Noric-Pannonian Winged Brooch Almgren 238e, Bronze

Noric-Pannonian wing brooch Almgren 238, Var. E

Noric-Pannonian wing brooch after a find from Austria. The original was offered in private trade by an auction company, but numerous comparative finds can be found in the Austrian museums of Carnuntum or Vienna. The variant E of the wing brooch with 3 buttons and ornamental foot decoration dates approximately from the Claudian period, i.e. around the middle of the 1st century AD.

The fully functional fibula is cast and worked by hand in a complex lost wax process.

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