10th Century Viking Silver Hoard This entry is based primarily from items in the Cuerdale Hoard found in Great Britain and upon other Viking Age silver hoards of Northern and Eastern Europe in the 10th Century. It includes bracelets, torcs1, rings, hacksilver2 and ingots. Archaeological Evidence: During the 8th through the 11th Centuries, which is generally termed the Viking Age, hundreds of hoards were buried throughout Great Britain, Northern and Eastern Europe. The largest hoard found to date is named the Cuerdale Hoard which was found in May 1840 on the banks of the River Ribble in Lancashire, England. The hoard contained 7500 foreign made coins and 1,000 other pieces of silver, approximately 40kg (88 pounds) in weight and has been dated to around 905 AD (Oxford, Philpott). A selection of it is pictured on the right (Philpott). The Cuerdale hoard is thought to be from a tradesman, not a silversmith due to the fact that there were over 350 ingots and ingot fragments and very few full pieces of jewelry or ornaments. Three months after its discovery the hoard was distributed by order of Queen Victoria to the Duchy of Lancaster (where it was found), the Museum of London and into her own personal collection. The items in the British Museum are still on display. Close up photographs taken by Steve Grater of some of the objects appear in Appendix A. Around the same time as the deposit in Lancashire, England, a hoard containing massive arm rings was interred outside of Dublin, Ireland. They can be seen on the left. Another find, deposited approximately fifty years after the Cuerdale Hoard, the Skaill Bay Hoard, found in Scotland, weighs in at around 8kg (18 pounds) and contained mostly very finely made torcs and arm rings, brooches, ingots and hacksilver (Oxford). The fine work in the hoard and the fact that only a few coins were in the deposit, leads many to believe that it was the hoard of a silver worker. Many other hoards were found in the far Northern parts of Norway, Sweden and Finland of the Saami People sometimes now called Lapp or Lapplanders. Going further East hoards were also found in Northern Russia in the medieval cities of Novgorod, St. Petersburg and Staraya Ladoga (Fitzhugh, Mann).
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Torcs- Usually metal collar or neck chain, from Latin torques “to twist” (m-w.com). Silver that was cut apart, “hacked” apart for trade.
10th Century Viking Silver Hoard The objects in all of these hoards are similar: torcs, bracelets, arms rings, hacksilver, stylized hammer pendants, brooches, amulets, foreign coins and ingots. The decoration upon some of the objects can be linked to various cultures that the Vikings raided or traded with. Brooches found in Ireland have the thistle motif; amulets found in Russia were of a crescent (lunar) shape (Oxford, Perepelkina, Mann). Other objects, such as torcs and bracelets, were alike in shape and decoration as seen in Appendix B. Wealth did he get, | and gave to all, Stones and jewels | and slim-flanked steeds, Rings he offered, | and arm-rings shared. --Rigsthula from Prose Edda Importance of Silver to the Vikings: During the Viking Age the metal of choice was silver. But why silver? Today, we know that silver is a naturally occurring element commonly found in metamorphic rock3. Rare metals are one of the last things to crystallize as the hot magma cools which allows them to precipitate out into the crevasses of cooling metamorphic rock forming veins (Hamblin). Silver is the whitest of all metals and is prized for having the best electrical and thermal conductivity. As a precious metal it is usually found with deposits of lead, gold and zinc. In its pure state it is workable into many forms. (Silver Institute, USGS). Perhaps the Norse sought the purity of a metal that did not tarnish like bronze; perhaps they sought it for the brightness that it shone. Or perhaps there was a mystical reason the Norse peoples kept and held this metal in high regard – a regard such that to this day we are still finding Viking Age silver hoards throughout Northern Europe. The poetry of the Viking Age, the eddas and the sagas, tell us that a man wore his wealth upon his personage and through gift giving and receiving his status was created and maintained (Smithsonian, Graham, Smiley, Bellow). These stories were told in an oral tradition all through the Viking Age but were written down by Snorri Sturluson and other Icelandic authors in the 1200s (Ward, Bellows). The stories tell of the god, Odin, giving rings and necklaces as payment for prophecy, of Odin swearing oaths upon rings, of rings being given between men at odds to make peace, of the "silver of kinship" for marriage and of the silver thatched roofs of the gods. Many are now familiar with the term "ring-giver" after watching Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. Tolkien was a great scholar of history and of the eddas and many of the Norse societal concepts appear in his writings. When the Norse began a Viking, to raid, they saw the metallic riches available to them in the monasteries and in the cities upon the coasts (Simpson). Thousands of pounds of silver were used as tribute to the pillaging Viking raiders on the Western coasts of Europe and the Northern reaches of what is now Great Britain (Sawyer). As raiders realized that the riches of their land could be profitable, they turned into tradesmen. Manufacturing and trading centers such as Birka and Hedeby sprung into being (Graham-Campbell, Fitzhugh). Furs, skins, bone and ivory were traded or crafted into goods to be sold throughout the region and beyond. Established trade routes through 3
