First Ladies. Ornamental Bow Brooches and the Negotiation of Elite Female Status and Roles in Iron-Age Norway (c. 400-900 AD)

Abstract

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.