Database
Our database is free to use for all history and archaeology enthusiasts. If you use our database, please do not forget to cite correctly:
Mägi, Marika; Palm, Piia Sandra. Archaeological Artefacts of Saaremaa. Foundation Osiliana / Tallinn University. Accessed: date.
The Osiliana Archaeological Database presents artefacts from Saaremaa and the surrounding small islands.
The database contains mainly Iron Age and Medieval finds that can be classified.
Undated metal or other pieces were generally excluded from the database.
Ceramics are represented by isolated examples.
The database is a work in progress and is constantly being updated.
Ure
Gold ring (spiral bracelet or neck ring rolled together), with the so-called serpent-head ends. Type C (Fernstål 2004), weight 175 g. Serpent-head is a general term for a variety of golden neck-rings, bracelets (including spiral ones), and rings in Northern Europe. Serpent-head rings were used in a fairly short period of time, from 210-330 AD. Many researchers consider these as symbols for the dukes or royal dynasties which would also explain the fact that they were used by both, men and women. Many of these sort of rings have been found from sacrificial places.
Last 5 photos: Jaana Ratas
Parallel
Gold rings from Skedemosse. Photo Ulf Bruxe, Statens Historiska Museum.
Gold ring (spiral bracelet or neck ring rolled together), with the so-called serpent-head ends. Type C (Fernstål 2004), weight 175 g. Serpent-head is a general term for a variety of golden neck-rings, bracelets (including spiral ones), and rings in Northern Europe. Serpent-head rings were used in a fairly short period of time, from 210-330 AD. Many researchers consider these as symbols for the dukes or royal dynasties which would also explain the fact that they were used by both, men and women. Many of these sort of rings have been found from sacrificial places (Törnblad 2017).
Serpent-head gold rings in Sweden were concentrated in Gotland and Öland, in Denmark in the area around Stevns in East-Zeeland, some have also been found in Southwestern Finland. Gotland and Öland have the highest ratio of neck-rings and bracelets of gold. Altogether there have been 62 gold neck-rings and bracelets found, 37 of them from Sweden, 12 from Denmark, and four from Southwestern Finland (Fernstål 2004; Törnblad 2017). The rings are commonly considered characteristic of Scandinavia and thus far such artefacts have not been found in the Eastern Baltic.
The most suitable parallel to the Ure complex is the sacrificial site of Skedemosse in Öland. Six gold rings found there are similarly to Ure deformed in shape so it is hard to define them either as spiral bracelets or neck-rings. Additionally, eleven propeller-shaped fittings, weapons, human (48) and animal sacrifices have been recorded in Skedemosse (Hagberg 1967).
Ure ring with its weight belongs amongst the largest ones of that type of artefacts in Northern Europe. Therefore, it can be suggested that the owner of this gold ring was part of the absolute top of the Scandinavian elite.
Literature:
Fernstål, L. 2004. Delar av en grav och glimtar av entid. Om yngre romersk järnålder, Tuna i Badelunda i Västmanland och personen i grav X. Doctoral thesis, Stockholm University, Faculty of Humanities, Department of Archaeology and Classical Studies. Stockholm. Read: here.
Hagberg, U. E. 1967. The Archaeology of Skedemosse. I–II. Kungl. Vitterhets Historie och Antikvitets Akademiens Handlingar. Monografien, 46: I–II. Stockholm.
Mägi, M. 2021. Scandinavian chieftains in Saaremaa? Archaeological investigations in Ure, a probable Roman Period sacrificial place. – Archaeological Fieldwork in Estonia 2020, 73-90. Read the article: here.
Rundkvist, M. 2021. Noble shape, humble metals. Bronze and silver shield-head and snake-head rings of Roman era Scandinavia. – Praehistorische Zeitschrift, vol. 96, no. 2, 2021, pp. 571-584. https://doi.org/10.1515/pz-2021-2020.
Törnblad, E. 2017. Ormhuvudringar – en analys av det sociala symbolspråket i relation till formgivning, fyndkontext och hantverk. Kandidatuppsats Arkeologi, Lund Universitet. Read: here.
Ure
Mount, bronze. An elongated rectangle that had been attached at the ends to a belt or elsewhere with two small bronze rivets.
Mount, bronze. An elongated rectangle that had been attached at the ends to a belt or elsewhere with two small bronze rivets.
Ure
Crossbow brooch fragment, bronze and iron. The top part of the arc and one branch of the spiral axis. Similar to brooch SM 10862:16. It also had a similar head knob to that, but it is broken.
