CRITTERS SUNDAY SEAL IN PEEL AND A VIKING FIND

This is a very friendly seal, who popped up to say hello, is in the town of Peel, situated on the east coast of the island. Yesterday I posted a photo of Peel Castle and it's Viking history. This image was taken on the far right of the castle in the harbour. Peel is a great place to see seals up close as they are often in the harbour competeing with the fisherman for fish.

I have been having a Viking theme and it's history in relation to the Isle of Man. I had planned on posting a lot more but I have a very poorly laptop. I am in the middle of saving and backing up all my photos before it dies completely and have been off the net all day, and may be for sometime.

Here though is a historical Viking find found at Peel Castle.

Pagan Lady’s Necklace

The Pagan Lady’s necklace, excavated in 1984 from a grave at Peel Castle, Peel, German

Dimensions: Largest bead diameter 3.3cm. Manx Museum Accession Number - 1984-16/L 483

Thought to date to mid to late 900 AD, a total of 73 beads were found in the grave of the “Pagan Lady”, mostly clustered around the area of her head, and probably forming one long necklace.

Every bead is different: most are made of plain glass (white, red, yellow, green, orange and blue), coloured patterned glass, and a few others are of amber and jet. Their shapes also vary - round, square, rectangular, oval, flower-shaped, melon-shaped, spiraled and grooved beads are all represented. The largest bead is 3.3cm in diameter, whereas the smallest is only 0.3cm diameter. Both the number of beads found and their variety is striking. Perhaps the beads had been collected by the “Pagan Lady” herself, or had been brought to her as gifts from trading or travels around the Viking world.

The shores of the Baltic and the North Sea provided sources for amber during the Viking period. The only known source for jet was the Whitby area of North Yorkshire. Glass and bead making took place throughout the Viking world, including Great Britain and Ireland.

The necklace was certainly a demonstration of wealth and status.

The beads, and other objects from the grave, are on display at the Manx Museum.

A selection of Viking objects -

• Pagan Lady’s Necklace
• Bronze Balance
• Ballateare Sword
• Gold Rings
• Annular Brooch
• Gold Pin

If you get the chance take a look at yesterday's pic to see Peel Castle, where the necklace was found. We have had many Viking finds and this is considered to be quite an important one.

Got to run and save my photos, thousands of them.

For more camera critters see MISTY DAWN Camera ctrittrers.