The logo for the Viking exhibit at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science
|
Vikings: Raiders, traders, explorers, and settlers
|
Valhalla and Valkyries
|
These pendants are usually identified as Valkyries
|
Valkyries greeted the newly fallen heroes with mead
|
It was a recurring image
|
...in many styles
|
Fabric with deer embellishment made of silver wire twisted and attached with silk to silk backing. Deer symbolism is not Norse, but more Finnish or Saami or Baltic in iconography,
suggesting that Birka had several cultural influences among the elites buried there.
|
These orange pendants are carved amber. This is how amber looked like during
the Viking period; the clear modern amber has been superheated to make it so
transparent.
|
The pendant at left is a cubb, a volva's magic chair that she sits upon for seiðr, observing and altering the course of destiny through the weaving of its web.
|
A nice variety of bowls and cauldrons
|
Clay pots are easily decorated
|
All shapes and sizes
|
...and styles
|
Simple but effective
|
Extremely simple
|
More elaborately decorated
|
A pot pierced for hanging
or carrying
|
What might it have held?
|
A
small pouch/purse made of fur with bronze decorations found in Birka. Similar pouches have been found in other Norse settlements. Whether Norse or Finnish is unknown but worth researching.
|
Christianity provided new subjects for ornamentation
|
Crosses appeared in a multitude of styles.
This one is a cool applique style wire work for attachment to clothes, not worn on a chain as decor.
|
Silver was used for jewelry or melted down to be used as a medium of
exchange
|
The area now known as Sweden was slower to adopt Christianity than the other
Viking homelands
|
Silver, bronze and gold were all used for metal jewelry
|
The crucifixion was a common theme - as it was in continental Europe
|
A hammered bronze bowl
|
An iron strike-a-light with flint and a comb, cut from ivory or bone. The bowl
is probably an oil lamp with the center post supporting a wick.
|
Woven
silver as decoration for a silk panel, probably used as a belt
|
Gold trim
|
Cards used for tablet weaving - and a large spinning whorl
|
Decorative bits. Vikings wore their wealth.
|
A trefoil brooch
|
Woven cloth with decorative
silver tablet weave - which was found on the EDGES of clothes, not appliquéd upon cloth,
the important point for placing tablet weave on clothes is that it originally
had a protective function, to spare the cloth from fraying.
|
A reconstructed chest, with an integral lock
|
Keys and locks were a one-of-a-kind set
|
Viking ship information
|
Probably a speculative sail structure. This woven design would double the
thickness of the entire sail.
|
Runes on bronze
|
It would be interesting to know in what kind of setting this was placed -
and who felt the need to make it in the first place...
|
An inscription to provide solace
|
Carefully scribed by its creator
|
Box brooches and other finely cast jewelry, probably from Gotland
|
A closer look
|
An unusual design - probably cast in silver.
|
It's interpreted as the goddess Freya, with the giant necklace called Brisingamen
that brought about her dishonor.
|
Interestingly, that looks like a mail shirt
|
A penannular brooch and a beaded necklace
|
That's a loom weight in the foreground. The large object above it is
interpreted as a weaving sword; this one is a replica. The runes represent
a love poem: "Think of me, I think of you! Love me, I love you!"
|
|
|