Trix

Howard @archaeodeathprof.bsky.social and I have developed a cute little series on the archaeology and history of death and burial in the Viking age. I simply love these sessions and hope more people will discover us :D #vikingsky #medievalsky youtu.be/hi2MQG6ChXM

Did you not watch Blazing Saddles at Marlborough Grove? I remember several group viewings there - including when you were a resident, I thought...

...although my memories might not be the most reliable source. I'm choosing to blame the intervening years, rather than anything else 😳

Storming, thank you kindly! I'm going to be camping at the Abbey (predictably enough) so the Powdermill Lane place looks like a very likely drop-in spot.

Cheers again :)

A photograph showing the front face of find TDB 580, a gilded silver Carolingian-stype sword-strap mount from the site of the Viking Great Army camp at Torksey, Lincolnshire.

A photograph showing the front face of find TDB 1633, a gilded and silver-plated Carolingian-stype sword-strap mount made of copper alloy. This was also recovered from the site of the Viking Great Army camp at Torksey, Lincolnshire.

Carrying on our theme of weaponry-related artefacts, we're going to look at these two Carolingian sword-belt mounts for our Viking Camps #FindsFriday today.

People have been known to duck and run for cover when I start talking about strap fittings... so I promise I'll contain my enthusiasm! /1

Oh my, that looks good. I'm down in Battle next weekend, may have to try to find a bottle or two of that.

Cheers.

...brought to the camps by Scandinavians. I think that still speaks of the mixed nature of the Great Army generally, though: they're not the monolithic 'Danes' which past scholarship saw, but rather more complex, with equally complicated histories and points of reference picked up along the way.

Oh yes, without question! This is the problem with me trying to be concise, it means I leave out perfectly sensible suggestions... 🫤

I think Shane McLeod made the case for there being Frisians with the Army and the early settlers - but I agree, our Frisian-centered finds could easily have been...

It was misidentified in the 2020 report, with the suggestion it was cut down and converted from a larger fitting.

No blame for that interpretation - there but for the grace and all that - but it does show how much Frisian stuff there is in these assemblages, with a lot of it not recognised...

The cover of the book 'Life in the Viking Great Army', published by the OUP.

As always, if you'd like to read more, then all our analysis is available in the book 'Life in the Viking Great Army', published by the Oxford University Press... and I'd best stop there! Ten posts isn't bad when I get talking about strap-ends, I'll quit while I'm ahead 😅 /end

A speculative reconstruction of the Great Army camp at Torksey, showing it in the winter of 872-3 AD. The open, muddy ground at the southern edge of the camp is visible - this was to become the site of the later pottery industry.

Obviously we can't know for sure if our silver-decorated sword belts were worn at Torksey, but I like to imagine northern Franks/Frisians strutting around the camp showing of their finery- while also noticing how good the clay was! Again, the mounts show how multinational this 'Viking' army was. /10

A Torksey ware pot, one of the first wheel-thrown ceramics to be produced in post-Roman Britain.

A reconstruction drawing of one of the Torksey kilns, showing a cutaway during firing.

We know there were Frisians and Franks in the Great Army, and particularly at Torksey, where the 'ceramic revolution' started in the late 9th century. The new Torksey wares followed models from northern France and the Low Countries - made, we've suggested, by Army members who returned to settle. /9

A finds photograph of strap-end ADB 945.

A finds photograph of strap-end WILT-6E9825: although this is decorated on both sides with an incised floral design, the plan and profile are very similar to that of ADB 945.

Although plain, ADB 945 has the same rolled ends - and is very similar to a find from Wiltshire, PAS WILT-6E9825. The 'step' on the Aldwark strap-end still holds part of a retaining plate, showing if fell off a sword belt which was in use. If such a belt was used at Aldwark, why not Torksey too? /8

A finds drawing of strap-end ADB 945, found at the Viking Great Army camp at Aldwark, North Yorkshire. A broken retaining bar can be seen at the top of the artefact, showing where the strap-end failed.

We do have another Carolingian-style fitting from the camp at Aldwark, strap-end ADB 945. This is quite a bit plainer than the Torksey finds, and is a type frequently found in Frisia: as @alexharvv.bsky.social says, it's impossible to consider the Great Army without Frisians in the ranks! /7

A reconstruction Carolingian sword and scabbard, showing how ostentations metal mounts were used as fittings on sword belts.

