Deposition of artefacts in wetlands was a practice in Scandinavia during many periods of prehistory.Andrén, "Behind 'Heathendom'", pp. 108–09.Andrén, "Old Norse and Germanic Religion", p. 853. In the early centuries of the Common Era, huge numbers of destroyed weapons were placed in wetlands: mostly spears and swords, but also shields, tools, and other equipment. Beginning in the 5th century, the nature of the wetland deposits changed; in Scandinavia, fibulae and bracteates were placed in or beside wetlands from the 5th to the mid-6th centuries, and again beginning in the late 8th century,Julie Lund, (2010). "At the Water's Edge", in Martin Carver, Alex Sanmark, and Sarah Semple, eds., Signals of Belief in Early England: Anglo-Saxon Paganism Revisited, , Oxford: Oxbow, pp. 49–66. p. 51. when weapons, as well as jewellery, coins and tools, again began to be deposited, the practice lasting until the early 11th century. This practice extended to non-Scandinavian areas inhabited by Norse people; for example in Britain, a sword, tools, and the bones of cattle, horses and dogs were deposited under a jetty or bridge over the River Hull. The precise purposes of such depositions are unclear.
