Birka

                     Straps and Trains m the Viking Age: Birka's Female Costume in a New Light Since 1938, when Agnes Geijer presented her theories on female costume in the Viking town of Birka (1), scholars and illustrators have generally worked on the basis of the same elements. The Finnish-Baltic hurstut dress was the model for the reconstruction attempts, and compared with the female figures from the Gotlandic picture-stones and small bronze and silver figures, two main forms of costume reconstruction have resulted (fig. 1). In 1974, Inga Hägg published her doctoral thesis, Kvinnodräkten i Birka, which is a new study of the Birka material seen from the viewpoint of costume history, With this thesis the Birka textiles have in an exemplary manner been made accessible to others for evaluation and possibly new interpretations (2). Fig. 2 shows an attempt at a visual presentation of Inga Hägg's theory, in which the strapped dress, in relation to earlier reconstructions, is completely closed, and two new garments, the tunic and the kaftan, have been added. A common feature of all the reconstructions is the idea of the shift as a long train-like garment. Most scholars, including I. Hägg, (3) have found support of this idea in their interpretation of the contemporary illustrations. Fig. 3 reproduces the best known, and, in this connection, most significant figurative representations. Clearly, all the figures, except for f, bear a train, but the train seems to be formed of different garments. The figures d and g show unbroken lines from the front of the woman and to the back in a train. Only a little triangle of the undergarment remains visible in front. On top of these two garments, a sort of shirt is worn. In fig. e, the lines leading to the back are interrupted in the train with a hanging length of cloth in front. In fig. f, h, and i, the train hangs down from the shoulder area and not from the front of the woman, as for the figures mentioned earlier. The silver figure f clearly shows a shoulder train, in front of which hangs a length of cloth, and an undergarment may be discerned. In fig. h and i, there is a train which, especially in i, is clearly worn on top of another garment with ornamental borders (see fig. 4). In both cases, and seemingly also in c, a garment hangs down in front, but is not as long as the train. Finally, on the front of the gold game-piece, fig. j, there is a hanging garment (4). These examples show that the normal interpretation, with the long trailing shift, can at the most find support in fig. d and e, which are dated to the 8th century. Not one of the figures provides proof for the type of reconstruction showing a strapped gown with an opening in one side. Fig. f clearly shows a rear part which extends higher up the back than a strapped gown would do; the front and the train of fig. h and i vary in length, which invalidates the idea that the two pieces belong together as one garment. It is also worth­while remarking that there seem to be two different types of trains: first, d, e, and g, which are fastened at same place on the woman's breast, and which open in front at the bottom when she walks; second, f,h, and i, which hang freely from the shoulders. These differences from the usual reconstructions provided the impetus to seek other possible reconstructions of the Viking Age strapped gown (5). Inga Hägg's treatise forms the basis for the analysis in connection with a new theory, and certain published finds, from Vernes, Norway, Barshalder, Sweden, and Kjuloholm, Finland, have also been taken into consideration. THE STRAPS The tortoise-shaped fibulae m the women's graves of Birka contain well-preserved fragments of the straps which held up the gown or gowns. As apparent in fig. 5 a-b, the lower straps come from the garments at the wearer's front. In cases where the cloth from the upper edge of the gown has been preserved, it is usually placed within the edge of the fibula. The fragments of straps at the top of the tortoise-shape fibulae usually extend all the way to the edge of the fibula and probably fastened one or more garments at the woman's back. The straps were primarily intended to hold up the garments, but certain straps, which at the bottom extend all the way to the edge of the fibula, or which are of a different material, may be interpreted as bands from which scissors, knives, and keys were hung. Formerly, only two strap combinations were considered, namely: one strap below and above; and two straps below and above. Inga Hägg, who also considers only these two combinations, attributes the uneven number of straps to poor conditions of preservation. Study of all the data from the graves with tortoiseshaped fibulae resulted in the identification of four strap combinations, as shown by fig. 5 b and the diagrams in fig. 6 (6). With this categorization, we can greatly reduce the number of cases of missing straps in…

Birka, Sigtuna and Medelpad—Glimpses of Three
Writing Environments in the Viking Age.

