TY - JOUR AU - Gold, Ilona M. PY - 2020/02/18 Y2 - 2024/03/28 TI - Eine Mittelalterliche Gürtelschnalle mit Darstellung der Majestas Domini aus dem Watt bei Nordstrand JF - Arkæologi i Slesvig-Archäologie in Schleswig JA - AIS VL - 0 IS - 17 SE - Artikler DO - UR - https://tidsskrift.dk/arkaeologi_i_Slesvig/article/view/118613 SP - 185-195 AB - <p>During amateur excavations in 1964,<br>a metal belt buckle as well as some Rhenish<br>and Hispano-Moresque ceramic vessels<br>were found in the mudflat southwest of<br>Nordstrand. This paper presents an iconographic<br>description and wider contextualisation<br>of the outstanding and hitherto<br>unpublished find. The belt buckle consists<br>of a rectangular plate with openwork ornamentation<br>showing Christ in a mandorla<br>sitting on the rainbow or the globe surrounded<br>by the symbols of the four evangelists, an<br>iconographic arrangement known as Majestas<br>Domini. The frame displays two inverted<br>animals, possibly bears or dogs, whose snouts<br>touch. On the basis of iconographic and technical-<br>stilistic comparisons with similar medieval<br>belt buckles (e. g. Dune in Gotland and<br>the Limoge type in France), the Nordstrand<br>specimen may be dated to the 12th to 14th centuries.<br>An outstanding aspect of the piece is<br>the so far unique depiction of the Majestas<br>Domini among belt buckles of the high and<br>late Middle Ages. Beside the ideational value,<br>the belt buckle assumedly constituted a form<br>of personal or outwardly displayed identity.<br>By wearing this unique piece with its special<br>iconography, the owner allocated himself intentionally<br>and actively to a specific religious<br>group — the Christian belief — and displayed<br>a specific social status. The find is thus an<br>important object that contributes to our understanding<br>of the constitution of social relationships<br>and the creation of identities trough<br>material culture in medieval times, and to reconstructing<br>the iconography and socio-economic<br>circumstances of this region.</p> ER -