Norse Age Belts

Class Notes from Norse Belts

by Dirk

Preface to the web edition:

The pages below are notes from my class on belts. The automatic translation from word processor to a web document is far from perfect but it was taking me too long to rework the file by hand. There are some omissions, errors and oddities as a result; I apologize in advance for any confusion this might cause. Right or wrong, I decided it was better to get some of the information out than none at all.

- Dirk

Class description

Summary of details around Viking Age (793-1066) belts, with heavy influence from Birka (settled c800, abandoned by 1070) & Gotland. Available skins and some discussion of tannery techniques. Size and morphology of strap and hardware including buckles, strap-ends and distributors, stays, and plaques. Methods of construction and decoration, including evidence for tooled and painted leather as well as simple metal surface decoration techniques. Methods to make & use two simple tools: rivet heading tool and decorative metal stamps.

Some things I’d like to get across:

� Belts on Viking women are fine by me: Norse woman’s grave in Scotland had a belt � Looks to me like belts were narrow (~0.75” give or take) and probably not dangly � Bronze sheet metal and brazing rod can make perfectly period Viking belt hardware � You get what you pay for, and this is FREE

All references are at end. Listings are by [book and page#].

Belt Nomenclature:

Hopefully this sketch of a typical belt is self-explanatory. These are the terms used in this paper; there may be better terms, but this is what I chose.

Jomsborg

Page 1 of 43Viking Age Belts

8/4/2011mhtml:file://F:\WMA\Research\NOT EBAY - Viking Age Belts-www.jomsb.org-dirk-newb...

The reason for identifying the “loop” and “bar” separately is that in some buckles these are two different parts which are connected to make a buckle.

Strap Overall Size & Shape = Short + Narrow

Few leather artifacts of any type survive! Belt depictions suggest it should be short and narrow.

Three contemporary (or nearly so) depictions of belt width and length:



A belt buckle and strap-end found in a Viking woman’s grave in Scotland [27 pg 75].

Belt Width: 0.75” is average

Results shown below of measurements from scaled photos of buckles and strap-ends found at Birka and

A. Middleton Cross [1, pg12]: Viking warrior wearing a narrow, non-dangly belt

B. Cnut the Great on Liber Vitae [2]: Appears to be wearing a belt hidden in tunic folds. No dangle shown and belt must be fairly narrow.

C. Bayeux Tapestry (sample) [3, frame 25]: Could be a wider belt (can’t trust proportion on this source), but regardless, clearly has no dangle.



on Gotland. Buckles associated with bridles and other horse trappings were not counted. Width of a buckle was either the width of the heel bar or connector plate, or, in the case of buckles with wider mouths than connector plates, the average of the two. Strap end width was taken at the widest point, usually where the strap attached. Results were rounded to the nearest tenth of an inch.

Birka material totaled 23 buckles and 18 strap ends (buckle avg = 0.7” wide, strap-end avg = 0.6”). Gotland material totaled 76 buckles and 48 strap ends, distributors, and stiffeners (buckle avg = 0.8”, other = 0.7”). Stiffeners appear to be statistically slightly wider than strap-ends.

[4 plates 86…90] [5 pgs 124..129 & 132..139]

If you MUST have a WWF style wide belt… call it Frankish- unpublished finds by Dr Henrik Schilling suggest Frankish belts were as much as THREE INCHES wide.



Belt Length: re-enactor style dangle unlikely… sorry…

Birka grave 1074 contained a plaque belt. Half of the plaques are facing up and half are facing down. The belt therefore appears to originally have been looped around the body (i.e. worn as a belt). The single loop of plaques with the relatively close position of the strap-end and buckle indicate the belt did not dangle:

Birka grave 716 contained a belt with more plaques than required for one loop around the body; there are clearly two rows of plaques on the right side. The top right corner appears to lead to the strap-end (sequence indicated by poorly sketched arrow). The strap-end, however, was too wide to fit through the buckle and therefore does not necessarily indicate an extra-long belt

The photo below shows the strap end and buckle. Thestrap-end could not have gone through the buckle

[6, pgs 446 & 249]



The extra plaques and strap-end could be an add-on "dangly decoration," probably attached at some middle point on the belt and hanging straight down. An example of this style from Gotland is shown reconstructed below in the decoration section. An alternate explanation is that this plaque belt is a "wrap and a half" belt like the mongolian style belt reconstructed below.

