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The subject of this paper concerns the jewellery of the Visigothsafter their settlement in the Iberian peninsula, the formerRoman province ofHispania. It is intended as a review of theevidence, so follows a path well trodden already byarchaeologists and art-historians of the Visigothic period,including N. berg, P. de Palol, G. Ripoll Lpez, H. Schlunk andT. Hauschild.1

To set the Visigoths briefly in their historical context, theyderived from the groups of Gothic peoples who had migratedfrom Eastern Europe to the Pontic regions of the Ukraine and

Romania in the 3rd centuryad

.2

Linguistically and, to a largeextent societally and culturally, they were Germanic. But theyhad adopted Arian Christianity in the late 4th century and,during the 42-year course of their further migration from thesteppes to south-west France (where they were settled asRoman federates in 41819), and eventually into Spain, wherethey had initially supplied military assistance to the Romans, atthe end of the 5th century. Driven into exile by the Huns, oncethey had entered into the East Roman Empire as the researchof recent years has emphasised they came to form more of anarmy on periodic marches than an ethnic group, amalgamatingwith other Gothic and Germanic elements as well as with non-

Germanic groups, such as the Alans, Sarmatians and Galindi.They were joined by slaves on the run from their masters andby disaffected, or displaced, Roman inhabitants.3 In the late 5thcentury many Gallic aristocrats rejected the EmperorAnthemius (46772) as a Greek emperor and preferred analliance with the Visigoths, while the Visigoths themselvessupported the imperial administration until the momentousevents of the 470s.

The Visigoths thus had plenty of time to become closelyfamiliar with Mediterranean culture and although curiouslylittle archaeological testimony other than a handful ofbrooches, buckles and a few combs of eastern Germanic type

testifies to their establishment of the Kingdom of Toulouse inthe early 5th century, there is increasing evidence for theiroccupation of one or two villas, such as Sviac and La Turraque(Gers).4 Future discoveries may alter the picture, but it wouldappear so far that there was either rapid acculturation, or thegeneral adoption of Christian burial practices that might haveskewed the survival of material remains. At the same time,although new political institutions emerged, the old Romanlegal and social order was retained to a greater or lesser extent.

Following their defeat at the battle of Vouill by the Franksunder Clovis in 507, the Visigoths were expelled from theirextensive territories in Gaul south of the Loire, except for the

region of Septimania around Narbonne, Nmes andCarcassonne, and settled in Spain.5 There in contrast to thesituation in south-west France, cemeteries traditionallyregarded as Visigothic where the dead were buried withgrave goods and dressed in Germanic style with jewellery and

costume fittings are relatively numerous in the northernMeseta region particularly.6 But it is a question of currentdebate whether they are truly Visigothic, or whether theyrepresent to some degree contingents of the other main Gothicgrouping, of Ostrogothic soldiers and their womenfolk , whohad joined with the Visigoths, or other generic easternGermanic federates who had left northern Gaul after the briefsub-Roman kingdom of Syagrius there had come to an end.7

The women were buried wearing a pair of bow brooches atthe shoulders, indicating a peplos type of sleeveless dress (Pl.

1), and buckles of a belt at the waist in a fashion typical of theelite of the Danubian region, of whatever ethnic affiliation,rather than Visigothicper se, although the males weregenerally buried without weapons, which is a Gothic trait.8

The Visigoths in the Iberian peninsula effectivelyconstituted only a small, though powerful minority ruling overthe native Hispano-Roman population and, to put this in somekind of perspective, estimates vary up to a maximum of around200,000 Visigoths among perhaps 710 million nativeinhabitants.9 Many of the structures of Roman society lived onand some towns even continued to govern themselves into the6th century, while the Roman senatorial aristocracy

maintained much of their wealth and status alongside the newGothic nobility, especially in Baetica, the most romanised partof southernHispania, which roughly corresponded in area tomodern-day Andalusia.10 The patricians of Crdoba evencontinued to maintain the fiction of the Roman Empire in theWest in the 6th century. But this is not to say that the Roman

Byzantine Influences on Visigothic Jewellery

Barry Ager

Plate 1 Mid-5th-century Danubian female costume


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way of life did not have to adapt and the appointment ofcuriales finally ceased in the late 7th century. The shrinking of

towns indicates a decline in population over the period.From early in the Visigothic period the jewellery reflectswestern Mediterranean inf luence, such as the adoption of disc-brooches, some with cruciform designs of possibly Christianinspiration (although still often worn in pairs in Germanicfashion)(Pl. 2), and cloisonnbuckles with a wide variety ofgeometric designs inlaid in glass or garnet, which may havebeen produced in the Narbonne area during the 6th century(Pl. 3).11

These influences took on a more distinctively Byzantineintensity following the attempts by Justinian I to reconquer theformer Roman provinces of the West Roman Empire and

control trade in the western Mediterranean and through theStraits of Gibraltar.12 In 552 he sent military support to the rebelmagnate Athanagild, who seized control of the kingdom,while, around 560, Byzantine forces took over the ports andtowns of the southern and south-eastern coasts (Spania) andthe Balearic Islands, centred on the capital established atCartagena. How far their rule extended inland, or into theAlgarve region, is less clear, although Crdoba was held until572. Byzantine forces also later came to the aid of Hermenegild,the son of King Leovigild, who had been sent as a co-ruler toHispalis (Seville), but had instigated a rebellion in 579. Theywere bought off by Leovigild, however, although they carried

off Hermenegilds Catholic Austrasian wife, Ingundis, who dieden route to Constantinople.