The author discusses some aspects of vernacular literacy in the Viking Age by analysing the runic material from three different places in Sweden: the towns of Birka and Sigtuna in Uppland and the province of Medelpad in Northern Sweden.

The textiles produced in Viking Age Scandinavia were not only a twofold system of spun fibres. They were a result of complex interactions among resources, technology and society and moreover the Viking societies’ needs, desires and choices. Naturally, the accessibility of resources and the state of technology conditioned the choices of this society (Andersson Strand et al., 2010). In this article, textile production and its
organisation in Birka and Hedeby will be compared and discussed. This will be done via studies of textiles and textile tools, and a model of various organisational modes presented. The results of tool analyses demonstrate that, the majority of the textiles from the two places could also have been produced there. The general assumption that most of the textiles were imported to Birka is questioned.

Hur kan vi som arkeologer få insyn i och förståelse för historiskt symboliska platser som Birka och Gamla Uppsala? Platsernas monumentalitet och rika forskningshistoria riskerar att påverkar de hypoteser och tolkningar vi lyfter fram och färga våra frågeställningar. Man utgår vanligen från de stora perspektiven och placerar sedan in människorna i de ramar man har skapat när man har definierat platsen. Men arkeologin är inte alltid så enkel att tolka ur det perspektivet.
Vad händer om man istället vänder på resonemanget och ser platsen genom de människor som en gång levt där? Individerna, grupperna och folket är de som skapat platsen och genom sina handlingar fyllt den med funktion och mening. Människor är synliga i och kan förstås genom det samhälle som de har skapat. I det här fallet är det samhället Birka. För att kunna bilda sig en uppfattning om folket i Birka måste man börja med deras vardag och världsbild, så som den förmedlas genom det arkeologiska materialet. Jag kommer i det följande att presentera två män, en kvinna och en flicka som alla levt och verkat i Birka under olika perioder av platsens existens. Genom att utgå ifrån dessa enskilda individer och deras respektive kontexter söker jag ökad förståelse för och nyansera bilden av den monumentala platsen Birka.

This paper is a critical response to the recently published ‘A Female Viking Warrior Confirmed by Genomics’ (Hedenstierna-Jonson and others, 2017). Its purpose is to investigate the archaeological sources involved in the DNA research on Birka grave 581. It shows that problems exist with both the excavation methodology and the recording strategy employed by its investigators and publishers. Based on the analysis of documentation and finds kept at the Swedish Historical Museum, this paper comes to the conclusion that grave 581 contained a primary male grave with weaponry and a secondary female burial.

When Viking Age women leave the traditional ways of life in a rurla setting behind and move into the first urban settlements, conditions change and new roles and identities are formed. What can the archaeological record tell us about the life of the urban woman and her role and identity in Viking Age Birka, Sweden?

De vikingatida lämningar som idag utgör världsarvet Birka och Hovgården har länge engagerat och fascinerat både forskare och besökare. Det finns en rik forskningshistoria, men också en ständig aktualitet kring platsen. Fyndmaterialet från äldre grävningar utgör ett referensmaterial vid forskning och projekt och grävningar bidrar ständigt med nya frågeställningar och kunskaper. Med
medel från Riksbankens jubileumsfond bedrivs två omfattande projekt kring Birka vid Historiska museet och i samband med dessa väcktes önskan om ett forum för diskussion och ett nätverk för Birkaforskare. I mars 2011 samlades en stor grupp forskare för att presentera och diskutera pågående forskning kring Birka och Hovgården. Dagen genomfördes som ett samarbete mellan Riksantikvarieämbetet och Historiska museet. Syftet var att
få en överblick över hur forskningssituationen ser ut och skapa ett nätverk för alla de som är intresserade av Birka och därtill relaterade forskningsfrågor. Intresset visade sig vara överväldigande. En imponerande samling talare och en
stor mängd intresserade åhörare gjorde dagen till ett smörgåsbord av kunskap, idéer och projekt som gav mersmak. Denna bok är ett sätt att ta tillvara den stora kunskap och det engagemang som finns kring platsen.

