The Helgö Treasure

This Buddha statue was found on an island in a lake in Sweden — a Viking trade and manufacturing center. It dates to the 6th century, and it was made in Kashmir. Amazing evidence of early trade or conquest!

The island is called Helgö, and Vikings worked there from the 6th to 11th centuries. This statue is part of the “Helgö treasure”, a collection that also includes the elaborate head of a bishop’s staff from Ireland, and a bronze ladle from North Africa — probably Egypt.

Vikings were active in the Mediterranean. There are records of them attacking Spain and north Africa. Many also joined the Varangian Guard, an elite unit of the Byzantine army, which was active from the 9th to 14th centuries. In fact, so many Vikings joined that the Swedes passed a law saying that nobody could inherit while in Byzantium, to reduce the emigration!

Vikings also worked in Kiev, and they made it as far as Baghdad. They weren’t just fighters: they did a lot of trade, and agriculture.

Another cool find: in 2015, a silver alloy ring was discovered in a 9th century woman’s grave at a Viking trading center in Birka, Sweden. It’s set with a violet stone inscribed with Arabic Kufic writing, interpreted as reading “il-la-lah”, for “or to Allah”.

The 10th-century Arab traveler Ahmad Ibn Fadlan wrote:

I have never seen bodies as nearly perfect as theirs. As tall as palm trees, fair and reddish, they wear neither tunics nor kaftans. Every man wears a cloak with which he covers half of his body, so that one arm is uncovered. They carry axes, swords, daggers and always have them to hand. They use Frankish swords with broad, ridged blades.

For more, read this about the Helgö treasure:

• Colm, The Helgo treasure: a Viking age Buddha, Irish Archaeology, December 28, 2013.

and these about the silver ring found in Birka:

• Rym Ghazal When the Arabs met the Vikings: new discovery suggests ancient links, The National, May 5, 2015.

• Rossella Lorenzi, ‘For Allah’ inscription found on Viking era ring, LiveScience, March 17, 2015