The sources also tell of Syrian traders in the south,especially in Hispalis, and of Greeks in Mrida and other townsof Baetica, such as Mertola, where inscriptions in Greek havealso survived.13 Bishop Paul of Mrida (53060) and hissuccessor Fidelis (56071) were of Greek origin, so presumablyfrom the eastern Mediterranean region, and some Greekinscriptions from the region are preserved there in the MuseoNacional de Arte Romano.14

Major political and cultural changes took place during thereigns of Leovigild (56886) and his son Reccared (586601).

But political contacts alone seem insufficient to explain thestrongly Byzantinising cultural shift and a major stimulus musthave been given by Mediterranean trade contacts throughsurviving ports such as Barcino (Barcelona) with North Africa,Egypt, Syria and Constantinople.15 The main archaeological

evidence for this exchange is the importation of fine ceramictable-wares, particularly from North Africa, as well as Egypt,

Asia Minor and Cyprus; silk from the East; and the discovery oflate 6th-century Visigothic gold coins as far away as Israel andthe Lebanon.16

Leovigild succeeded in establishing Visigothic rule overvirtually the whole ofHispania and, in a manifest example ofimitatio imperii, deliberately sought to reshape the kingdom inthe image of the Byzantine Empire, adopting imperial pompand lavish ceremonial, both as a conscious echo of the majestyof Heaven on Earth, and as a symbol of his power.17 The witnessto this is Isidore of SevillesHistory of the Goths (ch. 51) andother 7th-century texts. The diadem, sceptre, throne, and richvestments including the purple appear to have been based on

Byzantine models, although the extent of the influence is amatter of debate, and both royal servants and altar boys woresilk cloaks.18 In 576, Leovigild issued gold tremisses in his ownname without the names of the Eastern emperors, the firstVisigothic and possibly the first barbarian king to do so,although there seem to be conflicting claims.19 In so doing hewas both setting himself up as the equal of the Eastern emperorand distancing himself from the Gothic nobility, among whomthe king had been previouslyprimus inter pares. It is notablethat the victory imagery of his coins is an imperial borrowing.

King Reccared (586601) converted from Arianism toCatholicism in 587, followed by the Visigoths themselves after

the 3rd Council of Toledo in 589, which had establishedCatholicism as the religion of the entire kingdom.20 Thismomentous event marked the final rapprochement of theGothic nobility and the upper classes of Roman origin, after theend of the prohibition of intermarriage six years previously(although how effective the prohibition had ever been in lateryears is questionable). To what extent Visigothic materialculture had already been affected by commercial, political andsocial contact with ByzantineHispania, or whether the councilitself was the major catalyst for change is debatable, but it isquite clear that there was a radical change in female costumein the last third of the 6th century, which must reflect the

adoption of the sleeved Mediterranean tunica. Paired shoulderbrooches were abandoned and the showy buckles withrectangular plates were replaced by copper-alloy, fixed-plateforms of Italian derivation and frequently found in malegraves, following the typology of Ripoll Lpez (Pls 45).21 They

Plate 2 One of a pair of disc-brooches of Visigothic type, British Museum (PE1995,12-7.9)

Plate 3 Cloisonnbuckle-plate with inlaid geometric designs, London, BritishMuseum (PE 1995,12-7.8)


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were decorated with griffins and lions drinking at the Fountain

of Life and other scenes from Christian iconography, alongsidesimpler, plain forms (Pl. 6). The tongue-shaped plates of someexamples are clearly based on Byzantine models, such as a late7th/early 8th-century buckle, possibly from Jerusalem, whichdepicts a scene from thePhysiologus (the Greek treatise onnatural history) of a stag in combat with a dragon as anallegory of Christ s triumph over the Devil according to Egersinterpretation (Pl. 7).22

As a backdrop to this artistic development, in the 7thcentury, particularly during the Isidoran era,Hispania became

Plates 4 and 5 Copper-alloy fixed-plate buckles of Italian derivation

Plate 6 Copper-alloy fixed-plate buckle, London, British Museum (PE 1990,6-4,7)

Plate 7 Copper-alloy buckle with a scene from thePhysiologus, London, BritishMuseum (PE 89,5 -11,16)

