Spears and Angons
Sword
Shield
Helmet
Mailcoat
Homepage
Maps
Burial Practices
Artefacts
The Ship
Bibliography
Other Interesting Sites
. If this is the case, then the significance of
these artefacts lies not in their function as armoury but rather as
symbols of links to a past heritage. Helmets from Vendel and
Valsgarde have similar eyebrow and nose armoury but differ from
the Sutton Hoo helmet in that they were constructed in strips rather
than from a single sheet of metal and that they used mail as a
protective curtain for the lower section of the face and the neck area
instead of neck and ear flaps (Bruce-Mitford 1975:201-202).<p>
<p><p><p><p>
The burial also contained a collection of other
day to day military equipment including a mail coat, axe, knife,
javelins and spears. The inclusion of these articles makes it similar to a
number of burials of the ordinary male population inhumed with
personal
items of weaponry. In the seventh century there was a significant
change
in the symbolism attached to weapons burials in comparison with
previous centuries. They still signified social status, age and affiliation
but not ethnicity as in the fifth century and by the early eighth century
weapons burials had disappeared altogether.
Harke has suggested that as the practice of burying weapons with the
dead declined it was replaced by living practices that do not survive
in the archaeological record that served to delineate status,
wealth, ethnic and religious affiliation, familial ties and age (Harke in
Carver
1992:149-164).<p>
<hr>
Specific information can be obtained by clicking on any of the
following:<br>
<ul><li><a href=)
Spears and Angons
Spears and Angons