A bracteate (from the Latin bractea, a thin piece of metal) is a flat, thin, single-sided gold coin produced in Northern Europe predominantly during the Migration Period of the Germanic Iron Age, but the name is also used for later produced coins of silver produced in Central Europe during the early Middle Ages. Latin is an Indo-European language originally spoken in the region around Rome called Latium. ... General Name, Symbol, Number gold, Au, 79 Chemical series transition metals Group, Period, Block 11, 6, d Appearance metallic yellow Atomic mass 196. ... word coinage Coín (a town in Malaga province in Spain) 1¢ euro coin A coin is usually a piece of hard material, generally metal and usually in the shape of a disc, which is issued by a government to be used as a form of money. ... Northern Europe is marked in purple Northern Europe is a name of the northern part of the European continent. ... Human migration denotes any movement of groups of people from one locality to another, rather than of individual wanderers. ... Iron Age Axe found on Gotland This article is about the archaeological period known as the Iron Age, for the mythological Iron Age see Iron Age (mythology). ... General Name, Symbol, Number silver, Ag, 47 Chemical series transition metals Group, Period, Block 11, 5, d Appearance lustrous white metal Atomic mass 107. ... Historical lands and provinces in Central Europe Central Europe is the region lying between the variously and vaguely defined areas of Eastern and Western Europe. ... The Middle Ages formed the middle period in a traditional schematic division of European history into three ages: the classical civilization of Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and modern times, beginning with the Renaissance. ...

Gold bracteates from the migration period

The Vadstena bracteate, a typical C-bracteate.

Gold bracteates commonly denominate a certain type of jewellery, made mainly in the fifth to seventh century AD, represented by some spectacular gold specimens. Pierced or fitted with an eye, most were intended to be worn suspended by a string around the neck, supposedly as an amulet. The bracteates are believed to have started as one-sided copies of Roman coins but soon developed into jewelry. Download high resolution version (782x871, 151 KB)This is a public domain image of the Vadstena bracteate taken from Nordisk Familjebok. ... Download high resolution version (782x871, 151 KB)This is a public domain image of the Vadstena bracteate taken from Nordisk Familjebok. ... The Vadstena bracteate. ...

The motifs are commonly connected to Norse mythology and are believed to be Norse pagan icons for divination and for this reason the bracteates are a target of iconographic studies by scholars interested in Norse belief systems. Several bracteates also feature runic inscriptions. The study of migration period bracteates are considered a interdisciplinary field of Germanic art, Norse art, numismatics, archaeology, iconography, Norse mythology and runology. Norse or Scandinavian mythology refers to the pre-Christian religion, beliefs and legends of the Scandinavian people, including those who settled on Iceland, where the written sources for Norse mythology were assembled. ... The Savior (1410s, by Andrei Rublev) An icon (from Greek , eikon, image) is an image, picture, or representation; it is a sign or likeness that stands for an object by signifying or representing it, or by analogy, as in semiotics; in computers an icon is a symbol on the monitor... Iconography is the study and interpretation of images in art. ... The Runic alphabets are a set of related alphabets using letters known as runes, formerly used to write Germanic languages, mainly in Scandinavia and the British Isles. ... Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ... Numismatics (ancient Greek: ) is the scientific study of money and its history in all its varied forms. ... Importance and applicability Most of human history is not described by any written records. ... Iconography is the study and interpretation of images in art. ... Norse or Scandinavian mythology refers to the pre-Christian religion, beliefs and legends of the Scandinavian people, including those who settled on Iceland, where the written sources for Norse mythology were assembled. ... Runology is the study of the Runic alphabets and inscriptions. ...

Typology

The typology for bracteates divide them into several letter-named categories, a system intoduced in a 1855 treatise by the Danish numismatist Christian Jürgensen Thomsen named Om Guldbracteatene og Bracteaternes tidligeste Brug som Mynt and finally defined formally by the Swedish numismatist Oscar Montelius in his 1869 treatise Från jernåldern: 1855 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... Christian Jürgensen Thomsen (December 29, 1788–May 21, 1865) was a Danish archaeologist. ... Oscar Montelius (9 September 1843–4 November 1921) was a Swedish archaeologist who refined the concept of seriation, a relative chronological dating method. ... 1869 is a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ...

• A-bracteates (appr. 87 specimens): showing the face of a human, modeled after antique imperial coins
• B-bracteates (appr. 88 specimens): one to three human figures in standing, sitting or kneeling positions, often accompanied by animals
• C-bracteates (best represented, by appr. 400 specimens): showing a male's head above a quadruped, often interpreted as the Norse god Odin
• D-bracteates (appr. 336 specimens): showing several animals
• E-bracteates (appr. 280 specimens): showing an animal triskele under a circular feature
• F-bracteates (appr. 14 specimens): as a subgroup of the D-bracteates, showing a illusionary animal
• M-bracteates (appr. 17 specimens): imitations of Roman imperial bust-medallion

Odin is the supreme god of Germanic and Norse mythology. ...

