A shield boss in gilded bronze from Nocera Umbra: the complexity of the study of a unicum

How many artifacts do we prefer to forget because of the many questions which arise in relation to production, dating and origin? This study aims to draw attention on the shield boss in gilded bronze found in the Tomb 1 of the Nocera Umbra's necropolis. This burial is one of the most rich of the early medieval cemetery. It enumerates among the funeral goods a shield boss which is characterized by a central frieze with battle scenes realized with an openwork decoration. To date similar shield bosses have not been yet discovered neither in Italy nor outside. So despite its uniqueness in the archeology field and in the art historical one, it has been for many years forgotten. The impossibility to compare the Nocera Umbra's shield boss with similar ones does not allow to add it accurately within time-space coordinates. A significant help comes only from an iconographic and stylistic research. Indeed the shield boss may be connected to the artistic production of the Late Antiquity period and of the Early Byzantine one only comparing it with artifacts belonging to other categories as well as capitals, silver plates, buckles. The depth study of this object emphasizes therefore the complexity of rebuilding the circumstances and the productive context also of valuable artifacts particularly if we limit ourselves to just one field of study. A multidisciplinary approach that makes dialoguing archeology and art history becomes more and more significant in the construction of the Late Antique and Early Byzantine world.