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The Vallentuna Helmet

Although Uppland, Sweden and the surrounding area has produced twelve helmets from the Vendel period (this includes the Vendel, Valsgärde and the Ulltuna helmets), these are only the most well know and documented Vendel age helms found in the area. My research shows that in addition to these helms there are a few more less know helms around (and probably many more in the ground;)

One of these helms is actually a fragmentary find from a most remarkable cremation grave of a 40-50 yr old man from the Rickeby cemetery in the Vallentuna parish of Uppland. At one time Rickeby was one of Vallentuna's most important farms, In prehistoric times it was probably the largest settlement in the parish. It can be estimated from the size and dating of the the other Rickeby graves (currently though to number in the hundreds) that Rickeby existed from the late Bronze Age to the early Viking Age. Coincidentally, the name Rickeby is from the prehistoric Swedish word Rinker, which means warrior

While sifting through the cremation layer of the grave, 2000 fragments of objects were found, unfortunately since it was a cremation grave many of these fragments were greatly damaged by fire. With the very high artistic and technical standard of these objects, they can be dated to around 600 AD. Fragments of the following were found in the grave: a helmet, drinking vessels, combs and gaming pieces of antler. Interestingly enough the gaming piece was carved with runes of the Elder Futhark. This piece is only the third such find of the 24 type futhark runes in Uppland.

As with the other helms of the Mälar(en) Valley area these helm is reconstructed in the fashion of the Valsgärde/Vendel helmets.

The helm is composed of a low cap with shallow concavities forming part of the eyeholes, a nasal and a face mask made up of two curved strips. One links each side of the nasal with the cap forming the rest of the eyeholes (sometimes called an ocular.) The basic Valsgärde-like framework of the helm is the standard brow band, nose-to-nape band and lateral bands BUT the way the interstices are filled is up in the air but is currently being reconstructed as solid fill plates. Encrusted mail remains on the brow band suggest that protection for the neck and checks was probably provided with a mail curtain that is hung from the caps edge and lower part of the ocular. There are crest remains but only a small section of the body, as there are no extant ends I think it is safe to assume that the crest ended in animal heads on both ends like the rest of its Vendel style counterparts. There are also remains of what could be eyebrows that seem to be contoured, but again since they are only fragmentary there is no solid evidence that they eyebrows ended in animal heads as many of the helms of the same style do. Also like the other helms of this sort the whole helm was probably covered by decoration in the form of the "copper alloy foils framed and held in place by strips held in place by copper alloy rivets" system common on most of the other helms of the region/time. It would probably be considered a Group B2 by Arwidsson's classification.

With all the similarities mentioned above it obviously influences with the other Mälar(en) Valley people. 

Any information on the subject/area is welcome, please contact the site owner with details.

Up until recently, all I had been able to turn up on this find are the pics listed below and a few small bits of information that I was lucky enough to have passed onto me by someone who I have become very appreciative over the last year or two.

The thing I find funniest about the first image below is that if most folks were flipping thru a book and saw this image, they would assume its the Valsgärde 8 find and continue on by it without a second though. Truth is, this is a totally separate find that just happens to have a very similar helmet and body armor.

The Second image shows some of the helm fragments from the Vallentuna helm. Pictured are what appears to be pieces of the "eyebrows", rivet heads, pressblachs, the copper alloy strips to hold pressblachs on, other decorative strips, part of a crest, and pieces of riveted mail.

Click on the pic to see a bigger version.

Below are some translations a friend did for me of the text in an article named, ”Haukr – en rinker från Vallentuna¹”:

On the helmet

page 22: 

“Of the new helmet [from Vallentuna] there are traces of an “upper”crest decorated with groups of angled stripes and rivets to attach it to a core/the crest proper. Another preserved part of the helmet is the cast crest, adorned with groups of vertical stripes as well as holes for the attachment of it to the helmet, fig 10a. Two rivets with hemispherical heads inlayed with almandine gems presumably made up the eyes of a zoomorphic head often found on helmet-crests. fig 10b. Rectangular tinned pressings with both style B and style C ornaments have probably covered parts of the helmets framework, fig 10c. These tinned pressings were framed-in by mounts with decorative incised stripes, fig 10d. Several V-shaped edge mounts, decorated with parallel lines have presumably, together with other mounts with similar ornamentations, made up the lower rim of the helmet while serving as means for suspension of a collar in ring weave. The ferric parts of the helmet mostly consisted of rings from a ring weave.

This in terms was made up by small, tightly fitted and riveted rings, fig 10e.  Several other finds also most probably stems from the helmet - for instance small iron rivets, both with and without bronze coating and small hemispherical “bowls” of bronze that originally covered the heads of other iron rivets. Some of the small iron buckles could, along with strap ends in both bronze and iron, have been parts of the chinstrap.”

On the splint/limb armour

p. 24

“The only trace of a limb armour [in the find] is a piece of convexly bent iron patterned with angled stripes, presumably it originated from an armour like the one from Valsgärde 8”

Not much to go on in regards to the limb armour I know but I am still searching for additional information.

As a favor to me, a friend of mine, Ny Björn Gustafsson, who lives in Sweden and works in the Archaeological Research Laboratory in Stockholm, dropped by the Gustavianum (the place in Uppsala where the Valsgärde 8 armor is on display) in his spare time and had a look at "our mutual friends", the iron splints from V 8. After meddling a bit with a scale paper cutout of the Vallentuna fragment outside the showcase he is almost certain that it stems from an arm protection, the width of it corresponds quite well to the narrower arm splints.

