File:Early Medieval Viking gaming piece (plan, profilex2 and base). (FindID 595453).jpg

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Summary

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Early Medieval Viking gaming piece (plan, profilex2 and base).
Photographer
Birmingham Museums Trust, Angie Bolton, 2014-01-16 15:27:47
Title
Early Medieval Viking gaming piece (plan, profilex2 and base).
Description
English: Four Early Medieval (9th to mid 11th centuries) Game Pieces: All the pieces are cast lead or lead alloy pieces which have an oxidised light cream coloured surface. All four are hollow with thick walls.

The first gaming piece is a conical shape with a rounded apex. Around the sides of the apex there are five integral spurs with protruding tips. There are slight, irregular spaced, vertical ridges on the surface between the spurs. The base of the conical is a sub-oval and reveals the conical is hollow with walls which are 4.13mm thick. The piece measures 21.17mm long, 22.42mm wide and 20.51mm thick. It weighs 28.8g.

The second gaming piece is very similar to the first, and is a conical shape with a rounded apex. Around the sides of the apex there are six integral spurs with protruding tips. There are slight, irregular spaced, vertical ridges on the surface between the spurs. The base of the conical is a sub-oval and one side has been squashed and recently damaged as fresh lead is revealed, possibly damaged in retrieval. The base reveals the conical is hollow with walls which are 3.63mm thick. The piece measures 22.41mm long, 26.04mm wide and 18.04mm thick. It weighs 41g.

The third gaming piece is a short conical in profile, with a rounded apex. Protruding from the side of the apex is an irregular shaped sprue which is obliquely angled. The base reveals the conical has a circular cell making the lower half of the conical hollow with walls which are c. 3mm thick. The piece measures 17.77mm long, 26.26mm wide from the side conical face to the tip of the sprue and 19.38mm thick across the base. It weighs 26.8g.

The fourth gaming piece is a short conical in profile, with a rounded apex. Protruding from the side of the apex is a small knop which may be traces of a sprue such as that on the third piece. The base reveals the conical is hollow with walls which are c. 3mm thick. The piece measures 15.37mm long, 17.24mm wide and 16.06mm thick across the base. It weighs 17.9g.

A four sided version of pieces 1 and 2 is presented by Biggs and Withers (2000), citing Viking examples (Campbell, 1980). As a game piece, it might represent the distinctive king in Hnafetafl; the resemblance to a rook or castle in modern chess is both fortuitous and anachronistic (Foreman: NLM-6787D0).

Barry Ager (British Museum) commented on these four pieces that they probably were Viking gaming pieces.

There are over fifty examples of Viking gaming pieces on the PAS database including NCL-C12321, NCL-CFFFC7, NCL-FC8D35, NARC-D27851, SF-6F5256, SF-6F7361, LIN-E9D6E4, SF-1CB627, SF-D43C93, SF-80C447, CAM-BC3444, SWYOR-132D85, NLM-6787D0 and DENO-0A2465, most of which are from the east of England, with one example from Leicestershire, and two from Cheshire.

Biggs N. and Withers, P. 2000 Lead Weights: The David Rogers Collection, White House Publications and Galata Print Ltd, Llanfyllin, page 33 no. 84

Campbell, G. J. 1980, Viking Artefacts: A Select Catalogue, British Museum Publications, London, page 265 plate 307 no. 1
Depicted place (County of findspot) Solihull
Date between 900 and 1050
Accession number
FindID: 595453
Old ref: WAW-7A7653
Filename: WAW-7A7653d.jpg
Credit line
The Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS) is a voluntary programme run by the United Kingdom government to record the increasing numbers of small finds of archaeological interest found by members of the public. The scheme started in 1997 and now covers most of England and Wales. Finds are published at https://finds.org.uk
Source https://finds.org.uk/database/ajax/download/id/452768
Catalog: https://finds.org.uk/database/images/image/id/452768/recordtype/artefacts archive copy at the Wayback Machine
Artefact: https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/record/id/595453
Permission
(Reusing this file)		 Attribution-ShareAlike License
Object location52° 24′ 06.84″ N, 1° 42′ 37.76″ W Kartographer map based on OpenStreetMap.View this and other nearby images on: OpenStreetMapinfo

Licensing

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w:en:Creative Commons
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Attribution: The Portable Antiquities Scheme/ The Trustees of the British Museum
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current06:55, 26 January 2017Thumbnail for version as of 06:55, 26 January 20173,920 × 4,336 (2.58 MB)Fæ (talk | contribs)Portable Antiquities Scheme, WAW, FindID: 595453, early medieval, page 2317, batch count 695

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