Situated at the interface between archaeology and numismatics, the Viking-Age coin-pendants offer considerable insights into how coins, valuables and images were perceived. Carefully selected and often homemade, coin-pendants are a reflection of the individual tastes and interests of their owners.

'Suspended Value' examines the practice of reusing coins as pendants in Viking-Age Scandinavia. What made coins so meaningful that they were frequently adapted for suspension and worn as personal ornaments? How were they used as symbols? The investigated material combines archaeological and numismatic data. The relationship
between coin-pendants and their owners is explored through processes such as coin selection, modification for suspension, orientation of the designs and combination with other ornaments. The wider social, economic, cultural and religious framework of the pendants is considered, as well as other objects with which the coin-pendants are
metaphorically associated.

The results show that there was something special about coins in Viking-Age Scandinavia. Coins carried a powerful evocative charge that was reinforced through their conversion into pendants. The phenomenon can be seen in close connection with some of the driving forces within Scandinavian society: long-distance interaction and the accumulation of wealth in the form of silver. Here, the coins circulating in the Viking Age emerge as socially and culturally significant objects.

In the collections of Uppsala university, cared for by the university Museum Gustavianum, is the collection of finds from the Valsgärde cemetery, located 4 km north of Uppsala. The cemetery contained boat graves, chamber graves, cremation graves and other finds. Among the boat graves, dating from around c 600–c 1000 AD, some includes textile finds. The primary source material for this study are the tablet woven bands found in three of the Viking age boat graves. I first came across these tablet woven borders in 2014 when writing an early stage thesis
in Textile history (Textilvetenskap), a subject taught at Uppsala university at the department of Art History. This article is based on the research I carried out then and have since continued with. The research focuses on the weaving techniques and materials used in the bands. An attempt to work with a theoretical framework based in crafts research and crafts as a concept and idea – instead of just being a method for understanding the production process from a technical perspective – is also made. The bands are brocaded with metal thread, similar to the Birka bands. However, in the Valsgärde bands a spun thread is used in all bands but one. What makes the bands from Valsgärde particularly interesting are the two different weaving techniques present. Some of the bands are patterned with the quite common technique “lifted warp threads”, and some with an additional weft in a soumak technique. Metal brocaded bands patterned with soumak are unusual both in the Viking age and in the later medieval material. The theoretical framework of the study shows that the bands can be interpreted as part of a symbolic funeral outfit. If the bands are used prior to the funeral is not known. The study draws on material from both earlier and later periods to discuss why this dress decor appears in Viking age Scandinavia, and particularly in East Sweden. The fashion of the Frankish crusade era take part in the discussion and so does the tirazsystem of early Islam. The study concludes that understanding Viking age dress is much more than knowing what the persons wore. The symbolic dress in the graves tells us about some kind of fashion – or vestment – system and if we can read the code, we would be a lot closer to an understanding about the Scandinavian mentality of the time. This however is a task for a larger study, this one has only shown where to start.

The warrior woman has long been part of the Viking image, with a pedigree that extends from the Valkyries of Old Norse prose and poetry to modern media entertainment. Until recently, however, actual Viking Age evidence for such individuals has been sparse. This article addresses research showing that the individual buried at Birka in an ‘archetypal’ high-status warrior grave—always assumed to be male since its excavation in 1878—is, in fact, biologically female. Publication, in 2017, of the genomic data led to unprecedented public debate about this individual. Here, the authors address in detail the interpretation of the burial, discussing source-critical issues and parallels.