Plate 8 Gold medallion with the Adoration of the Magi, London, BritishMuseum (PE 1986,7-8,1),

Plate 9 Gold disc brooch with the Adoration of the Magi from Medelln

an important focus of western Christendom. After the 670s italso provided a haven for Byzantine refugees from NorthAfrica in the wake of the Islamic conquest, whose influence hasbeen detected in church architecture and decoration.23

Numerous examples of buckles of Byzantine type fromHispania may reflect both these events and contacts with theByzantine-occupied southern coastal region. They include late6th to 7th-century buckles of most of the types originallydefined by Werner, such as the Balgota, Bologna, Corinth,Hippo Regius, Sucidava and Syracuse types.24 It is also possible

that moulds were imported for copying locally. Byzantinemetalwork of the minor arts may also have reachedHispaniaby way of another type of import: by diplomatic gift asdiscussed by Daim.25A Byzantine gold medallion bearing thescene of the Adoration of the Magi in the British Museum isevidently an example of the type that provided the model forthe gold disc brooch with a Greek inscription from Medelln(Pls 89).26The question arises whether the latter was anoriental import, or even perhaps a product of the Byzantineenclave. The lack of a secure provenance unfortunately makes




it difficult to say if a disc brooch in the collection of the AriadneGalleries also portraying the Adoration is fromHispania orByzantium.27

In the 7th century, so-called lyre-shaped and typologicallyrelated buckles copying Byzantine, or more generallyMediterranean, types (especially Trebizond) came intofashion in the Hispano-Visigothic kingdom, extending into

Narbonensis and rarely into south-west France, although incast copper-alloy rather than in precious metal (Pls 1011).28Hispalis (Seville) appears to have been an important centre ofproduction.Local versions decorated with silver and brassinlay, a Frankish or Burgundian technique, were developed inthe late 7th century.29 The end date for the lyre-shaped type inHispania is uncertain, but they most likely continued in use forsome while after the beginning of the Islamic conquest in 711.Apart from their personal names, the Visigoths had becomemore or less completely assimilated by the late 6th century andspoke Latin as exemplified by the inscription on the buckle-plate from Hinojar del Rey (Pl. 12).30 So it becomes proper now

to speak of Hispano-Visigothic art, which was probablydeveloped in the workshops of the urban centres of Baetica andLusitania, such as Seville, spreading from there throughout thekingdom. The finest examples of the lyre-shaped buckles haveraised borders enclosing recessed fields of ornament developedfrom a type that is found in the Byzantine region of Italy andlead models for such buckles have been found in the excavationof the 7th-century workshop at the Crypta Balbi, Rome.31

A Byzantine buckle depicting a crocodile enclosed by adouble-headed serpent is based on a chapter in thePhysiologus(Pl. 13).32 A group of buckles is recorded from Spain, e.g. fromLen, portraying what appear to be related scenes of

quadrupeds, possibly lions, fighting snakes.33

Because of the scarcity of coins from burials and the longperiods of their circulation, close dating of the lyre-shapedbuckles is diff icult, but the fine gold buckle from the high-status, coin-dated burial, or hoard, at Mala Pereepina in themid-Dnieper Valley, of the mid- or second third of the 7thcentury helps to establish the approximate period (Pl. 14:11).34

The extent of the copying of both form and detail that wenton inHispania is quite remarkable. For example, a monogramin Roman letters that may be read as the personal name Fidelison a fragmentary Hispano-Visigothic buckle-plate (Pl. 15)imitates the style of inscribed Byzantine buckles, such as apiece in gold in the British Museum (Pl. 16), or a bronze bucklefrom Athens (Pl. 17), but filigree interlace was not used (Pl. 18).Ripoll Lpez notes a Spanish buckle with a laurel wreath andcross derived from Byzantine coins in a similar position on theterminal.35Hispano-Visigothic buckles of the 7th/early 8thcentury with cruciform plates, which are fairly rare, also derivefrom Byzantine forms, such as a further buckle from Athens

(Pl. 19).36

One is inscribed with a Gothic name. The Hispanicbuckles, however, are mainly in the form of a Latin cross (Pl.20), while eastern types are in the form of a Greek one. Beltclasps of Byzantine type were also adopted.37

In contrast with the art of other Germanic kingdoms ofwestern and northern Europe, early Visigothic art had only avery limited tradition of stylised animal representation. Butnow the lyre-shaped buckles, such as the fine plate fromHinojar del Rey (Pl. 12) are decorated with animal motifs, orsimply their heads.38 They most likely represent griffins withbeaks and ears from a comparison with designs oncontemporary ecclesiastical metalwork and sculpture,

Plate 11 Italo-Byzantine lyre-shaped buckle

Plate 13 Gilded buckle with crocodile and snake, London, British Museum (PE1984,10-4,1)

