Brooches, bangle and bead

These brass oval brooches, lignite bangle and amber bead were found with a bronze ringed pin and burnt bones at Lamba Ness on Sanday in Orkney. They are typical of grave goods placed in Scandinavian women's burials.

The perforated outer shells of the brooches are decorated in high relief with animal ornament. They are both damaged. The amber bead was an expensive item, imported from the Baltic region. The lignite bangle imitated expensive jet examples.

A number of pagan Scandinavian burials are known from the fertile island of Sanday, suggesting that it was early settled by Vikings. This burial is unusual in being a cremation, since the Scandinavians in Scotland usually practised inhumation burial rites.

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