These beautiful gold and garnet bees represent the last remaining bees found in the grave of the Merovingian King Childeric, father of Clovis, the first king of the Franks.
The grave of Childeric at Tournai is the richest of the Merovingian period, which lasted from about CE 450 to 751. Among the many finds in this grave, including the bodies of more than 20 sacrificial horses (Childeric’s own steed among them) and a ring inscribed CHILDERICI REGIS, which identified the grave as “King Childeric’s,” more than 300 gold and garnet bees were found, believed to have been woven into a cloak that Childeric wore to his grave, and pictured above. Today only two remain, as the others were all “lost” over time (for more information about the loss of the majority of Childeric’s grave objects see this thehistoryblog.com article or pick up Peter Wells book Barbarians to Angels). These are the bees that inspired Napoleon Bonaparte to sew hundreds of small golden bees into his coronation mantle because he saw Childeric as the founder of the French empire.
What are these objects? Are they really bees, as has been suggested, or flies, or something else entirely? Were they religious or personal symbols? Why was Childeric, the first major king of post-Roman Europe, buried with a cape made of these strange insect like forms?
Sight+Signs 