Continuing on the topic of rosettes (see here and here and here for earlier iterations, including a version with the God Esus). Here are some late antiquity rosettes (in the Bavarian artifact alongside alternating swastikas whatever their meaning may have been back then).
Kemathen (Kipferberg) Warrior
(Krieger aus Kemathen)
Germany (Bavaria)
early to mid 5th century?
This has been classified as the “first Bavarian”. Strictly as a matter of looking at a where this warrior died, I suppose that’s true.
Note that Kemathen pops up all over south German geography. You have:
- Kemathen (Kipferberg)
- Kematen Bad Feilnbach
- Kemathen (Arnstorf)
- Kematen an der Ybbs (Austria)
- Kematen in Tirol (Austria)
- Kematen an der Krems (Austria)
- Kematen am Innbach (Austria)
The etymology of this is unclear but (perhaps like the Polish kmieć, kmiotek, kmiotówna, kmiotowic, kmiotaszek, kmiecy that Brueckner brings up) it comes from the Latin comites or, maybe, the Latin comites has the root as these words (compare with »kmetones regni« cited by Brueckner) – basically, a wealthy villager – originally, perhaps, meaning a war companion (who then settled down).
Zamość
Poland
first half of the fifth century?
This pic and the next one come from the “Barbarian Tsunami” presentation which, while fancifully named, fails to prove that any such tsunami actually took place in north central Europe.
Zagórzyn
Poland
second quarter of the fifth century?
Note that the non-highlighted cross (Sun symbol?) on the left side is the same as is shown (there highlighted in yellow) in the Kemathen picture.
Similar rosettes have been seen in a number of places around the world.
Interestingly, for the above also as part of the so-called Vermand treasure (which also included Stars/Shields of David, symbols that, quite interestingly, were adopted rather late as a symbol of Judaism). These had been interpreted as Sarmatian (for more on that you can check out Deborah Schorsch’s “The Vermand Treasure: A Testimony to the Presence of the Sarmatians in the Western Roman Empire”). But Vermand had been sacked in 406 by the “Vandals, Suevi and Alans” so the question is of the dating of that treasure.
As a follow up, here is another – this time eight-pedaled – rosette from a belt buckle – now in Cracow (likely from Mokra, Silesia):
And here are some other examples (can’t recall from which article) from Cecele, Siemiatycze (“Wielbark”), Mokra again (“Przeworsk”) and Tiszaladány, Hungary:
Note that the combination of the eight- or six-pedaled rosette with the swastika has a long history as well with examples from Mycenaean, Greek (for example, on the Dipylon krater in the National Archeological Museum in Athens; simpler solar symbols along with swastikas can be seen on a chariot artifact from Dupljaj or Duplaj in Serbia) and Armenian cultures. Finally, note this piece from the useful nutjobs at Ahenenerbe.
This is supposedly “Westgothic”, which may actually be true given that the rosette ended up being highly popular in Visigothic Spain.
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