Pîtres (Eure)

Brooches in the shape of a tortoise shell

Second half of the 11th century,

Shaped in the form of tortoises, these two brooches each consist of a full shell onto which has been fixed another ornamented shell. Its decoration is ordered around four lozenges in which highly stylised animals are described, typical of Scandinavian art. The same type of decoration is continued on the border. The fibulae, of Scandinavian origin, possibly Norwegian, were found at Pîtres, in the Eure département, in the single tomb of a female Viking found south of the Rhine.

Dimensions of the object
L.: 11 cm; w. max. : 7 cm

Bibliography
- Exhibition : L’or des Vikings, Bordeaux, 1969, n° 96 ; Les Vikings, les Scandinaves et l’Europe (800-1200), Catalogue de l’exposition du Grand-Palais, Paris, 1992, n° 366

Location
Musée départemental des Antiquités de Rouen, Seine-Maritime
inv. 1251

Photography
Yohann Deslandes, Musée des Antiquités de Rouen