Viking Jewellery Bronze Decorated Cross Brooch c9th Century AD

Description

Material: Bronze

Period: Viking era

Date: c9th century

Origin: Northern Europe to Finno-Ugric regions

Condition: Fine. with dark patina with remnants catchplate

Description: A discoid bronze brooch with openwork. scalloped design; a stylised cross to centre and a central dome. the design consists of dot-work.

Size and Weight: 55mm. 26g

Features and Provenance: From an East Anglian collection.

This superb brooch is considered to have originated from Northern Europe to the Finno-Ugric language region. As great travellers. the Vikings collected items of value and smaller trinkets for trade. It is known that decorative mounts were recycled as jewellery when the original purpose was over and this may be the case here; the heavy nature of this brooch makes it most likely to have been used to attach the cloak or outer garments. The cross may refer to a Christian origin. Vikings would often ‘hedge their bets’ when it came to their gods! Viking wanderlust made them great traders; they are often maligned as nothing more than Scandinavian thugs. but nothing could be further from the truth. The range of their trade-goods was extensive. Norsemen never referred to themselves as Vikings as it was an old Norse word meaning ‘adventure and trade’. It did however. enter English lexicons in the 18th century. but even then it was only meant to refer to ‘a Scandinavian.’

Condition Summary. This varies with the age of the artefact and there are grades between

Extremely Fine (EF). Very slight traces of wear. all parts of pattern etc present. visible and clear

Very Fine (VF). Some signs of wear on the higher parts of the relief. all parts of pattern etc present. but may be worn

Fine (F). Wear on the artefact and parts of item and pattern etc may be missing or not visible