22 August, 2015
MessageToEagle.com -
A remarkable collection of religious items sourced from diverse lands was
unearthed during archaeological excavations on the Swedish island of Helgo in
1954.
This small island,
located in Lake Malaren, to the west of Stockholm, was an important Viking
trading and manufacturing center (6th-11th centuries AD) and produced a large
collection of artefacts, including numerous exotic finds such as Arabic coins,
Frankish glass and metal-work from across western Europe.
Discovered close
together, these artefacts included a Buddha from the Indian sub-continent, an
elaborate crozier-head from Ireland and a bronze ladle from North-Africa.
Undoubtedly the most
extraordinary find discovered during the excavations at Helgo was a small,
bronze statuette of the Buddha, a devotional figure dated from circa the
5th-6th century AD.
The statuette was
probably made in Kashmir, on the Pakistan/India border.
Leather straps on the
statue indicate that it was carried as a talisman by merchant traders.
Historians
hypothesize that the Buddha was carried over thousand of miles, up and down the
rivers and steppes of Eurasia, before arriving on the mantlepiece of a Viking
home in Sweden, perhaps after two or three hundred years of travel.
The statuette was
probably made in Kashmir, on the Pakistan/India border.
Leather straps on the
statue indicate that it was carried as a talisman by merchant traders.
Historians
hypothesize that the Buddha was carried over thousand of miles, up and down the
rivers and steppes of Eurasia, before arriving on the mantlepiece of a Viking
home in Sweden, perhaps after two or three hundred years of travel.
The Buddha has a silver urna on his forehead,
symbolizing the third eye, while the ears have long lobes, the insignia of
royalty. He sits in a meditative pose upon a double lotus throne, the latter
representing purity.
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