In the predominantly non-literate culture of migration period Germania gold bracteates were an authentic statement of the identity of those who wore them and of how they saw the world. Their standardised programme of designs demonstrates that they were all produced according to strict, common rules governing motifs and style. The fact that the designs were diffused by a process of copying allows us to reconstruct a network of interrelations between central places, so that bracteates are one of the primary sources for research into early medieval Germanic society.

Alexandra Pesch, Westfälisches Museum für Archäologie, Landschaftsverband Westfalen-Lippe, Münster.