#valuble

Does anyone know if this is valuable

The Vikings Sacrificed to the Gods in Rivers and Lakes

A doctoral dissertation from 2009 shows that the Vikings sacrificed valuable and beautiful objects to the Norse gods and their forefathers at bridges and fjords because they believed they were the boundary between the living and the deceased.

The thesis by Julie Lund, Lecturer at the Department of Archaeology, Conservation and History at the University of Oslo – offers an insight into sacrificial customs of the Viking Age lasting from year 793 – 1066 AD.

Previously it was believed that this type of sacrifices came to an end in the Migration Period around year 500, but it turns out that the tradition continued into the Viking Age.

Bridges and Fjords

The Vikings used special places in the landscape for these rituals. Bridges and fjords were particularly important because they served as a boundary between the living and the deceased. Viking settlements and burial sites were almost always close to water or connected by a bridge.

Lund examined the findings from about thirty sacrificial sites in Scandinavia, from the River Thames in Southern England and the River Shannon in Ireland. Places that came under Scandinavian influence in the Viking Age. Many of the sacrifices or ritual closures took place at bridges.

Many of the sacrificial sites were named after Norse gods, such as Tissø in Denmark, i.e. Tyr’s lake – the god of war and the one who decided who won battles.

An important discovery is that these special places often are highlighted in Norse sources as central to how people perceived the world.