Selection of jewellery and weapons from the Treasure of Childeric (gold and garnet) (see also...

Childeric I (426-491) King of the Salian Franks; the treasure was found in 1653 in Childeric's tomb at Tournai. Belgium and given in 1665 to King Louis XIV of France, who placed the objects in his Cabinet de médailles, today in the Bibliothèque nationale de France; stolen in 1831, some of the treasure was recovered from the river Seine; objects shown in the photo include (L to R top row); head of a lance (framée), crystal globe, axe head (francisque); (middle row): fragments of a scramasax (sword; (lower rows); bees, buckle and ring; the bees probably were used as decoration for horse harness and later they caught the attention of Emperor Napoleon I who adopted the bee as a symbolic emblem linking the new Bonaparte dynasty with the origins of France and the Merovingian dynasty.