To bring some sunshine to your timeline, an imitation gold solidus minted in Frisia in the 860s/870s, probably by Scandinavians, and ending up in Bickmarsh (Worcs.) in a hoard with coins of Burgred of Mercia. 📷 Treasure Hunting magazine

We've been looking at iron for the last few weeks, so I thought we'd go to the other end of the spectrum for today's Viking camps #FindsFriday: away from rusted tools and weaponry and into the realm of shiny jewellery! Well, it is nearly Valentine's Day... This is gold cross DB1713 from Aldwark. 1/

A month ago I posted a map of single finds of Carolingian coins from Denmark, 2016-2025. Here's Norway (for the same book). Unsurprisingly, finds cluster in Østfold and Vestfold – the regions most closely linked with the Danes and the raids on the Continent. White: 1 coin, yellow: 2-4.

What a fabulous object added to the collection of the Musée de Cluny! I used to live just down the road, but unfortunately now too far away to attend the lecture... www.musee-moyenage.fr/activites/pr...

What a fabulous object added to the collection of the Musée de Cluny! I used to live just down the road, but unfortunately now too far away to attend the lecture... www.musee-moyenage.fr/activites/pr...

This afternoon! Nelleke speaks about #Frisia, #Vikings, North Sea connections and much more. In Dutch 🇳🇱 but with an English translation available. www.rug.nl/about-ug/lat...

"The skeleton of a young 6ft 5in-tall (1.9m) Viking-era man who had undergone trepanation has been found in a mass grave in Cambridgeshire." It's too early to say whether he was Anglo-Saxon or Scandinavian. #vikings #medievalsky www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

For #FindsFriday the Tønsberg hoard from Vestfold (Norway). a-e: Louis the Pious, Christiana religio; a: Dax; b: Melle; c Sens; d: Paris; e: uncertain mint; f: Æthelstan. There is also a small fragment of a second coin of Melle. Photos: Kim Arneson Svingen and Tore Sørensen.

Anyone out there want to tell the good people of Cardiff about #vikings? royalhistsoc.org/calendar/nor...

The Skumsnes hoard from Vestland in Norway: eight Christiana religio deniers and one Ecgberht of Wessex (802-839), Rochester mint, from a woman's grave. Also present: two early Danish pennies (KG 3:5 and 4:2). a: Dax; b-e: Melle; f-g Paris; h: Reims; i: Ecgberht. Photos: Søren Diinhoff. #medievalsky

For #FindsFriday Scandinavian imitations of Frankish deniers, found at Castricum in Noord-Holland, for a chapter in a book ed. by @ccooijmans.bsky.social. One copies a coin of Louis the Pious, one Lothar I: we know #vikings were settled in this area. Find report at www.academia.edu/43960277/2020

Interesting line-up of numismatic events for this year including talks from @lucymoore.bsky.social and @scoupland.bsky.social among others…

Do you want to read about recent #viking period textile finds from Denmark, Estonia and Norway? (and earlier and later things too, including Roman scale armour). You'll find them all here, in Archaeological Textiles Review 67: atnfriends.com/wp-content/u...

For #FindsFriday two very small gold bars from the #viking age found in Denmark (🇩🇰 East Jutland) last month www.tv2ostjylland.dk/randers/muse...

An amazing 5th C bronze cauldron now going on display after 10 years of restoration and research france3-regions.franceinfo.fr/grand-est/au...

Tomorrow - livestream of a #Viking evening at the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden in Leiden, with talks in Dutch but then at 20:00 UK time in English! rijksmuseum-van-oudheden.webinargeek.com/vikingverhal...

Who'd like to see a #viking sword from the Netherlands? I mean, who wouldn't?! www.gld.nl/amp/nieuws/8...

🚨By-elections to be called automatically when MPs defect to another party - lets get this to the 100,000 signatures needed petition.parliament.uk/petitions/73...

Similar to these!

For #FindsFriday a fabulous set of Carolingian sword belt mounts found near Deventer in 2022. Long ago while writing my PhD I drew how they were worn. portable-antiquities.nl/pan/#/ensemb...

New book just out by Thomas Cirotteau, Lucie Malbos & Éric Pincas - Vikings : enquête sur les femmes des terres gelées cescm.hypotheses.org/35266

For #FindsFriday a map of Danish single finds of Carolingian coins from 2016 to 2025, most unpublished. This is for a chapter in a book being edited by @ccooijmans.bsky.social. It shows that Frankish coins were reaching all parts of Denmark, not just trading centres or royal estates.

For #FindsFriday the Hiddensee hoard, found in the 1870s in Neuendorf, Lkr. Vorpommern-Rügen. Scandinavian style and Christian crosses suggest a late 10th C date. The neckring is 13.5 cm, the brooch 8 cm, the cross pendants 5.1–6.9 cm. Total weight: 595.5 g pure gold. Now in Stralsund Museum.

