The implements found at Dejbjerg

Abstract

The implements found at Dejbjerg

A Viking Age craftsman's tools

In 1969, while some construction-work was being carried out in the village of Dejbjerg in west Jutland, a collection of iron implements came to light, about 1 m down below surface level. The objects were kept by the finder, until 1987, when they were shown to the Skjern­Egvad Museum, for closer study (1). It was immediately clear that the implements came from the Viking Age, and that this was therefore an exceptional find, in the same category as finds such as those from Tjele and Halleby Å, in Denmark (2), or from Mästermyr on Gotland, in Sweden (3).

The objects

The assortment of implements from Dejbjerg includes 9 tools and some mounts. An axe, a socket-axe and a spoon bit make up the carpentry tools, while a hammer-head, a nail-iron and two smith's tongs are the blacksmith's tools. In addition there is a large whetstone.

The axe (fig.2) is 17.5 cm long, 13.5 cm broad and 4 cm thick. The present weight is 660 g. The axe no longer has its original form, in that a seam at the shaft-hole has been broken apart. In the shaft-hole can be seen traces of wood (4). Originally there were 4 wings at the shaft-hole. This feature, along with the axe's form as a whole, is of great significance for the dating to the Viking Age of the whole collection of implements (5).

The socket-axe (fig. 3) is 13 cm long and 6.5 cm broad at the cutting edge. Inside the socket there are traces of wood, and on it there is the mark of a hole for a nail for attaching a shaft. It is difficult to ascribe specific functions to the socket-axe because of the simplicity of its shape (6, 7).

The spoon bit (fig. 4) is 25.5 cm long and the width at the cutting edge is now 1.7 cm. The bit would originally have been able to bore holes of about 2.5-3.0 cm in diameter. The bit resembles other Viking Age bits (8).

The hammer-head (fig. 5) would originally have weighed a little under 600 g; it measures 14.5 cm in length, 3.2 cm in width, and up to 3.0 cm in height. There are traces of wood in the shaft-hole. The Mästermyr find has 6 hammers of this shape, weighing from 407 to 1862 g (9).

The nail-iron (fig. 6) is 27 cm long and its largest width is 3.8 cm. On the flat part of the nail-iron there are 5 holes with diameters of 0.5 to 0.9 cm. It can be difficult to differentiate between a nail-iron and a draw plate, but this piece is thought to be a nail-iron, i.e. for use in forging nails. In Mästermyr there is also a nail-iron which is almost identical to the Dejbjerg piece.

The small smith's tongs (fig. 7) are 34 cm long. The tongs are particularly finely-shaped, with ball-shaped ends to the grips. This feature occurs for the first time in the rich Swedish boat-graves (12).

The large smith's tongs (fig. 8) are 41 cm long and not so elegantly shaped. The jaws are very corroded.

A small and not wholly preserved tool (fig. 9) cannot be ascribed a precise funtion.

The whetstone (fig. 10) is unusually large, in that it measures 48 cm. in length and has a cross-section of ca. 4 x 4 cm. It is made of fine-grained dark grey slate with a uniform texture (13). The stone's 4 long sides are entirely polished. In the centre of the long sides can be seen faint hollows as a result of limited use. In addition iron deposits and traces of wood can be seen on the surface. These must come from the other tools and the toolbox which can be assumed to have existed (14). The Dejbjerg whetstone is large even in relation to the Mästermyr find; in the Swedish find the largest one 36.6 cm long ( 15).

The iron mounts (fig. 11) are band-shaped, 2.0 - 2.5 cm broad, with remains of iron nails. Only a few fragments, 4 in all, are preserved. One of them has a finished end, in the form of a slight broadening of the surface followed by a pointed end. On the nails and on the inner sides of the iron bands there are distinct traces of wood. The mounts have presumably come from the craftsman's toolbox. The other two large Danish finds of tools from the Viking Age also had tool-chests (16). The Mästermyr-find is unique in having an intact tool-chest of oakwood (17).

Evaluation of the Dejbjerg implements

The significance of the find depends on the dating, and it is in particular the axe which indicates a Viking Age origin, most probably from the later Viking Age. Similarly there is a strong probability that the whetstone comes from the Viking Age. The objects as a whole have to be seen as a workman's stock of tools, no doubt kept in a chest. The find-place is 200 m west of Dejbjerg Church. In the churchyard finds have previously been made from a Viking Age settlement (c.f. fig. 1)

There are three possible interpretations of how the Dejbjerg tools were deposited. The first is based on the assumption that the owner, the craftsman, kept the tools in a pit-house, and that for some reason he abandoned them there. Another possibility would be that he hid the tools in the ground and never dug them up again. Finally, the tools might be thought to come from a Viking Age grave. So far only one Danish grave with smith's tools in it is known, from Lejre (18). Such graves are much more common in Norway and Sweden, however (19). It will unfortunately never be possible to establish with certainty how the Dejbjerg tools were deposited in the soil. But in spite of that the find gives us an interesting insight into the everyday life of the Viking Age, in that the Dejbjerg craftsman must have been able to carry out many of the different types of work required of a carpenter and a smith (20).

Torben Egeberg

Skjern- Egvad Museum