What is a fibula? Fibula - a forgotten fastener What is a fibula

From ancient times and up to the Middle Ages, the fibula clasp was practically the only type of clasp. It is very simple and consists of staples and needles. In those brooches that have survived to this day, we see the traditional shape for that time: rectangular or round.

The fibula could be decorated with enamel, engraving or precious stones. It was used by both men and women. Most often, cloaks were fastened with it, which resembled capes in the form of a bedspread.

The new time turned the fibula at first into a brooch used as a clasp that fastened collars, scarves and raincoats. Gradually, the fibula disappeared, but the brooch remained. And it turned into a decoration.

The simplest fibula consists of two parts: the body and the needle. The case had the shape of a rim, often open, the so-called horseshoe-shaped fibula. These brooches were the most popular. The needle and body were decorated according to the status of their owner. Precious stones and metals, as well as engraving, could be used as decor.

During archaeological excavations, various types of these fasteners were found. Today they can be seen in the museum. They are named depending on their belonging to one or another people: Greek, Hungarian, Roman, Byzantine, Scandinavian and others.

In addition, brooches were often used not only as a fastener or decoration, they were often used as a talisman against damage and the effects of evil spirits. And when the safety pin was invented, the protection function also passed to it.

Today, the fibula can also be purchased in special departments that sell antiques. You can also order its production to a master who knows how to make various symbols and artifacts. You yourself can make this clasp with your own hands. However, the easiest option is to find it on ebay, where they often offer to purchase both ancient and modern fibula clasps.

Today we know a lot of varieties of fasteners, but the fibula was and remains the first.

Did you see an error? Select it and press Ctrl+Enter

When using and reprinting the material, an active link to the site about fashion "site" is required!

Nowadays, there are many accessories used as fasteners, but the fibula was the very first. This item was the only type of fastener in the period from ancient times to the early Middle Ages.

What is a fibula?

Do you know, a fibula is a fastener for clothes made of metal, which was used in the Iron and Bronze Ages. The item consisted of several parts, the upper one was sometimes decorated. A little later, the fibula began to be used not only as a fastener, but also as an ornament; in the Baltic States, this trend has been preserved to this day.

Components of a fibula

The clasp has changed over time, but the most common object consists of the following parts:

• Needle for fastening clothes.
• Needle holder. This is a groove or a narrow holder into which the end of the needle enters. The needle holder is needed to hold the needle in one position and protect the fingers from being pricked.
• The body or shackle of a fibula.
• Spring for connecting the needle with the shackle.

During the prehistoric period, the fibula has undergone numerous changes. Each era left its mark - the bow changed, the object began to serve as an ornament. The mechanism of action of the spring and the needle holder changed, on the functioning of which the suitability of the fastener and so on depended.

So, fibula - what is it? The simplest fastener consisted of a staple and a needle. In the object that has survived to this day, the original shape is clearly visible - a square or a circle. After the product began to be used also as a decoration, they began to paint it with enamel, apply drawings and expensive stones. Worn by both men and women. The fibula was needed to fasten clothes, most often a cloak. In ancient times, they were served with a cape like a bedspread, the ends of which needed to be fastened together.

Later, the fibula was transformed into a kind of brooch-pin, with which the ends of the scarf and collars were stabbed. Over time, the mount disappeared, and the brooch remained as a piece of jewelry that women still wear today.

The next fibula design consists of a body and a needle. The case was made in the form of an open rim (horseshoe shape), just these brooches became more common. The owner of the jewelry, depending on the status, decorated the rim and the needle holder with expensive stones, metals or patterns.

Types of fasteners

Among the museum exhibits obtained by archaeologists, there are different types of brooches. All these ancient fasteners have their own names, given depending on what time and people they belonged to. The following brooches are known:

• Greek and Roman.
• Hungarian and Scandinavian.
• Byzantine and others.

