Oak with a dark age patina. Fully sculpted, carved head presumably of a wild boar with open snout, its ears laid back. A large, rectangular mounting hole on the back. Mounted on a modern metal stand, ready for exhibition. Size of the head 12 x 23 x 14 cm, height including stand 29 cm.By all accounts, it was excavated from the river Scheldt, near Antwerp, by a digger during the 1930s. It was presumably originally part of the figurehead on a Viking longboat. The results of a radiocarbon test, dating the head between the years 660 and 870, are included.Provenance: From the collection of Mr. & Mrs. Gabrielse, Middelburg (NL), acquired from Dick Meijer Antiques in Amsterdam in 2008, previously in a private Brussels collection.Condition: III