Original scientific paper
An Inscribed Annular Brooch from the Templar Site of Gora – A Possible Decipherment
Juraj Belaj
orcid.org/0000-0001-8953-3820
; Institute of Archaeology, Zagreb, Croatia
Marijana Belaj
orcid.org/0000-0002-7231-7811
; Department of ethnology and cultural anthropology, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
Starting from an inscribed silver annular brooch discovered in the archaeological excavations of the Templar church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Gora near Petrinja, as a unique find in Croatia, the authors in this paper, for the first time in the Croatian literature, present in brief the types of brooches, focusing on those bearing an inscription. Commenting on the types of inscriptions, the authors try to comprehend the full stratification of the functions of the artefact singled out in the title. In their attempt to read the unique inscription incised into the Gora brooch, in which they have been successful to a large extent, they at the same time succeed in decoding the inscription on another brooch, this time from Strasbourg. Having analysed the brooch from Gora and its archaeological context, as well as having compared it with analogous finds throughout Europe, the authors have put forward a date for the brooch and determined the provenance, while at the same time revealing the probable identity of the person buried together with it. In the conclusion, they put a stress on the importance of the decipherment of symbolic codes on mediaeval jewellery, since it brings us closer to the rich worldview of mediaeval populations, which generally figures very modestly in the preserved mediaeval sources.
Keywords
brooch; annular brooch; inscription; Ave Maria; Late Middle Ages; Templars; identity
Hrčak ID:
171068
URI
Publication date:
21.12.2016.
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