Iron Spearhead with Silver Embellishments:

This spearhead was found in 1848 in the River Thames in England. This is believed to be its final resting place, it was not believed to have been moved after its deposit. It is made of iron with silver and some copper work, typical of Norwegian smiths in the Viking Age, and rivets at the bottom suggest that it would have been mounted on a shaft and used for potentially both hunting and fighting. Based on other finds similar to this, it is possible that this piece was part of a votive offering cast into the river for religious purposes. It is one of a handful found in England, as these kinds of Viking offerings are usually found in the Norse heartland of Scandinavia. Many of these votive offering deposits consist of not Norse-made weapons and objects of value, but of those won from enemies, which are additionally often ritually “killed” consistent with votive offerings found around southern Scandinavia which include broken weapons.
It is possible that this piece is the result of a Norse offering from settlers or even seasonal raiders1, who believed the River Thames to be a good place to make such an offering, or it is possible, though unlikely, that some pagan or Christian native to the area disposed of the object in a ritual way that might make them seem more like contemporary Norse powers in Danelaw England. Additionally, it is possible that the piece represents a piece discarded because of the lack of necessity for it, perhaps its owner died in battle, or perhaps it was simply lost and remained lost in the river until its discovery in the nineteenth century. This piece gives insight, at a minimum, into the kinds of tools that would have been brought by Norse settlers to England after the Danelaw agreement was reached between Alfred the Great and the Danish chieftain Guthrum, which allowed Norse settlers to live in parts of England ranging from the far north to around Mercia.

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