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Stirrup

975–1075
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 301
Though the Vikings are best known as seafaring warriors, through contact with Europe they grew even more adept as cavalrymen. This stirrup, decorated with a distinctive technique of iron inlay, is of a type found in England and may have been introduced in the renewed Viking attacks at the end of the tenth century.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Stirrup
  • Date: 975–1075
  • Geography: Made in possibly southern England
  • Culture: Anglo-Scandinavian
  • Medium: Iron with copper alloy inlay
  • Dimensions: Overall: 10 x 5 1/2 in. (25.4 x 14 cm)
  • Classification: Metalwork-Iron
  • Credit Line: Fletcher Fund, 1947
  • Object Number: 47.100.23
  • Curatorial Department: Medieval Art and The Cloisters
More Artwork
Stirrup, Iron, silver, copper, North European, possibly northern Germany
North European, possibly northern Germany
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Bow Brooch, Silver with gold-sheet overlay and garnets, East Germanic
East Germanic
400–450
Stirrup, Iron, copper alloy, German
German
ca. 1520
Marble Portrait Bust of a Woman with a Scroll, Pentelic Marble, Byzantine
Byzantine
late 4th–early 5th century
Saddle, Saddle Pad, Stirrups, Rein, Stirrup Straps, Bit and Bridle, Breaststrap, Tassel, and Crupper, Iron, gold, copper, turquoise, wood (fruitwood), leather (buckskin, doeskin), linen, silk, wool, hair (yak), Tibetan
Tibetan
18th–19th century

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