The
Franks Casket (or the
Auzon Casket) is a small
Anglo-Saxon whale's bone (not "whalebone" in the sense of
baleen) chest from the early 8th century, now in the
British Museum. The casket is densely decorated with knife-cut narrative scenes in flat two-dimensional low-
relief and with inscriptions mostly in
Anglo-Saxon runes. Generally reckoned to be of
Northumbrian origin, it is of unique importance for the insight it gives into early
Anglo-Saxon art and culture. Both identifying the images and interpreting the runic inscriptions has generated a considerable amount of scholarship.