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Ungeschlagenem fuss

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Platon:
Can anyone take a guess as to what "category" of fibula this one might belong to?





I've read descriptions of similar fibulae as "proto crossbow," "simple bow," and "legionnaire type." I am having trouble finding some more concrete information though. It seems to be as basic of a fibula as you can get (which I like, it looks clean), and I've seen one or two pictures that looked nearly identical (one very similar fibula was claimed to be celtic).

nikopolis1:
Should be  late roman-early byzantine. This is based on my metaldetecting experience  ;D so I might be wrong

SC:
This type is known in German as an "Ungeschlagenem fuss" fibula.  This translates to "returned foot" but is also sometimes referred to as "tied foot" or "bent foot".

You can see that the bow bends under at the end to form the catch-plate and is then tied to the bow - in this case with 2 1/2 loops.

It can get confusing as this basic design was used in several widely separated periods.

First it was used 1st - 2nd c AD from the Balkans to the Caucasus.  These fibulae are almost always bronze and the bow form is different from yours.  They have one smooth arch from spring to the bend at the foot.  Because of this the distance between the end of the catch-plate and the ties on the bow is quite large and the whole foot area forms a triangle.  

Yours is the middle type.  It was used 3rd - 4th century AD along the lower Danube.  (Although a few have been dated to the Marcomannic wars - c 160-180 AD.)  The most common type - which includes yours - is associated with the Gothic peoples (who had not yet formed into the Ostrogoths and the Visigoths).  It is called the Gothic type umgeschlagenem fuss fibula.  You can see that the bow has one arch then flattens out and thus that the space between the rear of the bow and the catch-plate is very thin and the distance from the end of the catch-plate to the ties is very short.  This type is found in iron and bronze.  The bronze is often made out of thin sheet unlike the first type which can have very thick cast bows.

There is also a third type which occurs in the 6th to early 7th century and which is sometimes known as the Romano-Byzantine or Byzantine umgeschlagenem fuss fibula.  They are also called P-shaped fibula as the bow has one arch then flattens out like yours but it then turns to the catch-plate in a near-perfect half circle so that there is a good bit of space between the end of the bow and the catch-plate.  These are usually made of iron but were then copied in a new type in bronze where the foot was no longer tied to the bow but was cast in one piece in imitation of such a tie.

So to re-iterate yours is a Gothic type umgeschlagenem fuss (or returned foot or tied foot) fibula dating to the 3rd to 4th c AD.  It would be the type used but the Goths who fought against Trajan Decius, Constantine, Constantius, Valentinian I, Valens, etc.

Shawn
  

(Edited to change date of first type to AD not BC, and to add Marcomannic war period to second type.)

Platon:
Thank you for the excellent post Shawn. I am amazed by your deep knowledge of fibulae and am elated to learn so much information about the history of the piece. At first I thought it was probably Roman, but looking at it again the build did remind me of a germanic fibula I had seen earlier.

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