornament around the head, the figure on the Maschen disc brooch is interpreted as an unspecified saint, and may possibly depict
Jesus Christ
Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...
. The addition of the fibula as a
grave good
Grave goods, in archaeology and anthropology, are the items buried along with the body.
They are usually personal possessions, supplies to smooth the deceased's journey into the afterlife or offerings to the gods. Grave goods may be classed as a ...
indicates that the buried woman was an early Christian. She may have promised herself a salvation effect from the depicted figure, as the brooch was found placed with its face side on her chest.
Due to the geographical orientation of the burial and its location within the cemetery, the burial has been
dated
Date or dates may refer to:
*Date (fruit), the fruit of the date palm (''Phoenix dactylifera'')
Social activity
*Dating, a form of courtship involving social activity, with the aim of assessing a potential partner
**Group dating
*Play date, an ...
to the period between 800 and 900 AD, which marks the beginning of the thorough Christianization of Northern Germany.
So far, some 100 comparison finds of fibulae of the Maschen disc brooch type were known, but they all came from stray finds or were collected from the surface without any assignment to a specific grave, and therefore a more precise dating of this type of brooches has been impossible before.
By the end of 2012 another nearly identical piece was found in a construction area at the
Tostedt
Tostedt (Low German ''Töst'') is a municipality in the district of Harburg, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is the central administration of the collective municipality (Samtgemeinde Tostedt) which consists of 9 joint communities.
Geography
Ge ...
district of Todtglüsingen. The origin of this fibula is believed to be the
Lower Rhine region
The Lower Rhine region or Niederrhein is a region around the Lower Rhine section of the river Rhine in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany between approximately Oberhausen and Krefeld in the East and the Dutch border around Kleve in the West. As ...
and the noticeable accumulation of finds at the
Niederelbe
The Niederelbe (i.e. Lower Elbe) is a long section of the river Elbe, from western Hamburg downstream to its mouth into the North Sea near Cuxhaven. Starting at (or Elbe kilometer 634) near Finkenwerder, Hamburg, it gradually widens from to ...
area may indicate that it has faced an increased popularity especially in this region.
References
Bibliography
*
*
: ''This article has been translated in part from the
German Wikipedia
The German Wikipedia (german: Deutschsprachige Wikipedia) is the German-language edition of Wikipedia, a free and publicly editable online encyclopedia.
Founded on March 16, 2001, it is the second-oldest Wikipedia (after the English Wikipedia), ...
equivalent
Equivalence or Equivalent may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
*Album-equivalent unit, a measurement unit in the music industry
* Equivalence class (music)
*'' Equivalent VIII'', or ''The Bricks'', a minimalist sculpture by Carl Andre
*''Equiva ...
.''
Further reading
* {{citation , last = Wegewitz , first = Willi , title = Die spätsächsichen Reihengräberfelder im Kreis Harburg , publisher = Isensee , location = Oldenburg , year = 1994, isbn = 3-89442-230-0 , pages = 339–351 , language = de , ref = none
Old Saxony
Archaeological artifacts
Medieval Germany
Archaeological discoveries in Germany
Archäologisches Museum Hamburg
Individual brooches
Works in vitreous enamel
Images of saints
9th-century artifacts
1958 archaeological discoveries
Medieval European metalwork objects
Medieval art
Archaeology of Lower Saxony