Plate 12 Buckle-plate from Hinojar del Rey

Plate 10 Copper-alloy buckle of Trebizond type



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berg has demonstrated the stylistic connections betweenthe Byzantine style in Italy and its Visigothic analogues,drawing attention particularly to the animal and vegetal motifs(Pl. 23). But they extend also to a Visigothic imitation of dotand comma decoration, a stylised vegetal ornament derivedfrom sculpture, although not generally as crisply defined asByzantine and Italo-Byzantine work (Pl. 24).40The Byzantineinfluence on Visigothic sculpture is discussed by Cruz Villaln

and Perea.41

It was not just the buckles that were so widely imitated, butitems of personal jewellery, too, such as a pair of 7th-centuryearrings from Puente Genil, that appear to be decorated withamethysts and Mediterranean-style interlace combined with

e.g. a late 7th-century, cast copper-alloy paten decorated withgriffins and possibly boars in a Madrid collection (Pl. 21), or apiece of sculpture from the chancel screen of the church of SanMiguel de Lio, Oviedo (Pl. 22). The griffin, with itscombination of terrestrial/human and aerial/divinecharacteristics, is probably of oriental derivation and is thoughtto be of Christian significance, appearing to have symboliseddivine power, guardians of the souls of the dead, the peace of

Paradise (derived from the visions of Isaiah), and even Christhimself.39 It generally forms a counterpart to the hippocamps ofLombardic metalwork. Vegetal motifs were also popular, andoccasionally fish, as well as other designs of Late Antiqueorigin, such as scallop shells, palmettes and half-palmettes.

Plate 14 Gold buckle from Mala Pereepina Plate 15 Buckle-plate with monogram,London, British Museum (PE 1992,6-5,2)

Plate 16 Gold buckle with monogram, London, British Museum (PE 1974,9-10,1)

Plate 18 Bronze buckle with filigree interlace, London, British Museum (PE91,5-12,21)

Plate 17 Bronze buckle from Athens, London, British Museum (PE 80,5-1,13)

Plate 19 Bronze buckle with cruciform plate, London, British Museum, (PE 81,7-19,66 )




Plate 20 Hispano-Visigothic buckles of cruciform andother types

Plate 21 Hispano-Visigothic paten Plate 22 Sculpture from a chancel screen of the church of SanMiguel de Lio, Oviedo



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zoomorphic elements reminiscent of Salins Germanic AnimalStyle II (Pl. 25); earrings of basket type of Byzantine

derivation (Pl. 26); or finger-rings with high bezels inByzantine style (Pl. 27).42 A Byzantine earring from Spain inthe Walters Art Museum shows that Byzantine artefacts couldhave served as direct models.43 Hispano-Visigothic craftsmen,including jewellers, were based in the towns, and it is probablethat the workshop of the palace goldsmith was established atthe capital of Toledo by Leovigild and the post ofpraepositusargentariorum, in charge of the court argentarii is referred to inone of the laws of Chindaswinth (64253).44

These close cultural contacts notwithstanding, KingSisebut (61221) led two campaigns against the Byzantines in

Spain, who were finally expelled from the peninsula in 628 byhis eventual successor Swinthila (62131).It is unknown how much of Alarics booty from the sack of

Rome in 410 still formed part of the royal treasury. But theVisigothic Church was very rich and the great wealth of thenobility, too, is demonstrated by the fine of 27,000 solidi thatthe son of Theodemir had to pay to the Arabs; the equivalent of123kg of gold.45

Plate 26 Earring of basket type Plate 27 Finger-ring with high bezelPlate 25 Earrings from Puente Genil

Plate 23 Hispano-Visigothic motifs

Plate 24 Italo-Byzantine dot and comma motifs




Plate 28 Votive crowns from Guarrazar Plate 29 Crown of King Recceswinth

Plate 31 Leaf-shaped pendant. London, British Museum (PE 1981,14,4)Plate 30 Leaf-shaped links from crown of King Recceswinth

Plate 33 Pendant cross from crown of SwinthilaPlate 32 Re-used brooch from the Museo Arqueolgico, Madrid



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A mid- to late 7th-century renaissance stemming from thecourt is attested by the production of the gem-encrusted, goldvotive crowns from the famous hoards of Guarrazar,discovered near Toledo in 1858 (Pl. 28), and Torredonjimeno,found near Jan.46 These crowns are too large to have beenmade for wear, but they were given to churches and cathedralsby royalty and wealthy ecclesiastics for suspension above the

altar, following Byzantine practice and symbolising thededication of the kingdom to Christ. The form of the crowns isbased on Late Antique models, such as the pendent crown fromMonte Barro, Italy, or the lost gold crown with a pendent crossof the Lombardic King Agilulf, dating from around 600.47

In the early 7th century the Eastern Roman emperorsintroduced the custom of wearing crowns adorned with pearlsand gems, and the style, techniques, and use of imported gemson the crowns from Guarrazar sapphires, amethysts,emeralds, moonstone, crystal, glass, pearls and mother-of-pearl, as demonstrated in the paper by Drauschke have beencompared with Byzantine jewellery by Schlunk, Perea and

others.48

It is hard to imagine that metalwork of such a highstandard could have been produced without the presence ofByzantine craftsmen in the Visigothic court workshops, asproposed by Schlunk and Ripoll Lpez.

