X-ray, of strike-a-lights

A strike-a-light (also known as a fire-steel) was a metal object used with flints to create sparks and start a fire. This x-ray shows two iron examples included as grave goods in two Viking men's graves excavated at Westness on Rousay in Orkney. They were used between 850 and 950.

The shape of the strike-a-lights is characteristic of examples found in Viking graves and settlements in Scandinavia and the British Isles.

Methods to produce fire have always been important. From an early period, flints were struck against suitable stones. Later, fire-steels of iron were used.

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