Another good source of information on this grave comes from the article "A Vendel warrior from Vallentuna" from Vendel Period Studies: Transactions of the Boat-Grave symposium in Stockholm

The following information was gleaned from that article:

The Rickeby graves show great similarity to the Vendel and Valsgärde graves, these similarities include alignment of the graves, artifact combinations, placement of grave goods. But as it is a cremation grave, its construction, both inner and outer also has close parallels to cremation graves that included helmets, like Lansshammer, in the Spelvik perish and the Skävsta, in the Botkyrka perish, both in Södermanland (BGS)

Thanks to archaeologists detailed notes of grave good locations within the grave and the addition of the dig’s osteologists findings a careful reconstruction of the grave can be done.  The deceased was placed in the cremation layer with his head pointed in the North East. Remains of what is believed to be a sword and the antler beads were placed on his  left side, while the storage vessels were to his right. The items of a  more personal nature (gaming pieces, the combs, and the drinking vessel) were places at the mans feet (the southwestern part of the grave). Amazingly enough do to the location of the fragments of the helmet, it is possible that the helm was placed on the, mans head before burial.  In no Valsgärde grave, in which a helmet was found, was the helm near the deceases head but it was positioned close to the middle of the bottom of the ship towards the prow. Valsgärde 6 was an excellent example of this. Various explanations have been offered with 2 being the most probably, either the helmets were 1) enclosed in a container and or chest and placed among other such containers or 2) it was placed on display in front of the tent of birch bark mats that formed the roof of the "burial chamber" and thru the 'grave good migration' came to rest in the position it was found.

The second theory is probably a more sound one, as the helm remains are often severely damaged from the crushing force of the earth around it, so it is unlikely it was protected in any way, plus careful examination of the areas around the helms have yet to produce any trace elements of a chest or any other sort of material one might thing such a container might be made of.

Animal material was also found throughout the grave as can be seen in the dig artists drawing below.

Click on the pic to see a bigger version. 

The conservation results are not yet complete, but in the course of the excavation we could see that the grave-furnishings was of an unusually rich kind, in some ways unique. The following is a preliminary review of the finds.

Helmet – Parts of a Vendel Helmet, Arwidsson type B2 (Arwidsson 1977, p.27): a striated band of the helmet crest in bronze, fragments of bronze helmet plates, closest to Vendel style B (Fig a), a frame attachment for the helmet plates in bronze, a rivet of bronze with a round polished almandine garnet (Fig d), perhaps an eye belonging to an animal head of the helmet crest, half spherical rivet heads of bronze, part of the helmet frame, the corrugated band from a chin buckle and pieces of ring mail from the helmet, all of iron.

Shield(?) -  rivet heads of iron

Sword – Edge Mount with U –shaped profile belonged to a sword or knife scabbard, similar to those found at Grobin. A thin rectangular openwork mount with animal heads looking backwards with eyes of round polished almandine garnets in Vendel style B (Fig c)

Belt – One three-armed belt mount of bronze with openwork decoration, several rectangular belt mounts of bronze 4X1.5 cm large, one of the mounts openwork with a geometrical pattern (Fig b), resembling a bridle mount from Valsgärde 8 (Arwidsson 1954, p 73)

Horse equipment – Several rectangular bridle mounts of different types, two bridle cross mounts, one quadrangle n\mount in chip-carving technique, showing an animal with an almandine garnet eye, is gilt with ridges of furs and inlays of silver. It is of the same quality as Vendel XII (Fig f).

Bronze and iron fragments – more than 600 fragments, cup shaped mounts, small mounts, rivets, pieces of melted down metal.

Gaming pieces – Charcoaled wood probably from a gaming board, at least 48 half spherical gaming pieces of horn (all total 800 fragments), three dice, of which one was carved with runes (below by H. Gustavson).

Beads – Two of horn, round with flattened bases, of which one has a knot decoration and one a dashed decoration, one thing red glass bead with inlays of black glass in a light patterns, a parallel to the latter is found in Vendel III (Stolpe and Arne 1912), and one thin ceramic bead (Fig e). 

Combs – two composite simple combs of horn of which one has a line ornamentation of type Nerman VZG 1969 No. 1596 period V11:3

Drinking Vessel – fragments and melted down remains of blue green glass, possibly from a claw beaker, melted down remains of a light green glass.

Storage vessels – four simple low ceramic vessels, a concentration if small iron rivets perhaps belonging to a case.

Food – remains of organic material, among others bread (see Vretemark’s contribution, below).

1.  ”Haukr – en rinker från Vallentuna” , L. Sjösvärd , Arkeologisk undersökning av fornlämning 27, Rickeby, Vallentuna sn, Vallentuna , The Central Board of National Antiquities and the Historical Museum Reports UV 1989: Stockholm 1989, pages 22 and 24

2. "A Vendel warrior from Vallentuna", L. Sjösvärd , M. Vretemark & H. Gustavson, "Vendel Period Studies: Transactions of the Boat-Grave symposium in Stockholm, February 2-3, 1981", The Museum of National Antiquities, Stockholm Studies