In 2024, archaeologists digging at Fjörður, a Viking Age farm in Seyðisfjörður, east Iceland, turned up a thumb-sized stone animal, and it started an argument that still hasn’t been settled. Is it a pig? A bear? A dog? The experts can’t agree.
Svín,björn eða hundur. A toy pig,bear or dog by nikunorway on Sketchfab
Toy’s Statistics
The figurine is carved from a yellow-brown volcanic rock called palagonite tuff. It is about one inch in height and two inches in length. It can stand on all fours, but has a small chip in one of its ears. The animal was carved between 940 and 1000 C.E.
Possible Animals
Each guess has a case. Iceland’s Norse settlers raised pigs. Polar bears occasionally drift ashore on sea ice. Dogs sailed with the settlers, and horses were everywhere. And since the Norse traveled widely, the carver might have been remembering an animal seen on a voyage far from home.
Children’s Play
Anyone who has watched a child play has another theory: maybe it was meant to be vague. A little stone creature that could be a pig on Monday and a bear on Tuesday is a better toy than one that can only ever be a pig.
What do you think it is? Tell us in the comments.
About Fjordur Farm
The Fjordur farm is in Seydisfjordur. The site was only scheduled to be excavated over the course of two years, but it has yielded so much from the Viking era that archeologists continue to explore the area. One of the other interesting finds, aside from the Viking age toy discovery is a board game with pieces made from the same kind of volcanic rock.
