s Anglo-Saxon Brooch, AD 500-599 - Hull Museums Collections

Anglo-Saxon Brooch, AD 500-599

The Anglo-Saxons loved to put faces and animals into their decoration. This may have been for religious reasons. If you look carefully at this brooch you will see a face with a moustache. There is also a bird’s head on each tip. This brooch may have been used to hold clothing together but it was also for decoration.

The Anglo-Saxons were master craftsmen. They were very skilled at metalwork and other crafts such as pottery, glass and decorative books.

This brooch was found at Hornsea on the East Yorkshire coast. Another very similar one was found at Driffield a few miles inland. These are displayed side by side at the Hull & East Riding Museum.

The Anglo-Saxons were immigrants to Britain and many people have speculated about why they came here. They may have been refugees from barbarian tribes in the East or forced by climatic change and rising sea levels. Many people think they came as mercenaries, paid to keep out other invaders after the Romans had left.

Germanic tribes had provided soldiers for Rome before and British rulers turned to these tribes for help. They were the Saxons, Angles and Jutes. These came from modern day Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands.

Britain became divided into separate kingdoms. Yorkshire’s Anglo-Saxon kingdoms were Bernicia, Deira and Elmet. The end of Roman rule had left a power vacuum which the Anglo-Saxons filled. Their influence on culture and language is still around today. Our country is called England because it was the land of the Angles.

Two of the best know examples of Anglo-Saxon craftsmanship are the Sutton Hoo burial treasures and the Lindisfarne Gospels. The Sutton Hoo treasures were discovered in a burial in Suffolk. They are now a highlight of the British Museum’s collection. The Lindisfarne Gospels are originally from Northumberland and are now in the British Library.