Neue Überlegungen zu den Goldblattkreuzen des Frühen Mittelalters aus Süddeutschland

Abstract

New Considerations on the Gold-Leaf Crosses of the Early Middle Ages from Southern Germany

Gold-leaf crosses represent a specific category of finds that can be traced almost simultaneously in early medieval cemeteries in southern Germany and Italy from the last third of the 6^th century onwards. Their characteristic materiality suggests an interpretation as exclusively funerary jewellery, whose symbolic function is to be located within the context of burial rituals. A detailed analysis of burial contexts that have received little attention to date, as well as the iconography of pressed-plate decorated examples, opens up new perspectives on the multi-layered levels of meaning that could be associated with these objects.