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Description: | Description: Part of a silver bracelet, probably Early Medieval Viking hack-silver. The find consists of a short length of a curved silver rod of varying circular and oval section. It has been cut obliquely across both ends; with a single cut at one end and two cuts at opposing angles at the other end giving the rod a pointed end, and perhaps indicating the use of nippers or shears. The rod is decorated with oblique lines giving a twisted effect. Near the end with the multifaceted cut, one face of the rod is flattened and plain, and the opposite side is decorated with small triangular stamp marks, each containing three pellets.Fragments of silver rod are often found in Viking-period hoards and derive from cut-up bracelets, or other objects of jewellery (cf tapering rod fragments in the 10th-century hoard from Aalborg Klostermark, Denmark in R. Skovmand, 1942, "De danske Skattefund fra Vikingetiden od den ældste Middelalder indtil omkring 1150", Aarbøger for Nordisk Oldkyndighed og Historie, 1942, 1-275, fig. 8).The fragment from the Spofforth area is from an arm-ring of 'Permian' type of the 9th/early 10th century, complete examples of which have polyhedral terminals and are found both in the British Isles and Scandinavia, although they are probably of northern Russian origin, e.g. from the Vale of York Hoard and the Cuerdale Hoard, Lancashire (J. Graham-Campbell, 2006, 'The rings', pp. 73-81 in S.H. Fuglesang and D.M. Wilson, eds., The Hoen Hoard: a Viking gold treasure of the ninth century, Rome, at pp. 74-6; G. Williams and B. Ager, The Vale of York Hoard, British Museum Press, 2010, fig. 19; J. Graham-Campbell, 2011, The Cuerdale Hoard and related Viking-Age silver and gold from Britain and Ireland in the British Museum, London, British Museum Press, 88-9). They were originally made as neck-rings to a weight standard of about 100 grammes, probably from using a set number of Islamic coins in their manufacture. But they were coiled into arm-rings by the Vikings, who probably obtained them by trade.
Original Image | Publisher: | http://finds.org.uk | Source: | Portable Antiquities | Identifier: | http://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/r... | Go to resource |
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