Marvellous gold and silver jewellery originating from the Late Roman Period elite graves of Southern Scandinavia does not only catch the attention of archaeologists. Its high quality and - in most cases - its being made of precious metals put it on a par with other objects discussed as products of highly skilled and specialized craftsmen and ornaments once owned by the social elites. These precious objects offer us a unique glimpse into the social life of people inhabiting Northern Europe a few centuries before the Viking Age.
This book by Marzena Przybyła gives a meticulous analysis of different sorts of female and male dress ornaments decorated with gold stamped foil. The author traces the stylistic and technical connections between them, using cartographic and statistical methods, looking for local patterns in their distribution. Focus of the work is on the range of activity of specialized craftsmen manufacturing the jewellery discussed and the reconstruction of the social network linking elites of particular regions of Scandinavia. The book contributes actively to the current discussion on socio-political processes reconstructed for this part of Europe in the 3rd and 4th Century A.D., also providing a glimpse into the connections which it had with neighbouring areas.
