The so-called Animal Style I is an art style that was decisive for the production of all imagery that Germanic-speaking communities used during the Migration Period. It is the first of several 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 detail criteria. 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. This style 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 four-legged animals of the C-bracteates. The limbs of the animals are often intertwined, which is displayed in 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.