Disc Brooches of the Roman Iron Age, from the Tarand Cemeteries of Estonia and North Latvia

Abstract

Disc

brooches of the Roman Iron Age are very diverse in their style and execution

throughout all of Europe. The diversity in the tarand cemetery areas of modern

day Estonia and north Latvia is also very high, with many unique traits being observable as well as some multidirectional influences. Regionality in the tarand cemetery areas is therefore studied through these diverse brooches, to see whether some motifs, subtypes or alloys were more preferred in some areas than in others. A typological and compositional approach is adopted to achieve this. Based on the distribution of certain groups of disc brooches, their surface treatment and direction of influences, two areas come to the fore – north-east Estonia and south-east Estonia together with north Latvia. The study shows how people of the tarand cemetery areas adopted foreign techniques and stylistic features in accordance with local preferences and used them in their local culture.