Eagle brooches: 1,500-year-old pins filled with dazzling gems and glass — and worn by powerful Visigoth women

These two eagle-shaped pins were discovered in central Spain and date to the early sixth century, when the Visigoth Kingdom ruled the area. A popular symbol among the Visigoths, the predatory bird represented power — and eagle pins are often found in Visigoth women's graves.

These brooches, currently in the collection of the National Archaeological Museum in Madrid, are made of gold-plated bronze and measure about 4.6 inches (11.8 centimeters) tall. The cells in the eagle outline are inlaid in the cloisonné technique with red and blue-green glass as well as white stones. The eagles' eyes are blue gemstones. On the reverse side, pieces of the pin's spring mechanism and clasp remain.

During the Migration Period in Europe (fourth to eighth centuries), the power of the Roman Empire waned and groups such as the Visigoths (Western Goths) moved west from Central Europe into the Iberian Peninsula. They set up a kingdom based in Toledo, Spain, and art and writing flourished in the Visigoth Kingdom in the sixth and seventh centuries.

A recurring theme in Visigoth art was the eagle — a symbol of the supreme being and embodied power, according to Katharine Reynolds Brown, an art historian at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. And these eagle pins are often found in pairs in women's graves, the authors of the textbook "Art and Architecture of the Middle Ages" (Cornell University Press, 2023) wrote. The pins were likely used to secure women's clothing at the shoulder, according to The Walters Art Museum.

In the mid-seventh century, the Visigoth king ordered the establishment of "the Visigothic Code," a set of laws that was quite progressive for the time. Women were allowed to inherit land and titles and could arrange their own marriages, according to historian Suzanne Fonay Wemple. However, only a handful of names of powerful Visigoth women — largely consorts of Visigoth kings — are known from historical records.

Although the eagle brooches suggest their owner was an influential woman, the lack of rigorous excavations at the Alovera cemetery a century ago means we may never know if they were actually the property of a Visigoth queen.