Coins also furnished the most important raw material for silver jewellery. Silver coins
were frequently used as coins, and were either perforated or furnished with a loop for
hanging on a necklace or chain assembly, for example. Arabian dirhams were especially
popular in Finland, which is evident from the fact that ‘counterfeit’ dirhams were
manufactured specifically for use as jewellery hangings. A large number of coins
mimicking the Byzantine silver miliaresion have also been discovered in Finland. Among
these, numismatists have identified five different types, four of which have not been
found elsewhere. Many of the copies have identical stampings and are therefore probably
of Finnish manufacture. The miliaresion copies have been dated to ad 1025 – 50. They are
all perforated and have been used as hanging jewellery. For some reason, the fact that the
Byzantine coins were larger than other coins of the period appears to have attracted
the western Finns, as have the Byzantine designs.
IRON PRODUCTIONOur present information concerning the presumably large-scale iron foundry of the
Viking Age is extremely limited. The large amounts of slag discovered in settlements
and mixed earth/stone cairns naturally indicate that iron was produced in notable
quantities. Merely the replacing of the iron tools, weapons and other objects that were
taken out of circulation through being deposited in graves would have required a
sizeable output of iron. The raw material was bog and lake ore, which was available in
quantity and has been used up to the present day, but we do not know what form the
iron was distributed in. Since commerce and distribution technology required that
the iron be refined into products of a standard form and weight, it may be assumed
that some form of ingots were used also in Finland.
WEAPONSThe most important weapons of the Viking Age were the two-edged sword, the long-
handled axe and the spear.
The swords were made in western European smithies in the Frankish kingdom and
were exported to the Nordic countries as half-finished goods, the blades being provided
with grips by Nordic craftsmen. While damascened blades are typical of the early
Viking Age, the tenth century introduced the practice of furnishing the blades with
signs, symbols and texts, the latter being the trade marks of certain workshops and
smiths. Of the texts, the most noteworthy is + ulfberht +, a master’s name that
appears over a period of around 150 years. Other masters’ names on Finnish swords
include Beno, + beno me fecit +, ingelrii, and Gicelin, who furnished the products
of his workshop with the text + gicelin me fecit +. During the eleventh century the
blades were made slightly longer, which also led to longer texts. Typical inscriptions
are + in nomine domini + and + amen +. One sword blade bears the inscription
constantinus rex, which probably refers to the Byzantine emperor Constantine VIII
( 976 – 1028 ); the sword may have belonged to a member of his varangian or varjag
(east Viking) bodyguard. During the late eleventh century the finest blades might be
decorated by Christian symbols or text in silver or gold wire that was hammered into
grooves on the blade. These swords were luxury swords, but the majority were plain
–– Torsten Edgren––