Assembling the Full Cast: Ritual Performance, Gender Transgression and Iconographic Innovation in Viking-Age Ribe
Pieterjan Deckers|Sarah Croix|Søren M. Sindbæk
VIKING-AGE ICONOGRAPHY is mostly studied through stone sculpture and carvings metal dress accessories, which are often poorly contextualised finds. Here we present a new approach by studying an assemblage of casting moulds for figurative accessories from early 9th-century workshop context in Ribe (Jutland, Denmark). We provide digital reconstructions the fragmented moulds, including ‘Valkyrie’ pendants showing female figures bearing weapons. Comparable finds mainly found western Scandinavia, motifs demonstrate familiarity with images Classical Antiquity Carolingian Renaissance. By highlighting iconographic stylistic parallels tapestries Oseberg ship burial, apply novel perspective to discussion armed woman motif other Viking-Age art. argue that common theme not portrayal heroic or mythological beings, but instead ritual performance, women played central role. also consider implications urban production this group objects.
Medieval Archaeology