Viking Age Russia

Short, preliminary demonstration of the perspectives for integrating data from various object types to reveal changes in settlement patterns over long periods. Case: the detector finds from the Nygård/Skovgård site on Bornholm, with special focus on fibulas and coins, c. AD 100-1400.

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.

Prehistoric pictures are a special sort of source material. Pictures are not random products – they were created to convey messages. This statement applies especially to the oral culture of the Viking Age. However, Viking Age pictures rarely occur as independent monuments. More often, they appear as animal art on metal artefacts. The starting point for my reflections is the grandiose brooch from Yelets, Russia. Here, we find an anthropomorphic figure with a bird-like body, possibly linking the object to the princely House of Rurik. Being a female dress adornment, we might ask whether it represents the might of the dynasty or the power of an individual female known from written sources.

Follow link for PDF: http://uu.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:1417789/FULLTEXT01.pdf
Frühgeschichtliche Bilder sind ein besonders Quellenmaterial. Zumeist  handelt  es  sich  nicht  um  Zufallsprodukte,  sondern  um  Zeichen,  die  Botschaften  vermitteln  sollten.  Dies  gilt  nicht  zuletzt  für  die  Bilderwelt  der  Wikingerzeit.  Jedoch  sind  freistehende Bildmonumente aus dieser Epoche relativ selten. Häufiger  haben  sich  Bilder  im  kleineren  Format  erhalten, genauer  gesagt  als  Tierornamentik  auf  Gebrauchsgegen-ständen. Den Ausgangspunkt zu meinen Überlegungen bildet eine  prachtvolle  Spange  aus  Elec  im  heutigen  Russland.  Im  reichen  Dekor  der  Spange  findet  sich  eine  Mischfigur bestehend  aus  einem  anthropomorphen  Kopf  und  einem  vogelähnlichen  Körper.  Diese  Bildfigur  bindet  die  Elecer Spange möglicherweise an das Fürstenhaus der Rjurikiden. Da es  sich  um  einen  Funktionsgegenstand  aus  der  Frauentracht  handelt, muss man sich fragen, ob die Spange die Machtfülle der gesamten Dynastie symbolisiert oder sich auf eine einzig-artige Frau bezieht.

Улав Триггвасон вошёл в историю Киевской Руси после появления в дружине князя Владимира I. В Норвегии, куда Триггвасон вернулся и был избран королём в 995 г., современные историки рассматривают его как одного из правителей, заложивших основы государственности, собирания земель и христианизации страны. Он стал энергичным реформатором эпохи викингов, времени проведения глубоких религиозных и финансовых преобразований. Именно в правление Владимира на Руси появляются собственные деньги, а в правление Улава – в Норвегии. Одновременно с Норвегией началась чеканка монеты викингами в Дании и Швеции. Для всех, интересующихся наиболее ранним этапом денежной политики Киевского княжества, статья предоставляет возможность узнать, какие денежно-финансовые процессы протекали одновременно в трёх королевствах викингов.

Prehistoric pictures are a special sort of source material. Pictures are not random products – they were created to convey messages. This statement applies especially to the oral culture of the Viking Age. However, Viking Age pictures rarely occur as independent monuments. More often, they appear as animal art on metal artefacts. The starting point for my reflections is the grandiose brooch from Yelets, Russia. Here, we find an anthropomorphic figure with a bird-like body, possibly linking the object to the princely House of Rurik. Being a female dress adornment, we might ask whether it represents the might of the dynasty or the power of an individual female known from written sources.

As said some weeks ago I would return to a specific kind of sword chape.
My friend Ru Smith had aquired a similar viking sword chape last Autumn, and our views on this type of sword chape, (Paulsen (1953) type B, 10th C) are combined here.

During the 1972 rescue excavation prior to a motorway construction project in the Swedish region of Sodermanland, a previously unknown Viking Age burial ground was found near the farmstead of Arby 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.

A question to all of you - can someone tell me more about this kind of artefact. To wich age and area (stylistically) it belongs and if there are references/publications known with these kind of artefacts published? The pattern used in the artefact I am especially interested in.

Three-dimensional (3D) laser scanning is a nondestructive and versatile technique that provides archaeologists with 3D models of archaeological and ethnographic objects. We have previously shown that 3D models facilitate shape analysis of archaeological bones and stone tools, due to the high measurement accuracy inherent in the latest generation of 3D laser scanners. Here, we explore the utility of 3D modeling as a tool for analyzing Viking Age metal artefacts with complex morphologies. Four highly ornate Viking Age brooches from Scandinavia and Russia were digitized with a portable laser scanner, and the resulting 3D models were used in three case studies of (a) artefact reconstruction, (b) tool mark analysis, and (c) motif documentation. The results revealed both strengths and limitations of the employed techniques. 3D modeling proved to be very well suited for artefact reconstruction and was helpful also in the stylistic and motif analysis. The tool mark analysis was only partially successful, due to the resolution limits of the laser scanner used. 3D-based motif analysis of a grandiose Scandinavian-style brooch from Yelets, Russia, identified an anthropomorphic figure with a bird-like body that previously has been overlooked. This figure may be a Rurikid coat of arms, possibly linking the object to a princely household and providing further evidence for a connection between Scandinavia and the Rurikids. As 3D technology keeps improving, we expect that additional applications for 3D modeling in archaeology will be developed, likely leading to many new findings when old objects are re-analyzed with modern techniques. However, our results indicate that 3D modeling cannot completely replace traditional artefact analysis—instead, we argue that the two approaches are best used in combination.