Maritime and Medieval seminar: The Viking Age Shields from the Ship Burial at Gokstad

The early find of the 64 Viking Age round shields from the Gokstad ship burial has almost singularly shaped our understanding of Scandinavian shields of this period. Despite their significance, however, the shield material has never been published in full nor been subjected to any substantial examination since their discovery in 1880. The current understanding of the shields is thus highly limited, tainted also in part by the preconception that they potentially represent ceremonial shields for the burial rite as well as assumptions of homogeneity. 

This seminar will present the results from a recently published re-examination of the shield boards from the Gokstad ship burial and critically assess the potential function(s) of the shields. Despite their fragmented state, these artefacts significantly contribute to a more nuanced understanding of the construction and role of Viking Age shields, especially when coupled with other well-preserved archaeological shield finds and the scholarly corpus available on such shields.

Rolf Warming is an Archaeology PhD candidate with the Centre for Maritime studies.

Read more:

Article: The Viking Age shields from the ship burial at Gokstad: a re-examination of their construction and function

Rolf Warming researcher profile

About the seminar

To get a link for the seminar on Zoom, send an email to: sekreterare@medeltid.su.se.

This seminar is held in collaboration between the Medieval seminar and the Maritime seminar. 

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