The aim of this study is to examine the possibility of calculating the total weight of coins in poorly documented Viking Age silver hoards found on Gotland. A method for calculating the total weight of the silver coins in the hoards, and thus the weight relationship between minted and un-minted silver, would facilitate further and deeper studies using the hoards from Gotland. The method will be based on the average coin weights obtained from numismatic sources. Two calculations, one of Arabic coins and another with mixed coin, is attempted. Apart from the calculations of the Viking Age coins, earlier studies of the relation between silver coins and silver object will be discussed in the earlier research. The different Viking Age coins in the calculation and the development of the Viking age minting will also be discussed in earlier research. The result of the study demonstrate that an estimated total weight could be calculated for the Arabic silver coins. Unfortunately the mixed coin hoards could not achieve a calculation that could estimate an equivalent total weight of the silver coins

Fish-head pendants are one of the characteristic Gotlandic Late Iron Age artefacts. This object has been rather neglected and mainly considered as an insignificant embellishment, normally worn as a neck-collar and seen as an artefact include in the typical Gotlandic set of female jewellery. The fact that the fish-head pendant has a very long life span, which stretches from grave-finds in the Early Vendel Age to hoards in Viking Age as well as secondary usage as brooches in the Early Middle Ages, makes the artefact an excellent starting point for discussions on social practices and change through material culture. It's shown in this study that, contrary to previous beliefs, the normal usages for fish-head pendants is as solitary pendants and not as neck-collars. Neck-collars is shown to have an intricate relation to inhumations for young individuals, whereas solitary pendants are found in cremation deposits for adult individuals, something that relates to a fixed social practice mainly in the period 700-900 AD and that develops from the cremation funeral practice. This particular social practice relates to aspects of attraction and protection and continues in to the 10th century outside of funeral structures, which is shown by the composition of hoard-finds from the 10th century, but is totally absent when the pendants is given a secondary usage as brooches in the end of the 11th and beginning of the 12th century. Hence the material also gives the possibility to discuss the division among pre-historic periods. This paper is divided into six chapters. Chapter 1 gives the prerequisites. Chapter 2 provides a theoretical framework; concerning aspects such as agency, structuralism, social structures, change and material culture. Chapter 3 discusses questions of chronology and typology. In chapter 4 fish- head pendants and their practices of usage and social practices are discussed in the grave-material from the period 600-1000 AD. Chapter 5 concerns hoards and amber-pendants during the 10th to 12th century, and finally chapter 6 discusses the effects and reasons seen in the social practices defined in chapters 4 and 5, as well as the implication of social practices on pre-historic periods. The material is further presented in four catalogues, chapters 10-13.

In the mid-10th century there was an increase of Byzantine coins to the Baltic area alongside the shift from the eastern Islamic dirhems to a western focus on German coins. This thesis sets out to study networks around the Baltic area from a perspective of Byzantine miliaresion minted by Constantine VII and Romanus II, Nicephorus II, John I Tzimisces and Basil II. The material consists of coin finds in foremostly hoards but also some grave finds from Gotland, mainland Sweden, Denmark, Poland, Belarus, Estonia and Finland. This essay will combine the use of two different methods, first a network analysis in Pajek and then a spatial analysis in GIS. With these two methods I want to investigate what the Byzantine coins can tell us about the transition period between the import of Islamic coins and German coins. Together with the Byzantine coins I will use other materials from Gotland such as shorttwig and longbranch runes, a type of metal vessel found in graves and a type of clay vessel with a special mark on the bottom. They will highlight different aspects of the Viking age networks, with a focus on Gotland. The result showes that the import of Byzantine silver coins into the Baltic in the 10th century consists of two phases. The first phase consists of miliaresia minted by Constantine VII and Romanus II, Nicephorus II and John I Tzimisces which were probably imported through Poland. On their way through Poland they mixed with early southern German coins from Bayern and Schwaben on their way to Denmark and Gotland. With the second phase the eastern coin import temporarily gets an upswing. The coins minted by Basil II are more commonly found on Gotland and in Estonia which lead me to conclude that these could have been imported by Gotlandic individuals on their travels east.