This thesis explores identity in early mediaeval Scotland (ca 800-1300AD) using biological and burial deposition data. During this period Scotland was developing as a unified kingdom. The Norse, Scots, and Anglo-Saxons battled for political power. The Saxon and Irish Churches were pressuring for superiority over each other and over local beliefs. Many research areas in bioarchaeology have moved away from the more simplistic processual approach after a renewed understanding of the complexities of human existence. However, this newer methodology has not been sufficiently applied to early mediaeval Scottish studies. Common doxa still permeates the discipline despite the lack of critical assessment. Doxa tends to separate the early mediaeval Scottish world into the circumscribed categories of Norse (or ‘Viking’) and native, Christian and pagan. These commonly accepted site designations regarding ethnicity and religion were used to assess three hundred and twenty-one individuals from 21 sites. These individuals were analysed macroscopically for age, sex, stature and limb ratios, craniometrics, joint degeneration and disease, musculo-skeletal stress markers, dental pathologies, and overall health and disease. This data was compared to the available documentation for the sites considering site location, body position, cemetery type, grave enclosures, and grave furnishings. Statistical and qualitative methods were used to compare the data. Results suggest that there are slight differences within the population that may suggest some legitimacy for common site designations; however, the overall conclusion implies caution in the use of oversimplified categorising and a generally egalitarian view of identity for the early mediaeval people in Scotland.

Yes / Understanding the chronology of Norse settlement is crucial for deciphering the archaeology of many sites across the North Atlantic region and developing a timeline of human-environment interactions. There is ambiguity in the chronology of settlements in areas such as the Northern Isles of Scotland, arising from the lack of published sites that have been scientifically dated, the presence of plateaus in the radiocarbon calibration curve, and the use of inappropriate samples for dating. This novel study uses four absolute dating techniques (AMS radiocarbon, tephrochronology, spheroidal carbonaceous particles and archaeomagnetism) to date a Norse house (the “Upper House”), Underhoull, Unst, Shetland Isles and to interpret the chronology of settlement and peat which envelops the site. Dates were produced from hearths, activity surfaces within the structure, and peat accumulations adjacent to and above the structure. Stratigraphic evidence was used to assess sequences of dates within a Bayesian framework, constraining the chronology for the site as well as providing modelled estimates for key events in its life, namely the use, modification and abandonment of the settlement. The majority of the absolute dating methods produced consistent and coherent datasets. The overall results show that occupation at the site was not a short, single phase, as suggested initially from the excavated remains, but instead a settlement that continued throughout the Norse period. The occupants of the site built the longhouse in a location adjacent to an active peatland, and continued to live there despite the encroachment of peat onto its margins. We estimate that the Underhoull longhouse was constructed in the period cal. AD 805–1050 (95% probability), and probably in cal. AD 880–1000 (68% probability). Activity within the house ceased in the period cal. AD 1230–1495 (95% probability), and most probably in cal. AD 1260–1380 (68% probability). The Upper House at Underhoull provides important context to the expansion and abandonment of Norse settlement across the wider North Atlantic region.

La place du mort est une étude topographique des sépultures païennes de l'âge de fer en Islande. Le but de ce travail est d'étudier la localisation des tombes et d'en déterminer le sens. Les résultats se fondent sur une révision critique de toutes les données disponibles en matière de site funéraire en Islande, et sur la fouille de chaque sépulture répertoriée. Les données obtenues permettent l'élaboration d'un modèle de localisation des tombes qui les situe a) loin des fermes, mais près des frontières et des routes, b) à proximité des fermes et à une courte distance de leur zone d'activité principale et c) au carrefour entre la route principale et l'allée menant au corps de ferme. Ces résultats ont été testés et confirmés par d'autres explorations de terrain et des fouilles récentes. La comparaison des tombes situées en a) et en b) met en évidence une différence intéressante : près des fermes, les tombes sont souvent orientées nord-sud, les sépultures sont en petit nombre et d'une variété limitée, et la population des défunts est majoritairement constituée d'hommes adultes ou âgés. Les tombes éloignées des fermes quant à elles sont le plus souvent orientées est-ouest, présentent une variété plus importante de biens funéraires, et contiennent des hommes et des femmes de tous âges. Les spécificités topographiques sont interprétées comme reflétant les différentes étapes du processus de la colonisation humaine de l'Islande, qui a eu lieu à la fin du IXe siècle : au stade initial, les sépultures sont placées près de l‘unique endroit important aux yeux des premiers colons : leur habitation. Puis la croissance de l'immigration entraîne de nouvelles règles, dont l'élaboration de frontières entre les propriétés agricoles, frontières signifiées entre autres par les cimetières qui y sont établis. Vers la fin de la colonisation, les démarcations sont nettes et convenues. Les frontières sont désinvesties et les lieux d'importance sont alors déplacés aux carrefours entre route principale et allée conduisant au nouveaux corps de ferme construits au sein d'établissements prééxistants. / The Place of the Dead. Viking Pagan Burial in Icelandic Cultural LandscapeLa place du mort is a topographical study of pagan burials from the late Iron Age in Iceland. The aim of this work is to investigate where burials are located, and explain the reason behind the choice of place. The results are based on a critical revision of all available data on known burial sites in Iceland, and a survey of each site in the field. The main results are presented as a model of burial location, which shows that graves were placed either a) away from farmhouses, on boundaries and by roads, or b) close to farms, and a short distance outside the main activity area of the farm, or c) at the crossroads between the main road and the home lane leading to the farm. These results were tested – and confirmed - by further field survey and excavation. When the details of each grave at the two extreme locations were compared, and interesting difference became apparent: At locations near farms, the graves are frequently orientated N-S, the grave-goods are in small numbers and of a limited variety, and the population are predominantly adult or old men. The graves far away from the farm, are most often oriented E-W, there is a greater number and a greater variety of gravegoods, and there are male and female graves of people of all ages.The differences between locations are explained as different stages of the process of the human colonisation of Iceland which occurred in the late 9th century : at the initial stage, burials were located near to the only significant place of the first settlers, the habitation. With growing immigration, people establish boundaries between farms by placing cemeteries there. Towards the end of the colonisation, where boundaries have been agreed upon, the most significant location shifts again, from boundaries, to the junction between the main road and the home track, leading to the farm which has been located between two already established settlements.

