Uncoiling the Serpent

Snake Figurines in the Viking Age

Bibliographic Data

ID21802598
AuthorsLeszek Gardeła (0000-0003-2913-4718, National Museum of Denmark, corresponding author)
Year2020
Volume16
Pages27-61
Publication date2020-01-01
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueViking and Medieval Scandinavia (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1782-7183 • E-ISSN: 2030-9902
PublisherBrepols Publishers NV (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1484/j.vms.5.121518
OpenAlexW3118103636
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited22

This paper examines the corpus of rare Viking-Age miniature objects in the form of coiled snakes. Artefacts of this kind are made of silver, copper-alloy, gold, jet, and wood, and are discovered in graves, hoards, settlements, and as stray finds. In funerary contexts, they are typically found in connection with women, often buried with various ritual paraphernalia strongly suggesting that their owners had an important role to play in pre-Christian religious practice. By conducting a thorough analysis of the materiality of snake figurines, and by investigating their different variants and the wider contexts in which they are found, this paper attempts to unravel the symbolic and social significance of these curious miniature objects

Aesthetics · Ancient history · Archaeology · Art · Copper alloy · Ethnology · Human settlement · Paraphernalia · Sociology · Visual arts · Anthropology · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Historical and Archaeological Studies · History · Medieval Literature and History

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