Viking artefacts                   

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I am a man from The Netherlands, 54 years of age. Since 2003 I have been collecting artefacts from the Viking Age. Apart from the Viking Age, I have some other artefacts from that era from the Finns-Balts and other tribes, living in Russia/Siberia. A few items from the era of the Normans in England can be found here also. In Artefacts of the Viking Age you can scroll through the artefacts of my private collection. Some artefacts I have published in blogs and will be added later in the Artefacts section. 

My aim is to share my collection online, act as a source of information who can always be contacted personally via mail, Facebook (link attached),  by telephone or live if you want to meet me and exchange thoughts with me. Advisory, taxation and research on Viking Age artefacts isn't a hobby: it is my passion and profession. So, if you have any question about an artefact from the Viking Age you like to require from a dealer, metal detectorist directly, or otherwise like to know more about a specific artefact and/or its use, always feel free to consult me.

I have expanded my activities via contributing in exhibitions about the Viking Age with free loan giving and writing texts for the exhibitions.

Apart from that I can be hired for giving lectures, or attend in any alternative form on meetings as in recent times I have done on several occasions in per example a cultural cafe, libraries and the State University of Groningen on behalf a student Union. The tariffs for my services can be found here. 

March 2023 I published a book on the Viking Age and the artefacts of this period of time (hardcover, full-many images, 500 pages), and a broader perspective on the Baltic, Finnic and Finnic-Ugrian peoples and tribes who were living alongside and with these Norsemen during the Viking Age. In depth I am writing about the distinct various Viking art styles to, as well as their hybrid art styles p.e. the Anglo-Scandinavian art style etc. This book, in Dutch, will be followed up by an English version wich translation I will write in the Autumn and following Winter of 2023/2024. I am planning to make the English version available Spring 2024. Meanwhile the Dutch version can be ordered for 50 euro's by sending an email to the above mentioned email and contact address. 

Apart from that I am continuing to write articles on Viking Age artefacts, via blogs on this website (link attached), blogs on my Dutch website www.thomaskamphuis.com blogs on www.academia.edu (link to personal page attached) and guest blogs/articles in several media in The Netherlands like the Vind magazine, the Detector magazine (see beneath) and the Stichting Scandinavië Institute (link attached).

A few guest blogs I have also written on a website wich is an initiative of Luit van der Tuuk, curator for museum Dorestad,and me.

We have called it het Vikinglanghuis (the Viking Longhouse) and can be found at: www.vikinglanghuis.nl

The museum Dorestad being closed due to a relocation when re-opening,  will kick-off with a major exhibition on the Viking Age , where a good part of my private collection will be exhibited within. Re-opening is, though, still "in the mist" and unclear still is when this will be.

Keep an eye on the Facebook page of the museum Dorestad. 

Beneath attached are some impressions of my activities.

Some of my artefacts on display during an exhibition in museum Dorestad in Wijk bij Duurstede

Article in Dutch Vind Magazine, November 2019

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Well. I could have been with these stones until after dark, but as my wife wanted to travel on.. well.. I see you again, some day, hogback stones from Gosforth. And if you happen to be there one day, do not forget that monument on the outside...

Further on with the Cumbrian hogbacktour !

In - yes, luckily again in - St. Peter's church in Heysham, there is a truly beautiful hogback stone. The guide told us, it had been studyied by Thor Ewing, a writer, in 2000. in 'Understanding the Heysham hogback' A tenth century sculpted stone monument and its context (link), Thor Ewing tells in detail what he dicovered on the both sides of this hogback stone.

Just being brought in the church as late as the 1970's accompanied with some protest here and there among the church visitors, considered as being a token of old paganism, it had been remarkably nice preserved, and a lot of detail can be seen, still. Truly worthwile a visit.

I had a small debate with the guide in the church if the - zoomorphic, in my opinion - faces on the sides were lions (or hippo's). The guide doubted if the vikings could have known about lions. Well I guess so, concerning the runes on the Ancient Greek lion statue at the Arsenal, Venice. For example. Vikings did travel south..

But when he told me he was doubting the vikings 'discovered' (as the native inhabitants were of course, in the first place) America before Columbus, I decided to rest my case..

One has to know when to start and to end a conversation ..

Just discovered the book in a bookstore written by Geoff Holder - The guide to the mysterious Lake District, I knew there had to be another hogback stone in Lowther, St. Micheal's Church. With a promising image described in the text of 'a naval and a land-based force of shield-bearing vikings above a fish and what might be a coiled sea serpent. On the reverse is a row of female figures with snakes, possibly a representation of the hideous hag Hel'. Wow. If that did not sound as a true pagan promised land ..

Not complaing too much after all we have seen, this visit was the dissapointing one of them all. But if you wife states 'I am happy to have seen them' and I am answering 'Measuring is knowing' and the even more obligate verb 'handling 'if we did not see it at all, we wouldn't have known anything at all of how they were looking' the glass was again half full, at the last day of our journey..

The hogback stone appeared to be just being tolerated within the entrance segment part of the church. As something you never use anymore but you do not throw away - entirely. That sort of feeling emerged when seeing this hogback asylum seekers.. Bed, bath and bread, ás we say in Dutch, but no luxury at all and standing on some outcuts of wood, you would balance the table with at home..

Come on, St. Micheal's Church.. care a bit more of your 'children' !

This hogback stone was moved in the church in 1907. Hogback stones layed partially buried in the churchyard before it was dug up and moved into the church.

The promising depiction of a longship - as certainly can be seen after some studying - see http://vikingminds.co.uk/pages/longship

we have missed !

The stone itself is (157 x 50 x 30 cm) and very worn.

The hogback stones in Cumbria - very diverse in quality, but everyone worth a visit ! Especially on a gloomy day in late October ...

The churches to visit - see photos of resp. St. Andrew's church in Penrith, St. Mary's church in Gosforth, St. Peter's church in Heysham and St. Micheal's church in Lowther.

Did I miss out on another one in Cumbria ? Let me know !

In a next blog I will take you to four - still remaining utterly mysterious- statues 'guarding' the graveyard of St. Andrew's church in Dacre..

For the last blog of October 9th see this link.

References: (as always, links to where the books can be ordered are attached).

Edwards, B.J.N. Vikings in North West England - The artifacts (1998);

Emery, Gordon, CURIOUS CUMBRIA, The Lake District & Beyond: A celebration of Cumbria (2023)

Ewing, T. 'Understanding the Heysham hogback' A tenth century sculpted stone monument and its context ;

Hall, R. Viking Age archaeology in Britain and Ireland (first printed 1990, reprinted with amendments in 1995);

Holder, G. The guide to the mysterious Lake District (2009)

possibly also (as there within the part of Cumbria dealing with Carlisle, the Eden Valley, Barrow-in-Furness, Whitehaven and the west coast is being dealed with)

Holder, G. Paranormal Cumbria (2010)

http://vikingminds.co.uk/pages/longship