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The belt set from Säben
During the early Middle Ages wealthy the men of Germanic tribes living in central and southern Europe wore magnificent hip belts and weapon belts decorated with silver. A four-piece belt set was discovered in grave 231 at Säben. The buckle, trims, and strap ends are inlaid. The belt belonged to a member of a Germanic tribe who was buried at Säben and dates from the second quarter of the 7th century AD.
A closer look – inlay work
During the early Middle Ages inlay work on metal objects flourished among the Germanic peoples, i.e. the Franks, Alamanni, Lombards, and Bavarians. Numerous inlaid buckles and other metalwork on dress items and riding accoutrements and weapons have survived, especially from the 7th century AD.
The substrate material – the buckle, clasp, trim, or weapon part – was usually iron. The artisans cut a recessed ornamental pattern into the metal using a burin and chisel. They then tapped wafer-thin wires, bands or discs of silver, brass, or gold into the recesses and polished the surface smooth.
Tribes from the north
Starting from the second half of the 6th century AD, German tribes settled permanently on the Italian Peninsula. Around 569 AD the Lombards settled in upper Italy. The northern border of their kingdom ran south of the Main Alpine Ridge near Bolzano. From the northwest the Franks continually invaded the Lombard Kingdom via the Alpine valleys. Their campaigns left clear traces in their wake. Fortified high settlements of the Alpine inhabitants were repeatedly destroyed. The inhabitants were taken as hostages and were released only after a ransom was paid.
At the end of the 6th century the Bavarians, another Germanic people, spread southward. From the northern Alpine foothills in what is today southern Germany, they crossed the Main Alpine Ridge. According to written historical accounts, a Bavarian duke set up home in the area around Bolzano just 100 years later. Here the Bavarians encountered the Lombards, with whom they formed an alliance.
Splendid clothes
During the early Middle Ages in Europe wealthy Germanic men wore splendid belts, which were then placed in their graves with them after they died. Because these clothing accessories changed with the fashion, the belts are a very useful aid for dating grave findings.
In the 6th century AD three-piece belt sets were especially popular. The metalwork on them consisted of a belt buckle, a reinforced strap end that passed through the buckle, and a decorative trim on the back section of the belt. In the first half of the 7th century AD the Alamanni, Bavarians, and Lombards adopted a four-piece belt fashion. Besides a buckle and a strap end, up to a dozen other fittings were suspended from the belts. These were used to attach short leather straps, each of which also ended in a metal-clad strap end. The result was a magnificent belt with inlaid metalwork that only wealthy men could afford.
Germanic animal style
The inlaid metalwork of the European early Middle Ages is characterized by decorations in the Germanic animal style. The ornamentation is a combination of Nordic animal forms and ribbon-like traceries. The animal forms developed in southern Scandinavia, while the ribbon patterns show Mediterranean influences. Germanic tribes soon began to combine the two elements, creating the Germanic animal style. In the 7th century it featured animals with ribbon-shaped bodies intertwining and biting each other. The individual animals are always easy to distinguish from each other and identify.