[28, pg 78]

Belt Thickness: 1..2mm is probably good

Thickness: A study of 8 strap-ends and stiffeners from Gotland and Birka suggested belt leather averaged approximately 2mm thick.



[5 plates 131, 138, 139] [4 plate 86]

Because few, if any, examples of belt leather survive, it’s reasonable to use other existing leather artifacts to estimate leather thickness:

� The average scabbard material in the Museum of London was also 2mm thick "calf leather" [7 pg 34]. Note, however, the museum material begins chronologically in the 1100s, slightly late for the traditionally accepted "viking age."

� shoe leather � wallets � Staples on the Sutton Hoo shoulder clasps w/2mm internal opening (ie leather ≤ 2mm thick) [16

pg 52] � 10th c York scabbard covers calf skin of 1..2mm thick [16 pg 54]

Note typical modern belt blanks are more than 3mm thick… probably too thick but not horrible.

Note also bits of leather are found attached to the back of metal belt parts; leather is a fine material to use!

Strap Construction and Decoration

Belt Leather: Pretty much anything on four legs is fair game

Analysis of bone finds from Birka showed a wide variety of possible sources of skins, furs and hides. Identifying leather fragments is difficult but this suggests that the animal furs were at least available, if not in use.



[16, pg 87]

Although sheep skin is not noted above, King Athelstan of Kent outlawed sheep skin for use on shields in the 10th c so the material was in use [16 pg 52].

Tannery technology

The two major tanning methods available appear to have been brain tanning and vegetable tanning (for example, using oak bark). Brain tanning methods have been used from Paleolithic times. [16 pg 7]

Vegetable tanning is probably a more useful technique for the modern re-enactor. The Stoneyhurst Gospel of St John (interred on Lindisfarne in 687) was bound in vegetable tanned sheep or goat skin [16 pg 46]. In addition, three pits at High Ousegate in York, measuring 7mx3m, were found containing a sand/lime mixture. This combination and setup is thought to be a de-hairing step preparatory for tanning. Later period pits which are better documented as to their use are very similar [16 pg 15].

Generally the tanning process appears to have alternated layers of oak chips/bark with leather, then filling the pit with water and waiting. Analysis of some leather fragments from York suggest oak tanning [16 pg 16].

Belt Leather Decoration: Dye and Paints



Dye Examples:

Stoneyhurst Gospel & Codex Bonifatianus I are both dyed red- probably from madder; it is possible to get blue from woad and purple from lichens, as well. Ecclesiastic vellum was sometimes dyed purple. [16 pg 49, 50]

Paint Examples:

Paint pigments have been found on several book covers: The Stoneyhurst Gospel has some blue or silver, and yellow pigments, and the Cadmug Codex has some gold pigment on it.

A fragment of leather from the shield found at Ballateare was painted- it’s shown here colorized to match the text description. [10 pg 60]

Period colors extrapolated from modern experimentation, and some equivalents found in a c1122 manuscript (slightly late). Note these were generally intended for wood, but the pigments are available

ColorBy Hazel Uzzell

Ref. Theophilus [15 pgs 14..16]

� White � Red

Ochre � Iron

Oxide � Red

Lead � Yellow

Iron Oxide

� Yellow Ochre

� Fish Bile � Green

White: white lead, gypsum or chalk

Red: burnt ocher, cinnabar, red lead, vegetable, and madder

Yellow: ocher, arsenic sulphide, saffron

Blue: azurite, indigo, vegetable juices

Violet: unknown



Belt Leather Decoration: Tooling & Stamps

Many examples of freehand tooled leather exist.

Sheaths from York show tooling with blunt and sharp implements [14 pg 84]. Note the design itself mimics a knife and would not be appropriate for a belt.

The Staraya Ladoga shoes have simple incised spiral decoration at the end of one seam [20 pg 40]

The cover of the Stonyhurst Gospel was elaborately tooled with Celtic knotwork. The raised spirals are

Earth � Woad � Azurite � Egyptian

Blue � Lapis

Lazuli � Verdigris

recipe, but referenced

Green: copper acetates & chlorides (salt green)

Black: thornwood extract and green vitriol



probably supported by cord glued to the wood beneath. This is fine work: the book is less than six inches tall! [17 pg 81]

An artifact often interpreted as a bookbinder’s leather stamp, found in England. Stamping on books is a technique imported from the Eastern Mediterranean [17 pg 84]. Believed to be based on Coptic bookbinding techniques, this item has been questioned as to its function.

