Rare pendant added to collection

IPSWICH Borough Council has added a rare early Viking pendant to its heritage collection – thanks to financial support from The Friends of Ipswich Museums.

The silver pendant is probably an Anglo-Scandinavian product, dated to the time of the main Danish settlement in East Anglia after around 879.

It shows a male warrior wearing a long dress-like tunic holding a shield and sword. It was found near Wickham Market last year by a local medal detector and declared Treasure Trove. Ipswich Museum has managed to purchase it with financial assistance from the Friends of Ipswich Museums.

The pendant can be compared with a series of similar, early Viking-period, usually female figures of the 9th century from Scandinavia and England

Danish Vikings plundered eastern England from the 8th century onwards, before settling in East Anglia after around 879. This can be seen in local place names. Suffolk's Viking place-names are Ashby, Barnby, Eyke, Lound, and Risby. Ipswich's prosperity in the late Saxon period was probably responsible for the fact that it was frequently the target of Danish raiders; they plundering the town in 919 and again in 991. The town was among the last targets of Danish raids on East Anglia in 1069.

Viking metal-detector finds from East Anglia easily outnumber those from other parts of the country. Mostly from the late 9th, 10th and 11th centuries and are predominantly small objects of personal adornment - brooches, buckles, pins etc, manufactured both in Scandinavia and locally in Scandinavian styles.

Sally Dummer, Registration and Collections Manager at Ipswich Borough Council, said: "This is an exciting acquisition, as the archaeology collections has very few objects from the Viking period. The Museum is very grateful to the Friends of Ipswich Museums for their assistance with this purchase. The pendant is now exhibited in the Viking display in the Ipswich Story at the High Street Museum.