Art of prehistory and early history: Germanic art- guldgubbe

Guldgubbe or guld gubbar, Swedish for "gold men", were named so named by the farmers who always found the small gold sheet metal work in the dunes of the Scandinavian province. The first antiquity researcher, who dealt with the very favorite little gold figures in 1791, took over the name of the farmers, it was also more difficult:

The "oldest Toreuten Northern Europe" in the 6th century AD only created one to two centimeters tall figures made of gold sheet metal, which in admirable fine work and detailed variety of people represent people in a wide variety of ornates and animals.

Toreutics is the art of the sublime or deepened representation on wood, stone, metal (later only used for image foundry art). The Germanic gold artists created such sublime and deepened representations, as "avant -garde art" or with a new material.

That we still refer to the name that they gave the special substance at the time: "Gold" is derived from the Indo -European Ghel = "Glossy, yellow". Overall, the Scandinavian farmers were not very early with the gold discovery and processing, the oldest gold artifacts of humanity (burial ground of Warna) known to us, were between 4600–4300 BC. Chr.

However, the small gold sheet metal figures attracted special attention by working with a precision that had not been known until then. Better than any description, this illustrates a representation of some finds from the most famous and extensive location "variety Muld":

The purpose of the gold men, which was found primarily in the environment of the centers at the time, is not yet very clear (especially because you are not sure whether the places became rich through trade or because of their reputation). Probably both, and the guldgubber were certainly not (particularly pretty) coins because the gold sheet is far too thin.

Often the tablets are so tender that you can hardly touch them without damage, the tiny detailed motifs are hardly recognizable with the naked eye - these works of art were certainly not intended to be "carried around in their pocket in everyday life".

Perhaps it was god image amulets for the house altar (the delicate beauties could not be worn around the neck), maybe they had a function in any cult acts, maybe they also represent a kind of early court files because mostly people and human pairs and sometimes slaughter animals can be seen