MEROVINGIAN OR VISIGOTHIC BRONZE RING DECORATED WITH STYLISED ANGEL

Ca. AD 400 - 800. A Merovingian or Visigothic bronze ring. It has a round band decorated with a central ridge and bezel decorated with stylised angel. The Merovingians were a population that lived between present-day France and Germany. Of uncertain origin, they were protagonists of the barbarian invasions in the last part of the Western Roman Empire. The first great King Clovis I reigned virtually unchallenged over a world now without rules or civilisation. This dynasty came to power at one of those many moments in history when no one ruled, so it was easy for them to seize territories and resources. But their weak and unfit character for reigning meant that their own chancellors, the Franks, soon overruled them and created their own dynasty on these lands. The Merovingian dynasty, like almost all Steppe populations, had a predilection for gold and jewellery, which they made mainly by imitating Roman and Byzantine jewellery. For similar see: El Legado de Hefesto n. 598. Size: D:19.56mm / US: 9 3/4 / UK: T; Weight: 6g Provenance: Private UK collection; From an old British collection formed in the 1990s.