Any rock formed from preexisting rocks within the earth's crust by changes in temperature and pressure and by chemical action of fluids" (Hamblin)
10th Century Viking Silver Hoard the Baltic down the Volga River to Byzantium and the Middle East provided an outlet for these uncommon items. In turn, vast quantities of silver and other luxury items made the return trip to the "barbarians in the north" as described by the Ibn Fadlan on his travels from Baghdad up the Volga River in 921 AD(Montgomery). A map of the travels of the raiders/traders appears on the previous page (Graham-Campbell) Price Comparison: Fadlan also describes the value of the silver upon 'Northmen' and their women: Whenever a man’s wealth reaches ten thousand dirhams, he has a band made for his wife; if it reaches twenty thousand dirhams, he has two bands made for her—for every ten thousand more, he gives another band to his wife. Sometimes one woman may wear many bands around her neck. Ward, through her study of Icelandic Law, shows that in the 10th Century a dirham was a stable modern weight of 2.97 grams. The eyrir, which was the Norse ounce measurement, is just over 27 grams which is surprisingly close to the modern ounce of 28.35 grams.4 Roughly, a torc of 10,000 dirham value would be equivalent in weight to 68.75 lbs of silver or in today's market of $13, 4205. Also, interesting to note, 1 eyrir of pure gold (unalloyed) was equal to 60 aurir (plural of eyrir) of silver. Per current market prices gold to silver is at 1 ounce of gold to 75 ounces of silver on average showing that even after a thousand years, the ratio remains almost the same. Why the Hoards? Why did the Viking tradesman bury the bounty of their labors? The transition to tradesmen and influence of other cultures changed the society view upon silver. They still used it as gifts and offerings amongst themselves, but in turn they saw that economically it could be used throughout the world for goods. Many of the raiders used their wealth to turn to lighter pursuits such as farming, once they returned home to the North, while others continued as tradesmen accumulating wealth. Hoards have been found in the areas of farming communities and merchants alike. It seems that these hoards were put away in case of hard times and even the Gods spoke of their own hoards within the eddas (Fitzhugh, Bellows). The etymology of the word hoard from about the 12th Century also shows that in the Middle English hord is akin to the Gothic huzd for treasure and to the Old English hydan which means to hide (Merriam-Webster). The Making of this Entry: Materials and Tools- The bulk materials were either purchased from Bullion Direct6 in troy ounce coins (as seen on the right) or were melted down from silver already in the entrant’s possession. Sterling silver wire/rod was procured from sources such as Rio Grande7 or local jewelry supply stores for some of the torcs. Silver for this entry was worked in a variety of ways using the following list of tools: various hammers, handmade punches, chisels, anvils, pliers, vices, metal shears, lead test blanks (for punch tests), a 100 ounce capacity Kerr electric metal melting furnace, sand casting forms, files, propane torches, a homemade propane furnace, commercial flux, commercial jewelers silver hard solder and finally steel wool, soft cloths and a flexi-shaft rotary tool for polishing. 4
For quick reference a gram is very close to a paperclip in weight. Spot price of $12.20 per ounce of silver as of 1/26/09 6 Bullion Direct, Austin Texas. http://www.bulliondirect.com 7 Rio Grande, Albuquerque, NM https://www.riogrande.com/home/ 5
10th Century Viking Silver Hoard Pure Silver vs. Sterling Silver - Pure silver (99.9 percent silver) is more ductile than alloyed silver. Sterling silver is around 92.5 percent silver and 7.5 percent copper. The addition of copper adds strength to the silver and it work hardens better than pure silver. Pure silver melts at a higher temp 1800°F as opposed to Sterling at around 1740°F. Sterling was used for the wire items due to ease in obtaining wire and shapes that would have to have been created. Sterling will not forge weld to itself as pure silver can. Thus hard solder was used to join ends. Then the piece was drawn out by hammer to achieve the look of the originals. In period the silver wire would have been drawn down to size by being pulled through drawplates. The solder used is very similar to what was most probably used in period. Modern jeweler’s hard solder is 80 silver/ 13 percent copper/ 7 percent Zinc. Theophilus, the 12th Century monk, suggests the use of two-thirds silver to one-third copper to be ground up and mixed with burnt argol8 to make a paste to solder with by applying heat to the entire object. The modern solder is equivalent and a bit easier to use when heated with a torch. Modern jewelers flux was used which is a boric acid or sodium borate (borax) mixture in water or in alcohol. Theophilus also speaks of using borax mix for fluxing during the niello9 process and the Anglo-Saxons used it as well for their flux for their wonderful gold jewelry (Coatsworth). Casting in the Entry- The majority of the pieces made started from cast ingots or, in the case of the thick bracelets, the hammer pendant and brooch, cast blanks. A few others were made directly from the bullion coin pictured above. To make the ingots, wooden dowels masters, one long and one short, were pressed into a two part sand casting frame filled with petroleum based casting sand10 that had been pounded into the frame with a rubber mallet. The frame was then assembled and further pounded around the area that contained the masters to guarantee that the sand was as compacted as possible. The frame was reopened