Observations sur les fibules germaniques du IV e et du V e siècle découvertes à Vron (Somme)
Authors: Böhme Horst 
Published: February 2012

Although at least thirty-five women were buried in the earlier necropolis at Vron during the period between ca. 370/ 75 and ca. 435/ 45, only three of them were equipped with typically Germanic brooches or other elements of dress. Such a low proportion of women whose dress was secured according to the Germanic custom by means of brooches, is not unusual in the burial sites of Northern Gaul, and indeed clearly distinguishes these from the burial grounds on the right bank of the Rhine in free Germania, where practically all the women used one or more brooches to fasten their clothing, and were subsequently buried with them.

The evidence from Vron, as from other comparable military burial sites to the west of the Rhine (e. g. Oudenburg, Vermand, Vireux-Molhain), attesting how few women were buried with brooch jewellery, may indicate either that in actual fact very few Germanic women had accompanied their men-folk into Northern Gaul, or that the majority of women of barbaric origin had, in the process of cultural assimilation, abandoned their exotic costume at a very early date and now favoured Gallo-Roman dress.

Among the typically Germanic dress ornaments observed at Vron, one may distinguish five different brooch types and one hairpin type, analysed below :

1. Simple cross-bow brooches belong to the most frequently attested and geographically widespread group of Germanic women’s brooches in the 4th and 5th centuries (mid-4th to mid-5th centuries) between the Elbe and the Loire (fig. 2). They are almost invariably made of bronze, as are the two examples from Grave 163A and Pit 9. The brooch from Grave 163A, worn as a single item, is remarkable for its greater length, its short spring, and upper chord. These rather unusual features appear most frequently in the simple cross-bow brooches from the Lower Rhine and Westphalia. There, this unusual form may be dated chiefly to the first half of the 5th century. This corresponds to the chronology proposed by Cl. Seillier, who attributes, on other evidence, Grave 163A to his Phase 3 (= ca. 415/ 20-435/ 45).

2. Cross-bow brooches with a trapezoid foot-plate represent a further typological development of the simple cross-bow brooch. The silver brooch from Grave 242A possesses in addition a beaded wire decoration on the bow, together with a stamped metal plaque covering the trapezoid foot-plate, features which enable it to be classed with the Vert-la-Gravelle variant (fig. 3). This form of brooch, known almost exclusively by the archaeological evidence from the left bank of the Rhine is probably to be interpreted as the product of workshops in Northern Gaul, which are known to have manufactured other types of Germanic costume ornaments for the wives of foederati (see below). Comparison with the very similar brooches from Grave 7 at Vert-la-Gravelle (Mame) enable this example from Vron to be dated at the earliest to the last third of the 4th century or to the turn of the century. The location of the inhumation within the burial ground suggests a date within Seillier’s Phase 2 (= ca. 390-415/ 20).

3. The bronze hairpin from the same grave, over 17 cm long, with a small round head, belongs to the Fecamp type (fig. 4), known chiefly from the Germanic female burials and other archaeological evidence found in Westphalia and the Lower Rhine. Presumably this heavy bronze hair-pin was used to secure a large headdress on the right side of the head, as in the depiction of the so-called Ubier costume found on Roman stelae. These accessories, which it would be better to refer to as head-dress pins, seem to have been a characteristic feature of the Frankish women’s costume, as, unlike numerous brooch types, they are not found in the graves of Saxon women. The fact that Fecamp type head-dress pins appear regularly in the graves of Germanic women who secured their clothing with a combination of tutulus and cross-bow brooches (see below) suggests they may be dated to the last third of the 4th century and the beginning of the 5th.

4. Tutulus brooches developed in the course of the 4th century from an earlier type of brooch current in the 3rd century to the east of the Rhine, and from the mid-4th century on represented the most frequently attested and most striking form of Germanic brooch between the Elbe and the Loire (fig. 5). Tutulus brooches were invariably worn in pairs at shoulder level to secure the peplos. They generally consisted of two thin silver coneor trumpet-shaped plaques, between which was set a large amber bead. The various parts were held together by an iron or bronze peg. In the course of the 4th and early 5th centuries the tutulus brooch developed ever larger forms, to which was eventually added a small terminal disc (fig. 6) with a niello pattern that suggest that the type originated in the workshops of Northern Gaul. The pair of brooches from Grave 269A belongs in size and shape to the Cortrat-Oudenburg type, the majority of which can be dated to the late 4th or early 5th centuries.

5. In the graves of Northern Gaul as in those of Gennania east of the Rhine, tutulus brooches were fairly regularly found in association with cross-bow brooches (fig. 8). To the West of the Rhine, the majority of Germanic women wore two similar but rarely identical brooches, generally of bronze (Gaulish type B), occasionally silver (Gaulish type A). The two different brooches from Grave 269A belong unequivocally to Gaulish type B and are decorated on the bow with niello fir twig patterns. Like the tutulus brooches, they may be dated to the late 4th and early 5th centuries.

