THE JÄGALA FIBULA REVISITED, OR REMARKS ON WERNER’S CLASS II D; pp. 26–69

Abstract

Ever since its discovery on the site of an Iron-Age stronghold, in 1939, the Jägala fibula has been treated as evidence of the contacts with the Slavs and, at the same time, of a seventh-century occupation of that site. In the light of many new discoveries of similar fibulae, this paper’s goal is a re-evaluation of Joachim Werner’s class II D of the so-called “Slavic” fibulae, to which the Jägala specimen belongs. The cluster analysis of 34 fibulae reveals the network of links between individual specimens and the role of the Middle Dnieper region in the diffusion of this particular type of dress accessories both to the south (Crimea) and to the north. The examination of the archaeological context in which many of the specimens considered here have been found shows that the majority of finds may be dated to the first half of the seventh century, including perhaps the last decades of the previous century.