Eagle pins: 1,500 year old pins filled with dazzling jewels and glass – and worn by powerful women
Rapid facts
Name: Eagle pins
What they are: Decorative gold pins, bronze, gems and colored glass
Where they come from: Alovera, Spain
When they were made: Around 501 to 533
These two eagle -shaped pins were discovered in the center of Spain and date from the beginning of the 6th century, when Visigoth kingdom ruled the area. Popular symbol among Visigoths, the predatory bird represented power – and eagle pins are often found in the tombs of Visigoth women.
These pins, currently in the collection of National Archaeological Museum In Madrid, are in gold plated bronze and measure approximately 4.6 inches (11.8 centimeters) high. Eagle contour cells are encrusted in the climax with red and blue-green glass as well as white stones. The eyes of Eagles are blue precious stones. Conversely, pieces of the spring mechanism of the pin and clasp remain.
During the migration period in Europe (from the 4th to the 7th century), the power of the Roman Empire declined and groups such as the Visigoths (Western Goths) moved to the west of central Europe in the Iberian peninsula. They set up a kingdom based in Toledo, Spain, and art and writing prospered in the kingdom of Visigoth in life and life.
A recurring theme in the art of Visigoth was the eagle – a symbol of the supreme being and of embodied power, according to Katharine Reynolds BrownArt historian at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. And these eagle pins are often Pairs In the graves of women, the authors of the manual “Art and architecture of the Middle Ages“(Cornell University Press, 2023) The Walters Museum of Art.
More amazing artifacts
In the middle of the seventh century, the king of Visigoth ordered the creation of ” Visigothic code“A set of laws that were quite progressive for the time. have been authorized To inherit lands and titles and could organize their own marriages, according to the historian Suzanne Fonay Wemple. However, only a handful of names of powerful women from Visigoth – in large part of the Wisigoth Kings’ consorts – are known in the historical archives.
Although the eagle pins suggest that their owner was an influential woman, the Lack of rigorous excavations In the cemetery of Alovera, a century ago, we will never know if they were really the property of a Visigoth Queen.