The richest of the Guarrazar crowns is the one dedicated byKing Recceswinth (d. 672) and whose name is spelled out bythe garnet-inlaid letters hanging from the lower edge (Pl. 29).The leaf-shaped links of the crowns chains (Pl. 30) may becompared with Byzantine jewellery, such as the 7th-centuryopenwork, leaf-shaped pendant in the British Museum (Pl. 31;see also Entwistle, this volume, no. 47), although their qualityis not as high. Furthermore, examination of the central

pendent cross at the Museo Arqueolgico has shown that it is,in fact, a re-used brooch that is most likely of Byzantine origin(Pl. 32).49 With reference to the paper by Daim in this volume, itis perhaps, therefore, a further example of a diplomatic gift,which had been taken from the kings personal treasury.50

The elaborate pendent cross of the earlier crown ofSwinthila (62131) was perhaps of similar origin (Pl. 33),although, since the crown was stolen in 1921 and neverrecovered, it is difficult now to be certain.51 But the scrolls of itsarms bear comparison with, for example, the late 6th/early7th-century gold saddle mounts from the Lombardic cemeteryof Nocera Umbra, grave 5, Italy (Pl. 34), or the Byzantine

earrings from Assit, Egypt, in the British Museum (Pl. 35).52

The two surviving, gem-encrusted plaques in the hoardfrom the arm, or arms, of a processional crosswere probablyoriginally mounted on a wooden base and a few minutegarnets remain in some of the openings (Pl. 36). The plaquesare thought to date from an earlier period than the crowns and

Plate 35 Earrings from Assit, Egypt, London, British Museum (PE 1916,74,34)

Plate 34 Gold saddle mountsfrom Nocera Umbra




the cross itself may have been a papal gift.53 In the recentpublication of the hoard by Perea, both the form and openworktechnique of the decoration have been compared with a4th-century trapezoidal gold mount with a Christianmonogram in the British Museum from Silivri, Turkey (Pl. 37).54The ornamentation of the cross possibly served as a model for

the crown of Recceswinth.The Byzantinising style clearly apparent in Hispano-Visigothic jewellery, metalwork and sculpture appears to haveserved to legitimise the Visigothic successorship to the WestRoman Empire in opposition to the Franks north of thePyrenees, the other major contenders for the title, whoseMerovingian dynasty continued in Germanic tradition andwhose art still displayed animal symbolism of Germanic origin.The ubiquitous Hispano-Visigothic style may be fairly regardedas visual propaganda underpinning the extension of the idea ofthegens gothorum (as mentioned in the acts of the Councils ofToledo and royal legislation) to the whole population of the

Iberian Peninsula, both Roman and Gothic, in the course of the7th century.

Notes1 N. berg, The Occident and the Orient in the Art of the Seventh

Century. Part 2. Lombard Italy, Stockholm, 1945; idem,Die Frankenund Westgoten in der Vlkerwanderungszeit, Uppsala, 1922; P. DePalol and G. Ripoll,Los Godos en el Occidente Europeo: Ostrogodos yVisigodos en los siglos VVIII, Madrid, 1988; G. Ripoll Lpez,Torutica de la Btica (Siglos VI y VII d.c.), Barcelona, 1998; H.Schlunk and T. Hauschild,Hispania Antiqua: Die Denkmler der

frhchristlichen und westgotischen Zeit , Mainz, 1978.

2 J.M. Wallace-Hadr ill, The Long-Haired Kings, Toronto/Buffalo/London, 1982, 2548; H. Wolfram,History of the Goths , Berkeley,1988; idem, Gothic histor y as historical ethnography, in T.F.X.Noble (ed.),From Roman Provinces to Medieval Kingdoms, London/New York, 2006, 4369; V. Bierbrauer, Archologie undGeschichte der Goten vom 1.7. Jahrhundert,FrhmittelalterlicheStudien 28 (1994), 51171; V. Bierbrauer, Archeologia e storia deiGoti dal I a l IV secolo, in V. Bierbrauer, O. von Hessen and E. A.

