Trix

@trixranderson.bsky.social

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Archaeologist at North Yorkshire Historic Environment Record: special interest in Viking-Age Britain and the Great Heathen Army

A broken copper-alloy pressblech die from Torksey, Lincs, decorated in what appears to be the Anglo-Saxon Trewhiddle style of artwork.
A gilded bronze horse harness mount set with rock crystal gems, found in Scotland. The irregular design is decorated with chip-carved 'net' interlace and animal heads, with a human face at the top.
A small, sub-rectangular early medieval harness fitting, decorated with carved knotwork panels and two opposed human faces.
A photograph showing a gilded bronze animal head with raised 'ears' and protruding eyes, decorated with complex interlace patterns. It is the terminal of one of a pair of Viking-Age horse-harness bows from Søllested, Denmark.
The cover of the book 'Life in the Viking Great Army', available through the Oxford University Press.
An artistic reconstruction of the winter camp of the Viking Great Army at Torksey, showing an imaginative view of how the site might have looked.
A finds photograph showing a sample of the fragmentary copper-alloy decorative metalwork recovered from the Viking camp at Torksey. Various jagged-looking and ornate pieces of finely-decorated brass and bronze metal lie on a green cloth background. Some pieces are bright with gold leaf.
A photograph of one of a pair of harness fittings from Crieff, now in the National Museum of Scotland. An elaborate piece of metal lies on a dark grey background, with the light showing off the complicated knotwork and birds'-head designs which have been cast into the surface. The piece is also gilded.
The front of a mount from the site of the Roman fort at South Shields, a roundel design with four stubby arms making a cruciform design. Holes can be seen on the arms, drilled in later and interrupting the decoration. A cross-shaped piece of decorated metal lies on a white background.
A finds photograph of an Irish harness fitting from Soma, Rogaland (UNIMUS C1950/a). A brightly-gilded piece of roughly cross-shaped metal on a light grey background. The front of the piece is covered in complicated and incredibly ornate knotwork patterns, with holes on two of the arms showing where other fittings would have articulated.
A finds photograph of harness fitting LEIC-127138 from Leicestershire. Three views of a flat, rectangular piece of metal against a white background. The front of the piece is decorated with knotwork designs and tiny human faces, while two stubby, pierced 'lugs' project out from the back.
A finds photograph of a small piece of decorated metalwork, TDB 1137, from the site of the Great Army camp at Torksey, Lincolnshire. Two sides of a flat, roughly rectangular piece of metal are shown against a white background. The back is plain and rough, but the front is decotated by a very fine, small knotwork design of interlaced lines.
The cover of the book 'Life in the Viking Great Army', co-authored by myself.
An artistic reconstruction of the Great Army camp at Repton, Derbyshire. In the centre of the image are the remains of the church, occupied ad (possibly) looted by the army, and incorporated into their defensive enclosure.
The 'Brandon plaque', a small gold sheet from the site of Staunch Meadow, Suffolk. This was probably a book-plate, and shows the eagle of St John clutching a pen and book, surrounded by letters.
An illustration of find OM3 from St Gregory's Minster, Kirkdale. This is a damaged lead plaque, broken on all sides, but with three lines of text letters still visible.
An illustration of find 1019 from Flixborough, Lincolnshire. This is a lead plaque with four lines of incised text in Old English.
A close-up of the upper part of TDB 1620, showing two letters of uncertain type.
A close-up of the lower part of lead plaque TDB 1620, showing four runic letters.
A second, black-and-white photograph of TDB 1620, showing the lettering on the front more clearly. Six letters can be seen, arranged in a vertical column of twos: there may have been more, but the sheet has been cut where they might have been.
A find photograph of a small, rectangular lead plaque, Torksey find DB 1620, from the Great Army camp at Torksey, Lincolnshire.
