Symbols from all bract motifs

Th Pearl, Welsh corn, triumphal, crossed circle, time cross, three-part, swastika, bullhorns, tropheum, Manus Dei

Life is seldom clear-cut with only one aim and one solution. Many situations contend a mix of choices. Seen from the side the Roman occupation was only occasional and they altered between fraternising and fighting in parts of at least Germania and England. In the long run they eat the Roman Empire from outside and from inside. You have to know you enemy before you can fight him.

We see the distance in the text from the Undley bract, "Howl with the Lupus boys, that pays". Then they learned how to earn "pearls" and how to fight the wolves.

In another sense it is right to begin with the pearl and then the "golden pearl". We hardly recognise but nearly everywhere there are golden pearls as decoration. Maybe they also meant something by putting these very small pearls on the bracts. On the Tjurkau bract we read the expression "Welsh corn" as if they bought it as prefabricate. There are millions of golden pearls on their gold and in a way they hunted it in the Roman Empire.

Maybe we should remember that only a fraction of the gold reached the soil and store in Scandinavia. They signed in for 25 years and maybe some of them stayed at their lots within the empire. On the other hand we know from medieval times that sometimes the camps killed more soldiers than the wars.

In the list below there is only the abstracted symbols and icons from the entire collection of motifs. The most frequent icons like head, horse, beast/wolf, eagle, raven, serpent are mentioned many times in the essays. Other symbols like spear, helmet, axe, sword, buck, boar, animal are mentioned in their connection.

These are the present golden bract categories used by science: A = only head "sun-king"; B = one or a few idols "mythic"; C = they call it a rider "sun-rider"; D = undefined figures "snake pit". These are called golden one-sided bracts. Letter M = is the two-sided medallion. They call it emperor medal.

Source for the cuts are the books of Karl Haucks Die Golbrakteaten der Völkerwanderungszeit.

….….…. The triumphal.is Roman and occurs only on a few bracts and the Nordic ring we see only on a few bracts. On the sample from Vika Norway it looks as if he brings it to the Lady of House.

 … This kind of adornment in the hair occurs on two bracts. Maybe it symbolises the Swebian knot or maybe it is only decoration. Generally every detail in this kind of presentations have their symbolic meaning. Exception is maybe the dots that are filled in to use the space.

… This cross is surely taken from Roman coins. Sometimes it seems to have a meaning sometimes it fills gap.

 …This is the only "crossed circle" on bracts with old use in the rock-carvings where it stands for time and periods = year, half year, quarter.

….….….……. … These are used for the same as the previous but are easier to make than a circle. Maybe we should call it time cross

…. …….….….….…. ….

…. … These are used for the tri-section of the year or the three-part / terminuses. Behind is the moon year and the triad that symbolised the turning points.

….….….…. … The swastika is as such one of the oldest time mark of the same age as the crossed circle. Oldest finds in Indus culture is from around 3400 BC. It symbolises that mankind set a stable point on earth and selects the cardinal directions as help with orientation. The wings give the feeling of going time and here they have dots on the end that could symbolise the season feast or just are decoration.

…. …. … The bullhorns bring us from reality to the virtual reality of icons and symbols in society. In text we should simply read them "spring equinox". Mostly they are on the head of the horse. But they can be aside or somewhere else and even on another astronomical animal for instance the Hare. Five dots in row or in figure stills bothers me. At Rock 1 Haugsbyn they are under the polestar. Maybe they here are marking the World Pole inside the four marked cardinal directions.

 …most of the dots have no clear configuration and symbolic value and could be just decoration. In some cases they symbolise the full moon and indicate they started the month at that day. On some neckrings they have punched half moons that indicate they started at new moon and it could also mean the New Moon Mare.

….….…. The circle is ambivalent. We can see it as enclosure or entity. Then it depends on if we point at the inside or the outside. Then it was also used to show the unity of a tried or assembly. The other view is if we see it as orbit and movement. The Herulian legion's symbol was two concentric circles standing for brotherhood and agreement and maybe it also symbolised their home base Concordia in Italy.

Here we have concentric circles and we can compare with the rock-carvings where they sometimes symbolise quarter of the year.

….…. … This symbol could be seen as sum of point and circle and as sun period, star, sun. In ancient times all heavenly objects were stars however they pointed out sun, full moon and new moon as special objects. The concept planet came with astrology. Since some of them are in group of four or three they surely symbolise time periods. The dot in centre symbolise the object or centre and the circle the orbit or movement in a time period.

 … A line has always length and it takes time to make it. When they make sharp bend it could mark periods and here the dots mark end and beginning. In much time symbolism they used the serpent with head and tail. In earlier times some ships marked time with symbols in stern and stem.

 … This is perhaps symbolising Gemini = Thor but usually the wings are equal long. On some Balder bract the "Longleg" = Time holds this in one hand and has a "hook" in the other that symbolises originally harvest but also Sagittarius. Then we should read it "from Gemini to Sagittarius". The latter was earlier the Moon dog and then the Wolf/ Fenriswolf as time of Ramadan.

Like in Egypt the Horus Falcon was originally placed at a pole on Cancer/ Crab. Then both Horus and Falcon was the word "time". The long leg originates then form the time they went to Underworld in Cancer, i.e. time for sowing after the ritual calendar. But with time and precession this division line moved from Cancer to Gemini.

 … BY logic such a line express uncertainty in two stages

 … Look like the Egyptian sickle … but is it?

 … They think this means "Three times Tyr"

…. … This is surely an ear

 ….…. … The spiral could be IN or OUT depending on if it is left or right turn and in symbolises movement or flow as positive or negative. The first sample comes from above under the ear of the bract and could symbolises the sun flow.

 … Not a clue … maybe double runes, but it is showing movement outward

 … … In Greece they used lots in this shape. Sharing fields and other things were done by casting lots everywhere in ancient times. But this could symbolise something else

 … Maybe the new moon and 6 days … or something else. As always we should have the whole picture and good connection to the topic. But we do not have that always.

 …The dots are confusing but it looks like "minus" and synonyms. Generally we can use the same logic as in out days. Sometimes they draw a bone like the stroke and then it means "bone, helper or tool"

 … Maybe only decoration

 … No suggestion … only this one.

  …This is surely taken from a Roman coin to the Undley bract. It symbolises the eight parts of the year.

 …Symbolises maybe separation or disagreement.

 … These symbols are bound to a line and regular occurrence. Compared with other samples this is maybe "full moons"

 … This seems to be a joke symbol of junction and unity

 … Not a clue

…. …Not a clue

 … Even at Roman coins they use this as "fill the space"

 … Single sample maybe it means TI

 … Single sample … maybe LL

 … Maybe this a Roman altar … only this

…. … Manus Dei maybe that came with Christianity. The hand with the thumb in angle could be the brotherhood greeting we know from the time of the Phoenicians = The Handman seen also in our rock-carvings.

 … Expresses growth

… Not a clue

… Not a clue

… Not a clue

To this we can add the Gerete bract with the World order and the series with the Balder myth. Interpreting ancient script and symbolism would never be exact science. Still trials in solving all "symbols between the lines" give us fragments of knowledge. Many fragments could be analysed more and out into categories.

The method is tied to real facts. This is far more informative method than ignoring it or maybe creating theories about shamanism and all that fantasy can create.