Viking Twist Earrings - The Metropolitan Museum of Art

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Viking Twist Earrings

	The Viking period began in the late 700s A.D. when Scandinavian warriors, driven from their homeland by social pressures, political strife, and quest for trade, raided coastal lands in the British Isles and Europe, even reaching North America. Aided by their swift, elegantly built ships, the Vikings (named after the Old English word for “pirate”) explored and colonized vast regions, trading from Greenland to Constantinople. Viking men and women wore jewelry as a visible badge of wealth and status. The decorative vocabulary of weapons, pins, brooches, pendants, and buckles of precious metals and bronze was dominated by stylized animal patterns, sometimes reaching an abstraction of great complexity and sophistication. More simple pieces, such as neck rings and thick metal armbands, are notable for their size and extravagant use of gold or silver. A twisted design, formed from two or more strands of thick silver or gold wire, is one of the most basic abstract motifs found in Viking art. The Museum’s earrings are based on an original Viking ring featuring three twisted gold wires, and dating from the late Viking period, around the 10th–11th century A.D. Produced in cooperation with The British Museum, London. 24K gold plate. Length 1 1/4 in., width 1 1/8 in. Pierced, with 14K gold ear posts. Viking Twist Earrings 09-020801 Member Price: $58.50 each Non-Member Price: $65.00 each Quantity: