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Back to previous pageLOT 1665
Sold for (Inc. bp): £143
CIRCA 9TH-11TH CENTURY A.D. OR LATER
1 1/4 in. (32 grams, 30 mm).
A hacked irregular hammered silver ingot, probably melted down loot creating a monetised piece of 'Hack' for Viking trade; X-ray Fluorescence analysis provides the following results: Ag (91.7%), Cu (4.09%), Fe (3.69%), Zn (0.19%), Au (0.19%), Pb (0.13%). [No Reserve]
PROVENANCE:
Ex property of a UK gallery, early 2000s.
This lot is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D'Amato.
LITERATURE:
See Hårdh, B., Silver in the Viking Age. A Regional-Economic Study, Acta Archaeologica Lundensia no.25, Stockholm, 1996; Blackburn, M., Viking Coinage and Currency in the British Isles, London, 2011.
FOOTNOTES:
Ingots of gold and silver were regularly produced in the Early Medieval period when trade took place between monetised economies (Anglo-Saxon England, Francia, Frisia) and their non-monetised neighbours in southern Scandinavia (Blackburn, 2011). Ingots were a convenient means of storing wealth which could be converted into display items (weapon fittings, clothing fasteners, tableware) or used to gild silver and bronze items (Hårdh, 1996).
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