BOESLUNDE, DENMARK—Earlier this year, two men, Hans Henrick Hansen and his nephew Christian Albertsen, found four wrist-sized rings in a plowed field where six similar rings have been recovered in the past. Dubbed “oath rings,” after the practice of taking oaths by a gold or silver ring soaked with sacrificial blood in the Icelandic sagas, the early Bronze Age rings feature hemispherical tips that are decorated and hollow. The four newly-found rings show signs of heavy wear, and so were probably not new when they were deposited. The rings are thought to have been worn by men.
“Oath Rings” Unearthed in Denmark
News September 4, 2013
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