The Cronk Moar scabbard, with moulded leather supported by glued cords underneath [10 pg 73]:

Belt Leather Decoration: Metal Bits



Here’s a reconstruction of an add-on “dangly bit” on a Gotlandic belt. The tassles are sheathed in helical sheet metal coils. [21 plate 195b] Some sources believe this is a uniquely Gotlandic fashion statement; this may not be true based on the plaque belt from Birka grave 716 discussed above.

Circular and three-way strap distributors were used in place of the square plate in some cases, or to join two shorter pieces of leather. [5 pg 136]

The interpretation of baldric parts found at Ballateare included this use of a circular strap-distributor [10 pg 74].

Strap-distributors appear to have been a point of attachment for other items. In this case it appears a man may have suspended a knife or a comb from his strap-distributor [22]



Some romantic cast Viking belt plaques, suitable for a Valentine’s Day gift [4 pg 88]:

Plain sheet metal rectangles are fine, too [5 pg 139]

Belt Leather Decoration: Embroidery

The picture below (from an anonymous Swedish source) shows some dyed cloth colors available using natural dyes.



I have found no evidence that belts were ever embroidered, but here are some other examples of embroidered leather:

Belt Leather Decoration: Gilt

Examples of “gilt” leather:

� Ecclesiatic vellum written on with silver & written on in silver or gold ink (Theophilus describes production of gold and tin leaf) [15 pgs 29]

� Gilded leather was appliqued to shoes in the 12th c [8, pg 77] � Gold directly on the surface of 7th c scabbard from Essex [17 pg 171]:

Belt Hardware

Buckle Design

Buckles were either wrought (from rod stock, for example), or cast. Casting allows more variations of shape and decoration.



Some simple, period buckle designs are fairly easy to purchase. Here is a buckle made of three pieces of rod. It should be connected to the strap by a sheet metal attachment plate.

Designs also appear with combined plate+loop or plate+tongue. The bone buckle examples below are of this design as well. The metal versions are cast, or, as with the skeletal buckles, could be approximated by working with a large chunk of raw material (like bar stock).

Gotland example [5 pg

125]

Birka example

[4 pg 86]

Gotland example

[5 pg 124]



Buckle Shapes

Buckle sizes were discussed in the section on straps: 0.75” appears to be an average internal width. External dimensions are often driven by the decoration.

Shapes include square, oval, pointed, and lobed, and some are what I’d call “buckle shaped.”

Some common shapes:

At the end of this handout there are pictures of quite a few buckles.

Buckle Materials

Bronze (or perhaps brass) is the most commonly identified buckle material. There is speculation that a considerable volume of brass was mis-labeled as bronze- regardless, both are period materials. One well-known example of brass appears in the in the hoops on the Oseberg buckets; bronze was available beginning in, well, the Bronze Age. A more detailed discussion of the history of metallurgy is beyond the scope of this paper.

Other than copper alloys, buckles of iron, silver and bone are all easily documented. In the case of iron

Square from Birka

[4 pg 86]

Oval from Birka

[4 pg 86]

Pointed from Gotland

(3 bar buckle!)

[5 pg 127]

Lobed from Gotland

[5 pg 124]



buckles, however, it appears these were generally used on horse trappings such as girth straps.

Buckles of bone from various places [13 pg 104] and a bone strap-end from York [14 pg 81]:

Attachment Plates

Some buckles are found without any obvious method to attach them to a strap; it is therefore possible that the leather strap looped through the buckle as in modern belts. This is, however, the exception rather than the rule. Far more common are simple sheet metal attachment plates.

Attachment plates cast in one part with the loop or tongue are easily documented as well.

A buckle with integral cast attachment plate from Gotland [5 pg 129]

A silver buckle from the Cuerdale horde (could be a small

brooch)

[12 pg 236]

An iron buckle from an apparent saddle girth-strap found at Balladoole [10 pg35]

A lead alloy buckle from York [11, #3100]



Cast three bar buckle with sheet metal attachment plate from Birka [4 pg 86]

Sheet metal attachment plate, decorated with dotted-triangle stamping from Gotland [5 pg 124]

At the end of this handout there are pictures of quite a few attachment plates.

