Photographer: Andrea Blumtritt | Rights management: Ethnologisches Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Attribution - NonCommercial - ShareAlike 4.0 International
The decorations are visible on the top and bottom of the object. Its large, irregular perforations indicate a secondary use. The disc-shaped sheet could have been used as a chest ornament, clothing utensil, offering, barter object or burial object. Aguilar (1996: 49-51, Figs. 25-28), Ferrero (1975: 257, Ilus. II-47-50) and Quilter (2000: 184, Fig. 9.4) depict decorated metal sheets that have a round or horseshoe shape. They show embossed, engraved and punched motifs depicting circles or figurative motifs. Five large plates with figurative decorations were found in grave 11 at the Conte site (450-900d.C.). Spanish chronicles of the 16th century report that similar objects were worn by high-ranking personalities during the war (Hearne and Sharer 1992: 70). (Künne 2005)