Excavations of martial structures of the Viking Age trading post of Birka have uncovered new evidence of
contacts between Scandinavia and the early Magyar settlement territory. These new finds have led to a revision
of the finds in the other contexts of Birka. Both graves and settlement layers show evidence of possible
Magyar contacts. Why is it surprising to find objects of Magyar origin in the context of a Viking Age
trading post? We know that Scandinavians were frequent travellers during Viking Age; and the cultures
and people they came in contact with are reflected in the archaeological material in different ways.
There are considerable differences between a casual or occasional contact in a limited situation on the one
hand and the deep level of contact resulting from years of living together on the other hand. The transfer
of immaterial culture from one group of people to another requires deeper and longer contacts than that
of material culture. This paper deals with traces of contacts with the Magyar culture found in the context
of the trading post of Birka in Central Sweden.

There is archaeological evidence of contacts between eastern central Sweden and south-western Finland through the ages: in the Neolithic, the Bronze Age, the Early Iron Age, and the Late Iron Age. Archaeologists in Finland have often pointed out the close links between the areas during the Viking Age, whereas Swedish archaeologists have surprisingly seldom discussed these connections. It has therefore been interesting to examine to what extent and during what period artefacts from Finland are found in Birka’s graves and thus what can be concluded about the contacts between Birka and western Finland. Furthermore this study has aimed at discussing what the artefacts and the find combinations show about the identity of the buried persons in Birka.

The interpretation of the buried person in Bj 581 as ‘a high-ranking warrior woman’ is not convincing and the image presented by the ten co-authors of the conclusions of older research is misleading.
This is an English translation of the original Swedish text: ”Död amazon på Birka? En debatt”: https://www.academia.edu/40447888/Död_amazon_på_Birka_En_debatt

Dear reader,
Please note this article is published with Brepols Publishers as a Gold Open Access article under a Creative Commons CC 4.0: BY-NC license.
The article is also freely available on the website of Brepols Publishers: https://www.brepolsonline.net/doi/abs/10.1484/J.JUA.5.121528 under this same license.

One crucial problem dealing with the earliest urban development in Scandinavia is not only the emergence of urban settlements, but their discontinuity. By examining the case studies of Birka and Hedeby, this paper does not only deal with the likely causes for the towns’ decline, but also takes a more detailed look into the closer chronological sequence of this very process. While Birka seems to become abandoned around c. AD 975, almost contemporaneous with Kaupang, Hedeby in contrast appears to prevail almost a hundred years longer. The possible reasons for this anachronism will be discussed and a so far unobserved, extensive transformation phase in Hedeby suggested.

Abstract In the mid-10th century a young girl of high social standing was buried in one of the more distinguished grave-fields in Birka. She was placed in a coffin together with a few personal objects. Her dress was of high quality, as was the jewellery worn with it. The burial at first seems like nothing out of the ordinary. The different elements all occur at this period in time. But when deconstructing the grave it becomes more of an enigma. Though commonly called the “Birka girl”, this 5-year-old most likely did not come from Birka or the surrounding region at all, but from another place altogether. What can modern research learn from the skeleton of a child from the 10th century and what do the results from one individual alone tell us about a place like Birka?

In 1950 a collection of finds from Hedeby harbour were published by an amateur in a regional periodical. They have not received much scholarly attention since. Out of the assemblage, only a penannular brooch came as a loan into the collections of the museum at Schloss Gottorf and entered the scientific debate.

One of the finds illustrated in the 1950 article is a small conical bronze boss with an hexagonal basis. The search for comparisons leads into the Rus’ and to Gnёzdovo on the Upper Dnepr. The artefact is part of a small but distinct Eastern and Oriental find horizon in Hedeby that survived in its High Medieval successor,
the town of Schleswig.

