Antique jewelry glossary

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Tortoise brooch

A type of brooch that is oval and convex, in the form of the carapace of a tortoise, with characteristic markings. Such brooches were made of bronze, sometimes gilded, during the 9th/10th centuries. They are examples of Viking jewelry, and have been discovered on female remains in burials in Sweden, Scotland, and France, worn as pairs on the bodies of the deceased.

From: An Illustrated Dictionary of Jewelry, autor: Harold Newman, publishers: Thames and Hudson