What are the dates on these tools?
number 21 in particular.
(Ric pulled the image off an earlier blog posting. There is a more detailed image, with a bit more information, on my disk 'Exploring the Viking Age in Denmark'.)
The labels at the Roskilde Museum were fragmentary at best. What was there was also in (surprise) Danish.
The case section was labelled 'Lejre 900 BC - 1000 AD'
My only notes on that group say 'Hammer head on left 3 x 3 cm by 10 cm long'
Lejre, by the way, is just to the west of Roskilde. There is a very excellent archaeological research and living history site there.
One of the things to remember is that in Scandinavia, there is not the same definition of 'Viking Age' as is used in the English speaking side. To Danes, there is an 'Iron Age' - then 'Medieval', with the break at 1000 AD.
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| About life size - from "the Mastermyr Find' Arwidsson & Berg |
There is a similar hammer found in the Mastermyr Tool Box (Gotland)
Number 68, described as a 'stretching hammer' (and I would agree, having made and used a replica).
3.0 x 2.1 cm by 14.8 cm long - weight at 481 gms
Note that the Mastermyr set has been recently re-dated to closer to 1150 AD.
As this puts the two tools in roughly the same weight class - and that at the very bottom end weight for forging iron, I would suggest the Roskilde Museum sample is also intended as a tool for deep dishing - maybe for bronze cauldrons.
PS: Frequent Readers may notice the pattern here. I often try to respond to e-mails with rather long replies. These however often get modified and turned into blog postings. Just a word to the wise...
PPS: It has been a month since I prepared this piece, for some reason I have not been able to get it actually published to the blog (???)
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