Bracelet (fragments)

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These two fragments of a silver bracelet are part of a hoard of hacksilver buried at Lews Castle at Stornoway on Lewis in the Outer Hebrides sometime between 990 and 1040.

The bracelet was decorated with two parallel rows of punched dots. It has a nick - a small cut made to check silver purity when the silver exchanged hands.

In the Viking world, silver and gold were used as a medium of exchange, weighed on balances. Neck rings and bracelets of silver almost always occur in Viking hoards, not graves, suggesting that their economic potential was as important as their ornamental

Record details

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• Online ID: 000-100-126-804-C
• Image Rights Holder: National Museums Scotland
• Project: National Museums Scotland
  Project description   View all records in project
• Ref: National Museums Scotland  X.1991.5.27.2
• Date: Deposited between 990 and 1040
  
• Material: Silver
  Silver
  Arm ring / fragment / part
  Arm ring / fragment / part
  
• Dimensions: 26 mm L
  46 mm L
  
• What: Arm ring / fragment / part
  Arm ring / fragment / part
  
• Subject:
• Who:
• Where: Scotland, Isle of Lewis, Stornoway (Lewis Castle)
  Scotland, Isle of Lewis, Stornoway (Lewis Castle)
  
• Event:
• Description: Part of a silver ornamented arm-ring fragment (in two joining pieces), part of a Viking hacksilver hoard from Lewis Castle, Stornoway, Isle of Lewis
  Part of a silver ornamented arm-ring fragment (in two joining pieces), part of a Viking hacksilver hoard from Lewis Castle, Stornoway, Isle of Lewis
  
• References:
  • Graham-Campbell, James. The Viking-age gold and silver of Scotland (AD 850-1100). Edinburgh: National Museums of Scotland, 1995, pp. 52, 59-60, 147-52. 
• Translations:
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