Crossbow brooch fragment, bronze and iron. The top part of the arc and one branch of the spiral axis. Similar to brooch SM 10862:16. It also had a similar head knob to that, but it is broken. Probably from the 3rd century AD (Rohtla 2005, 123 ff).
Literature:
Rohtla, M.-L. 2005. Crossbow fibula as a reflection of social status and relations. – Culture and Material Culture. – Interarchaeologia, 1. Ed. by V. Lang. Tartu – Riga – Vilnius, 121–145.
Ure
Knife, iron. With a curved 3-mm-wide back.
Ure
Crossbow brooch, bronze and iron. Only a small part of the spiral axis has been preserved. The arc has a flat cross-section and the needle store has been cast.
Last picture: Jaana Ratas
Crossbow brooch, bronze and iron. Only a small part of the spiral axis has been preserved. The arc has a flat cross-section and the needle store has been cast. Although brooches with casted foot became common in Estonia already in the 3rd century AD, this particular brooch may be from the period at the end of the 4th century up until the 6th century. (Rohtla 2005, 127 jj).
Literature:
Rohtla, M.-L. 2005. Crossbow fibula as a reflection of social status and relations. – Culture and Material Culture. – Interarchaeologia, 1. Ed. by V. Lang. Tartu – Riga – Vilnius, 121–145.
Ure
Crossbow brooch fragment, bronze and iron. A spiral axis that is made out of bronze wire and wrapped around the iron stick. The arc has an oval cross-section and it has the markings of ring decorations. The place where the spiral axis is attached to the arc is shaped as a flat cross-section and ends with an approx. 1 cm long head knob with a circular cross-section.
Crossbow brooch fragment, bronze and iron. A spiral axis that is made out of bronze wire and wrapped around the iron stick. The arc has an oval cross-section and it has the markings of ring decorations. The place where the spiral axis is attached to the arc is shaped as a flat cross-section and ends with an approx. 1 cm long head knob with a circular cross-section. This is an artefact type widespread in Estonia during the 3rd century. (Rohtla 2005, 123 jj).
Literature:
Rohtla, M.-L. 2005. Crossbow fibula as a reflection of social status and relations. – Culture and Material Culture. – Interarchaeologia, 1. Ed. by V. Lang. Tartu – Riga – Vilnius, 121–145.
Ure
Arrowhead (?), iron.
Ure
Arc of a crossbow brooch, silver + gold + iron. The backward-shaped feet form the needle store which was wrapped at the end as wire for six rounds around the middle part of the arc. The head knob of the arc has a circular cross-section and in the hole of it a residue of an iron spiral axis. The brooch is ornamented in four places with two silver ring garnets which have a gold plate in-between. The gold plates have had embossed ornament. On the gold plate at the bottom of the foot, a small head of a bird and two diagonal stripes can be distinguished. The next one after this has diagonal embossed stripes and two birds. Another after that depicts the bird as well, flanked by a central ring and surrounding ovals of a flower. The uppermost plaque shows the image of a bird with a band of diagonal stripes below it. This is a typical Estonian brooch type, the only exception being the embossed ornamentation on the gold plaques as usually a reticulated pattern is used.
Arc of a crossbow brooch, silver + gold + iron. The backward-shaped feet form the needle store which was wrapped at the end as wire for six rounds around the middle part of the arc. The head knob of the arc has a circular cross-section and in the hole of it a residue of an iron spiral axis. The brooch is ornamented in four places with two silver ring garnets which have a gold plate in-between. The gold plates have had embossed ornament. On the gold plate at the bottom of the foot, a small head of a bird and two diagonal stripes can be distinguished. The next one after this has diagonal embossed stripes and two birds. Another after that depicts the bird as well, flanked by a central ring and surrounding ovals of a flower. The uppermost plaque shows the image of a bird with a band of diagonal stripes below it. This is a typical Estonian brooch type, the only exception being the embossed ornamentation on the gold plaques as usually a reticulated pattern is used. In Lithuanian Courland, such types of brooches were used from as early as the 2nd-3rd century (Tautavićius 1968, 141), but it seems more likely that the Ure specimen belongs to the 4th-5th centuries (Rohtla 2005, 126-127).
Literature:
Rohtla, M.-L. 2005. Crossbow fibula as a reflection of social status and relations. – Culture and Material Culture. – Interarchaeologia, 1. Ed. by V. Lang. Tartu – Riga – Vilnius, 121–145.
Tautavićius, A. (ed.) 1968. Lietuvos archeologiniai paminklai. Lietuvos pajūrio I-VII a. kapinynas. Vilnius.