This study contends through a formal analysis of extant rules and material gaming pieces that the medieval board game hnefa-tafl served as an important example of cultural and historical record for the Icelandic Commonwealth. Due to the piecemeal and recondite nature of academic research concerning hnefa-tafl itself, an initial objective of this study is to propose a dice-based reconstruction that makes use of available archaeological and literary evidence originating from subsequent tafl games. Because detailed information about these descendant games survives in more complete fashion, the scant material relating to the rules and layout of hnefa-tafl found within earlier Icelandic sagas is supplemented in this diachronic study with conclusions drawn from later tafl games. Players must understand not only the logical rules of play, but also the cultural framework informing its representation. To this end, game mechanics and decision-making in hnefa-tafl are further explored through the cultural lens of saga literature, which serves as the principle source material for fully understanding how much of hnefa-tafl depended on player agency and to what end the incorporation of chance-based gameplay affected interpersonal relations between players. Evidence suggests that these interactions were characterised by an ex post facto distinction made from dice rolls distinguishing lucky and unlucky individuals, which in turn presupposed that fortune was inherent to the player as part of their personality, at once both the cause and the expression of socially recognised accomplishment or condemnation. Such fatalistic aspects inherent to tafl play are also identified in eschatological imagery recounting the development and demise of the Icelandic Commonwealth, which leads this study to conclude that hnefa-tafl constituted a mode of recollection specific to board games wherein societies invest material apparatus with connotations of their owners’ cultural identities.

Metallurgic ceramics form a common group of Iron Age/Early Medieval workshop finds. These highly specialized refractory ceramics carry a lot of information; telling us not just about the blacksmiths’ and goldsmiths’ skills in handling ceramic materials, but also about production and workshop organisation. This paper mainly deals with the question of heating trays, interpreted as vessels used in fire assay, or the refining and analysis of silver. A general connection between assaying and means of payment is briefly discussed, and a hypothesis is put forward that the presence of heating trays may provide information on Viking control over the means of payment and trade, in the same way as the presence of weights and weighing does. The Viking weight economy was dependent on methods for weighing the silver used for payment and methods for checking its purity. Analyses of heating trays from 9th-10th century Birka and of trays from the 10th – 11th century mint in Sigtuna are made and an experimentally produced heating tray is analysed for comparison purposes.

In research on Birka strong focus has since long been directed towards long-distance contacts with Western as well with and Northeastern Europe (todays Russia, Belarus and Ukraine). The great attention paid to west- and east European contacts has likely contributed to that contacts with Finland have fallen out of the discussions. However as seen from studies of the pottery in Birka the Baltic Finnish ware constitute the second largest group when it comes to imports to the town. In the graves on Björkö there are finds of this type of ware as well as of dress details deriving from or showing heavy influence from the Finnish mainland. Some of these finds derive from the most lavishly furnished chamber graves in Birka, indicating that the elite in the town were part of a network that was directly or indirectly connected to groups on the Finnish mainland. Besides Baltic Finnish pottery or dress details from Finland these graves also contained objects such as weights, scales and Islamic coins – items indicating an affiliation to groups involved in the sale and exchange of goods. Finds of standardized weights in south western Finland is a clear indication that this region was part of a supra regional network in the Viking Age just like Birka. Objects from Finland found in Birka on one hand and objects from Scandinavian and central Sweden found in Finland on the other confirm that there has been a close connection between the Mälaren region and south western Finland. Probably products such as furs distributed by the elite in Vakka Suomi attracted groups in eastern Sweden and Birka. However the elite in Birka might also have had other reasons for maintaining contacts with groups in south western Finland. People in south western Finland were linked to routes and networks spanning much further east and by extension also to the riches of the Caliphate.

