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• 1 2017-05-20T06:48:50-07:00 Silver Armband from Gotland 18 object page plain 2017-09-19T19:21:34-07:00 This silver arm band, found in Gotland (an island in the Baltic Sea) and dating to the Viking Age, tells a story of wealth and trade.^[1]  Found along with a bronze needle and a gold buckle, it was most likely used as costume. The bands most interesting and telling feature is the stamping.
  
  The stamping, a possible cross, indicates fine metal work. Often the metal smiths used a punch to apply the stamp to the object. Most commonly, an hour glass or a triangle was stamped onto a metal ring.^[2]  The plus stamp on this arm band could correspond to Christianity. A similar cross structure is found on a steatite mold from Jelling that has both Christian crosses and Norse Hammers.^[3]

  Gotland during the Viking Age appeared to be extremely wealthy. It is not uncommon for new hordes of silver and gold to be found on the island. The island developed a complex social structure with local "thing" assemblies under the authority of central assembly called the Althing.^[4]  Although inhabitants of Gotland plundered areas, including Kiev and parts of France, and traded a menagerie of items, they had a thriving slave importing culture. Sources from Baghdad and Persia tell of complex slave routes up the Volga river. The culture was so ingrained in the slave trade they wrote a collection of laws, the Guta Lag, in 1220.^[5]  The vast trading network acquired large amounts of wealth.

  The coins, coming from raids or trade with both the Frankish Empire and the Middle East, have been estimated to be 338 million Islamic Dirhams during the Viking Age.^[6]  Some of this coinage could have been melted into arm bands and used as for trade as Scandinavia didn't have a set monetary system. For example, a person could cut a piece of silver off the end of the arm band and use it to pay for goods. Often, multiple bands of sliver were coiled together to create the hack silver bands. This silver could then be used to pay for items. In one account from Ibn Fadlan, the wealth of a family was dependent on how many silver arm bands a woman in the family was wearing.^[7]  This band is a small piece of the bigger picture of Scandinavian trade, raiding, and metal work.