At an excavation in Altencelle, close to Celle (Lower Saxony, in Germany), a star-shaped brooch was found in the hearth area of a small house. Brooches of this type are rare findings, but a few have been described in literature. Usually, they are compared with the brooch of the "Synagoge" sculpture of Bamberg cathedral, and dated with reference of this sculpture , that was made around 1236. As a late form of a fibula, they served to close underwear. In contrast to early medieval fibulas, the needle does not sit on the backside of its frame, but on the front.
In the High Middle Ages, such a star-shaped brooch was called "Fürspan", and it was also used as a part of the coat of arms of the "Fürspänger" society, a confederation of franconian knights. In this context, the brooch war regarded as the buckle of the belt of Saint Mary. Apart from a few finds of undecorated brooches in northern central Europe, the main distribution of more elaborate exampels seems to be concentrated in the Carpathian Basin and in the southern Baltic.