Arslan,I Goti , Milan, 1994, 2247; P. Heather, The Goths, Oxford,1996; P. Heather (ed.),The Visigoths of the Mig ration Period to theSeventh Century. An Ethnographic Perspective, Woodbridge, 1999;H. Wolfram, The Roman Empire and Its Germanic Peoples,Berkeley/Los Angeles/London, 1997, 14558; G. Halsall,Barbarian

Migrat ions and the Roman West,376568, Cambridge, 2007.3 P. Heather, The creation of the Visigoths, in Heather 1999 (n. 2),

4373 (with following discussion).4 Bierbrauer, Archalogie (n. 2), 1535; J. Lapart and J.-L. Paillet,

Montral-du-Gers. Lieu-dit Sviac. Ensemble palochrtien de lavilla de Sviac, in N. Duval (ed.),Les premiers monuments chrtiensde la France, 2, Paris, 1996, 1607; M. Larrieux, B. Mart y, P. Prinand E. Crubzy, La ncropole mrovingienne de La Turraque,

Beaucaire-sur-Base (Gers), Toulouse, 1985; M. Kazanski and J.Lapart, Quelques documents du VIe sicle ap. J.-C. attribuablesaux Wisigoths dcouverts en Aquitaine,Aquitania 13 (1995), 193202; A.M. Jimnez Garnica, Settlement of the Visigoths in the fif thcentury , in Heather (ed.) (n. 2), 93115 (with followingdiscussion); M. Kazanski, Les Wisigoths, du Danube la Gaule,

Association franaise dArchologie mrovingienne, Bulletin deliaison, 31, XX VIIIe Journes internationales darchologiemrovingienne, Poitiers, 2007, 912; G.G. Koenig, ArchologischeZeugnisse westgotisches Prsenz im 5. Jahrhundert,Madrider

Mitteilungen21 (1980), 22047, is still useful with care.5 Wolfram 1988 (n. 2), 2605.6 B. Sasse, Westgotische Grberfelder auf der Iberischen Halbinsel

am Beispiel der Funde aus El Carpio de Tajo (Torrijos, Toledo)(Madrider Beit rge, 26), Mainz, 2000; W. Ebel-Zepezauer,Studien

zur Archologie der Westgoten vom 5.7. Jh. n. Chr. (IberiaArchaeologica, 2), Mainz, 2000.

7 P. Prin, La progression des Francs en Gaule du Nord au Ve sicle.

Histoire et archologie, in D. Geuenich (ed.),Die Franken und dieAlemannen bis zur Schlacht bei Zlpich (496/97)(Ergnzungsbnde zum Reallexikon der GermanischenAltertumskunde, 19), Berlin/New York, 1998, 5981; G. Ripoll,Romani e Visigoti in Hispania: problemi di interpretazione delmateriale archeologica, in P. Delogu (ed.),Leinvasioni barbarichenel meridione dellImpero, Visigoti, Vandali, Ostrogoti (Atti delConvegno svoltosi alla Casa delle Culture di Cosenza dal 24 al 26luglio 1998), Soveria Mannelli, 2001, 99117; C. Eger,Westgotische Grberfelder auf der Iberischen Halbinsel alshistorische Quelle: Probleme der ethnischen Deutung, in B.Pffgen, E. Pohl and M. Schmauder (eds), Cum grano salis. Beitrge

zur europischen Vor- und Frhgeschichte. Festschrift fr VolkerBierbrauer zum 65. Geburtstag, Friedberg, 2005, 16581.

8 G. Ripoll Lpez, Symbolic life and signs of identity in Visigothic

times, in Heather (ed.) (n. 2), 40331 (and following discussion).9 R. Barroso Cabrera and J. Morn de Pablos, Los yacimientos deTinto Juan de la Cruz-Pinto, Madrid (ss. I al VI d.C.). Reflexionesen torno a dos problemas de la historia medieval espaola: lasnecrpolis visigodas y el neogotismo astur,Estudios de Prehistoria

y Arqueologa Madrileas 12 (2002), 14574, at 162.Plate 37 Gold plaque with garnets, London, British Museum (PE 1980,51,1)

Plate 36 Plaques with garnets from processional cross


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10 J.J. Sayas Abengochea and L.A. Garca Moreno, Historia deEspaa, 2, Romanismo y germanismo. El despertar de los puebloshispnicos (siglos IVX), Barcelona, 1983; J. Orlandis,Historia de

Espaa, 4, poca visigoda , Madrid, 1987; R. Collins, VisigothicSpain, 409711, Oxford, 2006; P.C. Daz, City and territory inHispania in Late Antiquity , in G.P. Brogiolo, N. Gauthier and N.Christie (eds), Towns and their Territories between Late Antiquityand the Early Middle Ages (The Transformation of the RomanWorld, 9), Leiden/Boston/Cologne, 2000, 335.

11 Ripoll Lpez (n. 1); idem (n. 8); idem, Visigothic jewelry of the sixthand seventh centuries, in K.R. Brown, D. Kidd and C.T. Little (eds),

From Attila to Charlemagne. Arts of the Early Medieval Period in theMetropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York, 2000, 188203;D. Quast, Mediterrane Scheibenfibeln der Vlkerwanderungszeitmit Cloisonnverzierung eine typologische und chronologischebersicht,Archologisches Korrespondenzblatt 36/2 (2006), 25978.

