Sixth-Century Artifact Found in Sweden
The Local, an English language portal for Swedish news, has a story today about an intriguing archaeological find in southeastern Sweden: a patrix, or die stamp used for making gold figures.
An amateur archeologist has made an unusual sixth century find at the burial mounds in Sättuna on the outskirts of Linköping.
On the first day of excavations at the site in the south east of Sweden, Niklas Krantz discovered a patrix, a sort of die used to emboss pieces of gold.
According to a more detailed story at the Swedish newspaper Östgöta Correspondenten, this type of patrix would have been used to make guldgubbar, small flat gold figures showing a high level of detail. According to this story, the figure may represent a woman of high status or even the Goddess Freya. Freelance archaeologist Martin Rundkvist calls the find exciting, due to the rarity of these objects, and because the manufacture of guldgubbar indicates an artistocratic presence. The research is being done under the aegis of the County Museum, with the mission of analyzing the political geography of the area during the period 400-1000 CE. The archaeologists had special permission to use a metal detector near the Sättuna grave mound, but they do not have permission from the County government to excavate the mound itself.