Viking Age Colours
August 26, 2021
Please Note: This resource is a work in progress.
This is a non-exhaustive list of coloured items from the Viking Age.
The Oseberg ship textiles
Items in the Online Collection of Unimus:
https://www.unimus.no/portal/#/things/4d943636-cd60-47e6-8655-a8015ac47b0c
https://www.unimus.no/portal/#/things/2903fec6-71a3-4c16-bb64-f090dcf8237f
https://www.unimus.no/portal/#/things/40cfd1c3-66c9-4b32-891a-1c7a958c658b
https://www.unimus.no/portal/#/things/1e0cd17f-4f01-4362-aec0-1026631e8506
https://www.unimus.no/portal/#/things/c86e3336-4eb0-47c8-a1ab-a841b944701b
Steering oar with animal-head from the Gokstad Ship
Items in the Online Collection of Unimus:
https://www.unimus.no/portal/#/things/f6fed13f-5073-4b16-9528-fd834b8e40f6
Ornamentation from the Ladby Ship
Items in the Online Collection of Nationalmuseet:
https://samlinger.natmus.dk/do/asset/6715
https://samlinger.natmus.dk/do/asset/6886
The Jelling Mount Openwork Wood Carvings
Items in the Online Collection of Nationalmuseet:
https://samlinger.natmus.dk/do/asset/1018
https://samlinger.natmus.dk/do/asset/2926
https://samlinger.natmus.dk/do/asset/4668
https://samlinger.natmus.dk/dmr/asset/189117
https://samlinger.natmus.dk/dmr/asset/189118
https://samlinger.natmus.dk/do/asset/1165
For examples of reconstructed colours, see Knud J. Krogh og Bodil Leth-Larsen: Hedensk og Kristent. Fundene fra den kongelige gravhøj i Jelling. 2007.
St Paul’s Stone
Examples of reconstructed colours:
Runestones
Öland:
https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ölands_runinskrifter_Köping
The Hørning Plank
In the Online Collection of Nationalmuseet
Reconstruction by Jonas Lau Markussen
Other resources
Sagnlandet Lejre’s Viking Age colours project page (in Danish)
Sagnlandet Lejre’s seminar on Viking Age colours on Youtube (in Danish)