6. The large cross-bow brooch from Grave 269A (fig. 7) is unique in the whole region between the Lower Elbe and the Loire, which means that any typological and chronological classification is bound to be based exclusively on the analysis of particular formal details. This splendid brooch must be regarded as a unique, specially made creation which was of particular value to its wearer. a) The unusual system used to reinforce and stabilise an extremely long spring is part of a long tradition going back to the 3rd century in the Germanic area (Westphalia, Lower Saxony, the region of the Elbe, Scandinavia). As this example from Vron shows, the tradition of using excessively long springs was apparently far from being forgotten even in the late 4th century.

b) The ornamental application of a disc on the bow or a beaded wire cuff is a technique used among the Germanic peoples of the Elbe and in Scandinavia from the late 3rd century. Further west, these techniques seem to have still been in use among Germanic silversmiths in the late 4th century, as one of the three cross-bow brooches with trapezoid foot-plate from Grave 7 at Vert-la-Gravelle proves.

c) The elongated rhomboid foot-plate is a not unusual feature of the brooches of the Elbe Germans and in Southern Scandinavia in the late 3rd and 4th centuries. The peculiar form of the foot-plate may thus be interpreted as a legacy from the Elbe Germans.

d) The ornamental use of small blue glass beads or larger blue glass stones inlaid in stamped sheet silver plaques is widely attested from the 2nd to the 4th century among numerous Germanic tribes (Southern Scandinavia, the region of the Elbe, Bohemia) and seems to have spread in the 4th and 5th centuries between the Elbe and the Seine. It is found not only in the mountings of late-Roman military belts at this period (especially buckles of the Misery type) but also in various brooch types, and may thus be considered as a commonly used decorative technique in Northern Gaul also.

e) On the stamped silver plaque that covers the elongated foot-plate, on either side of the blue glass bead, one may recognise a stylised animal head, full-face (eyes, pricked up ears, clearly delineated muzzle). Such simplified animal heads are occasionally found on discoid brooches with stamped metal overlay of the Perlberg and Mahndorf type from the right bank of the Rhine. However, almost identical with the Vron motif is the animal head that appears on the stamped silver plaque of the two cross-bow brooches from Grave 7 at Vert-la-Gravelle. Because of the poor state of preservation of the artefact, this head had been wrongly interpreted hitherto as a vase motif. Thus metal plaques stamped with animal motifs originating in the region between the Lower Elbe and the Seine are much more common than was previously believed and belong to the familiar and widespread repertoire of the craftsmen working there.

Taking into account all the details of the exceptionally magnificent brooch from Vron, one may establish that, even if certain ornamental details (disc on the bow, beaded wire, elongated foot-plate with stamped metal overlay) occur widely over a region stretching from the Elbe to Southern Scandinavia, and had their beginnings in the late 3rd century, we may observe other features hitherto associated exclusively with Germanic brooches from west of the Lower Elbe. For this reason, one need no longer interpret this unusual brooch as a product from Northern Europe as was suggested some years ago. All things considered, one should rather assume the brooch originated in the region between the Elbe and the Seine, which would suggest the workshop in Belgica II.

In the 4th century and even up until the middle of the 5th, Germanic women living in their homeland to the East of the Rhine wore a costume consisting of several garments, including a peplos and a shoulder cape or cloak, secured by brooches. The position of these brooches within the graves (fig. 9) suggests that the peplos dress was always held in place at shoulder level by two tutulus brooches, while one or two other brooches (in Northern Gaul a majority of cross-bow brooches with trapezoid foot) fastened the cloak or cape at the breast. Gallo-Roman women, on the other hand, wore a tunic that required no brooches.

Of course, the proportion of Germanic women buried in their traditional garments - which would have appeared extremely exotic in Gaul - is very low (ca. 10% to 30% at the most). We must therefore assume that in the course of time many Germanic women gave up their traditional costume and conformed, as part of the process of acculturation, to the Roman style of dress. On this view, the woman in Grave 269A seems to have been a very conservative lady, who, in a foreign environment, had remained deeply attached to her original costume from east of the Rhine.

The groups of brooches and pins used to fasten female attire from Vron and other military cemeteries in Northern Gaul are unusual in the Gallo-Roman milieu, deriving from no tradition and having no immediate models in Gaul. On the other hand, these costume accessories have direct analogies or at least unequivocal prototypes in Germania west of the Rhine at the same period. The origin of the women who wore the brooch costume in Gaul may thus be considered confirmed as being north-west Germany or the Netherlands, although so far it has not been possible to pinpoint any specific region as their point of origin. What is striking, however, is that it is only in the former Belgica II and Lugdunensis II that one finds female graves with four or more brooches, as with Grave 269A at Vron (fig. 10), whereas in Germania II this «multi-brooch» costume was clearly unknown. One must therefore assume that in these particular North Gaul provinces Germans from different ethnic groups were emolled for military service and that the majority of these recruits could certainly have come from the regions between the Lower Rhine and the Lower Elbe.