In the mid-10th century the import of dirhems from Eastern Europe came to an end. From being a steady flow of Islamic coins from Viking-Age Russia the focus shifted to western European coins such as German and English. Most studies on Viking Age coins and hoards in general have focused on determine the individual coin type and the composition of the hoard in whole. Others have focused on the more social aspects on why the hoards even exist. My study will investigate if it is possible to detect if there are different networks behind the import of coins by analysing the composition of hoards in the transitional phase. By using a correspondence analysis and also GIS analysis, I want to investigate differences and similarities in the hoards composition. The correspondence analysis will show if there are any affiliations between different variables, which a means recurring pattern or combination of data represented in the hoards such as mints, size, TPQ and find distribution on Gotland etc. These presence or absence of affiliations will then be discussed if they could indicate different networks operating the coin import. The material the study is based on are 10th century hoards from Gotland which contain coins from late Islamic dynasties, Germany, England and the Byzantine empire. The result shows no specific indications in the hoards composition on different networks or groups that imported different kinds of coins. There is however a chance that different local groups have imported the same type of coins. The correspondence analysis also clearly visualizes the shift from the import of Islamic dirhams to Western coins.

This is an experimental study of a few glass objects from the Birka Excavations 1987-1989. A number of beads and waste from bead production have been studied. A group of these objects have also been examined with a scanning electron microscope (SEM) equipped with energy-dispersive detectors (EDS) to comparatively analyze the materials composition. Experiments to recreate the technique in which they were made have been attempted with various results. The techniques found in the beads include the use of murrini, stringer, dotting, and blown-drawn. However the waste material available to this study only suggests that in Birka, beads where made with the winding technique and ornamented with stringer and possibly dotting. The glass used was heated in clay crucibles and some rods where premade.

Studies on work-related skeletal lesions are a vital part of answering questions about how animals were used by prehistoric populations. In Sweden, this sort of research has mainly been done on cattle. Horse (equus) bones are simply to uncommon to find and the osteometric methods are severely lacking. This essay aims to use previous Swedish as well as foreign research on the subject, as a basis for a new study focusing on horse bones from different contexts. The aim is to find indications of whether or not the relationship between humans and horses has affected the way these animals were treated, and later disposed of after death. A new perspective of theory and methodology will be used to tackle the problems that have previously haunted osteological research on horse bones. By combining osteological analysis and microarchaeology the goal is to reach for information that in the past has been hard to come by.  Swedish osteology needs to step out of its comfort zone and start looking at animal bones as more than a statistic foundation.

This essay deals with the concept of 'soul' in beliefs among north germanic pagans. As it comes forth in written sources, this concept can easely be seen as an odd contradiction, since the concept of 'soul' after the demise of a person seems to split. There seems to exist both an idea of different realms for the dead, and a thought that the dead would 'live' on in their graves. Some researchers, i.e. Price (2002) and Kaliff (1997), think that the soul of the dead human according to Nordic pagan belief split apart in a way, that there was an idea of the human soul being made up of several aspects, each with its own goal an purpose. Five such aspects have been identified - a protective free-soul, a personification of the inviduals luck (and possibly part of his/her destiny), a physical body or an aspect of the soul abilitating shape shifting, a persons thoughts and goals and very essence, and finally the dead body 'living' on in the burial mound. An alternative interpretation (i.e. Ellis 1968) is that the different explanations of the future of the dead are results of different traditions, connected to geographically and/or chronologically fixed ideas, but that certain remnants of earlier traditions could remain even when a new view of the afterlife has taken over. I have chosen to discuss these different viewpoints by comparing them with each other and with later swedish folklore, that is documented and seemingly originating during christian times. By peeling off views and beliefs of known christian origin, suprisingly well preserved representations of presumably older (pagan) views of the 'soul' and and its aspects have been identified. Furthermore, representations of soul aspects not yet described in connection with nordic paganism, and still not traceable to christian views, have been found. The result of the essay is that the theory of several soul aspects in pre-christian or pagan nordic beliefs seems to hold up best. Even if there, without a doubt, to some degree existed local variations and even though no tradition remains unchanged over time, it still would seem that the influence of these factors cannot in full explain the observed variation in views on soul aspects in pre-christian viking age Norse religion.

This thesis examines the function of commemorative skaldic verse at the Viking-age court. The first chapter demonstrates that the commemoration of past kings could provide a prestigious genealogical record that was used to legitimize both pagan and early Christian rulers. In the ninth and early tenth centuries, poets crafted competing genealogies to assert the primacy of their patrons and of their patrons’ religions. The second chapter looks at the work of tenth-century poets who depict their rulers’ entrances into the afterlife. Such poets interrogate the role public speech and poetic discourse play in the commemoration of the king, especially during the political turmoil that follows his death. A discussion follows of the relationship between poets and their patrons in the tenth and eleventh centuries: although this relationship is often praised as one of mutual trust and reliance, the financial aspects of the relationship were often juxtaposed uneasily with expressions of emotional attachment. The death of the patron caused a crisis in these seemingly contradictory bonds between poet and patron. The final chapter demonstrates the dramatic development in the eleventh century of deeply emotional commemorative verse as poets become adopted into their patrons’ families through such Christian ceremonies as baptism and marriage. In these verses poets express their grief after the death of the king and record the performances of public mourning on the part of the kings’ followers. As the petty warlords of the Viking age adapted to medieval models of Christian kingship, the role of the skald changed too. Formerly serving as a propagandist and retainer in the king’s service, a skald documenting the lives of kings at the end of the Viking age could occupy an almost infinite number of roles, from kinsman and friend to advisor and hagiographer.

