Brooches

Add to album

These brass oval brooches were found eroding out of the sand hills at Reay in Caithness, together with other objects typical of those found in Norse pagan graves. They probably came from a woman's grave dating from between 900 and 1000.

Like many oval brooches of the period, these were made from two shells. The outermost shells, pictured here, were an openwork pattern of interlaced animals and projecting knobs. Some of the knobs are missing on each brooch.

Oval brooches are a very distinctive form of Viking ornament, worn by women in pairs on their shoulders to hold up a pinafore. Scandinavian women were buried in their finery and with a range of everyday objects.

Record details

To search on related items, click any underlined text below.

• Online ID: 000-000-099-755-C
• Image Rights Holder: National Museums Scotland
• Project: Kiloran Bay Viking Burial (multimedia essay)
  Project description   View all records in project
• Ref: National Museums Scotland  X.IL 335
• Date: Between 900 and 1000
  
• Material: Bronze; oval; bowl-shaped; formed of two convex plates; ornamented with interlaced zoomorphic design; traces of gilding still remaining; pin missing
  Bronze; oval; bowl-shaped; formed of two convex plates; similar to X.IL 334 but slightly different ornamentation
  Brooch
  Brooch
  
• Dimensions: 4.31" L x 2.88" W
  4.38" L x 2.63" W
  
• What: Brooch
  Brooch
  
• Subject:
• Who:
• Where: Scotland, Caithness, Reay
  Scotland, Caithness, Reay
  
• Event:
• Description: Oval bronze brooch formed of two convex plates ornamented with interlaced zoomorphic design, traces of gilding remaining, with faint textile remains around pin fastener, from Reay, Caithness
  Oval bowl-shaped bronze brooch formed of two convex plates with ornamentation slightly different to X.IL 334, from Reay, Caithness
  
• References:
  • Graham-Campbell, James and Batey, Colleen E. Vikings in Scotland. An Archaeological Survey. Edinburgh: University Press, 1998, pp 125-6. 
  • 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. 10-1. 
• Translations:
• Related Records: