Manufacturing and secondary treatment of gold foil figures
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31265/7v3jhk61Keywords:
Image manipulation, Vendel period, chaîne opératoire, cultic practice, central places, Sorte Muld, UppåkraAbstract
Gold foil figures form a fairly standardised class of archaeological finds. Their overall production process appears to be fundamentally simple. Nevertheless, there still are many unanswered questions regarding the technique and the timing of the various work steps (chaîne opératoire). This article sheds light on the theoretical options for the fabrication. The focus is on detectable alterations to already finished gold foil figures: for example subsequent manipulations on some pieces, such as the attachment of additional gold strips, which are apparently intended to represent neck rings. Actions like this either belong to the usual and proper usage of gold foil figures in the context of the related cult, or they are evidence of later adaptations of individual gold foil figures, possibly for other religious or even secular practices. Other pieces show various signs of damage such as scratches or puncture marks, some of which appear to have been inflicted deliberately. However, as this kind of manipulation cannot clearly be assigned to a specific time, and considerations about their purpose remain problematic.
References
Armbruster, Barbara. 2012. "Feinschmiedewerkzeuge vom Beginn der Metallurgie bis in die römische Kaiserzeit." In Goldsmith Mysteries. Archaeological, pictorial and documentary evidence from the frst millennium AD in northern Europe. Papers presented at a workshop organized by the Centre for Baltic and Scandinavian Archaeology (ZBSA), Schleswig, October 20th and 21th, 2011, edited by Alexandra Pesch and Ruth Blankenfeldt, 59-85. Neumünster: Wachholtz.
Axboe, Morten. 2001. "Amulet pendants and a darkened sun." In Roman Gold and the Development of the Early Germanic Kingdoms. Aspects of technical, sociopolitical, socio-economic, artistic and intellectual development, A.D. 1-550. Symposium in Stockholm 1997, edited by Bente Magnus, 119-35. Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell International.
Axboe, Morten, Jan Peder Lamm and Hubert Hydman. 1999. "Århundredets brakteat - kring fyndet av en unik tionde brakteat från Söderby i Danmarks socken, Uppland." Fornvännen 1999: 225-43.
Back Danielsson, Ing-Marie. 2007. Masking Moments. Te Transitions of Bodies and Beings in Late Iron Age Scandinavia. PhD diss., Stockholm University.
Back Danielsson, Ing-Marie. 2013. "Materials of Afect: Miniatures in the Scandinavian Late Iron Age (AD 550-1050)." In Archaeology after interpretation: Returning materials to archaeological theory, edited by Benjamin Alberti, Andrew Meirion Jones and Joshua Pollard, 325-44. Walnut Creek, California: Left Coast Press Inc. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315434254-16
Behr, Charlotte. 2019. "Framing matters." In Gold foil fgures in focus, edited by Alexandra Pesch and Michaela Helmbrecht, 151-69. München: Friedrich Pfeil.
Birkhan, Helmut. 2010. Magie im Mittelalter. München: C.H. Beck.
Brodersen, Kai and Amina Kropp, eds. 2004: Fluchtafeln. Neue Funde und neue Deutungen zum antiken Schadenzauber. Frankfurt am Main: Antike.
Büntgen, Ulf, Vladimir S. Myglan, Fredrik Charpentier Ljungqvist, Michael McCormick, Nicola Di Cosmo, Michael Sigl, Johann Jungclaus, Sebastian Wagner, Paul J. Krusic, Jan Esper, Jed O. Kaplan, Michiel A. C. de Vaan, Jürg Luterbacher, Lukas Wacker, Willy Tegel and Alexander V. Kirdyanov. 2016. "Cooling and societal change during the Late Antique Little Ice Age from 536 to around 660 AD." Nature Geoscience 9: 231-36. https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2652
Capelle, Torsten. 1999. "Halsschmuck." Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde 13: 455-60.
Daxelmüller, Christoph. 2005. Zauberpraktiken. Die Ideengeschichte der Magie. Düsseldorf: Patmos.
Engemann, Josef. 1975. Zur Verbreitung magischer Übelabwehr in der nichtchristlichen und christlichen Spätantike. Jahrbuch für Antike und Christentum 18: 22-48.