12 S.F. Ramallo Asensio, E. Ruiz Valderas and M. Berrocal Caparrs,Contextos cermicos de los siglos VVII en Cartagena,Archivo

Espaol de Arqueologa 69 (1996), 13589; M.R. Mart Matias,Visigodos , Hispano-romanos y bizantinos en la zona valenciana en el

siglo VI (Espaa), Oxford (BAR International Series 943), 2001; S.F.Ramallo Asensio and J. Vizcano Snchez, Bizantinos enHispania.Un problema recurrente en la arqueologa espaola,Archivo

Espaol de Arqueologa 75 (2002), 31332; K.E. Carr, Vandals to

Visigoths, Ann Arbor, 2002, 1578.13 Ripoll Lpez (n. 8), 422; F. Retamero, As coins go home: towns,

merchants, bishops and kings in Visigothic Hispania, in Heather(ed.) (n. 2), 270305 (and following discussion).

14 F. Cabrol and H. Leclercq, Dictionnaire dArchologie Chrtienne etde Liturgie, 11 (1), Paris, 1933,sub Mrida, and Mertola; J. Arce, Thecity of Mrida (Emerita) in the v itas patrum emeritensium (VIthcenturyad), in E. Chrysos and I. Wood (eds),East and West: Modesof Communication. Proceedi ngs of the First Plenary Conference at

Merida (The Transformation of the Roman World, 5), Leiden/Boston/Cologne, 1999, 114; I. Wood, Social relations in theVisigothic kingdom from the fifth to the seventh century: theexample of Mr ida, in Heather (ed.) (n. 2), 191208 (and followingdiscussion).

15 Retamero (n. 13); G. Ripoll and J.M. Gurt (eds), Sedes regiae (ann.

400800), Barcelona, 2000; G. Ripoll, Changes in the topographyof power: from civitates to vrbes regiae in Hispania, in R.Corradini, M. Diesenberger and H. Reimitz (eds), The Constructionof Communities in the Early Middle Ages. Texts, Resource s and

Artefacts (The Transformation of the Roman World, 12), Leiden/Boston, 2003, 12348.

16 P. Reynolds, Settlement and Pottery in the Vinalop Valley (Alicante,Spain)ad 400700 (BAR International Series, 588), Oxford, 1993;S. Gelichi, Ceramic production and distribution in the EarlyMedieval Mediterranean Basin (7th to 10th centuries ad): betweentown and countryside , in Brogioloet al. (n. 10), 11539; J.M. Gurt iEsparraguera and J.M. Palet i Martnez, Pervivencias y cambiosestructurales durante la Antigedad tarda en el Nordeste de laPennsula Ibrica, in J. Arce and P. Delogu (eds),Visigoti e

Longobardi. Atti del Seminario (Roma 2829 Aprile 1997), Florence,

2001, 936; M.A. Gonzlez Lpez, Vajillas de importacin noafricanas en el noreste peninsular (s. VVII). Distribucin ytipocronologa,Archivo Espaol de Arqueologa 80 (2007), 20737;F. Retamero, Panes et siliquae. Las condiciones de la produccinde moneda en el Regnum Gothorum, in Arce and Delogu, ibid.,11732; Car r (n. 12), 1056, 137.

17 Wolfram 1988 (n. 2), 260, 274; P.C. Diaz and M.R. Valverde, Thetheoretical strength and practical weakness of the Visigothicmonarchy of Toledo, in F. Theuws and J.L. Nelson (eds),Rituals of

Power from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle A ges , Leiden/Boston/Cologne, 2000, 5993, at 627; . Casanovas and J. Rovira i Port,Torredonjimeno: Tresor, Monarquia i Litrgia, Barcelona, 2003, 69.

18 Isidores History(trans. K.B. Wolf), in K.B. Wolf, Conquerors andChroniclers of Early Medieval Spain, Liverpool, 1999 (2nd ed.); S.A.Barneyet al. (eds), The Ety mologies of Isidore of Seville, Cambridge,2006; R. Collins,Early Medieval Spain: Unity in Diversity, 4001000, London/Basingstoke, 1983, 4950; A.T. Fear (trans.),Lives ofthe Visigothic Fathers, Liverpool, 1997, 76; J. Arce, Leov igildus rexy el ceremonial de la corte visigtica, in Arce and Delogu (n. 16),7992.

19 A. Perea (ed.),El tesoro visigodo de Guarrazar , Madrid, 2001, 380

1; Collins (n. 18), 50.20 Ripoll Lpez (n. 8), 4201.21 Ibid., 416; Ripoll Lpez (n. 1), 58.22 C. Eger, Grtelschnallen des 6. bis 8. Jahrhunderts aus der

Sammlung des Studium Biblicum Franciscanum,Liber Annuus 51(2001), 33750, at 346, pl. 4, 2. I am i ndebted to my colleague SonjaMarzinzik for the reference.