I'm honestly not sure. One lug on TDB 580 looks to be snapped off, rather than cut, and two of the rivet holes on TDB 1633 have worn through - so our finds may be accidental losses rather than evidence of tributes paid in Francia. Were they being worn on Frankish-style sword belts at Torksey? /6

A photograph of the Marsum hoard, with strap fittings at the rear of the frame and coins to the front. The strap mounts all show characteristic 'rolled' ends, very similat to the Torksey finds.

Marsum-type mounts like ours were made with hollow bodies and thickened, 'rolled' ends. When they're found in England, those ends often lack the rear frames - Wolfram Glertz has suggested that shows they were clipped from belts and baldrics as a means of paying off Vikings. Are our finds loot? /5

A finds drawing of Torksey DB 805, a small silver fitting recovered from the site of the Viking camp.

There *may* be another Carolingian fitting from Torksey, but we never found a good parallel so can't be sure (suggestions welcome!). It's TDB 805, a decorated piece of silver which looks to be a strap slide. If that's correct, then it's more probably from off a spur or a garter than a sword belt. /4

An illustration from the Morgan bible, showing a Carolingian guard holding a scabbarded sword equipped with elaborate fittings.

The great gold-and-niello trefoil fitting from the Hoen hoard, originally a strap distributor on an elaborate Carolingian sword belt, but later converted into a brooch in Scandinavia.

Carolingian sword-belt or baldric fittings were highly prized by Viking forces - particularly the distinctive strap-distributors, inspiration for the entire trefoil brooch style. Other sword mounts were still attractive: our fittings are of the 'Marsum' type, widely found across eastern England. /3

A photograph showing the front and reverse faces of TDB 580.

A photograph showing the front, side, and reverse views of TDB 1633.

Both these are Torksey artefacts, and are amongst the earlier finds from the camp: Mark Blackburn wrote about them in 2011. TDB 580 is silver, decorated with gilded panels, whilst TDB 1633 is only copper alloy, with a gilded front face and silver-plated highlights. They'd certainly catch the eye! /2

A photograph showing the front face of find TDB 580, a gilded silver Carolingian-stype sword-strap mount from the site of the Viking Great Army camp at Torksey, Lincolnshire.

A photograph showing the front face of find TDB 1633, a gilded and silver-plated Carolingian-stype sword-strap mount made of copper alloy. This was also recovered from the site of the Viking Great Army camp at Torksey, Lincolnshire.

Carrying on our theme of weaponry-related artefacts, we're going to look at these two Carolingian sword-belt mounts for our Viking Camps #FindsFriday today.

People have been known to duck and run for cover when I start talking about strap fittings... so I promise I'll contain my enthusiasm! /1

I think it's less probable that they've been banned and more likely they've been replaced with mobility slippers.

I saw The Sisters a couple of years back, and there was a cheer when someone got onto shoulders... mainly for the bloke underneath, celebrating his knees still being up to the job 😅

I have memories of a NMA gig in a tiled sports hall (used as a swimming pool).

Carnage.

An excellent piece of work by Ny Björn here - and it goes to show how these things can just sit happily in finds reports, waiting for the right moment to finally be identified...

I've just gone to find it in the volume: "Decorated bronze fragment" - yup, it is indeed!

Thanks for sharing this *excellent* piece of detective work.

Hwæt! 🐉

Ever wondered what the epic poem Beowulf sounds like spoken in Old English?

#NationalPoetryDay

Thank you Dan, I will be stealing that...

Britannia was very much one of the games of my undergraduate years! I was never settled and reliable enough to join in any of the RPGs, but when you live in a house called 'Minas Tirith' then you find you play a LOT of those sorts of board games as well... 😅

JORVIK Top Trumps — JORVIK Viking Centre Shop Exclusive JORVIK Top Trump Cards, depicting characters from Viking Myths. Created in collaboration with the JORVIK Viking Centre.

Oh yes - my kids are obsessed with them.

Definitely the kids. Not me. Not at all...

www.jorvikshop.com/products/jor...

Oh didn't we just! Mind you, those nights were sometimes late enough as it was - I dread to think how long we'd have sat up if we actually did have this game!

(...nor how much you'd have grumbled about there not being a 'Iceni revolt 60-61' version...)

I know! Forget the Viking Top Trumps, THIS is what I want to be playing...