Brooches

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These two brass oval brooches were found in a woman's grave at Càrn a'Bharraich on Oronsay in the Inner Hebrides. She was buried between 850 and 900 with a bronze pin and other fragmentary objects, most of which are Scandinavian in character.

One of the oval brooches preserves traces of cloth in the corrosion of the pin on the underside. They were cast in a single piece, and richly ornamented in relief. There is a double pin attachment at the back.

Oval brooches are a very distinctive form of Viking ornament, worn by women in pairs on their shoulders to hold up a pinafore. They were mass produced in Scandinavia and widely copied.

Record details

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• Online ID: 000-100-043-813-C
• Image Rights Holder: National Museums Scotland
• Project: National Museums Scotland
  Project description   View all records in project
• Ref: National Museums Scotland  X.IL 330
• Date: Between 850 and 900
  
• Material: Bronze; oval; bowl-shaped; cast in a single piece; richly ornamented in relief; textile remains around pin
  Bronze; oval; bowl-shaped; cast in a single piece; richly ornamented; textile remains around pin
  Brooch
  Brooch
  
• Dimensions: 3.50" L x 2.06" W x 1.50" deep
  
• What: Brooch
  Brooch
  
• Subject:
• Who:
• Where: Scotland, Argyll, Oronsay, Carn nan Bharraich
  Scotland, Argyll, Oronsay, Carn nan Bharraich
  
• Event:
• Description: Oval bowl-shaped bronze brooch cast in a single piece and richly ornamented in relief, with textile remains around pin, from Carn nan Bharraich, Oronsay, Argyll
  Oval bowl-shaped bronze brooch cast in a single piece and richly ornamented, with textile remains around pin, from Carn nan Bharraich, Oronsay, Argyll
  
• References:
  • Grieg, Sigurd. Viking Antiquities in Scotland (=Viking Antiquities in Great Britain and Ireland, Part II, ed. by Haakon Shetelig). Oslo: H. Aschehoug & Co., 1940, pp. 42-3. 
• Translations:
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