23 Arce (n. 14).24 J. Werner, Byzantinische Grtelschnallen des 6. und 7.

Jahrhunderts aus der Sammlung Diergardt,Klner Jahrbuch frVor- und Frhgeschichte 72 (1955), 12134; Ebel-Zepezauer (n. 6),679; Ripoll Lpez (n. 1), 17892, pl. 34.

25 As shown by Falko Daim in his paper presented to the conference.26 J.D. Dodds, B.F. Reilly and J.W. Williams, The Art of Medieval

Spain. ad 5001200 (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York), NewYork, 1993, 42; C. Entwistle, Some notes on two late-antique goldpendants in the British Museum, in N. Crummy (ed.),Image, Craftand the Classical World. Essays in honour of Donald Bailey andCatherine Johns, Montagnac, 2005, 267.

27 Ariadne Galleries. Treasures of the Dark Ages in Europe, New York,1991, 113, no. 190.

28 Ripoll Lpez (n. 1), 33, 60, 65 and 12575; idem (n. 8), 41820; idem(n. 11), 196202; Ebel-Zepezauer (n. 6), 6774.

29 Ripoll Lpez (n. 1), 1757.30 D.H. Green,Language and History in the Early Germanic World,

Cambridge/New York, 1998, 323; H.-W. Goetz et al. (eds),Regnaand Gentes, Leiden/Boston, 2003, 181.

31 G. Bertell i and G.P. Brogiolo (eds),Il futuro dei Longobardi. LItaliae la costruzione dellEuropa di Carlo Magno, Milan, 2000, 90.

32 Ripoll Lpez (n. 8), 419. See also Entwistle, this volume, no. 7.33 H. Zeiss,Die Grabfunde aus dem spanischen Westgotenreich, Berlin/

Leipzig, 1934, Taf. 16, 1112.34 J. Werner,Der Grabfund von Malaja Pereepina und Kuvrat, Kagan

der Bulgaren (Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Phil.-Hist. Klasse, n.s. 91), Munich, 1984.

35 Ripoll Lpez (n. 1), pl. 30, 5.36 Ibid., 192201; Ebel-Zepezauer (n. 6), 74; Eger (n. 22), 3401.37 M. Schulze-Drrlamm, Byzantinische Knebelverschlsse des

frhen Mittelalters, Germania 80 (2002), 57194.38 M. Aufleger, Tierdarstellungen in der Kleinkunst der

Merowingerzeit im westlichen Frankenreich , Mainz, 1997, 589,16972; Ripoll Lpez (n. 1), 143.

39 Ripoll Lpez (n. 8), 41617; M. Schulze-Drrlamm, Derrekonstruierte Beinkasten von Essen-Werden. Reliquiar undmutmasslicher Tragaltar des Hl. Liudger aus dem spten 8.Jahrhundert,JbRGZM49 (2002), 281363, at 3412.

40 berg 1945 (n. 1), 824.41 M. Cruz Villaln, La escultura visigoda. Mrida, centro creador,

in Arce and Delogu (n. 16), 16184; Perea (n. 19), 10911, and 115.42 R. Barroso Cabrera, Dos joyas de orfebrera hispanovisigoda

procedentes de Huete (Cuenca), en el M.A.N.,Boletn del MuseoArqueolgico Nacional8 (1990), 8390; Dodds et al. (n. 26), pl. 13;the earri ngs from Puente Genil are shown in enlarged detail in DePalol and Ripoll (n. 1), pls 2012.

43 R.H. Randall, Jr., Jewellery through the ages,Apollo84 (1966),

4959, pl. 6b.44 Retamero (n. 13), 279; Ripoll Lpez (n. 8), 4245.45 Casanovas and Rovira i Port (n. 17), 326.46 Ripoll Lpez (n. 8), 4246; Perea (n. 19); Casanovas and Rovira i

Port (n. 17).47 P.E. Schramm,Herrschaftszeichen und Staatssymbolik. Beitrge zu

ihrer Geschichte vom dritten bis zum sechzehnten Jahrhundert, vol.1, Stuttgart, 1954, 1346; Bierbrauer, von Hessen and Arslan (n. 2),2223. The crown assumed by the rebel Count Paul at hiscoronation was not part of Visigothic royal regalia, but a votivecrown that he had seized.

48 See Drauschke, this volume.49 Perea (n. 19), 113, 167, 374.50 See Daim, this volume.51 Perea (n. 19), pl. 164; C. Eger, Krone und Kreuz Knig Svinthilas.

Westgotische Hofkunst und Plate-Inlaying im 6. und 7.Jahrhundert,Madrider Mitteilungen 45 (2004), 449506.52 Bertell i and Brogiolo (n. 31), pl. 2.53 Perea (n. 19), 1637, 200.54 Ibid., 166.

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