Glass is not typically a material one would associate with a chaîne opératoire approach. Whilst molten glass moves as a liquid, as a craft process glass bead making is bound to a linear process just like other types of material culture. In this paper, I aim to reconstruct the chaîne opératoire of three visually similar beads decorated with eye-like concentric circles from the Scandinavian Iron Age (c.500 BC-AD 1100). By exploring differences in the production techniques, we may gain insight into not only how they were made but also the traditions that govern decisions in the creative process. It is suggested that different manufacturing techniques can be symptomatic of different traditions of
beadmakers using kilns adapted from other craft processes. This indicates that diff erent traditions of glassworkers created beads with similar decorations. In this article, the author draws upon ten years’ experience as a glass beadmaker in an attempt to highlight slight diff erences that define three different bead decorating techniques in prehistory. The author’s 10-years of experience as a bead maker and teacher means this paper can take an artisan’s perspective (Botwid 2016). It affords a unique opportunity to act as a translator, using personal expertise of a material and craft to explain bead-making the past.

When Birka was established it was without precedent in the Eastern Viking World. The first generation of inhabitants left their traditional rural lifestyle and formed a new way of life. The following generations became the first truly urban people forming new identities and creating new social practices and cultural expressions. This paper will focus on the identities of the people who inhabited this emerging urban community.

I slutet av september år 2017 släppte Uppsala universitet ett pressmeddelande, vilket under oktober samma år kom att få stor uppmärksamhet i massmedia runt om i världen. På Facebook och andra sociala medier delades en uppsjö artiklar med anledning av den sensationella upp-giften att det på ett vikingatida textilfragment från sent 800-tal eller tidigt 900-tal skall ha stått "Allah" med kufiska tecken. Kufiska kan kanske lite enkelt sägas vara en tidig form av arabisk skrift, existerande från åtminstone 600-talet.

Textilfragmentet i fråga var en del av ett brickvävt band, ofta kallat brickband, funnet i en grav vid Birka, en vikingatida stadsbildning på ön Björkö i Mälaren. Bakom detta häpnadsväckande forskningsresultat stod den textilinriktade arkeologen Annika Larsson vid Uppsala universitet, och hennes arbete var en del av ett forskningsprojekt finansierat av Riksbankens Jubileumsfond. I samband med projektet producerades också utställningen Viking Couture för Enköpings museum. Utställningen var en blandning av arkeologi och moderna kläder med inspiration tagen från vikingatiden. Syftet med utställningen var att nå ut med en bild av vikingatiden som byggde på ny forskning, en forskning som inte nödvändigtvis stämde överens med den traditionella bilden.

I denna artikel synas ovanstående arbete.

During the 1972 rescue excavation prior to a motorway construction project in the Swedish region of Södermanland, a previously unknown Viking Age burial ground was found near the farmstead of Årby in Turinge parish. The find included some early Christian graves as well as a boat grave that resembled a pre-Christian burial of a wealthy lady of the late Birka period. However, over the following 40 years, archaeology has developed new concepts and methods that seem to challenge this idea. Thus, a recent object ‘autopsy’ revealed that the boat grave dates from a much later period than previously assumed. This raises some interesting questions regarding the ecclesiastical organization in the 11th century. Why, all of a sudden, revive ancient burial rites? Was it an attempt by the people of Turinge to reconnect with ‘a lost world’? (Tesch, this volume.) In this paper, I intend to explain some of the details that contributed to the re-evaluation of the Turinge boat grave.

Material evidence of prehistoric crime is rare. A compilation of finds from Hedeby harbour however offers three case studies, where three different offences – thievery, counterfeiting and homicide – are likely. Evidence for the smuggling of arms is discussed on the basis of a fourth example from Hedeby’s flat-ground cemetery. Against this background the author argues for a review of finds and features from comparable emporia such as Birka.

År 2007 kunde byggnadsarkeologen Sven Rosborn genom studier av bl.a. äldre utgrävningsmaterial lägga fram en delvis helt ny bild av hur palatset Alsnöhus en gång sett ut. Studien lades ut som en interaktiv multimediaapplikation på Fotevikens Museum Internetsida. Året 2018 överförde Sven Rosborn sina tidigare uppgifter i denna pdf-utgåva.

