[Myles Mulkey]

While reading through Petersen's spear typology, I noticed him referring to shield bosses quite a bit as "the noise makers of late Viking Age design". What does the term "noise makers" mean in this context, and why does he refer to it so frequently when talking about late period spears?

By the way, if there is a shield boss typology somewhere out there, I'd love to see it. Thanks.

[Myles Mulkey]

I have come across this before but only just realized that it is Rygh's typology unless I'm mistaken. So forget my question about shield boss typologies.

Found at this website: http://members.ozemail.com.au/~chrisandpeter/shield/shield.html

The website states that the first boss (a) is of the earlier style and the second (b) is the later style. I have noticed on the website that the last boss (d) is associated with a number, R565. This same number is used in Petersen's spear typology while talking about spear type D. I am assuming then that Petersen was using Rygh's typology when referencing shield bosses?

So, now that I've come across this information again, I guess my question should be this: Is Rygh's R562 (b in the photo) the "noise maker" that Petersen mentions?

[Elling Polden]

The noise makers are a different item, which Pettersen does not bother to depict, or describe in detail, since they are not weapons.
here is an example;



The so called "noice makers" are interlocked iron rings that where presumably used in rituals. Though their use is uncertain, they develop through the period, so they can be used to date a find.


Also, when it comes to Rygh, he wrote a very infuential work on archeology in western norway during the 1890. His work was also one of the first to include an extensive amount of illustrations. Thus, it has been used a reference by later Norwegian archeologists, not because he made a typology as such, but because they could compare the finds to the pictures in his books. Thus the wording when refering to Rygh is usually "simmilar to Rygh r.xxx, rather that "Rygh's type xxx".

A index of Ryghs illustration can be found here; It is in norwegian, and covers everything from stone age to viking period; using a batch downloader is recomended;
http://folk.uio.no/euleberg/ryghill/Norske_Oldsager.htm

[Myles Mulkey]

Thanks Elling! That's a very interesting object to be sure. What size is it? And thanks for the link

I am still curious why Petersen refers to the shield bosses as the "noise makers of late design". Maybe the translation I have is inaccurate at that sentence. Otherwise, who knows?

[Audun Refsahl]

He doesn't refer to shield bosses as noisemakers. It might be a bad translation. He refers to shield bosses and noisemakers, as Elling said. this way he uses two different objects to make a dating reference.

[Myles Mulkey]

Ah I see... I can't even remember where I got my translation. It was an online pdf that I can't seem to find again. Oh well. Thanks for clearing everything up for me guys