A06_P06

Viking or hippie? A leather bag found in a bog in southern Norway

Nadeau M¹,  Zurbach D¹, Rzadczka-Juga I¹, Opheim-Larsen K², Andersen س, Svarva H¹, Seiler M¹

¹National Laboratory for Age Determination, NTNU University Museum., Trondheim, Norway, ²Olav Magnussonsveg 56, Saksvik, Norway, ³Innlandet fylkeskommune, seksjon for Kulturarv, Hamar, Norway

A treasure can be found anywhere, at any time. In 2021, while hiking in the Dovrefjell, Norway, an area which contains snow patches and is often frozen, a young man discovered a well preserved but relatively old, odd looking leather bag in a peat bog. The bag is made of rather thick but very soft leather in natural colour. It has been sewn with thin leather bands and decorated with stiches and metal studs.

The good condition of the bag and the apparent lack of comparative objects from prehistoric times led the local authorities to conclude that it could be as new as the 1970s. The uniformity of the metal studs and the fact that they were not usual decorations support this conclusion. Nevertheless, the young man sent a sample for radiocarbon dating.

The leather sample was cleaned with a sequence of organic solvents before the standard acid-alkali-acid (AAA) treatment. The solvent sequence was applied three times, followed by AAA treatment and ¹⁴C measurement after each step to ensure that all contaminants were removed and that the results did not change. The leather and thread were also analysed by FTIR. Optical microscopy was used to identify the origin of the leather and thread.

We present here the results of the different analyses leading to our conclusion. Far from being from the seventies, radiocarbon results indicate that it might have been the prized possession of someone 800 years before that. However, one could buy it online...