EARLY MEDIEVAL PENDANT

1000

Viking silver pendant. The pendant is tear-shaped, hollow, and convex at the front, with an integral loop at the top for suspension; height, 35 mm. The front is decorated with an incised, diagonal, cruciform design formed by four tear-shapes with their broad ends pointing towards the centre, which is pierced by a hole within a circle. There are four other holes at the cardinal points and the design is enclosed by two grooves, the upper one curving in arcs round the outer holes. A further groove round the edge of the base is joined to the lower groove at each side by two short, vertical lines. The back is flat, with a raised circle in the centre that is pierced by an irregular hole. Beneath the loop at the front is a raised V shape.The perforations on the front suggest that the pendant may have been filled with an aromatic substance, for use as a sort of pomander, although analyses at the British Museum of the associated soil sample from inside the pendant have not been able to establish any evidence for plant material or resin. A similar usage has been suggested for a group of perforated, cylindrical capsule-pendants of the Viking period from Scandinavia (W. Duczko, 1978-79, 'Vikingatida silversmycken i Mora-skatten. Den icke-monetära delen av en nyupptäckt silverskatt från Dalarna', Tor, 18, 311-358, figs. 24-5; H. Eilbracht, 1999, Filigran- und Granulationskunst im wikingischen Norden, Cologne, 132, Taf. 12: 174-5).The decoration of the pendant with a diagonal cross of tear-shapes is comparable with a motif occurring in early to mid 11th-century Viking sculpture (although with reversed orientation of the 'tears'), e.g. on grave-slabs from London and Sweden (S.H. Fuglesang, 1980, Some Aspects of the Ringerike Style, Odense University Press, pls. 54: 89 and 102-3). The double connecting lines at the sides also appear to be an element of the Ringerike style, as on silver hooked tags from Crowfield, Suffolk (SF4140, dated to the 11th century by Leslie Webster), and Brabourne, Kent (KENT-AB7CA4, 2004T327). See Treasure Annual Reports for 2000, p. 39 and fig. 53; and 2004, p. 73 and fig. 95. A similar dating is accordingly suggested for the pendant from the Irthington area.Compare another three-dimensional silver object, this time of late 8th- or 9th-century date, CAM-4DB246. Two other English objects decorated with a cross made by removing four point-outwards drop shapes from a circle are BERK-8E4641, a die stamp thought to be of late 7th-century date; and LIN-1C1D22, a possible pin head thought to be of 8th-century date.