For some peoples, brooches were not only clasps for clothes and decorations, but were also used as amulets against evil spirits and damage. After the appearance of the French brooch-pin, the protective function was transferred to it.

In Hungary, brooches were originally made exclusively from wire. The mechanism of the product was as follows - one of the ends of the bow, having made a small spiral turn, passed into a needle, and the second end, which was also twisted in a spiral, was its holder.

Scandinavian brooches most likely originated from Hungarian ones, their difference was as follows - the needle and bow were not a single whole, the elements were placed on top of each other.

The Greek metal fastener for clothes consisted mainly of a pair or four spiral circles connected to each other. The needle came out of one spiral and was fixed on another. The spiral shape of the needle holder testifies to the inseparable connection between Greek and Scandinavian and Hungarian jewelry. In addition, similar clothing accessories were found during excavations in southern Italy and certain areas of Central Europe, where they most likely came from Greece.

Italian brooches are the most diverse in terms of the mechanism of action and the shape of the base. In ancient Italian brooches, the structure of the needle holder practically does not differ from the Scandinavian and Hungarian ones, that is, it is formed due to several turns of the spiral. But in the future, a modification can be traced - the spiral-shaped needle holder is replaced first by a flat plate of a round shape, and after a while a plate with wrapped edges appears, forming a groove ending with a button.

Forms of Italian brooches

They were found in several forms (we are talking about the shape of the bow):

• Arcuate (semicircle shape). This is the oldest type of fibula. The bow can be of the same thickness, with a seal in some areas, smooth or with stripes in different directions, decorated with beads, and so on.
• Scaphoid - arched, thickened in the middle of a hollow arch. The needle holder in this model can be long or short.
• The Wrigglers are the most heterogeneous group. Samples are very different - with a bizarrely curved bow, with a long groove as a needle holder, with a button at the end of the groove (found on the latest brooches), and so on.

Chertroz brooches

It is customary to call Chertroz samples with an elongated bow shape, which smoothly flows into a grooved needle holder with a button and an end wrapped up. Such fasteners were found in large numbers during the excavation of the Certrosa burial ground among other gizmos of Italian decoration.

Hallstatt brooches

In the burial ground of Hallstatt, among various Italic forms of brooches, some samples were found that are characteristic of this particular area. Of great interest are the clasps of spectacle-shaped and crossbow-shaped. The first type consists of a pair of spiral circles connected to each other, this form resembles Hungarian, Scandinavian and Greek brooches. Since they were excavated in Hallstatt, they received the appropriate designation - the Hallstatt type.

A distinctive feature of crossbow-shaped brooches is that the spiral is a set of spiral turns located perpendicular to the shackle. In separate crossbow-like clasps, the end of the needle holder is decorated with a miniature of the head of an animal or a person, bent back or directed upwards.

Purpose of brooches

The answer to the question of whether a fibula - what is it, you already know. What is its purpose? The ancient Greek female population pinned brooches on both upper and lower clothing, the male sex used the product only on outer clothing. Most often, men's cloaks were fixed with a fibula on the right shoulder, less often on the chest. Women pinned clasps on two shoulders.

The description of the fibula is found in the work “Odysseus”: “The pious Odysseus was dressed in a purple double woolen cloak; a gold clasp with paired pipes was attached to it; on the outer side of the fastener, a skilled craftsman depicted a dog holding a motley doe in its front paws, reveling in its trembling; and everyone was amazed at the liveliness with which the golden figures were drawn - how one strangled his victim, and the other, trying to escape, resisted with her feet.

Some women fastened the tunic floors with many fasteners. A little later, they began to pin the hem a little above the knee, thus a kind of fold was obtained, giving the clothes a special look. As a buckle, the fibula was used mainly on belts and dressings.

Interesting! In ancient Greece and Rome, it was also customary to call a fibula a special clip for the foreskin. for clothes were used in order to comply with the norms of decency when a naked man appeared, for example, an athlete or a gladiator.

