#migration period

[memories-of-ancients]

Bronze belt plaque, France, late 6th century AD

from The National Archaeological Museum, France

[barbucomedie]

Bronze and Glass Eagle Brooches from Guadalajara, Spain dated to the 6th Century CE on display at the National Archaeological Museum in Madrid, Spain

Twin brooches like this were often used to secure capes and tunics as well as to symbolise the wearers socioeconomic status. Such artwork was difficult and expensive to produce and the crafters were highly skilled. Sadly the crafters are often forgotten in history with the wearer given more status as they could afford to buy the art.

Eagles in art were common in the late antiquity especially with the new kingdoms and empires emerging after the fall of the Western Roman Empire. With the eagels connection to the Romans, many new states used the symbol to signify they were the successors to them.

Photographs taken by myself 2026

[armthearmour]

A beautiful iron Axe-head decorated with copper and gilding,

Height: 4.5 in/11.4 cm

Length: 6.7 in/17 cm

Width: 1.2 in/3 cm

Anglo-Saxon, recovered in Littlebourne, England, 6th century, housed at the British Museum.

[blueiscoool]

1,500-Year-Old Gold Sword Fitting Found in Norway

A 1,500-year-old gold sword-scabbard fitting found by a local walker beneath a storm-felled tree in Sandnes, Norway, is offering archaeologists a rare glimpse into a powerful warrior elite that ruled the region during the Migration Period.

The discovery was made in Austrått, a district of Sandnes in Rogaland county, near the hill known as Riaren. The finder, a father of two who lives nearby, had been exploring the local walking area when he noticed an old tree that had been torn from the ground by a storm years earlier. Curious about the soil exposed beneath its roots, he used a stick to prod a small rise in the earth. Something flashed.

At first, he did not know what he had uncovered. Archaeologists at the Archaeological Museum, University of Stavanger, soon realized the object was extraordinary: a richly decorated piece of gold, most likely once mounted on the scabbard of a high-status sword.

Only 17 comparable pieces are known from Northern Europe, and this is the first discovery of its kind in Rogaland. That rarity alone would make the object important. But its location, wear and decoration make it even more valuable for understanding the political landscape of western Norway around 1,500 years ago.

The gold fitting measures about six centimeters wide, a couple of centimeters high and only a few millimeters thick. It weighs 33 grams. Though small, it belonged to a world of power. Such fittings were associated with prestigious swords carried by men at the very top of society.

By Oguz Buyukyildirim.

[oodlenoodleroodle]

That German lock post reminded me that I don't think there's been english language reporting about the find near me from June. We kinda lost our minds about it, so I forgot that not everyone lives here.

I should ask my boss if it's okay that I translate the news item on our website, that would be the easiest actually.

I'm not an archaeologist so I don't have this vocabulary in my brain ready to go, but it's like a gilded clasp from the Iron Age, probably from the Migration Period. Nothing like this has been found so far up north here before, and the spot it was found in has not been known before.

The object was found by a metal detecting hobbyist, who then reported the find to the authorities. My actual-archaeologist colleagues are going to do a proper dig there in a few weeks.

[ljussangen]

[peashooter85]

Sword with hilt, pommel, and crossguard decorated with gold and garnets, Merovingian or Late Roman, 5th-6th century AD

from De Backer Art Belgium

[eagleoftheninth]

松果sir on Weibo

Reconstructed noble attire of the Xianbei people, an ancient nomadic culture from the steppes of what is now Mongolia and northern China. The Tuoba clan of the Xianbei controlled most of northern China during the Northern and Southern Dynasties period from the 4th to the 6th centuries CE, calling themselves the Northern Wei dynasty and overseeing a widespread fusion between Chinese and steppe cultures — as well as adopting Buddhism (then still mostly seen as a foreign faith associated with the Silk Road) as an official religion.

盥薇（破防版）on Xiaohongshu

(A/N: Xiānbēi is the modern Mandarin pronunciation of 鮮卑, a word whose pronunciation in Han/Early Middle Chinese was closer to what these people called themselves; according to UniMelb historian Hyun Jin Kim, the original name was probably pronounced something like Särbi.)