Viking arm rings, Celtic bracelets and medieval arm jewellery
Arm rings and bracelets in the assortment of Pera Peris
In the arm rings category, you can buy a nice selection of historical bracelets from the
jewellery collection of Pera Peris - House of History. Here you will find Celtic and Roman armlets as well as medieval and Viking arm rings that were made after original finds or in close reference to historical models from the Viking Age and the Middle Ages.
We offer you here high-quality replicas and
museum replicas of arm rings from different eras and countries of history, so that you can choose from a wide range of bracelets.
Our historical bracelets are made of high-quality bronze and are characterized by a particularly beautiful golden yellow bronze alloy. You can also buy our bracelets in
genuine silver plated. Our bracelets are provided with an extra strong silver layer of up to 10 Mg.
In addition, most of our bracelets are provided with a special
tarnish protection, which ensures that the metal does not oxidize and darken so easily or the silver does not turn black. So you will enjoy your historical arm ring for a long time.
Roman bracelets
Arm rings and bracelets were worn by the women of the Romans quite often and usually
in pairs on both arms. The Roman men, however, usually did not wear any bangles.
The so-called Armilla was an exception. This was awarded as a
soldier's decoration in the form of a silver or gold bracelet from the republican era until the late 2nd century in the Roman Empire like an order to deserve soldiers and was one of the most important awards in the Roman army.
Every legionary could theoretically be honoured with such an arm ring up to the rank of centurion. However, the Armilla was only given to
Roman legionaries with civil rights and not to soldiers of the auxiliary troops.
Most of the armillae were only made of a
copper alloy coated with white metal, which shows that it was not the actual material value that was decisive here, but the award itself.
Roman Serpent arm rings
Very popular with the Romans were also serpent bracelets, which were supposed to have a
disaster averting quality and were worn both individually and in pairs.
The Roman snake bracelets had one or more turns and ended in plastically designed snake heads.
The serpent's body was often decorated in the form of indicated scales and was often made of gold sheet and sometimes even solid gold. Inlays of
gemstones instead of eyes were sometimes also used in Roman snake bracelets.
To the Romans, the snake was considered a parable for healing, as the snake was already associated with the art of healing in
Greek antiquity. Even today, the symbol of the Asclepius staff surrounded by snakes still stands for medicine. Because of its proximity to the ground, the snake was also commonly associated with fertility.
Spherical Roman bracelets
Around the time of Christ's birth, the Romans also used sheet gold for the production of single,
hollow bracelets, as well as for single and double-row bracelets made of hemispherical shaped limbs.
The circumferences of these
ball-shaped bracelets were significantly larger than other Roman bracelets, which is why they were either worn very loosely or were not bracelets but anklets.
The Roman historian Pliny already reported about such jewellery and a few pictorial representations of such ankle bracelets are known.
Using simple gold wire, Roman goldsmiths also created
filigree bracelets of simple beauty by twisting several bronze or silver wires.
In comparison, the Roman arm rings in the technique of the "
opus interrasile" looked almost ostentatious. These were characterized by elaborate drilling that were intended to imitate filigree openwork lattice patterns, arabesques and gemstone inlays and were very popular with the Romans in the 3rd century AD.
Germanic arm rings
Serpent bracelets were also fashionable among the Germanic tribes, which were probably based on models of Roman jewellery, but had a typical
Germanic character.
Especially from Denmark and southern
Norway, several Germanic gold bracelets are known, dating from the 2nd to 3rd century AD.
But not only the
Germanic tribes wore bangles as arm decoration, they were also widespread among the Huns and the Avars during the migration period.
Well known are the
Germanic arm rings from the sacrificial finds of Illerup, Thorsberg and Öland, where probably Roman gold coins had been used as material for production.
Germanic bracelets had often truncated terminals and were worn either only on the left wrist or
in pairs, as tomb finds from this epoch show. They identified the wearer as part of the socially higher class.
Arm rings in the early Middle Ages
Especially in late antiquity and even in the early Middle Ages, the cob bangle was an important
status symbol among the Germanic peoples. In the Merovingian period, these bangles were used as arm jewellery, especially by wealthy Alemannic and Frankish women.
