Árbók Hins íslenzka fornleifafélags - 01.01.1962, Page 74

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ÁRBÓK FORNLEIFAFÉLAGSINS
spjóta, en eigandinn bar það austur í Fljótshlíð á dögum þeirra
Gunnars á Hlíðarenda og Skarphéðins.
1 Jan Petersen: De norske vikingesverd. Kristiania 1919, bls. 31—33.
2 Miirta Strömberg: Untersuchungen zur jiingeren Eisenzeit in Schonen.
Acta archaeologica Lundensia I—II. Lund 1901. Sjá einkum I, bls. 141—
144, II, bls. 21, og Taf. 66:7. — Við þetta rit liefur höfundur greinar-
innar mjög stuðzt í lilraun sinni til að staðsetja spjótið meðal sambæri-
legra minja.
3 O. Rygh: Norske oldsager 531 og 532 og Jan Petersen: Vikingetidens
smykker i Norge. Stavanger 1955, bls. 28 og mynd 94, sjá enn fremur
Anders Hagen og Aslak Liestol: Váre oldfunn, Oslo 1961, mynd nr. 54.
4 Johannes Brondsted: Danish Inhumation Graves of the Viking Age. Acta
Archaeologica VII. Kbh. 1936, bls. 186—187.
5 Holger Arbman: Birka I—II. IJppsala 1940 og 1943. Sjá I, bls. 272, og II,
Taf 32.
S U M M A R Y
A spear head with silver and copper inlayings.
Among tlie latest remarkable acquisitions of tlie National Museum of
Iceland is an iron spear head found in 1960 sticking out of the steep bank
of the river Þverá in Fljótshlíð in the South of Iceland, more precisely
on the farm Kotmúli. No traces of habitation or graves are visible in the
immediate neighbourhood of the finding place, so the spear head probably
was lost accidentally, a supposition made likely by the fact that an old
track runs quite near the finding place.
The spear head was enveloped in a tliick hard cloak of rust which had
to be removed with great caution. The length of the spear head is 37,2 cm,
whereof 12 cm are taken up by the socket. The socket is completely cover-
ed with silver and copper inlayings. The technique used seems to be as
follows: The whole surface of tlie socket was made uneven by cutting into
it very tight and sharp notches. Then the ornamcnlal design was made
by hammering copper threads on to this surface, to which they adhered
because of the network of notches, and lastly all intervals were filled
with silver, likewise hammered on to the uneven surface. At least some of
the copper threads seem to have been covered with niello, so the design
came to stand out black against the background of silver. The whole
design is shown on fig. 5. The workmanship is extrcmely good.
The spear head from Kotmúli is the only one of its kind found in Ice-
land. Because of its ornamental design it can be included in a small