A photograph of a child wearing a 'Loki' outfit for World Book Day: a t-shirt with an 'L' on it, very spiky hair, and a cardboard speech bubble on a stick saying "Foolish mortals!"... which I've no doubt he'll be shouting at teachers and fellow pupils all day.
The cover of the book 'Life in the Viking Great Army, published by the Oxford University Press.
An imaginative reconstruction of the Viking Great Army camp at Torksey.
A photograph of find TDB 2117, a lead cross from the Viking Great Army camp at Torksey, Lincolnshire.
An imaginative reconstruction of a Viking-Age trade port (in this case, Kaupang).
A image from Arbman's publication of the finds from Birka, Sweden, illustrating seven different pendant crosses.
A photograph of an ornate Anglo-Saxon gilded pendant cross found in Norway, UNIMUS B4712. Secondary holes can be seen on the arms and a pin is shown next to the cross, demonstrating how it was turned into a brooch.
The centre of cross ADB 1711, showing a semi-gibberish scratched-in text.
A photograph of a small silver cross DB 1711, again found at the Great Army camp at Aldwark. This cross has a diamond-shaped centre with four straight arms, ending in stubby collars.
A finds photograph of a decorated Anglo-Saxon gold cross SWYOY-4E63BF, taken from the PAS website.
A finds photograph of a small gold cross DB 1713 from the Viking Great Army site at Aldwark, North Yorkshire. The cross tales the form of a flat disc, with four small semi-circular cutouts shaping the 'arms'.
An imaginative reconstruction of the Viking Great Army camp at Torksey, Lincolnshire: this gives an idea of what the main camp might have looked like.
Ship-building as shown on the Bayeux tapestry, with men working to straighten and attach planks to longships.
A panoramic photograph showing reconstructed Viking-Age ships from Roskildeford museum under sail.
An illustration showing the presumed use of a curved draw knife, hollowing out a bowl.
A photograph showing different views of two small, hollow-cast lead weights found in Castle Field, Torksey: these are classic Great Army finds, and were produced at the force's main camp, slightly to the north of modern Torksey.
Map of medieval Torksey, taken from Maurice Barley’s 1964 paper on his excavations in the while investigating the Torksey pottery industry.
A finds illustration of the partially-broken curved draw knife from Coppergate, York.
A finds photograph of a curved iron draw knife, small find sf180 from the Castle Field site at Torksey, Lincolnshire. The knife has a broad, U-shaped blade with two projecting handles, curled over where they would have originally met a wooden grip.
A group of five replica 'hound chasing hare' bronze handles for folding knives, all made by George Easton at Danegeld Historic Jewellery.
A photograph of an earl-morning landscape, sun rising through mackrel sky clouds behind a stone-built church. Shades of blue and green dominate the image.
A collection of reconstructed Viking-Age tools and weapons, mainly mirroring finds from the Great Army Camps at Torksey, Repton, and Aldwark. A reconstructed ploughshare in in the front centre of the frame.
The cover of the book 'Life in the Viking Great Army'.
A speculative reconstruction of the Great Army camp at Repton, Derbyshirem showing the chaotic, spread nature of the site.
An 11th-century manuscript illustration showing an Anglo-Saxon plough team at work.
A reproduction early medieval plough (quite a simple one) showing how the iron share would fit onto the wooden frame.
The rather shabby remains of an ion ploughshare from Grave 11 at the cemetery at Westness, Rousay. Iron never looks that good when it's been in the ground for 1000 years, but hopefully no-one's going to mistake this piece for a coprolite...
A finds drawing of an iron ploughshare recovered from Parliament Street in York.
A photograph of a replica early medieval iron ploughshare. I've not had a chance to use this yet, but there are plans for some experimental work...
A photograph showing the great Cat Jarman, wrapped up warmly against the cold, with finds from an excavation on her outstretched palm. Behind her, people are working with hand tools in an archaeological trench.
An x-ray showing find ADB 160, a find of a now-broken iron ploughshare from the Great Army camp at Aldwark, North Yorkshire.