Viking Age Stirrups (AN1886.443-4)

Stirrups

These stirrups (AN1886.443-444) are made of iron and have decoration made of inlaid brass wire. They are not a matching pair but were found together near Magdelen Bridge in Oxford.

It is throught they may have been lost during a Viking raid on Oxford in AD1009 when the Danes burnt part of the city. (Find out more about the Vikings in Oxford.) However they may also have come from a burial.

These stirrups show that there were Scandinavian people or people trading with the Norse in the vicinity of Oxford.

The Vikings and Anglo-Saxons used horses to travel around but they do not appear to have used them during battles, unlike the Normans.

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