Meu trabalho propõe uma investigação sobre as possíveis representações imagéticas do heroi semilegendário Sigurðr Fáfnisbani em uma pequena ínsula no meio do Mar irlandês conhecida como Ilha de Man. Essa região foi habitada por populações celtas e cristianizadas desde o século V, mas assistiram a chegada de novas levas humanas provindas da Escandinávia em c.875. As representações evocadas foram cinzeladas entre meados do século X e o início do século XI sobre quatro lajes de pedra, ainda que elas componham um conjunto maior de monumentos congêneres. Após muitos séculos, a rigor, no final do século XIX, os quatro artefatos foram intitulados como Cruzes de Sigurðr. Minha preocupação inicial foi apresentar as cruzes de maneira abrangente, o contexto geográfico e sociocultural da Ilha de Man, tal como as mudanças políticas e religiosas que ela enfrentou durante a Era Viking. Tentei demonstrar como essas cruzes serviram como um índice do novo cenário de transformação socioreligiosa e de amálgama cultural em território manx. A seguir, propus debates teóricos sobre a runologia, o principal campo de estudos escandinavos dedicado a esses monumentos em pedra, e os estudos de estilos artísticos escandinavos, além de sua influência sobre o que os intelectuais manx propuseram sobre as Cruzes de Sigurðr. Após isso, fiz um balanço dos estudos sobre as representações de Sigurðr nas cruzes manx. Por fim, eu apresentei uma análise descritiva-formal e sintática das possíveis representações sigurdianas nas quatro cruzes. Minha conclusão foi que não é possível ter certeza que elas representam o herói, mas certamente são monumentos seculares com um relevante impacto na paisagem dos pontos de vista social e religioso, como demonstrações de poder e forma de controle sobre a sociedade circunvizinha. Elas também expressam possíveis alianças matrimoniais e políticas dos habitantes manx em uma sociedade muito transformada após a chegada dos novos colonos nórdicos. / My work proposes an investigation on the possible imagetical representations of the semilegendary hero Sigurðr Fáfnisbani in the Isle of Man, a small island in the middle of the Irish Sea. This region was historically inhabited by celtic and christians populations since the 5th century; However at the end of 9th century, they received a new contingent of inhabitants from Scandinavia. The representations above mentioned were sculptured between the middle of 10th century and the beginning of the 11th century on four cross slabs; Nevertheless they belonged to a major group of similar monuments. But only after many centuries, the four arctefacts were entitled as Sigurðr crosses (or slabs). My first concern was to expose the crosses in a broader view, their geographical and sociocultural context in the Isle of Man, as well as the political and religious changes beeing faced during the Viking Age. Ive also proposed that these crosses were an index of a new socioreligious scenario, in a deep cultural amalgamation and transformations in manx region. Hereafter, I have exposed many theories on runology, the main field of studies on these rock monuments, and also a summary of questions and characteristics of Scandinavian art studies, mainly about style studies. Both perspectives had a strong influence on manx intellectual milieu and their ideas about Sigurðr crosses. After this, I exposed briefly the main works about Sigurðrs representation on manx crosses. At the end, I proposed a descriptive, formal and syntax analysis of these possible representations of the hero. My conclusion was that it is not possible to be sure that the hero was displayed on these rocks. But, on the other hand, they certainly provided an important impact on manx social and religious landscape, as well as demonstrations of power and social control. They can also be taken as signs of matrimonial and political alliances of manx aristocracy.

