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Home Boundless meetings Family and hierarchy Divine craftwork Midgard 28: Meaningful drinking 29: Til – a Viking Age estate 30: Town-like trading centres emerged 31: Skiing Finns – the northern people 32: Ceramics from all around the world 33: Runes in everyday life 34: Surviving the winter 35: Dirty creatures or vain Norse people? 36: No moderation when dressing up 37: Only fragments and threads remain 38: House and home under lock and key 39: A wooden spoon for the soup 40: The longhouse – symbol of ownership 41: Dark – but warm and colourful 42: Demand for timber emptied the landscape 43: Food for the poor and the rich 44: Music for work, everyday life and feasts 45: Sacrifices – Viking home insurance Belief and traditions The living and the dead Waterways Trading and raiding Town-like centres Christian monuments
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House and home under lock and key

It was important to keep house and home under lock and key. Stealing was common and thieves were punished severely. Breaking into a locked space was more severely punished than if the stolen goods were unprotected.

In food storage rooms and storehouses there were often goods attractive to a thief. They had to have proper locks with large iron keys. Homes had to be securely locked too, but we do not know how common that was.

The valuables that were inside the homes were kept in caskets and chests which were locked with different types of padlocks and smaller keys.

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Cascet

  Cascet

Anchor-shaped key

  Anchor-shaped key

Hook key

  Hook key

Box

  Box

Key

  Key

Bolt lock key

  Bolt lock key

Twistlock key

  Twistlock key

Bolt lock

  Bolt lock

Box

  Box

Hook key

  Hook key

Box

  Box

Key

  Key