Where can you buy a fibula today?

Fibula - what is it, we found out. Where can you buy it? To date, the production of brooches is carried out in Estonia. There is an association "Uku", traditional brooches in the assortment of artistic products of which occupy a special place. You can find a variety of fasteners there: flat, square, cone-shaped, horseshoe-shaped and others. Chased samples are decorated with a geometric pattern, while cone-shaped ones are decorated with a floral pattern. As decoration of some brooches, “eyes” made of colored stones are used.

Those who cannot buy a fibula in Estonia are advised to pay attention to the range of thematic departments that sell antiques, or simply order a metal decoration from a craftsman specializing in the manufacture of symbolic objects.

Few people now know the fibula, except perhaps for specialists and history buffs, and even people who are fond of the reconstruction of different historical eras. Meanwhile, this clasp has been forgotten completely in vain, we still do not understand the logic according to which sometimes in the people's memory the good is replaced by the worst. The safety pin, for example, is still widely used and known to everyone since childhood. But she has a lot of shortcomings: whoever used her knows how insidiously she can unfasten at the most inopportune moment from careless accidental pressure or how the tissues chipped by her can tear with a little stronger tension ... And the fibula is devoid of these inconveniences due to its ingenious simplicity of its design. And besides, the fibula is a wonderful decoration.

Look carefully at the pictures. The fibula consists of a needle and an open ring with protruding ends that hold the needle. On most brooches, the needle is fixed on the ring, but there are also separate ones, although they are less convenient, because. the needle may be lost. Fastening the fibula is very simple: cut off the fabric with a needle, pass the needle from the bottom up into the hole in the ring and put it behind one of the ends of the fibula. Now evaluate what happened. The needle holds the fabrics in a vertical plane, just like a safety pin holds. But in the fibula there is also a ring that secures the entire clasp also in the horizontal plane, not allowing tissues to move anywhere(as opposed to pins). The second plus is fibula cannot unfasten, because (unlike a safety pin), the hole of the ring after fastening is inaccessible to the needle, which is firmly held by the protrusions - the ends, and in order to open this design, force is required, so this cannot be done by accident. So zip up and be calm - and the clasp will not unfasten, and the fabric will remain intact.

Now the fibula, unfortunately, cannot be bought in ordinary stores. But, in the words of a famous song - whoever seeks will always find, and You can still buy this comfortable and beautiful clasp. It is sold in those shops and souvenir shops that sell jewelry made according to historical patterns. Try to appreciate it, you will definitely like it.

I heard about the fibula, but did not know how it fastens. When I ordered a Russian shirt for a long time, they just advised me to fasten it with a fibula, but then I never found it, it wasn’t on the Internet yet (it was several years ago). Now I think that you can even find it on the Internet.
And the pins are really terribly uncomfortable!! Even safe ones that are supposedly for children - have repeatedly seen how they unfasten.
Thank you, I'll try to look, the thing is very useful, sometimes you really need to fasten something safely, now it's clear what.

And what are they usually made of - brass? Or copper?.. Is there a difference?..

This fibula is made of bronze (an alloy of copper, tin and other metals, without zinc), this is an old alloy, now it can also be made of brass, but we like bronze more. Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc basically. Bronze is a harder alloy.

Modern alloys, they say, yes, are very different from the old ones. And silver is recommended to choose the old - they say the modern is worse. True or not, I don’t know, but in general, for some reason, it’s completely believed ...

old - in the sense of a long time known :) but in general, bronze is modern. We don’t know if it’s true that old alloys are better, depending on which ones and where, because there were a lot of fakes at all times, and just careless work, it’s just that history remembers the good, and any rubbish is not preserved ... And various old jewelry and utensils that have come down to us, and in those days were expensive, and therefore of higher quality ... Although the old silver was cleaner. Many secrets have been lost, but many new ones have been discovered ... Now there are still a lot of fakes ... Pure silver is easy to check - the purer it is, the better it writes on paper, and the more impurities, the harder it is and, accordingly, the smaller the trace, but on the other hand, clean (soft) wears out faster ... The question is interesting and difficult.

