Miniature Shields in the Viking Age: A Reassessment

Miniature shields are some of the most intriguing metal objects found acrossScandinavia and the wider Viking world. They are mainly known from cremation and inhumation graves, in which they typically accompany women, but also from hoards, settlement sites, and trading ports. Various scholars have usually interpreted miniature shields as amulets and symbols of protection with either pagan or Christian connotations. By (re)assessing a large corpus of miniature shields from Denmark, Finland, Germany, Norway, Poland, and Sweden, this paper seeks to nuance previous views on these objects and provides new thoughts on their different types, usage, and meaning