Strap-ends

There is as much, if not more, variation in strap-ends as in buckles.

Strap-ends are generally slightly narrower than their corresponding buckle. Materials vary across the same varieties as for buckles. The common methods for making a metal strap-end were either to cast it or cut it from sheet metal.

In the case of sheet metal types, the strap-end folded over the tip of the belt and came back up on the back side. These sheet metal versions are sometimes stamped but often have only simple scribed lines just inside the edge of the sheet metal, as a sort of border. There are examples with simple horizontal or vertical lines as decoration, as well.



A large number of surviving cast strap-ends could have easily been made in an open faced mold, such as the one below. These are fairly broad, flat designs with low relief in the casting. Note on the example at left, the ring-dot designs appear to have been drilled by a spade type bit, based on the clear conical shape indicated by the shadows.

Other cast strap-ends have substantially three-dimensional designs, such as the one show below (with “ears!”). These were probably made in a clay mold, although some are so elaborate and open-worked that a lost wax/ investment type of casting may have been used. It is fairly common to see some kind of zoomorphic design on strap-ends, particularly an animal head at the terminus.

Note the delicate open work in the cast three-way distributor strap ends below. Considering the extent of open-work, the three dimensional design and the apparent undercuts, it is possible these were cast in a kind of lost-wax/investment process.



At the end of this handout there are pictures of quite a few strap-ends.

Belt Hardware - Methods of Manufacture

Wrought Buckles

Buckles were commonly either wrought from existing material, e.g. bone or wire rod, or cast. Making a buckle from bone requires only a knife and, possibly, a drill.

For example, this Gotlandic attachment plate shows side-by-side partial ring-dots and complete through holes from what appears to be a spade type drill [5 pg 127].

Some simple buckles appear to be made from joined sections of metal rod (brazing rod would work well!) [5 pg 125].

Tools used might include a hammer, plate shears and a drill. In addition, a punch, chisel, or stamps can be used for simple surface decoration. All of these are either documented or easily extrapolated for the Viking age.

Casting

Shown below is evidence for three types of casting.



Both open faced and two-part rigid molds were used. Below are shown some broken 2-part clay molds for brooches from Ribe [23 pg 33]. Below are soapstone molds from Dublin for making ring-headed pins [24 pg 116].

Casting tools would include crucibles, tongs, a mold, and a heat source. Crucibles have been found at York [14 pg 55], and tongs were found in the Mastermyr toolbox [26].

Original masters for casting could have been carved from nearly anything. In particular, the Coppergate Helm’s nasal shows “…even the laying-out lines, made by its designer when he carved the original master-mould into wood..” [14 pg 39].

I have found no direct evidence of sand casting. Lost wax or investment cast type processes are implied, however, by some surviving cast artifacts such as the hollow thistle brooch terminals from Scotland [18], or the cast undercuts on this 10th century Gotlandic brooch from the British Museum.



Belt Hardware Decoration Option: Stamps

Buckle plates and strap-ends are often found with some kind of stamped surface. Dotted-triangles (second row below) are the most common design. The stamps below are a summary of those found on Scottish gold and silver jewelry from the Viking Age. For scale, the tallest stamp (bottom right corner) is 0.73” tall [18 pg 59].

Art styles

The chart below may be misleading in that it implies one art style gave way to another. In fact, the major recognized styles appear to have as much to do with geography as chronology. I’m including this chart to inspire the reader, and perhaps help him or her nail down a personna’s time period by using a period style decoration on a belt buckle or strap [19 pg 66]:



Rivets



Modern rivets,including the copper variety marketed for making belts, are generally much larger than those used in period. The easiest way around this is to buy small nails (“brads”) used for fine woodwork and cut them to length. These are available in brass at any decent hardware store. Brass is period; many, many brass artifacts survive. There is even some question as to whether the items identified as bronze (i.e., a copper and tin alloy) in 19th c excavations were, in fact, brass (a copper and zinc alloy).

Size:

Unfortunately I ran out of time to do a thorough measurement analysis on rivet size. Sorry! Keep an eye on my web site.

Manufacture:

In period, a smith would probably have started by drawing wire through a drawplate like the one shown at left.

The smith then would have put a shoulder on a length of the wire, and headed the nail in a special tool like the example from the Mastermyr box, shown below.

