Hot take: Those 'Viking' combs everyone gets excited about were probably just everyday hair tools

I tried carving one based on a 10th century find from York and realized how basic the design really is - my first attempt worked fine for detangling, no magic involved. Makes me wonder if we're overthinking a lot of these 'ritual' objects when they might just be what people used on a Tuesday morning.

2 comments

2 Comments

matthew_owens916d ago

Read an article once about how archaeologists mislabel stuff as ritual all the time. Basically if they don't know what it's for they call it religious. A comb is a comb is a comb. People back then had tangly hair too. No need to make everything mystical. Your point about overthinking is spot on.

alex_coleman16d ago

Yeah the "ritual object" excuse drives me nuts. "A comb is a comb is a comb" - I wish more people got that. I spent two weeks trying to carve my own version and somehow ended up with something that looks like a distressed rake. My hair still came out fine, just took a little longer. If that comb was good enough for some Viking guy on a random Tuesday, it's good enough for me. We act like people from the past were always doing deep ceremonial stuff when half the time they probably just wanted to get the knots out before breakfast.