Analysis and Interpretation of a Unique Arabic Finger Ring from the Viking Age Town of Birka, Sweden

[sl8]

From 2015.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/sca.21189

Analysis and Interpretation of a Unique Arabic Finger Ring from the Viking Age Town of Birka, Sweden

(free to view, but not to copy or print)

[Judi Lynn]

1. I found another picture of the ring at another site:

The site is called "Old Norse, and the article is: A Viking era ring inscribed with the words ‘for Allah’, found in the grave of a woman who was buried 1200 years ago in Birka

I can only see the article for a couple of seconds before it slams down for me, for some reason! I had to keep refreshing it to gather the title, and the link to the photo!


https://oldnorse.org/2021/06/24/a-viking-era-ring-inscribed-with-the-words-for-allah-found-in-the-grave-of-a-woman-who-was-buried-1200-years-ago-in-birka/

It's amazing that Vikings did any commerce with people who lived so far away! Wow. Thank you.

[sl8]

2. Nice. Thank you. nt

[wnylib]

3. There was commerce between Scandinavia and

the Middle East since the time of the Phoenicians.

During the Bronze Age, Phoenicians went as far as the British Isles for tin which is a necessary alloy for bronze. There were tin mines in what is now southwestern England. Two routes to England were through Gibraltar and up the Atlantic Coast or on north/south rivers in what is now France. They reached the Baltic Sea and began a trade in Scandinavia for Amber.

Merchants settled in SW England, forming a colony there. Mediterranean goods were imported to England and tin was exported. The ancient Israelites sailed on Phoenician ships and settled in southern France and Spain.