The Artres Treasure is an important
Merovingian
The Merovingian dynasty () was the ruling family of the Franks from the middle of the 5th century until 751. They first appear as "Kings of the Franks" in the Roman army of northern Gaul. By 509 they had united all the Franks and northern Gauli ...
hoard found at
Artres, northern
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...
in the nineteenth century. Most of the treasure is now in the collection of the
British Museum
The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...
in
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
.
Discovery
The rich grave group was found in 1855 under a small mound near the town of Artres in
Pas-de-Calais, northern France. Dating to the middle of the 6th Century AD, it probably belong to an affluent and powerful
Frankish
Frankish may refer to:
* Franks, a Germanic tribe and their culture
** Frankish language or its modern descendants, Franconian languages
* Francia, a post-Roman state in France and Germany
* East Francia, the successor state to Francia in Germany ...
woman. Most of the hoard was purchased by the curator and philanthropist
Augustus Wollaston Franks
Sir Augustus Wollaston Franks (20 March 182621 May 1897) was a British antiquarian and museum administrator. Franks was described by Marjorie Caygill, historian of the British Museum, as "arguably the most important collector in the history of ...
, who bequeathed it to the British Museum in 1897.
British Museum Collection
/ref> It has recently been shown that a gold disk pendant (now in the Ashmolean Museum) was also part of the hoard.
Description
The Artres Treasure for the most part includes luxurious jewellery
Jewellery ( UK) or jewelry (U.S.) consists of decorative items worn for personal adornment, such as brooches, rings, necklaces, earrings, pendants, bracelets, and cufflinks. Jewellery may be attached to the body or the clothes. From a wester ...
fashionable at the Frankish
Frankish may refer to:
* Franks, a Germanic tribe and their culture
** Frankish language or its modern descendants, Franconian languages
* Francia, a post-Roman state in France and Germany
* East Francia, the successor state to Francia in Germany ...
court. It is composed of two large gilded silver fan-shaped brooch
A brooch (, also ) is a decorative jewelry item designed to be attached to garments, often to fasten them together. It is usually made of metal, often silver or gold or some other material. Brooches are frequently decorated with enamel or with g ...
es, a pair of small gold and garnet encrusted brooches in the shape of a bird, a pair of matching earrings, a crystal ball pendant
A pendant is a loose-hanging piece of jewellery, generally attached by a small loop to a necklace, which may be known as a "pendant necklace". A pendant earring is an earring with a piece hanging down. Its name stems from the Latin word ' ...
and a small silver bracelet. Other items in the hoard included a finger ring and a large crystal ball; the whereabouts of these objects are unknown.
See also
* Sutton Hoo
* Domagnano Treasure
The Domagnano Treasure is an important Ostrogothic hoard found at Domagnano, Republic of San Marino in the late nineteenth century. The treasure is now divided among various institutions, including the Louvre Abu Dhabi, although the bulk of the ho ...
* Sutri Treasure
*Bergamo Treasure
The Bergamo Treasure is a large Lombardic and Ostrogothic hoard found near the city of Bergamo in northern Italy in the nineteenth century. It was mostly acquired by the British Museum in 1897.
Discovery
The hoard was supposedly unearthed in th ...
References
{{Reflist, 2
Further reading
*S. Marzinzik, Masterpieces: Early Medieval Art (London, British Museum Press, 2013)
*B. Ager, 'Mobilier d'une riche tombe féminine' in Trésors archéologiques du Nord (Musée des Beaux-Arts de Valenciennes, 1997), pp. 125–27
Medieval European objects in the British Museum
Medieval European metalwork objects