This is an “animal-head post”. It is about the size, and shape of a strong man’s forearm and hand. A very big man, or perhaps a young giant. The post stands upright and as the name suggests, has the shape of an animal. It is round headed, with open mouth like a hand with fingers curled into a letter C. It has fierce pointed teeth and adorable little round ears. The head and base are covered with intricate carvings.
This post was excavated from the Oseberg ship burial, and was recovered alongside 4 others. How they looked before they were buried we will never exactly know, but some clues still remain.
Archaeologists during the excavation of the Oseberg ship. © Kulturhistorisk Museum
These objects are fascinating. They come from the Oseberg ship burial – the star attraction in the new Museum of Viking Life in Oslo.
There were five of these uncovered during the excavation over one-hundred years ago, each with their own distinct character. They were found in the fore-ship of the Oseberg burial with the rope holding the intricate metal ‘rattle’ – a set of linked metal loops with decorated metal cones hanging from them.
These posts are enigmatic and thought to have magical protective properties.
Study activity for different ages
We’re lucky in the museum. We can look at things like this all the time. But these things are specially interesting. The more time you spend with these creatures the more little details and nuances you discover. It’s very easy to completely loose yourself in them if you get the opportunity, a great way to escape, but also to feed the imagination.
We’ve assembled some suggestions of tasks to take the time to get to know these objects more intimately. We’ve made some suggestions of what to do that can work for different age groups, abilities and interest levels. And if these animal posts aren’t your thing, they should work just as well on other objects in the collection.
Activity 1:
Colouring in
Print out these drawings and colour them in. The class could discuss their choice of colours.
Try and and draw the rest of the animal head and share the pictures on a wall.
Activity 2:
Creative description
Describe a part you like best and describe it in text. Either as a short story, or perhaps as prose. What do the shapes and forms remind you of? Try and use all your senses.
Activity 3:
Hand drawing study exercise
Use the 3D model to find a view or motif that you like most. Spend some time moving it around, and try and draw it out. Maybe you can draw the entire object, maybe just a part as design for a card.
If this is part of a class activity, encourage the children to explain what attracted them to the part they chose.
This was only 1 of 5. Have the class try and draw the other 4.
For inspiration (or to see if they’re right) check out the collection on our open archive here:
Activity 4:
Texture collage
Use the text description, the 3D model, the drawings from the other students or another class to description to build a collage of textures. Use cardboard, silver foil, bubble wrap, anything to match the description or invent your own magic animal head.
If you’re as big as a giant, why not decorate your own arm!