Zozulya S.S. Research of the Dneprovskaya burial mounds group of the Gnezdovo archaeological complex in 2017
Two mounds from the Dneprovskaya group of the Gnezdovo archaeological complex were excavated in 2017. Mound Dn-59 held a modest-sized chamber grave with few grave goods and contained evidence of wooden structures. An unusual characteristic of this grave was the orientation of the burial chamber. While most burial chambers in Gnezdovo tended to be dug so as to align with the east-west direction, this particular burial chamber was rotated 48 degrees to the south. The burial most likely occurred towards the end of fall or beginning of winter.
Burial Dn-60 held a primary cremation. The mound sits on the lower end of the spectrum of mound sizes in Gnezdovo. It covered the remains of a small pyre, which had been disturbed by a hole dug by grave robbers. This burial also contained few grave goods.
The scant and unremarkable archaeological finds from these two burials make them difficult to date. Judging by the burial rite, a coin (dating from 932-961 A.D.) and the presence of only wheel-made pottery , it is possible to conclude that like most of the burial mounds in Gnezdovo, these two mounds date to the mid to second half of the 10th century. Due to the fact that Dn-59 held a chamber grave, this estimate can be extended to include the beginning of the 11th century.
The text of this article is supplemented by 3 documents, containing the results of a scientific analysis of the archaeological materials gathered during the excavation of burial Dn-59 and of the cremated remains from mound Dn-60.

The town-like settlement of Birka was a major center of trade and crafts in the Eastern region of Viking-Age Scandinavia. The inhabitants constituted a cultural and social mix including people of various origins and with influences from a vast region of different cultures. This diverse mix of material culture and social practices is particularly noticeable in the context of the warriors. Perhaps more than others, these men were accustomed to the practices and traits of other groups of people and were impressed by foreign weaponry and warfare techniques. They combined high mobility with a tight-knit social structure and openness to new techniques and ideas. Their objective to serve the functions and people of the town, rather than a regional chieftain or petty king, made them stand out as a group, even compared to contemporary groups of warriors from nearby places. The strong presence of influences from the regions east and southeast of Scandinavia is predominantly evident. So what can be said about the evident Eastern connections of the Birka warriors?

PHD DEFENCE

DATE: May 28
TIME: 13:15
ADDRESS: Humanistiska Teatern * Thunbergsvägen 3C * 752 38 Uppsala
DIRECTIONS: https://goo.gl/maps/YTBuQEVTfJiKAkyj8

FACULTY EXAMINER: Professor Elna Siv Kristoffersen (Stavanger University).

DISSERTATION: Michael Neiß: Förvandlingar i vikingatidens djurornamentik. – Del 1: En multiperspektivisk studie om figurknoppspännen av Birkatyp. (Transformations in Viking Age Animal Art – Volume 1: A multy perspective study on sculptural brooches of Birka type.) AUN  52, 340 pp.  Uppsala universitet, Uppsala. ISBN 978-91-506-2934.

LINK: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-470296 (to be activated on May 6)

ABSTRACT:
During the past 150 years, different generations of scholars have been approaching Viking Age Animal Art with queries that were as multifaceted as the materials that they studied. The focal point of this study are Birka type brooches, which are best likened to interactive sculptures that change shape as the viewer changes perspec¬tive. Sculptural brooches do not only breathe new life into traditional research questions, but raise new ones that steer us into uncharted waters. Here, we make field observations which fall outside the established paradigms of archaeology. Following the parable of the six blind men who tried to come to terms with the unknown phenome¬non ‘elephant’, this study approaches the sculptural brooch phenomenon from different angles, by combining different methods which have been developed within separate research disciplines such as archaeology, art his¬tory, cognitive science and sociosemiotics. The methodological framework for my multi-method approach is informed GT, i.e. a variant of grounded theory which uses established theories to identify distinct patterns that previously went unnoticed. Contradictions that arise from the mix of methods are not seen as a hindrance, but as a generator for progress that gives rise to a new theory. By combining dynamic typology, Panofskyan hermeneu¬tics and multimodal semiotics, my study on sculptural brooches uncovers hitherto unknown parallels between Animal Art and skaldic poetry in regards to context, cognition and imagery. As a result, one is inclined to look for a potential link between those distinct expressions of Viking Age culture. Did objects with Animal Art serve as points of reference for skaldic ekphrasis? Or was Animal Art a material anchor for the same conceptual blends that also transpired through skaldic poetry? The outcome is an empirically grounded theory which links the pictorial language of the smith to the verbal imagery of the skald, more precisely in the context of Old Norse íþrótt ideology.

