A Celtic ornament likely looted from Ireland by Vikings has been discovered in Trondheim, Norway. The object has two rounded ends with a square between them. One of the ends is engraved with what looks like a face. The other end probably is as well, but you can’t see facial features through the encrusted soil. The square section is decorated with enameled shapes.
The shape and design mark it as a bucket fitting manufactured between 500 
and 700 A.D. A similar albeit more elaborate example adorns one of the wooden buckets found in the Oseberg ship burial.
“It seems to be a fitting that was attached to an Irish bronze hanging vessel, which came to Norway during the Viking Age. We see this especially in the enamel in the middle of the fitting. Originally, each vessel had two or three such fittings, and they are quite rare. It is actually the first of its kind in Trøndelag, and the fourth find of this type in Norway, [archaeologist Aina Heen] Pettersen [of the NTNU Science Museum] states.”
It was found last weekend by three metal detecting brothers scanning a farmer’s field. They also discovered an ancient Islamic Dirham coin, dating to around 800 A.D. The brothers reported the find to the Archaeological Museum in Trondheim where it will be cleaned and conserved.
From a time when even BUCKETS were made to be beautidul!
…and apparently at least two people KICKED it!!!:ohnoes: –The brothers should by any means have another look. Maybe they find the missing burial ship to that bucket.
What I do not get, however, is why the new bucket fitting should be so much more “Celtic” than the one from the Oseberg ship burial.
There are still people making beautiful buckets, but now, like then, buckets were mostly utilitarian. Not many people had a bucket that they valued enough to be buried with it, or indeed worth personally travelling across the sea to acquire.
:hattip: