Ringspännen i Lund - Förändringar i materiell kultur i Norden under sen vikingatid och medeltid

This essay concerns ring brooches in Lund from late Viking age and the Middle ages, 10th to 16th century. The purpose is first and foremost to typologize the ring brooches and to investigate the similarities and differences between them. Moreover, this essay investigate why the brooches change in form and decoration over the period of time and what these changes can disclose about Lund and how it contradicts from other places in northern Europe. Initially, the ring brooches from Lund are typologized and put into a chronological order where the divided subgroups in the material are dated with brooches from both Lund and other places in northern Europe. Ring brooches from Denmark, Norway, Gotland and other places in northern Europe are compared with the material from Lund to observe similarities and differences. In this essay, three major observations have been made concerning the ring brooches from Lund. The first observation concerns when the ring brooches change from open to closed rings in the 12/13th century, secondly that the category closed rings contains a lot of different types, some of them found during a long period of time and in great numbers, and thirdly that the distribution of open and closed rings are different, where the closed ones are found throughout northern Europe. Finally, these observations are connected to the process of standardization and Europeanisation during the Middle ages. Some of the ring brooches are mass-produced and some of them could symbolize an individualistic identity. The material shows that Lund possibly is part of a greater European culture in an early point, where new material culture and the new medieval society are quickly accepted