However, wealthier Germanic men in the early Middle Ages also frequently wore a cob arm ring, as has been amply demonstrated by archaeological finds from
excavations in the former territories of the Alemanni, Thuringians and Franks.
Depending on the region, this arm jewellery could be
smooth and plain as well as decorated with several encircling cross grooves or plain cross decorations.
In the early Middle Ages, silver cob bracelets are found almost exclusively in richly decorated
women's graves of the late 5th and early 6th centuries, while bronze ones are found much more often and even in men's graves up to the 7th century.
Forged
iron bracelets were also still in use during the Merovingian period.
The medieval cob arm ring made of
pure gold found in the tomb of the Frankish king Childerich I at the end of the 5th century in the Belgian town of Tournai became famous.
Viking arm rings
The Viking Age knows a remarkably large number of
bronze and silver bracelets, which are evidence of a considerable wealth that reached Scandinavia between the 8th and 11th century.
The Viking arm rings were often made of
intertwined silver wires, which could be plain or twisted, but were often also solidly cast.
Viking silver bracelets in particular were often used secondarily as hack silver.
Here the amount of silver needed for a purchase was
simply hacked off the bracelet and weighed on a small scale until the amount was right.
There were also narrow, ingot-shaped
money bracelets from the Viking Age, which were worn around the arm just for this purpose, that they were best kept here because hardly anyone would dare to steal a precious bracelet directly from the wrist of a fearsome Viking.
But not only Viking men showed off their wealth,
especially the women were often equipped with one or more bracelets during the Viking Age.
The Viking arm ring in Arabic context
Also the Arabic chronicler
Ibn Fadlan knows to report about this: "Around the hand they wear golden and silver chains. If a man has ten thousand dirham (pieces of silver), he has his wife make a bracelet; if he has twenty thousand, she gets two bracelets; and so his wife, as often as he gets ten thousand dirham richer, gets one more bracelet.
In the Viking Age Scandinavia, however, there were only very limited deposits of silver, so the Vikings primarily used the
silver coins from the countries of their southern trading partners to make bracelets and other silver jewellery.
So it is not surprising that silver coins from the kingdom of Kabul as well as
Arabic dirhams of the caliph Harun al-Rashid, drachmas from the Persian Sassanid Empire and even ancient Roman denarii were found in Scandinavian treasure troves.
Even on Iceland, coins of Roman origin have been found. However, when the
Arab silver mines came to an increasing standstill at the end of the Viking Age, the flow of silver to Scandinavia began to dry up.
The bracelets of the Viking Age were often provided with simple, triangular hallmarks in serrated jewellery lines, but also solid cast bracelets with deep
ribbed decorations were common.
Most Viking bracelets, however, were usually braided from one or more silver wires in round or angular form, the ends of which were thinly forged and knotted or designed as hooks and eyelets.
Alternatively, in the Viking Age, there were filigree bracelets made of fine silver wire, which were knotted into thin foxtail chains and could end in
animal-head-shaped endings.
The Balts also liked flat bracelets with stylized ends in the shape of animal heads.
Your medieval shop for authentic re-enactment
In the wide range of our medieval shop we offer you, besides historical
arm jewellery, of course many other medieval accessories as well as authentic replicas of medieval jewellery, among them:
Whether for the next con, a Viking camp or a
medieval festival, you will find everything your heart desires for a historically accurate outfit.
Discover detailed replicas of
brooches and clasps,
dress fasteners and
buttons based on historical models as well as various
medieval bags and an
extensive selection of
historical belts and stand out from the crowd with lovingly crafted details.
For an authentic reenactment, we also equip you with the necessary
camp equipment and offer you a large selection of forged
knives of the Iron Age, detailed
Viking knives and replicas of
medieval knives for an authentic representation.
Find out more about life in the Middle Ages in our blog and gain interesting and
enlightening insights into the mystical eras of the Vikings, Celts and many others.
When ordering from Pera Peri's medieval shop,
you will benefit from many advantages, such as:
- 25 years of experience
- Free shipping from 50 €
- Delivery usually on the next working day
- Several payment methods, such as Paypal, credit card or bank transfer
- 14-day right of withdrawal
- Easy returns
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Set your medieval equipment on
quality and authenticity and order your reenactment supplies at peraperis.com.
Pera Peris - House of History - your medieval shop
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