A large equal-armed brooch based on a pair of finds from Björkö/Birka. The originals were made of bronze, and some of them were gilded. You can see them here:
https://samlingar.shm.se/object/73835C9F-B713-4F05-8113-835E66179D25
and https://samlingar.shm.se/object/C294AC12-084F-4C0E-808F-45F58F62CE9E
Our replica is made of bronze.
Equal-armed brooches are elongated and symmetrical with a sort of top in the middle and two diamond-shaped flaps extending out on each side. Typically, the brooch is adorned with geometric decoration or, more rarely, animal ornamentation. They appeared already from the early Viking Age and were worn throughout the period. The size of equal-armed brooches varies somewhat, but they are usually about 6-10 cm across. Equal-armed brooches have also been worn separately without being combined with tortoise brooches.
It is worth noting that there are practically no finds of similar brooches from Gotland, which otherwise can be very rich in archaeological material. In Sweden, they seem to occur mainly in the Mälardalen region, particularly from Björkö, where they are much more common than trefoil brooches. However, a fairly large number of equal-armed brooches have also been found at the settlement site in Uppåkra, Skåne. Otherwise, there are not many finds from southern Sweden, but from Denmark, there are several dozen finds, the majority of which are from Bornholm. There are also scattered finds from Småland, Öland, and other places.