To make my rivets, I skip the drawplate step by purchasing bronze or brass brazing wire. Then I skip the forging steps by going directly to a nail heading tool. The result is a relatively flat head rivet.

The heading tool is a thick piece of metal with a hole drilled through it. The tip of the rivet is supported by an anvil while I form the rivet head.

The drawing below shows how this works; the photo shows a rivet.



REFERENCES

[1] Margeson, Viking,Alfred A. Knopf, 1994 ISBN 0-679-86002-9.

[2] http://www.trin.cam.ac.uk/sdk13/MSS/LiberVitae1.jpg, converted to black and white for clarity

[3] The Bayeaux Tapestry, early 12th c.

[4] Arbman, Birka I: Die Gräber (Tafeln) K. Vitterhets Historie Och Antikvitets Akademien, 1943.

[5] Thunmark-Nylén, Die Wikingerzeits Gotlands II: Typentafeln, Kungl. Vitterhets Historie och Antikvitets Akademien, 1998 ISBN 91-7402-287-3.

[6] Arbman, Birka I: Die Gräbe (Text) K. Vitterhets Historie Och Antikvitets Akademien, 1943.

[7] Cowgill, Neergaard & Griffiths, Knives and Scabbards, The Boydell Press, 2000 ISBN 0-85115-805-6

[8] Walton, Textiles, Cordage and Raw Fibre from 16-22 Coppergate, York Archaeological Trust 1989, ISBN 0-906780-79-9.

[9] Grew & Neergaard, Shoes and Pattens, The Boydell Press, 2001 ISBN 0-85115-838-2.

[10] Bersu & Wilson, Three Viking Graves on the Isle of Man, The Society for Medieval Archaeology Monograph Series: #1, 1966.

[11] The World of the Vikings (CD-ROM), York Archaeological Trust and the National Museum of Denmark.

[12] Roesdahl, The Vikings, Penguin Books 1987 ISBN 0-14-012561-2.

[13] MacGregor, Bone, Antler, Ivory and Horn, Totowa: Barnes and Noble, 1985. ISBN 0709932421.



[14] Hall, The Viking Dig, The Bodley Head, 1984 ISBN 0-370-30802-6.

[15] Theophilus, On Divers Arts, Dover 1979 ISBN 0-486-23784-2.

[16] Cameron, Leather and Fur, Archetype Publications 1998, ISBN 1-873132-51-4.

[17] Campbell, John and Wormald, The Anglo-Saxons, Penguin 1982 ISBN 0-14-014395-5

[18] Graham-Campbell, The Viking Age Gold and Silver of Scotland, National Museums of Scotland 1995, ISBN 0-948636-62-9.

[19] Fitzhugh & Ward, Vikings The North Atlantic Saga, Smithsonian Institution Press 2000 ISBN 1-56098-970-x

[20] Swann, History of Footwear in Norway, Sweden and Findland, Kungl Vitterhets Historie Och Antikvitets Akademien, Stockholm 2001 ISBN 91-7402-323-3

[21] Thunmark-Nylén, Die Wikingerzeits Gotlands I: Abbildungen der Grabfunde, Kungl. Vitterhets Historie och Antikvitets Akademien, 1998 ISBN 91-7402-241-5.

[22] Carlson, ”Viking Knives from the island of Gotland, Sweden,” ArkeoDok CD.

[23] Jensen, The Vikings of Ribe, Den antikvariske Samling 1991, ISBN 87-982336-6-1

[24] Fanning, Viking Age Ringed Pins from Dublin, Royal Irish Academy 1994, ISBN1-874045-28-3

[25] Graham-Campbell and Kidd, The Vikings, British Museum Publications Ltd 1980 ISBN 0-7141-1353-0

[26] Arwidsson and Berg, The Mästermyr Find, ISBN 0-9650755-1-6

[27] Graham-Campbell and Batey, Vikings in Scotland, Edingburgh U. Press, 1998 ISBN 0-7486-0641-6

[28] Arwidson [ed], Birka II:2 Systematische Analysen der Graberfunde, Almqvist & Wiksell International 1986 ISBN 91-7402-169-9

AHOLOTTA BELT HARDWARE…



From Birka



From Birka



From Birka



From Birka



From Birka



From Gotland



From Gotland



From Gotland



From Gotland



From Gotland



From Gotland



From Gotland



From Gotland



From Gotland



From Gotland



From Gotland



From Gotland



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Norse Age Belts