10 - Art, Symbolism and the Expression of Group Identities in Early-Medieval Frisia

Summary

EARLY-MEDIEVAL FRISIA, like the axis of a wheel, was situated in between the Frankish, Scandinavian and Anglo-Saxon worlds. ‘Frisian’ works of art reflect this intermediate position, as a fascinating mixture of cultural influences. In this paper, different ways of expressing group identities within the area defined in Lex Frisionum are investigated, in relation to the shape and decoration of metal objects that circulated among its coastal population. These objects include copper-alloy brooches that were exchanged within family groups, prestige goods that were distributed as gifts among members of the regional and local elites, and items with a (pre-)Christian symbolism that could circulate both within family and among elite groups.

Chronologically, this paper starts with the migration of ‘Anglo-Saxons’ in the late fourth and fifth centuries, leading to the replacement and partial re-shuffling of the original, Roman-period population of the Dutch coastal area. The sixth and seventh centuries saw the rise of regional and supra-regional kingdoms in this area, until Frisia had become part of the Frankish realm during the Saxon Wars of Charlemagne (772– 804). In this four-hundred-year time span, the transition can be seen from ‘Frisian’ communities to a Frankish population, from independent kingdoms to a Frankish district, and from non-Christian belief systems to Christianity – all affecting the way ‘Frisians’ felt related to one or more co-resident, political and religio-ideological groups.

Artistic expressions in Early-medieval Frisia

European missionaries who travelled the world from the seventeenth century onwards, to spread the Christian message, came into contact with a tribal world, in which cult houses, statues and other forms of art played a crucial role in the worship of gods and ancestors. As part of their missionary work, indigenous tribal art was destroyed, some of it taken home as collectors’ items (e.g. Corbey 2000). In the coastal areas of Early-medieval Frisia, the first missionaries will have entered a world that was similar in many respects – and, according to historical sources, they even worked in a similar way, by destroying or removing symbols of non-Christian belief (Milis 2005, 156–8). In the footsteps of Pippin of Herstal, Charles Martel and Charlemagne, Willibrord, Boniface and others operated among coastal communities which knew a rich and varied collection of material culture, decorated with a complex set of artistic expressions (see Schön 1999; Brandenburgh 2010; Nicolay 2014).