Anglo-Scandinavian Ear Ring
The ring is too lightweight to have been a finger ring. Hair pins were common at the time and pins similar to this ring were found in Russia. However, the ring’s small size makes it perhaps too small to serve as a hair pin. A catch plate and pin-lug combination would probably have made it non-secure on a necklace, so the ring was likely used as an earring. Rings were often used as sings of wealth or alliances in Nordic cultures.[3] Kings and other leaders would give their men rings to signify alliances and two interlocking rings meant the wearer was in an alliance. A man might give his wife a ring which she would use to display her wealth. It is also possible, although unlikely, that the ring was part of a ringed pin, made by a Norse craftsman in an Irish style.[4]
The ear ring is made of copper-alloy and is decorated with eighteen circular stamps in a ring-and-dot style that is more distinctive of Nordic metalwork than that of Anglo-Saxon. The rings have a diameter of 1.2mm and are each surrounded by an additional ring with a diameter of 2.3mm. It has been proposed that ring-dots are derived from an acanthus motif, a plant ornamentation characteristic of the Mammen and Ringerike styles of viking art.[5][6]
According to the Portable Antiquities Scheme, the estimated time period for this object is late Early Medieval, circa 850 ce. to 1000ce. The artistic styles of Mammen and Ringerike were popular during a slightly later period—950 to 1100 ce., which began just after the end of the Danelaw. These dates suggest that the earring was likely both produced and deposited in the ground right around the end of the Danelaw soon after 950 ce.
The ear ring supports the argument for a Norse settlement in England during the Early Medieval period, as well as supporting the existence of a unique Anglo-Scandinavian style of art and jewelry.