and the masters were carefully removed leaving their negative images in the sand. A sprue11 and gates12 were carved out of the casting sand for each piece and the frame was again carefully put together. To make the bracelet blanks, the hammer pendant and the brooch, a similar molding process was used as the ingots but the shape of the blank was a carved piece of wood for the bracelets, an already cast piece for the hammer and a hand hammered bronze brooch. Again, sprues and gates were added after the master had been pounded within the frame and removed. After casting the bracelet blanks and the hammer, the decoration was added as described below in Bracelet and Rings. An example of a hammer from a find appears on the left (Fitzhugh). Both frames were set up as 10-14 ounces of silver were melted to 1800°F in the electric furnace. The progression of casting can be seen in Appendix C. During one of these pours a few spills occurred during an incomplete casting and these were saved and used to make some of the rings in the hoard. Casting in Period – Finds such as Ribe show clay crucibles used for melting the silver as seen on the next page (Stig). These cylindrical crucibles were made from sand and clay at Ribe and have a small lug on their sides to ease in pouring with tongs. A similar process is described by Theophilus using a mixture of two parts clay to one part ground earthenware pottery or old crucibles with warm water to produce the shape, essentially forming a ceramic of sorts. Argol - Potassium tartrate, not potassium bitartrate (cream of tartar) Niello - any of several black enamel-like alloys usually of sulfur with silver, copper, and lead 10Casting sand – this type of sand is sometimes called “green sand” 11Sprue – enlarged area in casting medium into which the molten metal is poured. 12 Gates – fine lines put into a mold to allow gases to escape during casting 8
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10th Century Viking Silver Hoard The molds used at Ribe were made of clay, in which a master (either wood or a previously cast object) was pressed into the clay and removed. These molds were single-use. Other molds found in Russia were made of carved stone to be used many times over (Perepelkina). The molds used for this project parallel those of Ribe in their singe-use and the electric furnace is a more efficient, regulated (and safer) means of heating the metal to 1800°F. Bracelets and Rings- All the silver work was done utilizing the same basic techniques. The silver, either in its original form as one ounce coins or as ingots/cast blanks (See Appendix C), was worked with a hammer until hardened, annealed13 in a furnace14 to soften, and worked again, until the final shape was achieved. All of the pieces required at least a minimum of six cycles into the furnace to anneal and most required considerably more. Almost all of the work started with squaring the pieces and lengthening (drawing) them out, as the ingots were shorter and fatter than the desired pieces. Once squared and brought to the approximate length of the piece desired, the pieces could be tapered, rounded, flattened, punched and otherwise manipulated. As much of the work as possible was done with the hammer to get the objects to their final shape. Due to the expense of the material, filing was avoided unless absolutely necessary. The punches used for the motifs were based upon those found in the Mastermyr Tool Chest as seen in Appendix D and by looking at the design motifs from the finds. All of the punches were hand made by the entrants using tool steel, files, hammers and the furnace (Arwiddson). Appendix D also includes photographs from other bracelet finds. Torcs- The torcs and some of the twisted bracelets in the entry were made by the following process. First various diameters of silver wire were folded in half and one end placed in a vice while turning the other end with vice grips until the desired twist was achieved. These twists were then soldered to the ends of a thicker silver rod or to each other depending on style of the pieces. With the twisted wires in place upon the rods, the stack was then twisted on in both directions by holding the piece in the vice, twisting half way and then flipping the piece or by having two people twist each end opposite of the other. Please see Appendix E for pictures of this process. After the twisting was completed the ends were either hammered out to become the ends of the torc or more material was added with heat/flux/solder to make the clasps. How Was this Process Different than Period? The application of heat was the largest difference. In period the furnace used would have been a charcoal fired furnace. All of the hand tools used can be found in period finds and the use of the flex-shaft rotary tool for clean up was used as a time saver versus buffing with sand and/or cloth the entire hoard. Why No Coins? Like the Skaill Bay Hoard, which is believed to be that of a silversmith, the entrants wanted to show off the craftsmanship Vikings and not foreign coinage as was generally seen in the hoards. This project was challenging in its scope and coins would have been out of sync with the processes used for the jewelry and the entrant’s skill base. Also, due to the cost of the materials, the coins were seen as a waste of manpower when items for personal adornment could be made and used for the entrant’s personas or made and then given to family, friends and allies as in the Norse tradition of gift giving. 13 14
Annealed - to heat and then cool usually for softening and making less brittle Homemade furnace made from carved out firebricks, two propane torch heads with a splitter to a large propane tank.