Gräslund, Bo and Neil Price. 2012. "Twilight of the gods? Te 'dust veil event' of AD 536 in critical perspective." Antiquity 86: 420-42. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003598X00062852
Gustafson, Gabriel. 1900. "Et fund af fgurerede guldplader." Foreningen til Norske Fortidsmindesmerkers Bevaring. Aarsberetning for 1899: 87-95.
Hauck, Karl. 1992. "Frühmittelalterliche Bildüberlieferung und der organisierte Kult. Zur Ikonologie der Goldbrakteaten 44." In Der historische Horizont der Götterbild-Amulette aus der Übergangsepoche von der Spätantike zum Frühmittelalter. Bericht über das Colloquium vom 28.11.-1.12.1988 in der WernerReimers-Stiftung, Bad Homburg, edited by Karl Hauck. 433-574. Göttingen: Vandenhoek & Ruprecht. Hauck, Karl. 1993. "Die bremische Überlieferung zur Götter-Dreiheit Altuppsalas und die bornholmischen Goldfolien aus Sorte Muld. Zur Ikonologie der Goldbrakteaten LII." Frühmittelalterliche Studien 27: 409-79. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110242256.409
Hauck, Karl. 1998. "Goldblechfgürchen." Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde 12: 318-23.
Helmbrecht, Michaela. 2011. Wirkmächtige Kommunikationsmedien. Menschenbilder der Vendel- und Wikingerzeit und ihre Kontexte. Lund: Riksantikvarieämbetet/UV.
Helmbrecht, Michaela. 2013. "Figures, foils and faces- fragments of a pictorial world. Anthropomorphic images from the Vendel Period and Viking Age found at Uppåkra." In Folk, fä och fynd, edited by Birgitta Hårdh and Lars Larsson, 9-31. Lund: HT-Skriftserier.
Holmqvist, Wilhelm. 1960. "Te Dancing Gods." Acta Archaeologica 31: 101-27.
Høilund Nielsen, Karen. 2015. "Endzeiterwartung - expecting the End of the World." Neue Studien zur Sachsenforschung 5: 23-50.
Lamm, Jan Peder. 1994. "Der Ring der Götter." In Iconologia sacra. Mythos, Bildkunst und Dichtung in der Religions- und Sozialgeschichte Alteuropas. Festschrift für Karl Hauck zum 75. Geburtstag, edited by Hagen Keller and Nikolaus Staubach, 118-23. Berlin: De Gruyter. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110846119.118
Lamm, Jan Peder. 2004. "Figural Gold Foils Found in Sweden." In Excavations at Helgö XVI. Exotic and Sacral Finds from Helgö, edited by Helen Clarke and Kristina Lamm, 41-142. Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell International.
Lamm, Jan Peder, Morten Axboe, Hubert Hydman, Karl Hauck, Charlotte Behr, Heinrich Beck and Alexandra Pesch. 2000. "Der Brakteat des Jahrhunderts. Über den einzigartigen zehnten Brakteaten aus Söderby in der Gemeinde Danmark, Uppland. Zur Ikonologie der Goldbrakteaten LVIII." Frühmittelalterliche Studien 34: 1-93. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110242324.1
Mannering, Ulla. 2017. Iconic Costumes: Scandinavian Late Iron Age Costume Iconography. Oxford: Oxbow. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvh1dkfn
Mannering, Ulla and Eva Andersson Strand. 2008. "Guldgubbernes dragter." In Sorte Muld, edited by Christian Adamsen, Ulla Lund Hansen, Finn Ole Nielsen and Margrethe Watt, 54-61. Rønne: Wormianum.
Meineke, Eckhard, Rosemarie Müller, Ingo Runde and Frank Siegmund. 1999. "Gürtel". In Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde 13: 158-77.
Nüsse, Hans-Jörg. 2011. "Römischer Schadenzauber bei den Germanen?" Archäologisches Korrespondenzblatt 41: 133-38.
Pesch, Alexandra. 2015. Die Kraft der Tiere. Völkerwanderungszeitliche Goldhalskragen und die Grundsätze germanischer Kunst. Unter Mitarbeit von Jan Peder Lamm, Maiken Fecht und Barbara Armbruster. Mainz: Verlag des RGZM.
