Hanging Bowls - Olvik Thing

Metal hanging bowl from a rich female grave in Skei,
Nord Trondelag, Norway (Viking Heritage, p. 32).
Hanging Bowls
28 hanging bowls have been found in Viking contexts,
with others found in Anglo-Saxon and Irish sites.
Earlier hanging bowls are fairly plain. Over time, the
bowls were ornamented with escutcheons on the
inside center, bottom center, and below the hanging
rings. The most elaborate hanging bowl is from the
Sutton Hoo burial; the bowl featured a stag statue
standing on an enameled escutcheon in the middle of
the bowl. The purpose of hanging bowls is still not
known. though it has been suggested that they were
used as oil lamps, as storage vessels, or for food.
This unusually-shaped 6 th -7 th century wooden
hanging bowl was found in Cuillard, Ireland.
Note the bowl’s similarity to the Skei, Norway
bowl. The ruler shows 10 cm. (Earwood, p. 104)
This 7 th century copper alloy hanging bowl with
enameled escutcheons came from Winchester,
Hampshire, England (Youngs, p. 48).
Irish copper-alloy hanging bowl inlaid with enamel
found in an 8 th -9 th C man’s grave in Myklebustad,
Norway (Philpott, pages 12 & 73).
Hanging bowl from Sutton Hoo burial Mound 1,
with inlaid enamel escutcheons. Diameter 310
mm, restored (Carver, p. 134).
Sunnifa Gunnarsdottir (Charlotte Mayhew) crmayhew@comcast.net September 2011 27

Soapstone Bowls
Soapstone bowls were used for food preparation, serving,
and/or eating, depending on their size.
9 th C 33.5cm diameter soapstone bowl from
Fitje, Gloppen (Roesdahl & Wilson, p. 244).
This 57.5 cm soapstone bowl from Kollsøyo, Fjellberg,
Hordaland, Norway, is the largest example of a common
Viking type. Soapstone bowls were often exported from
Norway and SW Sweden (Roesdahl & Wilson, p. 250).
Soapstone bowl (Simpson, p. 60).
“This hemispherical bowl recovered in the excavations at Stöng is made of local volcanic tuff, a more readily
available material than the soapstone that was characteristically used to make bowls of this type in the
Scandinavian homelands.” The bowl is Viking or just post-Viking. (Graham-Campbell, VW, p. 172)
Sunnifa Gunnarsdottir (Charlotte Mayhew) crmayhew@comcast.net September 2011 28

These two soapstone pots were found in the Jarlshof, Shetland, excavations (Haywood, p. 180).
A selection of steatite and soapstone lamps
from Scotland; note the different shapes.
“Small round bowls occur in all periods, while
oval ones were used mostly in the 10 th and 11 th
century. The square ones became popular in
the 11 th century.” (Owen, p. 33)
These square steatite bowls were also found at Jarlshof, Shetland. The vessels found there range in shape
from round, to oval, to square or rectangular, depending on the time they were made (Ritchie, p. 62).
Sunnifa Gunnarsdottir (Charlotte Mayhew) crmayhew@comcast.net September 2011 29