Brooch (piece)

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This piece of a bronze penannular brooch was found in a woman's grave at Carn nan Bharraich on Oronsay in the Inner Hebrides. She was buried between 850 and 900 with a pair of Scandinavian oval brooches, this bronze brooch and other objects, most now fragmentary.

Approximately half of the penannular brooch survives. The round settings are now empty, and are connected by a small cross bar, where the long pin originally lay. The brooch was made in a workshop in the British Isles.

This woman's grave goods illustrate the mixture of personal objects assembled by Norse settlers in Scotland. Some were either brought or imported from Scandinavia, while others, such as this one, were made in workshops located around the Irish Sea.

Record details

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• Online ID: 000-100-036-343-C
• Image Rights Holder: National Museums Scotland
• Project: National Museums Scotland
  Project description   View all records in project
• Ref: National Museums Scotland  X.FC 185
• Date: Between 850 and 900
  
• Material: Bronze
  Brooch, penannular
  
• Dimensions:
• What: Brooch, penannular
  
• Subject:
• Who:
• Where: Scotland, Argyll, Oronsay, Carn a Bhorich
  
• Event:
• Description: Penannular bronze brooch from Carn a Bhorich, Oronsay, Argyll
  
• References:
  • Graham-Campbell, James and Batey, Colleen E. Vikings in Scotland. An Archaeological Survey. Edinburgh: University Press, 1998, p 114. 
  • Grieg, Sigurd. Viking Antiquities in Scotland (=Viking Antiquities in Great Britain and Ireland, Part II, ed. by Haakon Shetelig). Oslo: H. Aschehoug & Co., 1940, p 45. 
• Translations:
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