The Ottema-Kingma Foundation (OKS) recently purchased a very special coat pin, a so-called fibula, and gave it on long-term loan to Museum Dokkum. The fibula was found in the fall of 2015 by amateur historian Wytse Tjepkema. His discovery turned out to be half of a gold-plated silver fibula (coat pin) from the 6th century AD. Coincidentally, his friend Tjeerd Hiemstra had already found a part of a similar coat pin at the same location. When both men merged the pin parts, there was a match, independently of each other they had found two parts of the same fibula.
Research by Prof. J. Nicolay of the University of Groningen confirmed that the two parts belonged to a fibula. In an article about the fibula, he wrote: "The fibula is richly decorated. The reflection of light on its many facets and the contrasting shades of silver and gold must have given this ornament a dramatic appearance – especially indoors, by flickering firelight'.
Foto: Peter Sauermann, imagez