ANCIENT VIKING GOLD RING - CIRCA 9th/10th CENTURY (2211)

Description

BEAUTIFUL VIKING GOLD RING
A BEAUTIFUL SCANDINAVIAN VIKING GOLD RING
FORMED OF A THICK GOLD BAND SLIGHTLY TAPERING
DECORATED WITH A RAISED CENTRAL RIDGE AND TRIANGULAR STAMPED
DECORATIONS EITHER SIDE
H
IGH PURITY GOLD 22-24KT
WEIGHS 11.4 GRAMS
MEASURES: US 7 & UK N
DATES: CIRCA 9TH/11TH CENTURY AD
Northern Europe, Viking culture, ca. 9th to 11th century CE. A solid gold ring . This would have belonged to a wealthy Viking with a large hand. Many Vikings did not have a standard minted currency available to them, and so instead kept their wealth in the form of jewellery made from precious metals. A common practice seems to have been to amass a hoard of these objects and then deposit them, often in water sources like rivers. Gold rings - like all gold objects - were rare, and are only found in graves of the highest status. In pagan Viking culture, so roughly before the turn of the millennium, gold rings were used to swear oaths on and as markers of the godi, members of the Thing (governing assembly); some scholars have speculated that their deposition in hoards was an attempt to save them from violation with the coming sweep of Christianity. Perhaps this ring has a similar history.
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