Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-94fs2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-09T15:59:39.747Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A Hoard from West Norway

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 January 2012

Johs. Bøe
Johs. Bøe
Affiliation:
Bergen Museum
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

In the farm of Hatteberg, formerly belonging to the barony of Rosendal to the south of Bergen, there was found in December 1932 a Viking period hoard (pl.xix) consisting of a gold armlet of twisted wire (weight 164·62 grammes), a large silver torc of the same workmanship (weight 403·5 grammes), and a silver brooch of penannular type. The objects lay together about 2 ft. deep in the ground without any protection, the armlet being threaded on the torc. Evidently this was no burial but a treasure, of a kind well known all over northern Europe in the Viking period, from Russia to the British Isles. The torc and armlet are of well-known form and technique, but among the best and most valuable of their class. Of greater interest is the brooch. It is a casting scarcely if at all finished by the chisel. The hoop is flat on the back, which is unornamented. On the front of either terminal a thin gold plate is fitted into a frame, and held in place by a silver rivet with large round head. The plates are ornamented with filigree of notched gold wire, and the rivet-heads also carried some silver filigree. This, however, now shows traces of wear, as does the hoop. As for the rest, the form and decoration may be seen from the illustration.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Antiquaries Journal , Volume 14 , Issue 2 , April 1934 , pp. 159 - 162
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1934

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

page 160 note 1 Both types are among archaeologists called ‘Baltic’ or ‘oriental’, though their origin and appearance in Western Europe, at all events with regard to the thistle-brooch, are entirely obscure. The armlet-type, common in Baltic countries (Müller, , Ordning II Jernalderen, fig. 638)Google Scholar, probably under influence from Russia (Arne, , La Suède et l'Orient, figs. 306, 307)Google Scholar, is found once in Western Norway (Bøe, , Bergens Museums Årbok, 1927Google Scholar, historisk-antikvarisk rekke, nr. 2, fig. 4), and in a couple of instances among the Viking silver in Ireland. The thistle-brooch on the other hand is not ‘Baltic’ with regard to distribution. Though some specimens are found in Scandinavia the type is more frequent in British and Irish silver hoards of the Viking period. Indeed the origin of both types may with some reason be sought for among eastern peoples.