Viking Objects
Reproduction Brooch with Backwards-Facing Beast
A reproduction of a copper alloy disc brooch featuring a backwards-facing beast motif. This style of brooch would have been an everyday item rather than a high status one. 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
Reproduction Shears
Shears were a common agricultural implement generally used to cut the wool off sheep but could also have been used as scissors in textile production. These are based on a number of originals uncovered during the excavations at Flixborough, Lincolnshire.
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Viking Objects
Reproduction Belt
A vegetable-tanned leather belt with a decorated copper alloy belt buckle. The buckle has a ring and dot pattern and is based on one found in Grave 511 at Repton, Derbyshire.
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Viking Objects
Reproduction Trefoil Mount
A reproduction of copper alloy and gilded Carolingian mount with niello inlay found in Leicestershire. The mount has holes drilled through it for affixing to a surface, possibly a book, or perhaps to repurpose it as a pendant. These would have most likely been brought over by Vikings who had raided or traded on the European continent.
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Viking Objects
Reproduction Crucifix Pendant
Crucifixes like this one would have been worn to display one’s faith and may have been a way for newly converted Scandinavians to be more accepted in society. By the late tenth to early eleventh centuries, assimilation would have seen many Scandinavians, both elites and common people, converted to Christianity and adopting Anglo-Saxon ways.
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Viking Objects
Reproduction Runic Plaque
The original of which this is a pewter reproduction is a folded lead plaque of a type that became very popular in Scandinavia from the late eleventh century. The runes are of the Viking Age Scandinavian type, though there appears to be one occurrence of the distinctively Anglo-Saxon ‘wynn’-rune. It is not possible to make any sense of the text, and it is possible that the writer never intended to do so. The parallels from Scandinavia include lead sheets (often folded), crosses and amulets. The runic inscriptions on these objects are often combinations of incantatory or biblical Latin, or charm language or just gibberish. The abbey of Holme St Benet is on the edge of an area in East Anglia which place-names indicate was subject to extensive Scandinavian influence.
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Viking Objects
Reproduction Shield
A reproduction shield based on examples from Gokstad and Trelleborg. The face is covered with linen, based on traces of linen found on the reverse of a shield boss at Cumwhitton, Cumbria. The rim was covered in wet, stretched rawhide which was allowed to shrink and dry in place. The iron, carinated boss is a type that is common on Viking Age sites in England and Scandinavia
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Viking Objects
Reproduction Iron Padlock
Complex metal locks such as this one would have been expensive to manufacture and thus were, generally, used to protect one’s most valuable possessions.