Pesch, Alexandra and Michaela Helmbrecht. 2019, eds. Gold foil fgures in focus. A Scandinavian fnd group and related objects and images from ancient and medieval Europe. Papers presented at an international and interdisciplinary workshop organized by the Centre for Baltic and Scandinavian Archaeology (ZBSA) Schleswig, October 23rd to 25th, 2017. München: Friedrich Pfeil.
Pesch, Alexandra and Michaela Helmbrecht. 2024. "Surviving the Crisis: Gold foil fgures as evidence of cultural and religious reorganisation." In Change. Te shift from the Early to Late Scandinavian Iron Age in the frst Millennium AD, edited by Torun Zachrisson and Svante Fischer, 253-70. Ödeshög: Wind.
Priesner, Claus. 2019. "Schutz und Schaden - Bemerkungen zum magischen Denken, besonders der Ringmagie". In Ringe der Macht. Rings of Power. Internationale Tagung vom 09. bis 10. November 2018 in Halle (Saale), edited by Harald Meller, Susanne Kimmig-Völkner and Alfred Reichenberger, 105-29. Halle (Saale): Landesmuseum für Vorgeschichte Halle.
Rundkvist, Martin. 2023. "Gold-foil fgures and human skulls in the royal hall at Aska, Hagebyhöga, Östergötland." Antiquity 97: 1534-47. https://doi. org/10.15184/aqy.2023.157. https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2023.157
Steinsland, Gro. 1991. Det hellige bryllup og norrøn kongeideologie. En analyse av hierogami-myten i Skírnismál, Ynglingatal, Háleygjatal og Hyndluljoð. Oslo: Solum Forlag.
Sundqvist, Olof. 2019. "Communicating with the gods via humanoid images - the meaning and function of the gold foil fgures with pairs in the view of history of religion." In Gold foil fgures in focus, edited by Alexandra Pesch and Michaela Helmbrecht, 359-88. München: Friedrich Pfeil.
Watt, Margrethe. 1992. "Die Goldblechfguren ('guldgubber') aus Sorte Muld, Bornholm." In Der historische Horizont der Götterbild-Amulette aus der Übergangsepoche von der Spätantike zum Frühmittelalter. Bericht über das Colloquium vom 28.11.-1.12.1988 in der Werner-Reimers-Stiftung, Bad Homburg, edited by Karl Hauck, 195-227. Göttingen: Vandenhoek & Ruprecht.
Watt, Margrethe. 1999. "Guldgubber og patricer til guldgubber fra Uppåkra." In Fynden i centrum. Keramik, glas och metal från Uppåkra, edited by Brigitta Hårdh, 177-90. Lund: Almqvist & Wiksell International.
Watt, Margrethe. 2004. "Te Gold-Figure foils ('guldgubbar') from Uppåkra." In Continuity for Centuries. A ceremonial building and its context at Uppåkra, southern Sweden, edited by Lars Larsson, 167-221. Lund: Almqvist & Wiksell International.
Watt, Margrethe. 2007. "Kan man tyde guldgubbernes gestussprog?" In Kult, Guld och Makt. Ett tvärvetenskapligt symposium i Götene, edited by Ingemar Nordgren, 133-48. Göteborg: Kompendiet.
Watt, Margrethe. 2008. "Guldgubber." In Sorte Muld, edited by Christian Adamsen, Ulla Lund Hansen, Finn Ole Nielsen and Margrethe Watt. Rønne: Wormianum.
Watt, Margrethe. 2019. "Gold foil fgures - fact and fction?" In Gold foil fgures in focus, edited by Alexandra Pesch and Michaela Helmbrecht, 35-71. München: Friedrich Pfeil.
Zachrisson, Torun. 2003. "Den Hängde med Halsringen. Om en fgurin från jernåldern funnen vid Kymbo Storegården i Västergötland." Fornvännen 98: 89-97.
Zachrisson, Torun. 2019. "Scandinavian fgurines - relatives of the gold foil fgures, and a new fnd from Old Uppsala." In Gold foil fgures in focus, edited by Alexandra Pesch and Michaela Helmbrecht, 105-29. München: Friedrich Pfeil.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Alexandra Pesch
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.