This page has paths:

1. 1 2017-05-24T10:09:20-07:00 Austin Mason f6137011c68eb792c6e14634815583b15e707dea Map View Austin Mason 2 An interactive map of all the objects in the collection google_maps 2017-05-24T11:39:30-07:00 Austin Mason f6137011c68eb792c6e14634815583b15e707dea

This page is referenced by:

• 1 2017-05-21T21:50:05-07:00 Bronze Belt Buckle 4 object page plain 2017-09-19T19:07:12-07:00 This belt buckle, from Altlingo parish in Källgårds, Gotland,  is a relatively unique style for norse buckles. Despite it’s unique style,  it, and belt buckles are commonly found in graves and can tell us quite a bit about norse clothing during the viking age.^[1] Norse men generally wore belts, and these could vary from simple belts with buckles very similar to those seen on belts today, to more intricate pieces of art.^[2] For example, in these two passages from Njal’s Saga,  we see descriptions of ‘silver belts’ that we can imagine as fashionable crafted pieces of art, worth giving as gifts and treasures: “Mord gave a large gold buckle to Skarphedin and a silver belt to Kari, as well as good gifts to Grim and Helgi,”^[3] and “Kari gave Gudmund a gold brooch and Thorgeir gave him a silver belt, both excellent treasures.”^[4] This particular belt buckle is made of bronze, and sports a relatively simple knotwork design. It is probable, given the lack of finds of similar style, that this buckle could originate from outside Scandinavia. In the viking age, many items of different styles were brought back to the norse lands, either through trading or raiding. For instance, it was not uncommon for Frankish metalwork to be brought back to scandinavia and repurposed into belt buckles or brooches.^[5]
  
  The belts that men wore served more purpose than just holding up clothing. Since norse clothing during the viking age didn’t include pockets, belts were also a means of storage. Not only could a man hang his sword or axe from his belt, he could also hold many small useful items, such as a small purse and knife.^[6] In the purse, someone could carry anything from a comb, to coins and gaming pieces.^[7] In this example from Njal’s Saga, we can see one such example of a purse hung from a belt: :  “Flosi then took a purse of money from his belt and said he wanted give it to him.”^[8]
  
  Belt buckles are something we can often overlook as unimportant. Looking back upon history though, most clothing is organic and will fade over time. Metal findings, such as belt buckles, give us a good insight into what clothes during the viking age were actually like, as the metal they are made from tends to last longer than any leather or cloth.