Noric-Pannonian Winged Brooch Almgren 238 T, Silver

Noric-Pannonian Winged Brooch Almgren 238 Var. T

Large Noric-Pannonian winged brooch made of solid silver with pin spring made of sturdy alpaca silver. An incredibly magnificent and high-quality piece that not only enriches any archaeological collection but, as a fully functional replica, is also ideally suited for actual use on a reconstructed costume!

The Noric-Pannonian women's costume

The special women's costume in the Roman provinces of Noricum and Pannonia can be traced back to indigenous Celtic origins. While under Roman influence clothing elsewhere rapidly became Romanised, here, well into the 2nd century, an independent fashion developed with particularly splendid brooches and elaborate belts. In addition, striking headdresses can be seen on figurative gravestones, which make the native women's costume so distinctive.

Jochen Garbsch writes about this in his fundamental work: 
"To speak of a Noric-Pannonian women's costume is justified because of the custom, observable in both provinces, of wearing a shorter, usually sleeveless dress over an undergarment reaching down to the feet, held together at the shoulders by two brooches of the form A236/7 or 238, and in the middle by a belt. Other components of this costume, which vary in detail, are a cloak thrown over the shoulders, a headdress, neck and chest jewellery in the form of rings, beads, necklaces, ribbons, brooches and pendants, and arm rings."

It should be noted that the occurrence of the brooches A236, A237 and A238 is by no means limited to the provinces of Noricum and Pannonia, but identical forms also appear in Raetia, Bohemia and Slovakia, individual finds can be found as far as the Baltic coast. The definition of a specific national costume should therefore be approached with a certain degree of caution.

U. Rothe, Dress in the middle Danube provinces: the garments, their origins and their distribution.Österr. Jahresh. Band 81
J. Garbsch, Die norisch-pannonische Frauentracht im 1. und 2. Jahrhundert. Münchner Beitr. Vor- u.Frühgesch. 11 (München 1965).
U. Rothe, Die norisch-pannonische Tracht: gab es sie wirklich?, IKARUS Band 8