[gothic-l] Amali insignia

[keth at ONLINE.NO]

Matþaius wrote: 

>on 8/3/01 12:27 AM, Beril Haggman at mvk575b at tninet.se wrote:
>
>Athalaric and Amalaswintha
>
>Seen reference that on coins they carried pilos (don't
>know what pilos is?) as head ornament. Also a collar
>cloak has been mentioned and in the case of
>Amalaswintha a tiara.
>
>
>Liddell and Scott say for Pilos from classical Greek sources:
>
>I wool or hair made into felt, used as a lining for helmets; for shoes. II
>anything made of felt, a felt skullcap like the modern fez. 2 a felt cloth.
>3 a felt cuirass.

Could it be something like a Phrygian cap?

I also have a picture of Amalaswinthas head, which is a bust
made of smooth stone. She wears an ornament in her hair that
looks like a chain and in the front there is something that looks
like a little medallion with 3 little hangers attached too it.
I also have a photo of a colden medallion that show Theoderic
en face. "rex theodericv     spivsprincis" the Latin text says.
He wears Roman attire and holds up in his left hand somthing that
looks like an apple, and on top of the apple is a little angel(?)
holding what lookes like a plume and a diadem. The plume could
be a quill for writing, and the diadem looks a bit like a Greek
omega. Maybe these are the royal insignia that you were looking
for? Apart from that there isn't much concrete symbolism, except
for a kind of abstract art that seems to make a point of displaying
not symbols, but rather ornaments. What I do see, however, is
Theoderic's monogram on top of some capitels. (stone pillars)
By ornamental I mean flowers and wavy bands and things like that.

What you do find are the various bird forms, but they wouldn't
be vultures, I don't think, because there are no such birds
in Northern Europe, though there might be some in Iran (?)
Then there are the many belt clasps and fibulae. But here
to the decorative patterns are remarkably abstract. Definitely
not symbolic in the sense of the later heraldic symbolism.
Perhaps these were 12th century artists who represented
Theoderic in the style of the artist's own century, which caused
him to look like a 12th century knight with shield and lance?
In that case heraldic symbols may have been added to the shield
by the artist. But such symbols probably only represented
the artist idea of what kind of "coat of arms" the legendary
king might have used. I do see a star on one medallian from Spain,
but from the context (Maria with Child) it is clear that it is
the Star of Bethlehem. I do not recall seeing many stars in
Germanic ornament/symbolism. Usually what you see, if you look
closely, are sometimes serpents, one-headed and two-headed ones.
Or other animals. Also many small concentric circles often
stamped on combs and ornaments such as belt buckles. Does any
one know what they might have signified? Crescents I have seen
as ornament/symbols in some cases, but not often. Crescent with
star sounds like the Turkish flag to me.

Best regards
Keth



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