Merovingian silver necklace, 5th century [d/b]

“The collar allegedly found in Aalen is made of gilded silver with garnet inlays. It probably comes from a woman’s grave from the late 5th century. The pair of bow brooches from Schwarzrheindorf near Bonn, also silver-gilt and decorated with garnet, belonged to the jewelry of a Frankish woman in the first half of the 6th century. Both document the silver wealth of the leading classes in the early Merovingian period.”

The inside of the necklace – and therefore not visible to the viewer – contains a rune epigraphic text. [https://www.facebook.com/ArchaeologischesMuseumFFM]

” noru on a neckring found near or in Aalen (ca. 500) renders a woman’s byname Nōru ‘the little one’. Final -u is best interpreted as nominative sg. of an ō-stem; it thus reflects the intermediate stage between PGmc. *-ō and Pre-OHG -Ø in later 6th century inscriptions” [https://benjamins.com/catalog/nowele.00035.ned]

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