Revninge

Finds from the area In the area south of Kerteminde Fjord, Viking villages lie close to each other: In April 2014 a metal detector user found a unique silver-gilt figurine from 800 in a field near Revninge. The figurine is 4.6cm high and has small holes at the back of its head, so was perhaps used as a pendant. It depicts a small person in foot length clothes, a heavy necklace around its neck and a bulbous adornment at the throat. At first, archaeologists thought it was the fertility goddess Freya, but given that several features of the figure can be interpreted as both female and male, they began to doubt this. The figure has neither arms nor headgear, so it can’t be a Valkyrie. Whether it’s a man or woman, Viking or god, we may never know for sure, but there’s no doubting that it’s special, because we have very few anthropomorphic (human-like) figures from the Viking Age. The figure was one of the Culture Agency’s top 10 archaeological discoveries in 2014 and has even got a beer named after it! This small but vital messenger from the Vikings can be seen at the Ladby Museum.