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The Viking period often seems very long ago, and
it's hard to imagine what people looked like back then. The
discovery of a little figure of a woman in silver cuts down the
distance through time to the Danes' ancestors in Viking times. The
figure has many details that give us new knowlegde about Viking
women's clothing, jewellery and culture.
The find called the "Revninge Woman" is a
genuine sensation, since it puts a face and a body on the Viking
times.
According to Claus Feveile, archaeologist,
department for Landscape and Archaeology at the Museums of Eastern
Funen:
"Small figures depicting people from the Viking
era are extremely rare. The Revninge Woman's clothing is unusually
detailed and will, without any doubt, contribute to the discussion
about what clothing could look like in that period. At her waist,
she is wearing a trifoiled brooch. Its placement at her waist is
rather surprising, since we usually see it, in burials, placed up
on the chest. What is extremely unusual is the figure's head, which
is in 3D, while the body is flad, in 2D. Normally this type of
small figure is in 2D.
The figure
The little woman is 4.6 cm. high, made of solid
silver and then gilded. The body is flat and two-dimensional, while
the head, quite unusually, is three-dimensional. Through the
figure's neck, there are small holes, showing that the figure was
worn as a pendant. The face has finely drawn features. The hair is
parted in the middle and pulled tightly back into a little bun. She
holds her hands before her on her belly. Her dress has long arms
and reaches down to her feet, which peek out below. Each part of
her costume is separately defined with either grooves, rows of
beads or stamped circles.
Around her neck, she wears what appears to be a
large necklace, perhaps beaded or of gold, showing several rows.
Between her hands, in the middle of her belly, there is a brooch
that looks like many well-known finds of Viking trifoiled brooches.
In Viking graves, they are normally placed on the chest, but here
the brooch is placed differently, on the belly.
The figure is dated to the 9th century.
From May 28 and the whole summer, the Revninge
Woman will be on display at the Viking Museum at Ladby, where
everyone can come and see the more than 1100 year old lady.