The largest medieval kogge merchant ship yet discovered, found in the Øresund off Copenhagen and professionally excavated - dating from c 1410 and built in the Netherlands. www.vikingeskibsmuseet.dk/nyheder/arka...

For St John the Evangelist's day a beautiful little (34 mm) 9th-C Anglo-Saxon gold plaque bearing his symbol, an eagle, found in Brandon (Sufolk) and now in the BM. www.britishmuseum.org/collection/o...

As we approach Christmas here's another ivory depiction of the nativity - this time in whalebone, on the early 8th C Anglo-Saxon Franks Casket. MAGI is written in runes above - the bird leading them is seen as the Holy Spirit (dove or duck? 😂) 📷 British Museum www.britishmuseum.org/collection/i...

For #MosaicMonday a gorgeous colourful mosaic of garlands and birds in the Vatican collection. 📷 my own.

As tomorrow I am leading our carol service, here's a gorgeous Carolingian ivory of the nativity in the Vatican (Vat 64477). 📷 my own.

A conference coming soon... rmblf.be/2025/12/17/c...

For #MosaicMonday one of the glorious mosaics in the baptistery of San Giovanni in Fonte in Naples cathedral. 5th century. 📷 my own 3/3

For #MosaicMonday one of the glorious mosaics in the baptistery of San Giovanni in Fonte in Naples cathedral. 5th century. 📷 my own 2/3

For #MosaicMonday one of the glorious mosaics in the baptistery of San Giovanni in Fonte in Naples cathedral. 5th century. 📷 my own

For #FindsFriday the gilt & niello silver mounts from Östra Påboda, Söderåkra, Sweden, clearly Carolingian sword-belt mounts that have been converted into ornaments. See their originally use in a detail of the Vivian Bible, produced in Tours in the 840s. Images: SHM / gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/b...

The e-book version is already available, including my chapter on dodgy Carolingian priests, Simon on Carolingian coins and many other great things: brill.com/display/titl...

What a gorgeous winter's day

What a joy: my 12th academic article/ book chapter/ book review of 2025! Of course I didn't write them all this year - it's the fruit of 3 years' work all coming out at once...

For #MosaicMonday I love the simple but profound beauty of a geometric design - from Boscoreale, Pompeii. Picture my own.

More on the remarkable Roman era hoard found recently in France: www.tf1.fr/tf1/jt-13h/v...

Enmeshed in marking, but just thought I'd point out that this article is now out, open access: Simon MacLean, arguing that the Astronomer's Life of Louis the Pious could be rather later than historians have assumed: might 'the Astronomer' be Jonas of Orleans? onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

For #FindsFriday the most significant #Viking discovery in recent decades, apparently little known among scholars of Scandinavian history.

Recently published - open access! Full of good stuff to read. #medievalsky #vikings books.ub.uni-heidelberg.de//propylaeum/...

Just uploaded to Knowledge commons another book chapter - the whole volume can be read or downloaded at books.ub.uni-heidelberg.de//propylaeum/... Dorestad and the North: Frankish Connections to Scandinavia works.hcommons.org/records/ez2e...

Just added to my Knowledge Commons works: Carolingian Frisia and the Vikings: Confrontation and Cohabitation works.hcommons.org/records/4ary...

I asked ChatGPT for an image of a fire-breathing dragon guarding a princess in a tower - for a school assembly. Unfortunately AI doesn't appear to understand the word GUARDING! 😂 (Thankfully that didn't matter)

For #FindsFriday a denier of Lothar II (855-869) from Cologne, found at Valkhof in Nijmegen. The mangled forms of the king's name (which is written backwards) and the mint-name led to these coins long being unidentified. 📷 Collection Valkhof Museum

Une équipe de l’Inrap et du Service de l’archéologie du département d’Indre-et-Loire a fouillé deux sites proches à Monts et Sorigny (Indre-et-Loire) et ont mis au jour un établissement aristocratique gaulois ainsi qu'une occupation rurale médiévale. En savoir plus 👉 www.inrap.fr/un-site-gaul...

A second Thor's hammer find this year in Østfold (Norway)

For you fans of Roman history and numismatics out there - exciting stuff!

Environmental DNA evidence of settlement in Iceland from c. 810 rather than the 870s - and much more besides. Summarised in the New Scientist but that's behind a paywall. Here's the original research. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

For #FindsFriday one of the coins from the Skumsnes hoard from western Norway - 7 Carolingian, all Louis the Pious Christians religio (most from Melle), 2 early Danish and this one of Ecgberht of Wessex, (802-839), Rochester mint. A very rare and exciting find!