Late Roman period gold foil pendants stamped with anthropomorphic and zoomorphic ornaments from the Barbaricum

The article discusses gold-foil pendants stamped with anthropomorphic or zoomorphic motifs. The first recorded specimens were found around 1850 in Romanovka (ukr. Романівка) and in 1865 in Scandinavia (Brangstrup). Several more came to light more recently, in the Almalyk-dere cemetery in Crimea. The “metal detector age” has now increased the pool of these finds to sixty-four. We propose to separate them into four groups, based on similarities of form and iconographic motif, and assign the forms to the chronological phases C2–C3 (possibly D1). Gold-foil pendants are important evidence of the existence of close ties between Scandinavia and south-eastern Europe during the Late Roman period. It is possible that, in Scandinavia, these pendants inspired later forms such as the gold-foil figures.