The Gold Bracteates of the Migration Period are among the most intriguing finds of all Germanic history. Leaving behind the largely non-pictorial Pre-Roman and Roman Iron Age, the number and quality of figural images exploded rapidly with the beginning of the Migration Period thanks in large part to the Gold Bracteates.
This wind of change had a very obvious origin: it came from the South, from the Roman Empire, the largest and longest-lasting superpower in the history of Europe.