I didn’t know about silver that you need to check like that. Interesting..
Here, perhaps, as lucky. What thing will get. In general, it may not even matter so much.
And here's another way - then the hands smell strongly from the metal, is it from any alloy or not from copper? ..

They smell probably from the fact that the metal interacts with skin secretions. And bronze, and brass, and copper - they all oxidize easily. Only gold, silver, platinum, etc. do not change, and also stainless steel :) But the fibula does not come into contact with the body, I fastened it and that's it, the contact is short, this should not interfere.

That's what I thought, in general, of course, nothing terrible. And the worst and most unpleasant smell of money - coins. :-)

This is the fibula my husband made for me for a soft toy :)

And here is another fibula, for the Snow Maiden, it is even smaller - 7mm in diameter :)

Small - but like real big ones. :-) Is it made of procrastination?..

From ancient times to the early Middle Ages, the fibula was almost the only type of clasp. The simplest - it consisted of a needle and a bracket. In the brooches that have survived to our time, you can see the traditional shape of that time - a circle or a rectangle.

The fibula was decorated with engraving and precious stones. They were used by both women and men. She fastened clothes, more often they were raincoats, or, more simply, capes in the form of bedspreads.

In modern times, the fibula first turned into a brooch, which was used as a fastener that fastened kerchiefs, collars, cloaks, and then the fibula gradually disappeared, and the brooch began to serve as an ornament.

The simplest fibula consists of two parts: a needle and a body. The body was made in the form of a rim, which was often open (horseshoe-shaped fibula). It was these brooches that were most popular. Depending on the status of the owner, the rim and holder of the needle were decorated, using precious metals, engraving and even precious stones.

Thanks to archaeological excavations among the museum exhibits, you can see various types of ancient fasteners. All of them have names depending on their belonging to one or another people: Greek and, Hungarian and Scandinavian, Byzantine, etc.

Brooches were not only clasps and decorations, they were used as amulets against evil spirits and damage. When the safety pin appeared, the protection function was transferred to it.

Where can I find and buy a fibula? Most often, this ancient item is sold in thematic departments that sell antiquities, or you can order a craftsman who makes various symbolic items. You can make a fibula with your own hands, but the easiest way to find it is on ebay, they offer modern and ancient fibula fasteners.

In our 21st century, many fasteners are known, but the fibula was the first.

A fibula is a metal clasp on a garment.

How often, while searching for artifacts with a metal detector, do you dig up an object whose purpose you do not know? I often twist an unknown zagugulin in my hands over a hole and think what it could be and how it was used. But, it’s permissible for me, because I am “” and in the finds in the old days for me there is a lot more that is new and unexplored.

How do you identify an unknown find? Personally, I use 3 options:

1. Ask a more experienced comrade.
2. Try to ask the right question Google.
3. Ask on the forum, after creating the appropriate topic in the appropriate section.

In identifying the find, I use all three methods in the order in which I wrote above. In 99% of cases, the belonging and even the approximate value of the found item can be determined. But that 1%, about which no one and nothing knows, I simply call: crap. With "crap" I do this: I throw it into scrap metal or put it in an appropriate box.

Silver fibula.

When I go up to a comrade on the field with an obvious find and ask him “what is this?”, He examines the object in his hands, looks into my eyes and says: “read the history ...”. Gives my find and leaves to continue searching for artifacts. I already know - if he does that, then I just picked up a really rare item. Having made not a big exposure, I again approach him with the same question. He is already kinder and tells the ownership of my subject.

An hour before I dug mine, a two-plate silver fibula flew under mine for the first time.