Corpus

The German Karl Hauck, archaeologist Morten Axboe and runologist Klaus Düwel have worked since the 1960s to create a complete corpus of the early Germanic bracteates from the migration period, complete with large scale photographs and drawings. This has been published in three volumes in German named Die Goldbrakteaten der Völkerwanderungszeit. Ikonographischer Katalog. 1960 was a leap year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ...

Early medieval bracteates

Medieval silver bracteat portraying bishop Ulrichs von Halberstadt and Albert I of Brandenburg.

Silver bracteates are different from the migration period bracteates and were the main type of coin minted in German-speaking areas, with the exception of the Rhineland, beginning at around 1130 in Saxony and Thuringia and were taken out of circulation at about 1520. In some cantons of Switzerland, bracteate-like rappen, heller, and angster were produced during the 18th century. originally from the german wikipedia, uploaded by Sebastianwallroth original uploader information: Brakteat Bischof Ulrichs von Halberstadt und Albrechts des Bären. ... originally from the german wikipedia, uploaded by Sebastianwallroth original uploader information: Brakteat Bischof Ulrichs von Halberstadt und Albrechts des Bären. ... Albert I (c. ... The Rhineland (Rheinland in German) is the general name for the land on both sides of the river Rhine in the west of Germany. ... Events February 13 - Innocent II is elected pope An antipope schism occurs when Roger II of Sicily supports Anacletus II as pope instead of Innocent II. Innocent flees to France and Anacletus crowns Roger King. ... With an area of 18,413 km² and a population of 4. ... The Free State of Thuringia (German Freistaat Thüringen) lies in central Germany and is among the smaller of the countrys sixteen Bundesländer (federal states), with an area of 16,200 sq. ... Events January 18 - King Christian II of Denmark and Norway defeats the Swedes at Lake Asunde. ... The twenty-six cantons of Switzerland are the states of the federal state of Switzerland. ... In Switzerland, one-hundredth of one Swiss franc is called Rappen in German. ... Heller may mean: Heller (plural: Häller), a defunct unit of money in Central Europe. ...

Mideval silver bracteates may be large, but most are about 15 millimeters across and weighs about 1 gram.

Sources

• The most complete corpus of gold bracteates:
  • Axboe, M., Düwel, K., Hauck, K. & von Padberg, L. (1985). Die Goldbrakteaten der Völkerwanderungszeit. Ikonographischer Katalog Band 1:1, Münstersche Mittelalterschriften 24, München. ISBN 3-7705-1240-5.
  • Axboe, M., Düwel, K., Hauck, K. & von Padberg, L. (1985). Die Goldbrakteaten der Völkerwanderungszeit. Ikonographischer Katalog Band 1:2, Münstersche Mittelalterschriften 24, München. ISBN 3-7705-1241-3.
  • Axboe, M., Düwel, K., Hauck, K. & von Padberg, L. (1985). Die Goldbrakteaten der Völkerwanderungszeit. Ikonographischer Katalog Band 1:3, Münstersche Mittelalterschriften 24, München. ISBN 3-7705-2186-2.
  • Axboe, M., Düwel, K., Hauck, K. & von Padberg, L. (1986). Die Goldbrakteaten der Völkerwanderungszeit. Ikonographischer Katalog Band 2:1, Münstersche Mittelalterschriften 24, München. ISBN 3-7705-2301-6.
  • Axboe, M., Düwel, K., Hauck, K. & von Padberg, L. (1989). Die Goldbrakteaten der Völkerwanderungszeit. Ikonographischer Katalog Band 2:2, Münstersche Mittelalterschriften 24, München. ISBN 3-7705-2302-4.
  • Axboe, M., Düwel, K., Hauck, K. & von Padberg, L. (1989). Die Goldbrakteaten der Völkerwanderungszeit. Ikonographischer Katalog Band 3:1, Münstersche Mittelalterschriften 24, München. ISBN 3-7705-2401-2.
  • Axboe, M., Düwel, K., Hauck, K. & von Padberg, L. (1989). Die Goldbrakteaten der Völkerwanderungszeit. Ikonographischer Katalog Band 3:2, Münstersche Mittelalterschriften 24, München. ISBN 3-7705-2402-0.
• Gaimster, Märit (1998). Vendel period bracteates on Gotland : on the significance of Germanic art, Almqvist & Wiksell International. ISBN 91-22-01790-9.
• Hauck, K., 1970: Goldbrakteaten aus Sievern. Spätantike Amulett-Bilder der "Dania Saxonica" und die Sachsen-"Origo" bei Widukind von Corvey, München (Münstersche Mittelalter-Schriften 1).
• Starkey, K., 1999: Imagining an early Odin. Gold bracteates as visual evidence?, Scandinavian studies. The journal of the Society for the Advancement of Scandinavian Study 71-4 (1999), 373-392.
• Simek, R., 2003: Religion und Mythologie der Germanen, Darmstadt.