The so-called Animal Style I is an art style that was decisive for the production of imagery used by Germanic-speaking communities during the Migration Period. It is the first of three supra-regional styles (classification of style I to III according to Salin 1904) in which predetermined design features defined both the motifs and the actual specific details. They are based on a consensus among all the people who created images, and appear on all kinds of materials, including wood, metal, and ceramics.
Despite the wide variation in detail, all gold bracteates display Style I. Animal Style I was used from around the middle of the 5th century until the first half of the 6th century. Its demise was perhaps caused by the cultural upheavals that followed the climate crisis of 536 (Axboe 1999). It was replaced by Animal Style II (late 6th c. to the end of 7th c.).
Animal style I is characterized by animals and hybrid creatures often crouching in a row. Their heads have a rounded rear end. We can see this detail especially in the quadruped of the C-bracteates. The limbs of the animals are often intertwined, which is displayed by many of the D-bracteates.
- Salin, Bernhard: Die altgermanische Thierornamentik. Typologische Studie über germanische Metallgegenstände aus dem IV-IX Jahrhundert, nebst einer Studie über irische Ornamentik [²1935, Stockholm: Wahlström & Widstrand; ³1981 Leipzig]. Stockholm 1904;
- Axboe, Morten: The Year 536 and the Scandinavian Gold Hoards. In: Medieval Archaeology XLIII, 1999, 186-188.