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Northern Europe, Scandinavia, Viking or Norse culture, ca. 9th to 11th century CE. A beautiful pendant shaped from 94.76% silver that depicts Mjolnir, the legendary hammer wielded by the Norse thunder god Thor. The hammer is decorated on one side with a series of petite triangular stamps, each containing 3 raised nodules, and the handle is further embellished with 2 gilt silver foil wraps. The perforated handle tip enables the pendant to be worn on a necklace strand. Size: 1.56" L x 0.76" W x 0.15" H (4 cm x 1.9 cm x 0.4 cm); silver quality: 94.76%; gilt silver panel quality: 69% silver, 22.91% gold; weight: 8.3 grams

Small Thor's hammers were worn as religious amulets throughout the Viking era, usually made of silver and usually hung on silver chains. Some even made it to the Christian era; there is a famous example of a Thor's hammer amulet from Fossi, Iceland, that has been turned into a cross. The chain itself, meanwhile, is a style of knitwork done with thin silver wire that seems to have originated with the Vikings. The important Viking metalworking shops correspond to their great trading ports and proto-urban centers - Birka, Helgo, Sigtuna, and Lund in Sweden, Ribe, Haithabu (Hedeby), and Fyrkat in Denmark, and Kaupang and Trondheim in Norway. Silver was the principal currency of the Viking world, which stretched from Russia to northern Canada at the height of their influence. In many places, the Vikings kept silver not as coins, but as jewelry, a wearable currency form that was not subject to the authority of a monarch or mint. One of the most common archaeological finds from the Viking period is a hoard of metal objects, often buried in the earth or deposited in bodies of water, like river beds. These are found in great quantities throughout the British Isles and the Nordic countries.

Provenance: private Colorado, USA collection; ex-private collection, acquired through European art markets between the 1970s and 1990s

All items legal to buy/sell under U.S. Statute covering cultural patrimony Code 2600, CHAPTER 14, and are guaranteed to be as described or your money back.

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#181128

Minor abrasions and light softening to some finer details, otherwise intact and excellent. Wonderful luster and patina throughout!