Combs
Combs were important items in the early medieval period. While there was a fashion for combs made of bone in the later eighth century, during the viking age combs were usually made from antler.
To protect the vulnerable teeth of the comb, cases (made from the same material) were often provided.
- There is a very informative article on combs and comb-making in the viking age, by Dan Carlsson.
Horn combs appear in the Late Saxon (late 10 century), and are an inferior product to the composite antler combs. They are double sided with a coarse and a fine side, and reinforced with a pair of bone side plates made from split cow ribs, as horn processing techniques of the time were not sufficient to create a fully flat sheet of horn that would not curve over time. Overall they are Saxon rather than Viking, and could be considered a cheap, mass produced object when compared to the more technically sophisticated antler combs.
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