Bibliography: Ambrosiani, Björn and Clarke, Helen. Birka Studies: Volume 1: Investigations into the Black Earth: Early Investigations and Future Plans. The Birka Project, Stockholm, 1992. Arwidsson, Greta and Bert, Gösta. The Mästermyr Find. Larsen Publishing Company, 1999. Perepelkina, G.P. Drevnij Novgorod: Prikladnoe Iskusstvo i Archologiya (Ancient Novgorod Applied Art and Archeology). Book House 2005. Almgren, Bertil. The Viking. Crescent Books, New York 1975. The Poetic Edda Trans. Henry Adams Bellows, Princeton University Press, Princeton 1936. Available in full text at http://www.sacredtexts.com/neu/poe/ Coatsworth, Elizabeth and Pinder, Michael. The Art of the Anglo-Saxon goldsmith: Fine Metalwork in Anglo-Saxon England, Its Practice and Practitioners. Boydell Press, 2002. Vikings: The North Atlantic Saga. Ed(s). William W. Fitzhugh and Elizabeth I. Ward. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington DC. 2000. Graham-Campbell, James. The Viking World. Ticknor and Fields, New Haven and New York, 1980. Graham-Campbell, James and Kidd, Dafydd. The Vikings. British Museum Publications Limited, 1980. Grater, Steve. Personal Photographs from the British Museum, 2008. Hamblin, W. Kenneth. The Earth's Dynamic Systems 5th Edition. Macmillian Publishing Co, NY 1985. Jensen, Stig. The Vikings of Ribe. Den antikvariske Samling, Ribe 1991. Sacred Arts and City Life: The Glory of Medieval Novgorod. Ed. C. Griffith Mann, Palace Editions, 2005. Me Merriam-Webster Dictionary Available online at http://www.m-w.com 2009. Montgomery, James. Ibn Fadlan and the Rusiyyah. Cambridge, 2000. http://www.library.cornell.edu/colldev/mideast/montgo1.pdf Perepelkina, G.P. Drevnij Novgorod: Prikladnoe Iskusstvo i Archologiya (Ancient Novgorod Applied Art and Archeology). Book House 2005. Philpott, Fiona. A Silver Saga: National Museums and Galleries on Merseyside, Great Britain, 1990. The Oxford Illustrated History of the Vikings. Ed. Peter Sawyer. Oxford University Press, 1997. Jacqueline Simpson. Everyday Life in the Viking Age. New York: Dorset. 1967. Silver Facts: The Silver Institute http://www.silverinstitute.org/silver_facts.php Smiley, Jane. The Sagas of Icelanders. Viking Penguin, 2000. Theophilus. On Divers Arts: The Foremost Medieval Treatise on Painting, Glassmaking, and Metalwork. Trans. John G. Hawthorne and Cyril Stanley Smith. Dover Publications, 1979 Tolkien, J.R.R. Lord of the Rings. Mariner Books, 2005. USGS Minerals Information: Silver. http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/silver/ Ward, Christie. Units of Measurement from Viking Age Law and Literature. Available at http://www.vikinganswerlady.com/measurement.shtml
APPENDIX A: Cuerdale Hoard Photographs from the British Museum taken by Steve Grater.
10th Century Viking Silver Hoard Appendix B: OTHER HOARDS
Russian Find (Perepelkina)
Viking Find (Fitzhugh)
Cuerdale Horde (Phillpott)
Cuerdale Horde (Graham-Campbell)
Birka Horde (Ambrosiani)
Saami Hord (Fitzhugh)
10th Century Viking Silver Hoard Appendix C: Pouring Silver Molds and Opening the Furnace
Pouring Silver
Silver Cooling in Molds
Bracelet and Ingot after Cleanup
Bracelet Blank Out of the Mold
10th Century Viking Silver Hoard Appendix D: Bracelets and Stamping
Top Left: Mastermyr Punch and Lead blank showing design of the on of the punches Bottom Left: Bracelets from Fitzhugh Top Right: Bracelet from Graham-Campbell & Kidd, Sweden Bottom Right: Hacksilver from Philpott.
10th Century Viking Silver Hoard Appendix E: Making A Torc
Layout of pieces shown with a completed piece.
Soldering of the ends with torch
Before twist shown with finished twist
Twisting the Torc
Newly finished twist shown with the previously twisted piece