Hercules' Club (amulet)

Hercules' Club (also Hercules-club, Club-of-Hercules; German Herkuleskeule, Donarkeule) is a Roman Empire and Migration-era artefact type.

A type of bone pendants found in Iron Age (Biblical period) Palestine is also associated with the Club-of-Hercules jewelry of the Roman era (Platt 1978).

A votive mace made of bronze found in Willingham Fen, Cambridgeshire in 1857 follows the Roman model in shape and the representation of wooden knobs on the club, but adding indigenous (Celtic) iconography by depicting animal heads, anthropomorphic figures and a wheel at the club's base.

These Germanic "Donar's Clubs" were made from deer antler, bone or wood, more rarely also from bronze or precious metals.

The amulet type was replaced by the Viking Age Thor's hammer pendants in the course of the Christianization of Scandinavia from the 8th to 9th century.