Lokrume helmet fragment

Lokrume helmet fragment
Black and white drawing of the Lokrume helmet fragment
1907 drawing of the fragment
Material Iron, silver, niello
Created c. tenth century
Discovered Lokrume, Gotland, Sweden
Present location Gotland Museum
Registration GF B 1683

The Lokrume helmet fragment is a decorated eyebrow piece from a Swedish helmet dating from the Viking Age.[1] Discovered in Lokrume, a small settlement on the island of Gotland, it was first published in 1907 and is in the collection of the Gotland Museum.[1] It is made of iron, the surface of which is decorated with silver and niello that forms an interlaced pattern.

Description

The fragment is 13.2 centimetres (5.2 in) wide and accounts for the eyebrows, and part of the nose guard, from a helmet.[1][2][3] An iron core was either coated or inlaid with silver, which was itself inlaid with niello.[1][4] The inlaid pattern stretches the width of the fragment, though much of the sinister portion is now lost. It is symmetrical, patterned with intertwined bands and circles. Transverse bands further adorn the area around this pattern.[5]

Typology

Though the context in which the fragment was found is now unknown,[5] the style of interlaced pattern dates to around the tenth century AD.[6] This places the fragment squarely within the Viking Age,[5][7] which lasted from the end of the eighth century to the middle of the eleventh. Remains of only four other Viking Age helmets are known: another fragment from Gotland, in Högbro, the Tjele helmet fragment from Denmark, and a fragment from Kiev, Ukraine, in addition to the Gjermundbu helmet found in Norway.[8][9] The Lokrume piece was the first of these to be identified;[1] the Tjele fragment was discovered in 1850,[10] but mistaken for a saddle mounting until 1984.[8][11] Like the other four, the fragment from Lokrume appears to be a descendant of the earlier Scandinavian Vendel Period and Anglo-Saxon helmets, and the end of the line of "crested helmets" that appeared in Europe around the sixth century.[12][13][14]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Fornvännen 1907.
  2. ↑ Thunmark-Nylén 1998, taf. 264.
  3. ↑ Thunmark-Nylén 2000b, pp. 521–522.
  4. ↑ Lindqvist 1925, p. 192.
  5. 1 2 3 Thunmark-Nylén 2006a, p. 317.
  6. ↑ Grieg 1947, p. 45.
  7. ↑ Lindqvist 1925, pp. 192–193.
  8. 1 2 Munksgaard 1984, p. 87.
  9. ↑ Tweddle 1992, pp. 1125–1128.
  10. ↑ Boye 1858, pp. 191–192.
  11. ↑ Boye 1858, pp. 197–198.
  12. ↑ Munksgaard 1984, pp. 87–88.
  13. ↑ Steuer 1987, pp. 199–203, 230–231.
  14. ↑ Tweddle 1992, pp. 1086, 1125–1129.

Bibliography

  • Boye, Vilhelm (1858). "To fund af smedeværktöi fra den sidste hedenske tid i Danmark". Annaler for Nordisk Oldkyndighed og Historie: 191–200, pl. II–IV. (in Danish)
  • Bruce-Mitford, Rupert (1978). The Sutton Hoo Ship-Burial, Volume 2: Arms, Armour and Regalia. London: British Museum Publications. ISBN 978-0-7141-1331-9.
  • Grieg, Sigurd (1947). Gjermundbufunnet: En høvdingegrav fra 900-årene fra Ringerike. Norske Oldfunn. VIII. Oslo: Bergen. (in Norwegian)
  • Lindqvist, Sune (1925). "Vendelhjälmarnas ursprung" (PDF). Fornvännen. 20: 181–207. ISSN 0015-7813. (in Swedish)
  • Munksgaard, Elisabeth (1984). "A Viking Age Smith, his Tools and his Stock-in-trade". Offa. 41: 85–89. ISSN 0078-3714.
  • Steuer, Heiko (1987). "Helm und Ringschwert: Prunkbewaffnung und Rangabzeichen germanischer Krieger". In Häßler, Hans-Jürgen. Studien zur Sachsenforschung. 6. Hildesheim: Lax. pp. 189–236. ISBN 3-7848-1617-7. (in German)
  • Thunmark-Nylén, Lena (1998). Die Wikingerzeit Gotlands (II): Typentafeln. Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell. ISBN 91-7402-287-3. (in German)
  • Thunmark-Nylén, Lena (2000b). Die Wikingerzeit Gotlands (IV:2): Katalog. Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell. ISBN 91-7402-308-X. (in German)
  • Thunmark-Nylén, Lena (2000c). Die Wikingerzeit Gotlands (IV:3): Katalog. Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell. ISBN 91-7402-309-8. (in German)
  • Thunmark-Nylén, Lena (2006a). Die Wikingerzeit Gotlands (III:1): Text. Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell. ISBN 91-7402-354-3. (in German)
  • Tweddle, Dominic (1992). The Anglian Helmet from 16–22 Coppergate (PDF). The Archaeology of York. 17/8. London: Council for British Archaeology. ISBN 1-872414-19-2.
  • "Ur främmande samlingar: 2" (PDF). Fornvännen. 2: 205–208. 1907. ISSN 0015-7813. (in Swedish)
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