DMXX
03-18-2015, 12:39 PM
Engraved Ring Suggests Viking, Islamic Contact
STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN—The recent examination of a ring excavated from a ninth-century grave in the Viking trading center of Birka, Sweden, more than 100 years ago suggests that Vikings had contact with Islamic civilization. The silver ring is adorned with a violet-colored piece of glass (long thought to have been an amethyst) engraved with an inscription that reads “To Allah” or “For Allah” in Arabic. A scanning electron microscope revealed little sign of wear on the ring, indicating that it had few owners before it was buried in the grave of a Viking woman. Ancient texts mention contact between Scandinavians and members of Islamic civilization, but such archaeological evidence is rare. “Being the only ring with an Arabic inscription found at a Scandinavian archaeological site, it is a unique object among Swedish Viking Age material,” the scientists, led by biophysicist Sebastian Wärmländer of Stockholm University, wrote in the journal Scanning, reported by Science News. To read more in-depth about the archaeology of Vikings, see "The Vikings in Ireland."
[Source (http://www.archaeology.org/news/3090-150317-sweden-viking-ring)] (via Archaeology.org)
http://www.archaeology.org/images/News/1503/Viking-Islamic-Ring.jpg
I'm no archaeologist or an expert on Viking history, but there surely must be other reasons why such an item didn't receive much physical wear... Worn around the neck rather than on the fingers (thus less contact with variable surfaces)? Kept carefully as an ornament for trade rather than a personal item?
It is a nice looking ring nonetheless.
STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN—The recent examination of a ring excavated from a ninth-century grave in the Viking trading center of Birka, Sweden, more than 100 years ago suggests that Vikings had contact with Islamic civilization. The silver ring is adorned with a violet-colored piece of glass (long thought to have been an amethyst) engraved with an inscription that reads “To Allah” or “For Allah” in Arabic. A scanning electron microscope revealed little sign of wear on the ring, indicating that it had few owners before it was buried in the grave of a Viking woman. Ancient texts mention contact between Scandinavians and members of Islamic civilization, but such archaeological evidence is rare. “Being the only ring with an Arabic inscription found at a Scandinavian archaeological site, it is a unique object among Swedish Viking Age material,” the scientists, led by biophysicist Sebastian Wärmländer of Stockholm University, wrote in the journal Scanning, reported by Science News. To read more in-depth about the archaeology of Vikings, see "The Vikings in Ireland."
[Source (http://www.archaeology.org/news/3090-150317-sweden-viking-ring)] (via Archaeology.org)
http://www.archaeology.org/images/News/1503/Viking-Islamic-Ring.jpg
I'm no archaeologist or an expert on Viking history, but there surely must be other reasons why such an item didn't receive much physical wear... Worn around the neck rather than on the fingers (thus less contact with variable surfaces)? Kept carefully as an ornament for trade rather than a personal item?
It is a nice looking ring nonetheless.