The early find of the 64 Viking Age round shields from the Gokstad ship burial has almost singularly shaped our understanding of the construction and role of shields from this period. Despite their significance, however, the shield material has never been published in full nor been subjected to any substantial examination since their discovery in 1880. The current understanding of the shields is thus highly limited, tainted also in part by the preconception that they potentially represent ceremonial shields for the burial rite as well as assumptions of homogeneity. This preliminary study critically assesses these preconceptions and presents the results from a re-examination of the shield boards from the Gokstad ship burial. Despite their fragmented state, these artefacts significantly contribute to a more nuanced understanding of shield constructions of the Viking Age, especially when coupled with other well-preserved archaeological shield finds and the scholarly corpus available on such shields. As such, the preliminary findings of this paper offer new insights into the complexities of Viking Age shield technologies and their use in funerary rites, underlining the need for more comprehensive treatment of this material in the future.

从 Gokstad 船墓中发现的 64 个维京时代圆形盾牌的早期发现几乎完全影响了我们对这一时期盾牌的构造和作用的理解。然而，尽管盾牌材料具有重要意义，但自 1880 年发现以来，从未完整出版过，也没有经过任何实质性检查。因此，目前对盾牌的理解非常有限，部分原因是人们对盾牌可能代表了某种先入为主的观念。埋葬仪式的仪式盾牌以及同质性的假设。这项初步研究批判性地评估了这些先入之见，并提出了对戈克斯塔德船葬地盾板进行重新检查的结果。尽管它们处于支离破碎的状态，这些文物极大地有助于更细致地了解维京时代的盾牌结构，特别是与其他保存完好的考古盾牌发现和此类盾牌上的学术语料库相结合时。因此，本文的初步研究结果为维京时代盾牌技术的复杂性及其在丧葬仪式中的使用提供了新的见解，强调了未来需要对这种材料进行更全面的处理。