A contribution to understanding S-shaped clasps

In this article the authors examine ten until-now unknown S-shaped clasps which were found during various earth works at several sites in Croatia and neighbouring countries. Since this is a rare type of artefact - only several dozen are known to exist - more recent discoveries greatly contribute, among other things, to knowledge on their typology and distribution. Little is known about this type of archaeological material. Often precise data on the sites and circumstances of discovery for this group of artefacts is missing, making interpretation difficult. Scholars have dated older artefacts of this type differently, generally attributing them to the period of the Migration Period. The prevailing view in the scholarly literature is that this type of archaeological artefact should be attributed to the Ostrogoths. However, the authors of this article highlight several facts which indicate that S-shaped clasps should be attributed to the Roman provincial heritage of the third and fourth centuries. The portrayal of the serpentine head with gaping mouth and a crest above it is a frequent figural decoration often found on such clasps, and it was not unknown in the Roman world. Moreover, this portrayal of a dragon (draco) was an integral component of a type of battle standard or banner, initially of the Roman cavalry and later of other branches of the military of this ancient superpower. Also, this serpentine head was often used to decorate numerous and widespread buckles which certainly belong to Late Antiquity. Finally, an exceptionally important discovery to date S-shaped clasps was made in a certain lesser known Roman grave discovered in Bosiljevo. Such a clasp was found together with an anchor-shaped fibula, a type that dates the entire grave unit to the early third century at the latest.