VIKING SHIELDS: THEIR FORM AND CONSTRUCTION
In the main text above Santiago Socia says to his wife Petra:
"I find a ship and stand on the front. It is ten feet high, and the back is buried in the sand."The comals was big round iron things on the sides. Bright and not rusted; not like any metal I have ever seen before."
The following Viking shield information and data presented below is from the published works of Emma Boast, Viking age archaeologist and historian, after research for her Master's Degree earned from the University of York in the same subject (2010-2012). The University of York is located in the city of York, England, 175 miles north of London.
The Viking shield ranges in diameter from between 70cm - 109cm and is madeup of wooden planks, which have been stuck together using animal or fish glue. From contemporary studies shields of this period in England and Scandinavia are stated as being large enough to cover the user from shoulder to knee, protecting the torso
In archaeological contexts some shields are made up of 4 boards stuck together, others are made of 8, such as in the Gokstad ship burial, Norway, however there is a lot of variation. From the archaeological record spruce, fir, oak and pine boards have been found to be used for Viking shields, based on the wood available within different geographical and environmental locations. However there was an extensive study in 1942 by Arwidsson as to the development of arms and warfare between 500AD - 850 AD within Northern Europe, and the types of wood species that were being used in earlier period shields. From literary evidence lime wood and tight grain woods such as willow, poplar are thought to have been used to also construct Viking shields.
The thickness of the wooden boards range from 6mm - 30mm, and it is reasonable to suggest that the center of the shield would have been thicker, going out to a tapered thinner edge.
The edge of the shield can be bound in leather, rawhide or metal and is sometimes brought together by stitching leather through drilled holes in the wooden boards. In some cases decorative shield clamps are used to keep the outer binding flush with edge of the shield and provide some aesthetic value. At present there is very little organic evidence for rawhide and leather on the edge of the shield rim, however iron bands appear on several surviving examples from Birka, Sweden. From experimental archaeology untaken previously it has been shown that a metal rim on the edge of a shield will deflect an attack away from the main part of the shield. Yet this could mean that the attack ends up getting diverted up into the face of the defender or even down to the shins.(see)
Choral Pepper, former owner/editor of Desert Magazine, in her book Desert Lore of Southern California, Chapter 3: Anza-Borrego Desert (1994) in a section called "Legend of the Lost Viking Ship" writes about a reported find of a single shield-like artifact somewhere close to or in Deep Canyon, near Palm Springs and attributes the find to Santiago Socia. In doing so however, she does it in huge contrast to the above by Niehuis and what she has written elsewhere in regards to potential Viking shields such as found in Ships That Pass In The Desert (1990). In "Ships That Pass" the shields are metal. In "Desert Lore," written four years later, the shield like item found by Socia has morphed into being made of wood, re the following:
Socia, after being gone several days or more, came home and told his wife that he had been wandering in some canyons some distance off and in one of them he came across what appeared to be an ancient ship of some kind that had round discs on its side (like a Viking ship). Part of the ship was sticking out of the sand. There was some kind of strange markings, possibly writing, on the wall above the ship he did not recognize. He also said it had a curved bow. The wife did not find his story credible so over the months that followed he went out looking for it over and over but was never able to locate it. However, one day he did return with a weathered round wooden shield the wife said was twice the size of a large tortilla that the husband said he had found secreted along a canyon trail in the mountains quite some distance north of where he thought the ship was located.
VIKING SHIELDS: SURVIVAL, A 1000 YEARS ON THE DESERT FLOOR
"If any shields could have survived intact in the open desert environment still to be found is questionable, but not totally beyond the realm of possibility."
In many areas of the desert southwest cut wood as well as naturally fallen wood can and does last, even in an unattended state, hundreds if not thousands of years remaining in a basically unchanged or unaltered state. For example, not the oldest by far, but the largest cliff dwelling in North America, Cliff Palace, located in Mesa Verde National Park and said to be built by the ancient ancestors of the present day Puebloans, using tree-ring dating on in-place wood used in it's construction, indicates that construction and refurbishing was continuous approximately from 1190 AD through 1260 AD --- the wood still doing its job in most places nearly as well as the day it was installed. A handmade wooden shield being pushed across a series of rocks and boulders of a steep downhill desert canyon dry-wash from a continuous onslaught of summer monsoon rains over the centuries is of course, another thing.
As to shields being attached to the side of the ship or not, in my 1970 interview with Myrtle Botts, the person most responsible for the lost Viking ship coming to the public's eye, as found in Vikings of the Desert Southwest, she told me personally that on the side of the ship she was on there were no signs of any shields visible, only markings, four deep, where they were once attached. Then I go on to say a few sentences later that if the ship had circular marks along its sides that looked like shields may have been there at one time as Botts has said, it could indicate the crew abandoned the vessel taking their shields with them. However, that is not the only option.
How Viking shields were affixed to the side of a ship in the first place was something that initially I was truly not versed in. Since Vikings encountered all kinds of weather, some of it really rough no doubt, if shields were mounted on the side of their ships while in transit as a normal operating procedure, then for nothing more than a mere practical basis they would have to have been secured in such a fashion that they would not just happen to fall off every time a wave hit them. Otherwise, unless there was a reserve of extra shields laying around somewhere a lot of the Vikings would end up with no shields once they got to wherever they were going. So too, in contrast, a shield could not be so attached that if need be they couldn't be removed instantly if the need arose. Regardless of how Viking shields were held on or secured to the side of their ships there are a number of reports of Viking-like shields being found in and around the larger general area where the lost Viking ship was reportedly located.
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SHIELD RACK SECURING SHIELDS TO SIDE OF SHIP--------SHIELDS STORED OR PLACED IN A HULL TYPE FASHION
THE SHIP IN THE DESERT GENE AUTRY COMICS, JUNE 1951 ISSUE #52 -----
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LOST SHIP OF THE DESERT UNCLE SCROOGE COMICS, SEPTEMBER 1954 ISSUE #7 ----
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THE DESERT SHIP: A LEGEND, OR TWO THE WESTERNER COMICS, DECEMBER 1950 ISSUE #31 --
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THE LOST DUTCHMAN MINE DEAD EYE WESTERNS, NOVEMBER 1949, ISSUE #3 -
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SEE:
DESERT SHIPS, SPANISH TREASURE, AND COLORADO RIVER FLOODS
LOST SHIP OF THE DESERT: DESERT MAGAZINE/USA TODAY
EARLY COLORADO RIVER STEAMBOAT LANDINGS
THE COLORADO RIVER: WAS IT NAVIGABLE?
VIKINGS OF THE DESERT SOUTHWEST
THE KENSINGTON STONE
THE CASE FOR NORSEMEN IN AMERICA
BEFORE COLUMBUS
COTTONWOOD ISLAND
CLICK
HERE FOR
ENLIGHTENMENT
ON THE RAZOR'S
EDGE
THE WANDERLING
(please click)
The two shield mounting method graphics above have been provided by Don's Maps and Gokstad Viking Ship Construction as linked to on Vikings of the Desert Southwest.
As to the subject of donations, for those who may be so interested as it applies to the gratefulness of my works, I invariably suggest any funds be directed toward THE WOUNDED WARRIOR PROJECT and/or THE AMERICAN RED CROSS.
