Brooch "Viking box". Gotland Island, Sweden, 10th century.

Brooch "Viking box". Gotland Island, Sweden, 11th century.
Copper alloy.
Measurements: 3 x 5 x 5 cm.

Peculiar Scandinavian brooch in the shape of a cylindrical box. Known as "box brooch" because it was used as a container for small objects, it was worn by the Viking women of the island of Gotland to hold the neck of their shawls. It is decorated in a highly synthetic zoomorphic style. These motifs, depicting elongated animal bodies with small heads in profile and bulging eyes, are characteristic of the so-called "E" art, which encompasses the archaeological finds from Broa (Gotland, Sweden) and the Oseberg burial ship (Norway). The intertwined "snakes" in the Broa style are also reminiscent of the Jelling style of the ninth and tenth centuries, so it could be thought to be a transitional style between the two artistic styles.