A fragment from a pre-Viking helmet that is likely one of the most luxurious ever present in Scandinavia have been found in Lejre, within the northwestern of the Danish island of Zealand. The fragment is gold-plated bronze adorned with pink garnet gems and intricately engraved zoomorphic determine. The design of the animal determine — its pronounced enamel and huge eyes — date it to between 650 and 750 A.D., the late Germanic Iron Age proper earlier than the daybreak of the Viking Age round 800 A.D.
The helmet fragment consists of two adjoining items that match collectively completely, forming many of the curved brown ridge. The items had been found by two metallic detectorists within the spring of 2024. The artifacts are labeled as danafae (archaeological finds of treasured metals) and due to this fact property of the state. The finders instantly handed them over to the Nationwide Museum of Denmark who documented the discover with a fast turn-around so it might be loaned again to Lejre Museum for show.
For greater than 5 centuries within the late Iron Age and Viking Age, Lejre was a royal seat and a significant middle of energy. As there aren’t any written data from the period, the one sources we’ve for the kings of Lejre are Icelandic sagas and eddas (thirteenth century prose and poetry texts on Norse mythology), chronicles heavy on the legendary just like the twelfth century Gesta Danorum and poems like Beowulf. The literary sources cite Lejre as the primary royal seat, the house of the Skjöldung or Scylding clan, the legendary first ruling Danish dynasty, however there was no historic proof to verify its significance.
Archaeological excavations stepped into the breach. The primary stays of a royal corridor had been unearthed in 1986. A number of extra royal halls have been discovered within the 40 years since, together with a large one discovered within the 2009 excavation. At 200 ft lengthy and 40 ft extensive, it’s the largest royal corridor ever found in Denmark. It dates to the late eighth or early ninth century. These halls had been the place the ruler would sit on a excessive seat and obtain his topics and friends. The dates of the grand halls discovered there bear witness to Lejre’s standing as a royal seat of ruling dynasties for 500 years.
Now the helmet fragment provides to the royal archaeological file of Lejre. The supplies and craftsmanship recommend a ceremonial function relatively than fight {hardware}, and Lejre was not a battle web site within the Late Germanic Iron Age. The Danish elite converged there for spiritual and political functions and for commerce. There are ornamental parts of the helmet fragment which can be similar to ones present in England and Sweden, suggesting Lejre’s helmet could have been an import.
The helmet emphasizes the grandeur and standing that we see in Lejre’s corridor buildings and funerary monuments from the identical interval. In keeping with Julie Nielsen, it was a really particular object devoted to a king or an individual who ranked highest within the web site’s extremely divided hierarchy:
“The deep pink garnet has lengthy been related to power. The detailed ornamentation on the helmet tells a narrative, a story, in regards to the huge energy of the one that owned and wore it,” says the archaeological chief. […]
Archaeologist and senior researcher at Uppsala College John Ljungkvist has carefully studied the helmet fragment from Lejre and highlights its distinctive development:
“The place in different helmets we see three separate brackets which can be put collectively, this helmet’s eyebrow arch is constructed in a single piece. We haven’t discovered something like this new variant of the unique helmet earlier than.”
The truth that a helmet of that caliber might be produced is, in John Ljungkvist’s eyes, distinctive:
“It’s craftsmanship of a really particular high quality – on par with the craftsmanship behind the well-known helmet from the Sutton Hoo shipwreck in England.”