Keywords: 3D laser scanning and modeling. Animal Art. Birka type brooches. Cognitive archaeology. Dynamic typology. Iconology. Informed grounded theory. Metalworking. Multimodal semiotics. Skaldic ekphrasis. Viking Studies.

Anders Söderberg describes the functional role of ceramic shells during the brazing process of iron artefacts (bells, padlocks, weights), focussing on the functionally different workshops at Birka and Sigtuna, in Sweden. The author focuses on how padlock production was strictly embedded in the broader economic medieval world. Scientific analyses also show that the local clay outcrops used for metallurgical purposes were different to those exploited for pottery production.

This paper deals with archery in the Viking Age settlement of Birka and in particular the presence of Euro Asiatic, steppe nomadic archery equipment at the Birka Garrison and one Birka grave. The equipment contains for example closed quivers and a bow case. This paper also contains a discussion of archery battle techniques and tactics in Viking Age Birka and the implications of the above mentioned equipment to this discussion. The analysis insinuates the importance and status of archery in 10th century Birka.

Mit den nur begrenzten Untersuchungen des Jahres 2012 lässt sich erstmals eine gesicherte chronologische Abfolge für die Nutzung der Hochburg erstellen: Bereits in der späten Merowingerzeit wird die Hochburg von einem umfangreichen, nahezu aus 70 Hügelgräbern bestehenden Gräberfeld belegt. Die heute geringen Größen einzelner Grabhügel könnten dafür sprechen, dass diese dann später abgetagen und als Baumaterial für die Befestigung dienten. Diese Hypothese stützt das verbrannte Knochenmaterial in der Aufschüttung der älteren Wallphase. Der Ausbau der jüngeren Wallphase erfolgte dann später mit Erdmaterial, welches zwar pragmatisch, aber in verteidigungstechnischer Hinsicht ungünstig, zwischen innerem Wallfuß und Grabhügel (-sockel?) abgegraben wurde. Gegen eine dauerhafte Nutzung der Burg spricht sowohl das Fehlen einer Kulturschicht als auch der negative botanische Befund. Eine temporäre Okkupation zeigt allerdings der Fund des Webgewichtes und des Mühlsteines an. In Bezug auf Haithabu belegt der Befund des Gräberfeldes eine größere spätmerowingische Vorgängerbesiedlung, die den Ausgangspunkt für die spätere Entwicklung zum Seehandelsplatz dargestellt haben muss. Dieser wäre in unmittelbarer Nähe zur Hochburg zu vermuten. Die nachfolgende (frühwikingerzeitliche?) Befestigung und die temporäre Nutzung des Plateaus könnten in der Tat für die These der Hochburg als Fluchtburg für die Zeit vor der Entstehung des Halbkreiswalles in der zweiten Hälfte des 10. Jh. sprechen. Die beiden Ausbauphasen der Umwallung mögen somit als unmittelbare Reaktionen auf akute Bedrohungslagen zu werten sein.

TheViking Period proto-townsite of Birka on the island of Björkö in Lake Mälaren is one of the prime sites in Swedish archaeology and much research has been done on it. However, with time the amount of available information, the fact that the Birka research has no common research strategy and a bewildering output of publications have all made it difficult to define the current state and future perspectives in research. With the development of a proto-town GIS for Birka on the template of similar projects elsewhere, the state of research can now be consolidated, offering a point of departure for urgently needed syntheses.