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The Viking World

A History in 100 Objects

Austin Mason, Hannah Curtiss, Liza Davis, Jane Kelly, Kerim Omer Kadir Celik, Adante Ratzlaff, Leah Sacks, Kai Matsubara-Rall, Quinn Radich, Madeline Cosgriff, John Kennelly, Claire Jensen, Alperen Turkol, Jordan Cahn, Peter Hanes, Sarah Wang, Nick Carlsen, Ari Bakke, Phineas Callahan, Lauren Azuma, Justin Berchiolli, Rowan Matney, Ben Pletta, John Scott, Nick Cohen, Sophie Bokor, Authors
Clothing, page 17 of 21

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Terminal for an Open Ring Brooch

This roughly 2 by 5 inch piece of silver contains a great deal of information about Norse life. Found near Ektorp, Sweden and dating to around 950 CE, in addition to silver the brooch fragment also contains gold and is inlaid with niello. Its size alone indicates that it must have been quite valuable, especially considering that it was one of three similar pieces affixed to a large open ring brooch.1 Its characteristic decoration, possibly in the Borre style,2 indicates that it was indeed made in Scandinavia, not purchased or stolen from elsewhere (although the raw silver used to make it certainly would have been). Additionally, the fact that it is only a fragment suggests that, at some point, the raw materials of the brooch were more valuable than the brooch itself (as a piece of jewelry). It likely was broken up so that the silver could be used for trade or remade into other objects.3
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Clothing    Sweden    Brooch    Gold    Silver    800-1000 CE    Jewelry    Metalwork

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