Copper alloy oval brooch (Type P38)

Oval Brooch

This object is known as an oval brooch. This brooch is made of bronze. Some of these brooches also had gold (gilt) decoration.

Viking women wore these brooches in pairs to hold up their dresses. Between the brooches they would wear strings of beads sometimes with pendants.

How does this compare with the brooches early Anglo-Saxon women wore?
Find out what Anglo-Saxon women wore / Find out about Anglo-Saxon brooches

 

Very few Viking brooches like these have been found in Britain. The Vikings stopped wearing this type of brooch in the ninth century - sometime between AD850-900.

The Vikings living in England may have worn a mixture of Viking and Anglo-Saxon objects, which sometimes makes it difficult for archaeologists in England to separate Anglo-Saxon from Viking people.

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