Cast belt- and strap-fittings with Carolingian floral designs from Andalusia

Abstract

The RGZM in Mainz possesses a collection of seven cast belt- and strapittings with floral designs of Andalusian origin which belong to menswear of the second half of the 9th or early 10th century. According
to their previous Spanish owners the objects seem to have come from the area of Sevilla, which then lay in the Emirate of Córdoba. The analysis of the individual finds concluded that the information about their origin is correct. These metal pieces are distinguished in shape and decoration by particular details indicating them as products of Andalusian bronze-casters. They cannot have been burial offerings, but only settlement finds and were presumably discovered during earth-moving work in the old craftsmen’s and traders’ quarter of Sevilla. The carriers of these accessories of typical »occidental-Christian« men’s clothing are unknown. They may probably be sought within the remaining Christian Visigoths of Andalusia. The smallfinds (of brass or a red brass alloy) were even probably produced in Sevilla, since among them was a lead mould(?) for producing casts. Whatever, they prove that metal objects with Carolingian floral decoration extended much further than was previously supposed.