The Goths
(4th to 7th century A.D.)

Pre-incorporation (4th - 5th c. A.D.)

Metalwork

	1. Gothic polychrome eagle-head belt buckle from South Russia. 4th century A.D. The eagle motif derives from East Asia and results from the participation of the forebears of the Goths in the Hunnic Empire.
	2. Ostrogothic fibula. Gold plates attached to a silver core and inlaid with garnets. 4th c. A.D. (New York: Metropolitan Museum). 6.25" The Gothic interest in fibula is adopted from Late Roman imperial emblems of rank at the imperial court.
	3. Eagle-headed fibulae from the Pietrossa Treasure, Roumania, first half 5th century. This hoard from the Danube valley is highly controversial. It seems to have been collected by an Ostrogoth in the first half of the 5th c., but contains some objects significantly older. The eagle motif is problably Hunnic and picked up by Goths serving within the Hunnic Empire. The heavy collars in the collection are pagan and Gothic, and the polychrome technique is early 5th-century Gothic. So the treasure reflects Roman, Gothic and Hunnic influences.
	4. Another image of the eagle-headed fibula from the Pietrossa Treasure (Bucharest: Acad. Inst. de Arch.) 10 in. , with garnet inlay and crystal spangles. This reflects Gothic polychrome technology of the early 5th c., but the design reflects Hunnic, Imperial, and pagan-Gothic influences.
	5. Gothic old style looped fibula grave good, Early 5th century, Untersiebenbrun Treasure. Untersiebenbrun is west of Vienna and is associated with Visigothic ethnogenesis arising from the Danubian Tervingi Goths and growing Visigothic political hegemony in the region.
	6. Gothic gold eagle fibula with garnet and cloisonné inlays. Ca. 500 A.D. (Nürnberg: Germ. Nat. Mus.) Typical Gothic polychrome applied to an East Asian (Hunnic) theme.

Ostrogothic Kingdom of Italy

Metalwork

1. Ostrogothic looped eagle head fibula from a female grave at Desana, Italy. Ca. 500 A.D. (Turin: Mus. Vic.). Gold with enamel, garnet and emerald inlays. By wearing rich fibula, the top Ostrogothic aristocracy could gave tangible expression to its imperial service as the Roman court aristocracy had previously done.

Visigothic Kingdom of Toulouse and Toledo

1. Map of the Kingdoms of Toulouse and Toledo, adapted from Herwig Wolfram, History of the Goths (Berkeley, 1979).

Metalwork

	1. Visigothic polychrome votive crown of Recceswinth, King of Toledo. Found in a votive crown hoard of c. 670 at Fuente de Guarrazar, near Toledo (Madrid: Mus. Argu). 7.8" Typical of Visigothic taste.
	2. Another votive crown of King Recceswinth. 7th c. (Paris: Cluny). The crown bears Recceswinth's name.