Islamic Ring found in Viking grave sheds a new light on ancient ties …

[zorgon]

Islamic Ring found in Viking grave
sheds a new light on ancient ties ...


The Viking Age ring with the Arabic inscription.
Credit: Christer Åhlin/Swedish History Museum.

May 17, 2016
Vintage News

The finger ring discovered in a 9th-century Swedish grave, inscribed with Arabic Kufic writing, interpreted as reading "il-la-lah", i.e. "For/to Allah," sheds a new light on the ties between the Vikings and the Islamic world. The finger ring was originally found  during a late 19th-century grave excavation in the town of Birka, about 19 miles (30 kilometers) from Stockholm. on Björkö island.

In a paper published in the journal Scanning,  the experts say  this  the only ring with an Arabic inscription found at a Scandinavian archeological site,  and it is a unique object among Swedish Viking Age material. . Birka was a key trading center during the Viking age and made a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1993.
The Islamic ring is now a part is of the Swedish History Museum's collection, originally catalogued as being made of gilded silver and violet amethyst, bearing the inscription "Allah."

Stockholm University biophysicist Sebastian Wärmländer and a team of researchers  say they used"scanning electron microscopy (SEM) with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) to analyze the ring's composition and discovered that it was in fact made of silver alloy and the "amethyst" was colored glass.

"For the stone, we must remember that even though colored glass might today be perceived as a 'fake' material of lower value, this was not necessarily so in the past," the team cautioned. "Even though glass production began around 5,000 years ago in the Levant it was still an exotic material in Viking Age Scandinavia."

More importantly, the  team of researchers found no trace of the gold that had been assumed to coat the ring and noted the presence of filing marks.

"Together with the absence of gold on the metal surface ... the file marks clearly show that the previous description of the ring as gilded was mistaken: if the surface had been gilt and the gold layer had worn away, also the file markings would be gone. But the metal surface displays no wear, and as the original file marks are still in place, this ring has never been much used."

Therefore, the team believes that the ring was passed from an Arabic silversmith to the woman. The ring may therefore, constitute material evidence for direct interactions between Viking Age Scandinavia and the Islamic world.

"It is not impossible that the woman herself, or someone close to her, might have visited — or even originate from — the Caliphate (which then stretched from Tunisia to the borders of India) or its surrounding regions," they said.

"The importance of the studied Birka ring is that it most eloquently corroborates ancient tales about direct contacts between Viking Age Scandinavia and the Islamic world. Such contacts must have facilitated exchange of goods, culture, ideas, and news much more efficiently than indirect trade involving several merchants in-between," they concluded.

SOURCE: Vintage News

https://www.thevintagenews.com/2016/05/17/the-islamic-ring-found-in-viking-grave-sheds-new-light-on-ancient-ties-2/

[zorgon]

Garmarna - Herr Mannelig

Herr Mannelig (also known as "Herr Mannerlig" and "Bergatrollets frieri [The Courting of the Mountain Troll]") is a medieval style Swedish ballad that tells the story of a female mountain troll who proposes marriage to a knight. The troll is trying to convince Sir Mannelig (Swedish: Herr Mannelig) to marry her. She offers him many great gifts but he refuses her, because she is not a Christian woman but a troll (a dysphemism for a Pagan woman). She is desperate about her failure, because winning Sir Mannelig would have "freed her of her torment" (presumably of a curse).Early one morning before the sun rose up.

[The Seeker]

Very interesting find, Herr Zorgon; does make one contemplate just how far the Vikings did roam in their long boats, just as Scott Walthers has reportedly found many indications that Vikings trod the soil of America and left many records of their presence here long before any european knew it was here...


Seeker

[zorgon]

Images in the video are from this film

[Irene]

I don't know how they could mistake that stone for amethyst. It so obviously isn't.

[Shasta56]

I remember learning in school that the Vikings visited north America long before Columbus bumble his way to the other side of the ocean.

Shasta

[zorgon]

I remember learning in school that the Vikings visited north America long before Columbus bumble his way to the other side of the ocean.
Shasta

Erik the Red Discovering Newfoundland  by Hans Dahl

New fould land very original name huh?

[fansongecho]

Sorry but I don't buy that image of the ring - did they carbon date the whole ring ?

I do believe the Vikings got to America first tho' they were legendary 

Cheers !

Fans'