This piece is a small, silver crucifix worn around the neck as a pendant. It was discovered in a rich woman’s grave at the Viking-age trading site of Birka, Sweden. Birka was one of the busiest and therefore wealthiest trading hubs in Scandinavia at the time. The crucifix was produced and used in the 800’s before it was left as a grave good for the woman. It was actually the earliest piece of native-made Christian imagery discovered in Scandinavia. The design itself is quite simple and its depiction of human features is rather ambiguous. Both of these facts likely mean that the craftsmen was likely accustomed to making pagan jewelry¹.

It functioned similarly to other ornamental pieces of jewelry, meaning that the owner wanted to show off both status and piety. In this case, it demonstrated that the owner clearly was Christian in some form. Presumably she was a new convert, and she wanted to show off her new God, Jesus Christ. However, it was still very likely that she still maintained many of her old traditions and beliefs, and simply co-opted the Christian deity as another god in her pantheon; in effect, she still would have sacrificed to Norse gods and worshipped them as usual, while simultaneously incorporating other Christian beliefs. But this crucifix marks the clear transition between Paganism and Christianity. As mentioned earlier, it was probably made by a smith who likely crafted only Pagan ornamentation before this piece. These works would have generally depicted animals. The crucifix stylistically resembles other Scandinavian works at the time, and since this was crafted so early, it is more likely than not that the smith’s primary experience came from working with Pagan jewelry².

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