Aska tomb

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Copy of a silver Freya amulet from Aska

The grave of Aska near Aska / Hagebyhöga in the province of Östergötland has a special position among the Viking Age graves in Sweden due to the quality of its finds.

Grave content

The cremation of a woman was not far from the Askahögen under an approximately 6.0 meter wide loop . The grave from the second half of the 10th century contained well-made and preserved silver jewelry, a bronze vessel , bronze jewelry and harness , including four collar fittings and four bridles .

The silver jewelry consists of seven pendants, a fitting and a shamrock brooch . Five of the pendants are pear-shaped, gold-plated curls , which are decorated with small silver rings and silver grains and a cluster of coarser silver grains at the tips. They are reminiscent of the older, filigree gold curls .

The Aska curls may come from southern Russia, the area that is regarded as the region of origin for the gold curls of the Roman Empire . That would mean that the form of jewelry, based on Scythian- Greek models, would have lasted there for more than 500 years. In the times when there were connections between the north and the Pontic region, this form found its way into the north - once as an idea, once as a finished product.

A round, filigree pendant is made of silver. A square, openwork silver pendant shows a quadruped fighting a snake. A spout-shaped end fitting of a knife handle was used as a pendant and is adorned with a helmeted warrior's head in bas-relief. The cloverleaf brooch, decorated in boron style , is the only silver object to show traces of fire.

A carafe-like , approximately 30 cm high bronze vessel with a handle may come from Samarqand or Bukhara and was negotiated during the Samanid period (810–1005). A similar bottle, remodeled in the olden days, lay in a body grave near Tuna / Hjälsta in the Uppland province , a second was the container for the silver treasure from Fölhagen / Björke on Gotland , a third, filled with Arabic coins, was near Bertby / Saltvik recovered in Åland and a fourth was in a cremation grave near Klinta / Köping on Öland .

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Coordinates: 58 ° 26 ′ 55.8 "  N , 14 ° 58 ′ 18.8"  E