Brooch

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This brass oval brooch was found on Tiree in the Inner Hebrides with a pin and perhaps the pair to this brooch, apparently from a woman's grave. The burial dates from between 850 and 950.

Like many oval brooches of the period, this example was made from two shells. This picture shows the inner face of the outer openwork shell. The silver wires which threaded between both shells are visible in places.

Oval brooches are a very distinctive form of jewellery worn by Viking women in pairs to fasten the straps of a pinafore. They were mass produced in Scandinavia and widely copied.

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• Online ID: 000-190-002-100-C
• Image Rights Holder: National Museums Scotland
• Project: National Museums Scotland
  Project description   View all records in project
• Ref: National Museums Scotland  X.IL 219
• Date: 10th century
  Between 850 and 950
  
• Material: Oval; bowl-shaped
  
• Dimensions: 4.50" x 2.75" x 1.50"
  
• What:
• Subject:
• Who:
• Where: Scotland, Argyll, Tiree
  
• Event:
• Description: Oval brooch with textile remains on the reverse, from Tiree, 10th century
  
• References:
  • Graham-Campbell, James and Batey, Colleen E. Vikings in Scotland. An Archaeological Survey. Edinburgh: University Press, 1998, p 87. 
  • 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 63. 
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