TIL people keep calling the Sutton Hoo helmet a 'Viking' find

It's from an Anglo-Saxon ship burial about 400 years before the main Viking era, I only know because I saw the date on a plaque at the British Museum last year. Does this mix-up drive anyone else nuts?

2 comments

2 Comments

cooper.max3d ago

Honestly, it's a helmet in a museum. The average person sees old metalwork from Northern Europe and their brain goes to the most famous version of that, which is Vikings. It's not like they're mixing up the Civil War and World War Two. Getting worked up about a 400 year gap in 7th century history feels like picking a fight over nothing.

maryp183d agoTop Commenter

Yeah, because if we let the 400 year slide go, next thing you know people will be calling a Model T a spaceship. Gotta draw the line somewhere before history is just one big blurry soup of "old stuff.