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Details
LOT 1425
Viking Silver Inlaid Iron Weight
9TH-11TH CENTURY A.D.
1 1/2 in. (176 grams, 38 mm).
Polyhedral weight bearing Insular Style inlaid decoration in the form of serpentine creatures in tondos, on a silver inlaid background. [No Reserve]
Provenance
Private collection formed in Europe in the 1980s.
Westminster collection, central London, UK.
This lot is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D'Amato.
Literature
Cf. similar weights in de Wilde, R., Weights, Scales and Pawns of Ancient Civilizations, 2017, p.172; cf. also for the type, Reynolds, A., Webster, L., Early Medieval Art and Archaeology in the Northern World, Studies in Honour of James Graham-Campbell, The Northern World, North Europe and Baltic c.400-1700 A.D., Peoples, Economies and Cultures, Leiden-Boston, 2013, p.303, type 6.
Footnotes
These weights were adopted by the Vikings from Middle Eastern examples and appear to have become a typical weight standard for traders. They are, in archaeology, an important form of evidence for the Viking commerce. Many of them, like those found in Ireland and of Arabic type, suggest a standardised system of weights in different areas.
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