Viking Objects
Cast Lead-Alloy Gaming Piece (DENO-646EE0)
A complete cast lead-alloy early medieval gaming piece. This and similar pieces have also been interpreted as weights although the gaming piece interpretation is more secure. Pieces like this would have been used to play hnefatafl and/or Nine Men’s Morris, both of which are known to have been played in Scandinavia in the Viking Age.
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Viking Objects
Round Lead Weight (PUBLIC-2DDD03)
Weights are an important form of evidence for Viking Age commerce and the use of standards across the different economic systems within which Vikings were integrated. Many of the weights discovered, particularly ones in Ireland and those of Arabic type, suggest that a standardized system of weights existed in some areas. These standard weights, alongside standard values of silver, are what allowed the bullion economy of Viking occupied areas to function. A bullion economy was a barter economy that relied on the exchange of set amounts of precious metal in various forms, such as arm-rings or coins, for tradable goods, such as food or textiles. Each merchant would have brought their own set of weights and scales to a transaction to make sure that the trade was conducted fairly.
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Viking Objects
Incomplete Viking Silver Penny (DENO-7A0AF7)
An incomplete silver early medieval penny of the Vikings influenced by the Swordless St Peter type and possibly minted in the name of Sihtric Caoch who ruled Dublin between 917-920 CE and was King of Northumbria from 921-927 CE. It is not certain why he left Ireland. The Irish annals state that it was ‘through the grace of God’ and do not elaborate on the politics behind his departure. After the establishment of the Danelaw, some Viking leaders decided to mint their own coins to solidify their legitimacy in the eyes of the local populace. This created a hybrid economy where some members of the Danelaw used bullion and others used coins.
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Viking Designs
Drawing of an Equal-Armed Brooch
Drawing of a Viking Age equal-armed brooch based on fragments found at Harworth Bircotes, Nottinghamshire and reconstructed based on parallels from Birka, Sweden. For more information on Scandinavian jewellery in England check out our blog: Brooches, Pendants and Pins: Scandinavian Dress Accessories in England.
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Viking Objects
Northumbrian Styca (LEIC-0D9D6F)
This Northumbrian styca was probably minted in the name of Æthelred II of Northumbria possibly by the moneyer Eanwulf. While Wessex and Mercia were using silver coinage as part of their monetary economy, Northumbria was using copper coins known as stycas, which may have contained trace amounts of silver. The concentration of these coins at sites such as Torksey and ARSNY (‘a riverine site near York’) suggests that they could have remained in circulation after the fall of Northumbria in 866 but were taken to these sites by the Vikings during their campaigning. This particular example was likely brought to Nottinghamshire from Northumbria by means of the Great Army’s overwintering activities in and around Nottingham.
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Viking Objects
Reproduction Rune Inscribed Rib
Runes were used not only for monumental inscriptions, or to mark ownership of valuable objects, but also in more informal contexts. In this case the animal bone suggests an after-dinner pastime after a good meal in the Anglo-Scandinavian trading centre of Lincoln. The runes read ——l × hitir × stin × … Only two words of the Old Norse inscription can be read with certainty, and even so they are ambiguous. One possible interpretation is ‘[someone] is heating a stone’ the other is ‘[someone] is called Stein’. The bone is fragmentary, but the inscription may never have been intended to make much sense. The original object dates from around the tenth century. It is one of only three runic inscriptions from the East Midlands.
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Viking Objects
Stirrup (LCNCC : 1906.9663)
A large iron stirrup of Viking type with a long slender looped form, rectangular terminal, and a flat footrest. It was found in the River Witham near Lincoln. Stirrups like this were an innovation that Scandinavian settlers introduced to Anglo-Saxon England in the eleventh century.
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Viking Objects
Copper-Alloy Finger-Ring (LIN-E42F77)
The ring is formed by a flat band tapering to ends which have been knotted together. The outer face of the band is decorated with a row of punched ring and dot motifs.
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Viking Objects
Arm Ring Hacksilver (CM_1826_2001)
This piece of hacksilver was cut from a square section of a Scandinavian arm ring probably to pay for goods. The Vikings arriving in England had a bullion economy where they paid for goods with silver that was weighed to an amount agreed between the buyer and the seller. Hacksilver and silver ingots are the most common evidence for their bullion economy. It took some time for the Scandinavian settlers to adopt a monetary economy like that of the Anglo-Saxons, and both systems were used simultaneously for a while before they fully adopted the new system. They were familiar with monetary economies but they treated coins as just another form of silver before adoption of a monetary economy.
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Viking Objects
Lozenge Brooch (NLM194)
This openwork Borre-style square brooch with animal heads on each corner was found in Elsham, Lincolnshire, in 1997. This type of brooch was an accessory for women wearing Scandinavian dress. For more information on Scandinavian jewellery in England check out our blog: Brooches, Pendants and Pins: Scandinavian Dress Accessories in England.
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Viking Names
Foremark
Foremark, in the Repton and Gresley Hundred of Derbyshire, is a Scandinavian compound formed from the Old Norse elements forn ‘old’ and verk ‘work’. Thus, ‘old fortification’. The element verk undoubtedly was used in the Danelaw to describe a military or defensive structure; however, the element does not appear to be found in Scandinavian place-names. The place-name corresponds to the Old English place-name type Aldwark ‘old fortification’. One Aldwark is located in the Wirksworth Hundred of Derbyshire, and is situated near The Street, a Roman road, and Portway. Similarly a short distance east of Wall Hill and Foremark are raised earth formations, which perhaps could be the site of the original fortification. Furthermore, Foremark is very close to a known Great Heathen Army winter camp at Repton. Recent work by Dr Catrine Jarman has raised the possibility that Foremark is somehow related to that site, as outlined in a 2019 television programme, Britain’s Viking Graveyard.