Since I saw this item for the first time, at first I thought that I had dug out a modern hairpin. And when the comrade took my fresh find in his hands, he gave it back in a few seconds with the words “read the history ...”. Of course, he later explained that this was a fibula made of silver and the plates were very thin - they break easily.

At home, he tried to determine the age of the fibula - IV - V centuries AD. e.

Now you, my reader, know what a two-plate fibula from the time of the Chernyakhov culture looks like. By the way, these brooches are mostly made of bronze, but sometimes they are also made of silver (as in my case). So be careful not to unknowingly confuse a rare artifact with a modern hairpin.

The structure of the fibula.

Any part of the fibula can be caught on a cop. Therefore, we definitely need to know its structure in order to easily identify our find, and at the same time show off our knowledge in front of comrades.

And so: ancient brooches consist of 5 parts: back, leg, receiver, spring and needle. Schematically, it looks like this:

Back- fibula body.

Leg- the back of the case, on which the receiver is located.

Receiver, fixes the needle and covers its sharp edge.

Spring, Designed for a tighter fit.

Needle, fastens parts of clothing.

It is important for us seekers to know what these components of ancient hairpins look like, so that after digging them out, it is easy to determine the find's belonging. Brooches rarely come across intact (never for me), but its constituent elements are a frequent occurrence under the coil of many metal detectors.

Consider real examples of dug parts of brooches.

Backs. No legs or springs.

back (clickable)

Leg and receiver. These parts are usually found together.

leg and receiver (clickable)

Needle and spring. Often the needle and spring are made from the same piece of wire, so the two pieces are found together. If the body, spring and needle are made from one piece of metal, then this is a single-membered fibula, but if from two (the body is from one piece, and the spring and needle are from another), then it is two-membered.

needle and spring \from two-member brooches\ (clickable)

Back and leg. This is the most common finding by metal detectorists. Different in shape, type of manufacture, applied pattern and size - the body of the fibula will tell a lot to specialists. But for us diggers, it’s enough that this is part of an ancient object, which can be from two decades to hundreds of years old.

back and leg \ body \ (clickable)

Cases of brooches with remnants of springs come across less often.

case with spring (clickable)

General information about brooches.

Ancient brooches were mostly made by forging, much less often by smelting.

The metal that was used in the manufacture of the old fastener: iron, copper, bronze, silver, gold. Most often, with a metal detector we find bronze brooches, less often silver ones, but gold ones, this is a rarity.

brooches from different metals: iron, bronze, silver, gold (clickable)

Based on the difference in the main features, brooches are divided into large groups: brooches of the Early La Tène, Middle La Tène and Late La Tène schemes, single-member "military" brooches, provincial hinged brooches and brooches, various brooches with a smooth bow and a decorated receiver (decorated with a button or a curl), bow, strongly profiled , garter (beam and bent), two-member "military", two-member with a very high receiver, t-shaped and two-plate.

Since I am a simple digger, I cannot describe the various groups of brooches - I do not have such knowledge. It is enough for me that I can identify my find as a "fibula", and then, already looking at its condition, decide what to do with it - sell it or keep it.

You can find ancient brooches on the territory of the modern one mainly from the following cultures: Zarubinets (ZK) 3rd century BC. e. - 2nd century AD e.; Chernyakhovskaya (ChK) 2nd century AD e. - 4th century AD e.; Kievan (kk) 2nd century AD e. - 5th century AD e.; Penkovskaya (pc) 6th century AD e. - 8th century AD e. Of course, brooches belonging to a particular culture differ from each other, respectively, you can approximately find out the age of the find.

I found a small video on YouTube, which shows the process of making single-membered ancient brooches by forging. For those who are interested, take a look:

If someone, reading my opus of ancient fasteners for clothes and looking at their photographs, asked himself the question: “what does a modern fibula look like?”, then by clicking on this one, he will see it.

Ancient brooches are very beautiful and unique objects of their kind. Therefore, I have collected some specimens that are often found on the detecting in the gallery below.