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 thesis focuses on the reflection of the discovery of America by the Norsemen, and does so in three steps. Firstly, the approach to and the significance of the Norse voyages to America in the medieval materials, and especially in the Vinland sagas, are presented. This part is accompanied by a general introduction into the sagas. Secondly, the situation in the 19th century is introduced. In this period a lot of scientific works as well as works of art aiming at the Norse voyages to the New continent arose. The factors that led to this increased interest are explored, e.g. national movement in Scandinavia. Thirdly, the contemporary reflexion of the Norse discovery of America is analyzed (particularly its influence on works of art, society, politics and scientific research). The methodology used in this thesis is discourse analysis, which points out to the changing reflexion of the given topic.

Despite decades of scholarly scrutiny, the politico-economic exploits of vikings in and around the Frankish realm (c. 750-940 CE) remain - to a considerable extent - obscured by the constraints of a fragmentary and biased corpus of (near-)contemporary evidence, conveying the impression that these movements were capricious, haphazard, and gratuitous in character. For this reason, rather than selectively assessing individual instances of regional Franco-Scandinavian interaction, the present study approaches the available interdisciplinary data on a cumulative and conceptual level, and combines this with the innovative use of GIS to detect and define overall spatiotemporal patterns of viking activity. Set against a backdrop of continuous commerce and knowledge exchange, this overarching survey demonstrates the existence of a relatively uniform, sequential framework of wealth extraction, encampment, and political engagement, within which Scandinavian fleets operated as adaptable, ambulant polities - or 'hydrarchies'. By delineating and visualising this framework, a four-phased conceptual development model of hydrarchic conduct and consequence is established, whose validity is substantiated by its application to three distinct regional case studies: the lower Rhine-Meuse-Scheldt Basin, the Seine Basin, and the Loire Basin. As well as facilitating the deductive analysis of viking activity for which primary evidence has thus far been ambiguous or altogether absent, the parameters of this abstract model affirm that Scandinavian movements across Francia were the result of prudent and expedient decision-making processes, contingent on exchanged intelligence, cumulative experience, and the ongoing individual and collective need for socioeconomic subsistence and enrichment.

<p>What is located on the bottom in the water outside of Birka? Remains of a water palisade or jetties and other constructions.</p><p>Birka a Viking Age town that existed between AD 750 and 975 was located on the northwestern part of the small island of Björkö, in the Mälar archipelago of the Baltic Sea in Sweden. The Town was protected onshore by a hill fort and a town rampart. It is a widely spread assumption that Birka had a water palisade as a part of its<strong> </strong>defense. There are logs and other remnants on the bottom of the lake dating back to the Viking age. Uncertainty remains as to the origin of these remnants. The questions being, are they from a water palisade or the remnants of jetties and other constructions. The amount of fire wood alone needed to support 500 inhabitants for one year is equal to a wall of wood one meter high, one meter wide and two kilometers in length. This calculation does not take into account the wood used for transportation of other materials, people and animals. The conclusion is that future examination of the area is necessary to find out what is located on the bottom in the water.</p>

<p>Joakim Schyman, 2009. Den gotländska vikingatida bebyggelsens rumsliga placering ilandskapet - En empirisk detaljstudie av Hemse socken (The spacial distribution of the VikingAge settlements on Gotland – An emperical study of remains from Hemse Parish.)</p><p>This essay investigates whether a relation between Viking age graves and Viking agesettlements in Hemse parish can be found. This was done by using database information onViking age findings, such as silver hoards, phosphate levels and location of graves in Hemseparish. Literature and maps were also used. Earlier research shows that the Viking agesettlements can be found by silver hoards and relatively high phosphate levels. This essay'sanalysis verifies this. The analysis also shows the possibility of a prehistoric court leet locatedin the center of Hemse parish. The Viking age graves are located close to the possible courtleet, along the ridge running through the parish. These graves are seen as a grave fieldcommonly used by all the settlements in the parish. Findings close to the settlements showthat inhabitants also buried their dead close to their settlements as a marking of territory. Thisgives us a complex picture of the connection between the habitants and their burials duringthis period.</p>

What is located on the bottom in the water outside of Birka? Remains of a water palisade or jetties and other constructions. Birka a Viking Age town that existed between AD 750 and 975 was located on the northwestern part of the small island of Björkö, in the Mälar archipelago of the Baltic Sea in Sweden. The Town was protected onshore by a hill fort and a town rampart. It is a widely spread assumption that Birka had a water palisade as a part of its defense. There are logs and other remnants on the bottom of the lake dating back to the Viking age. Uncertainty remains as to the origin of these remnants. The questions being, are they from a water palisade or the remnants of jetties and other constructions. The amount of fire wood alone needed to support 500 inhabitants for one year is equal to a wall of wood one meter high, one meter wide and two kilometers in length. This calculation does not take into account the wood used for transportation of other materials, people and animals. The conclusion is that future examination of the area is necessary to find out what is located on the bottom in the water.