Museum complex

Fibulae (brooches) with a triangular flap

Early Iron Age
Zarubintsy culture
Bronze, iron
1) length 9.3 cm, 2) length 6.7 cm
Receipt: excavations under the supervision of Yu.V.Kukharenko in 1951-1953
Showcase 5

Fibulae (pins for fastening garments) with a triangular ornamented shield, the so-called "Zarubintsy" type. The first fibulae appeared in the end of the Bronze Age, but the most common they become in the Early Iron Age, gradually changing in shape and getting more and more sophisticated in design. It is possible to proclaim that those have become a prototype of modern safety pins. Fibulae with a triangular shield were borrowed by the population of Polesie and the Dnieper from Western Europe, from culture of the ancient Celts (the so-called La Tène Culture period). At the initial stages of formation of the Zarubintsy Culture, its bearers adopted many elements of funeral rites and material culture of the Celts. Further on development of all borrowed elements proceeded completely independently. This is very noticeable for example in the evolution of fibulae – pins for fastening garments with a triangular shield, which have become a striking ethnographic peculiarity of the Zarubintsy Culture.
Functional purpose: decorative and at the same time a device for fixing garments, a clasp.
Notice of uniqueness: these brooches are characteristic objects of Zarubintsy Culture.

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