A curiosity that had been locked away in a museum’s archives for more than 200 years is now revealing clues to a longstanding Viking mystery.
Although much is known about these seafaring Scandinavians who dispersed throughout Europe between the 8th and 11th centuries, a few fundamental questions remain unanswered.
Among them is the question of their grooming and style: how did this historic group of pirates and traders wear their hair?
Now, a discovery long hidden within the archives of Denmark’s National Museum could finally provide clues by offering historians a rare glimpse at a Viking “portrait,” revealing a surprisingly well-kept individual.
A Forgotten Discovery Resurfaces
The rediscovery of this curious artifact, known as the Flygstad Figurine, was made by Peter Pentz, the curator of Denmark’s National Museum. While combing through some of the museum’s archives, he located a small figurine depicting a noticeably well-groomed man.
It soon dawned on him that the one-inch-tall object was most likely a gaming piece, which would have been used by Vikings in the tenth century. However, this recognition of the artifact’s purpose only deepened its mystery, since the appearance of the individual it represented seemed distinctively unlike our general conception of how Vikings looked.
“When I came across him in one of our storage rooms a few years ago, I was really surprised,” Pentz recently said of the discovery. “He just sat there, looking directly at me, and I had never before seen such a Viking, not in the many years I’ve been at the museum.”
The piece consists of the tiny head and torso of a bearded man, whose facial hair appears to be braided. Along the sides of his face are sideburns, as well as a moustache with curled ends; the man’s hair is evenly parted, with wavy strands that descend the sides of the head around his prominently protruding ears.
However, the deeper history of this unusual artifact reveals an even more intriguing story, along with new perspectives on the way these ancient Scandinavians looked and presented themselves.
Discoveries in a Viking Warrior’s Grave
The artifact’s history can be traced back to discoveries made before the nineteenth century, when excavations in the late 1700s were underway at a burial site in southeastern Norway near the appropriately named locale of Viken.
There, among the items entombed within a Viking warrior horse grave near Norway’s famous Oslofjord, had been the tiny and unusually well-trimmed figurine. Placed in storage for safekeeping, the small artifact was given the label of item “No. 589,” becoming one of the first few hundred items ever housed within the museum.
Ultimately, the tiny item was forgotten, and it remained hidden in the museum’s collection for more than two centuries. Now, out of the more than two million artifacts that have accumulated in the facility over the years, this tiny homage to Viking style, grooming, and gaming has finally resurfaced.
A Tenth-Century Gaming Piece
Pentz and his colleagues say the item was probably used as part of the Viking-era board game known as Hnefatafl, part of a broader family of amusements known as Tafl games that featured checkered boards similar to modern chessboards.
Beyond merely being an implement of tenth-century gaming, the specific features on the tiny artifact could reveal much more about Viking men from the period in question.
“We haven’t had any detailed knowledge about Viking hairstyles, but here, we get all the details—even the little curl above the ear is marked,” Pentz recently said.
“This is the first time we see a figure of a male Viking with his hair visible from all angles,” he added.
The uniqueness of the small character could suggest that he was more than just your average Viking—the elegance of his visage may even suggest he was a member of royalty, with possible identifications including the Viking king Harald I, who reigned during the late 900s C.E.
One thing is clear, however: the Flygstad Figurine is now causing scholars like Pentz to fundamentally rethink past ideas about how Vikings looked.
“If you think of Vikings as savage or wild, this figure is proving the opposite,” says Pentz.
“He is very well-groomed,” Pentz added.
The rediscovery of the Flygstad Figurine was recently detailed in a study, titled, “Understanding the Flygstad (Fløgstad) Figurine: Gaming Pieces, Kings, Gender and Fertility Rites,” which appeared in Medieval Archaeology.
Micah Hanks is the Editor-in-Chief and Co-Founder of The Debrief. A longtime reporter on science, defense, and technology with a focus on space and astronomy, he can be reached at micah@thedebrief.org. Follow him on X @MicahHanks, and at micahhanks.com.