In the autumn, members of Nordjysk Detektorforening found a number of silver coins in a field at Bramslev northeast of Hobro - approx. eight kilometers from the Viking castle Fyrkat. The coins turned came from two Viking treasures buried a few meters apart. The treasures can, on the basis of coins minted under Harald Blåtand (Bluetooth), be dated to the 980s - the same period when he built the Fyrkat fort, not far away.
The two treasures were found in the same field, less than 50 meters apart, and they both contain a large number of small silver coins and cut-up silver jewelry, which probably served as a means of payment by weight. Altogether, the two treasures include up to 300 pieces of silver, of which approximately 50 are whole coins.
In addition to the coins, the treasures contain two other particularly interesting pieces of silver. They weigh approx. 70 grams, and they obviously come from the same piece of jewelry. These are two ornately braided decorated balls on a small piece of cut silver rod, which was originally part of an unusually large ring pin.
Such ring pins were especially used by men at the top of society in Viking Age Ireland and on the neighboring islands. Some of this silver jewelry weighed around ½ kilo and assessed on the basis of the two fragments, the jewelry from Bramslev belongs in this category. Jewelry of this size and quality was worn by bishops and kings.
The jewelry probably originates from a raiding expedition, and the Danish Vikings did not appreciate the fine artistic details of the jewelry.
Raiders like this guy.
For them, it was only the weight of the silver jewelry that was important. Therefore, the ring pin was chopped into pieces, and most of the jewelry was probably used as a means of payment or remelted into new jewelry in the Scandinavian style.
So much wrong.
ReplyDeleteFirst, the Scandinavians were heavily into beautiful jewelry and carvings. Lots of intricate and inlaid jewelry, chests, armor still exist. Scandinavian woodcarvings were everywhere in the house.
They spent time to carve the weights used on looms, to carve intricate designs onto combs, into keys, on just about everything that's survived.
But, yes, they chopped up jewelry. So did everyone else. Why? Because you wore your bank. Buying something? Oh, it's three weights of silver. Toss in some coin, some rings, still need more, take out axe and chop a chunk out of a piece of jewelry.
There's a Heath Ledger movie, "A Knight's Tale," where the main characters chop up a gold statuette to split the payout of a tournament.
Byzantine 'money' necklaces, composed of hundreds of links, were common. Pay by removing a ring or two or more.
Remember, until recently, currency was in weight and quality, not in the fiat denomination of the coin. An ounce of gold, a piece-of-eight, all had value by weight only.
Cool stuff. I am a documentary junkie and like seeing ones on the vikings especially.
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