"The Hitra King"

-- the chess piece from Hitra

Click the picture to enlarge

A few years ago, an ancient chess piece was found on the shores of the island Hitra on  the west coast of Norway. It was most probably made by an artist in Trondheim in the 12th century, the relation to the famous Lewis chessmen is apparent (see Lewis chessmen). However, the piece (a king) was badly worn down after 700 years as you can see from the picture.

Memory organized a project with the objective to recreate the chess piece to what it may originally have been. Archaeologists and historians gave their advise of how the details probably were from their knowledge about customs and fashions at that time. From this, the artist reconstructed the piece as close to the original as was possible. One topic for discussion among the project participants was if the crown should be low or high, they concluded it should be low according to the fashion at that time.

The "Hitra King" is extraordinary in the way it was found and the way it was reconstructed.

The size is about 10 cm.

Reconsrtructed chess piece

Original as it was found