Brooches, bangle and bead

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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.

Record details

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• Online ID: 000-000-099-734-C
• Image Rights Holder: National Museums Scotland
• Project: Kiloran Bay Viking Burial (multimedia essay)
  Project description   View all records in project
• Ref: National Museums Scotland  X.IL 350
• Date: 10th century
  10th century
  Between 800 and 950
  
• Material: Amber
  Jet; plano-convex in section
  Oval; bowl-shaped; formed of two convex plates
  Oval; bowl-shaped; formed of two convex plates
  Bangle
  Bead
  Brooch
  Brooch
  
• Dimensions: 100 mm L x 68 mm W
  108 mm L x 68 mm W
  28 mm D
  64 mm interior D
  
• What: Bangle
  Bead
  Brooch
  Brooch
  
• Subject:
• Who:
• Where: Scotland, Orkney, Sanday
  Scotland, Orkney, Sanday
  Scotland, Orkney, Sanday
  Scotland, Orkney, Sanday, Cross and Burness, Lamaness
  
• Event:
• Description: Oval brooch formed of two convex plates, with tiny textile fragment under the pin, from Sanday, Orkney, 10th century
  Oval brooch formed of two convex plates, from Sanday, Orkney, 10th century
  Jet bangle from Lamaness, Sanday
  Amber bead from the south end of Sanday, Orkney
  
• References:
  • Graham-Campbell, James and Batey, Colleen E. Vikings in Scotland. An Archaeological Survey. Edinburgh: University Press, 1998, pp 56-7. 
  • Grieg, Sigurd. Viking Antiquities in Scotland (=Viking Antiquities in Great Britain and Ireland, Part II, ed. by Haakon Shetelig). Oslo: H. Aschehoug & Co., 1940, pp. 86-8. 
• Translations:
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