Originalversjon
Current Swedish Archaeology. 2021, 29 (1), 89-121, DOI: https://doi.org/10.37718/CSA.2021.10
Sammendrag
From the fifth century to the Viking Age in present-day Norway, certain women belonging to the upper strata of society were buried with high-quality ornamental bow brooches. Although adjusting to changing styles of decoration, the practical function and basic form of the brooches – a rectangular headplate, a bow and a rhomboidal footplate – remained more or less the same throughout the centuries they were in use. By exploring burials which include these ornamental accessories, I argue that the brooches functioned as an important factor in reproducing and continuously negotiating identity shared by certain women within the Scandinavian Iron Age elite.