La colonisation médiévale scandinave au Groenland (986 – 1450 AD) et la reconquête agricole récente de la région sud-groenlandaise, favorisée par le réchauffement climatique en cours, constituent un modèle de référence particulièrement adapté à l’étude des relations entre une communauté humaine et son environnement. Dans cette perspective, une étude sédimentologique multiparamètre a été réalisée sur la séquence sédimentaire du lac d’Igaliku (N61°00’22”, W45°26’28”), situé au cœur de la principale implantation médiévale et du secteur agro-pastoral contemporain. Quatre mètres de sédiments, couvrant la totalité de l’évolution holocène du lac (~10000 ans), ont été étudiés à haute résolution temporelle. L’analyse comprend une caractérisation physico-chimique (densité, susceptibilité magnétique, diagraphie XRF, imagerie rayon-X, granulométrie laser, dosages carbone, azote et souffre, ICP-AES, isotopie δ13C et δ15N de la matière organique) et biologique (pollen, microfossiles non polliniques, diatomées) du sédiment. Vingt-huit datations radiocarbones, ainsi que la mesure l’activité du 210Pb et du 137Cs, permettent d’interpréter le signal sédimentaire dans un cadre chronologique très précis et de reconstruire l’évolution postglaciaire du lac et de son bassin versant, soumis aux contraintes glacio-isostatiques, aux forçages climatiques et aux impacts anthropiques. La première phase d’évolution du système lacustre est principalement sous contrôle isostatique avec une transition rapide d’un environnement marin pro-glaciaire vers un environnement lacustre après émersion du bassin, il y a 9500 ans. Par la suite, la séquence témoigne de l’évolution paléoclimatique de la région. Les paramètres limnologiques et terrestres suggèrent un réchauffement précoce, probablement interrompu par une période froide, sèche et venteuse entre 8600 et 8100 ans cal BP. Un second événement sec et venteux, de 5300 à 4800 ans cal BP, précède la transition néoglaciaire, qui se caractérise, à Igaliku, par une évolution vers un climat plus humide et peut-être plus froid à partir de 4800 cal BP, provoquant une mutation majeure des conditions écologiques terrestres et aquatiques. La diminution des flux de grains de pollen indique un refroidissement notable à partir de 3000 cal BP. Vers l’an 1000, suite à l’arrivée des colons scandinaves, le système lacustre passe sous un contrôle anthropique dominant. Le défrichement et l’introduction d’herbivores domestiques dans le bassin versant du lac produisent un doublement du taux d’érosion des sols (de 4 mm/siècle à 8 mm/siècle vers 1200 AD) et une modification de la qualité des influx organiques. Pour autant, les assemblages de diatomées indiquent que l’écologie du lac n’a été que faiblement affectée par l’agriculture médiévale. A partir de 1325 AD et jusqu’à la fin de la colonie scandinave, vers la moitié du XVe siècle, la végétation présente des signes de résilience et l’érosion des sols régresse. Cette déprise agro-pastorale, probablement en relation avec les prémices du Petit Âge Glaciaire, est en phase avec une importante mutation des pratiques de subsistance attestée par l’archéologie. Le retour du pastoralisme au début du XXe siècle marque une reprise des processus d’érosion, similaires, en intensité, à ceux engendrés par les colons scandinaves. En revanche, l’intensification et la modernisation des pratiques agricoles dans les années 1980 est responsable d’une érosion des sols spectaculaire (~21 mm/siècle) et d’une mutation de l’écosystème lacustre (eutrophisation) sans précédent depuis la formation du lac, il y a 9500 ans. Les effets combinés de l’agriculture et du réchauffement climatique en cours (amorcé dans les années 1920 à Igaliku) aura des conséquences environnementales difficiles à prévoir pour l’avenir de la région / The medieval Norse colonization of Greenland (986-1450 AD) and the subsequent reestablishment of agriculture in south Greenland, aided by recent climate warming, constitute a conceptual model that is particularly well adapted to understanding the relations between a community and its environment. In this perspective, a multi-parameter sedimentological study was undertaken on the sedimentary sequence of Lake Igaliku (N61°00’22”, W45°26’28”), situated in the heart of the medieval and current agricultural sector. The 4 m long sequence, covering the entire Holocene evolution of the lake (~10 000 years), was studied at high temporal resolution. The analyses included the physico-chemical characterization of the sediments (density, magnetic susceptibility, XRF, X-ray imaging, grain size, carbon, nitrogen, and sulphur content, ICP-AES, δ13C and δ15N isotopic ratios) as well as the biological components of the sediment (pollen, non-pollen palynomorphs, diatoms). 28 radiocarbon dates as well as 210Pb and 137Cs measurements created a precise temporal framework with which to reconstruct the postglacial evolution of the lake and its catchment in terms of isostatic constraints, climatic forcing and anthropogenic impacts. The first phase of basin evolution is primarily controlled by isostasy, with the rapid transition from glaciomarine conditions to a freshwater lake as the basin emerged from the fjord 9500 yr BP. Afterwards, the sedimentary sequence records the paleoclimatic evolution of the region. Paleolimnological and terrestrial proxies suggest an early warm phase likely interrupted by a cold, windy, dry period between 8600 yr BP and 8100 yr BP. A second dry, windy period between 5300 yr BP and 4800 yr BP predated the transition to neoglacial cooling, which is characterised at Igaliku by a switch to humid and perhaps cooler conditions after 4800 BP, and which caused a major shift in both aquatic and terrestrial ecology. Approximately 1000 AD, after the arrival of Norse settlers, the lacustrine system became anthropogenically dominated. Land clearing and domestic herbivores introduction in the lake catchment doubled the rate of soil erosion (from 4 mm century-1 to 8 mm century-1 by 1200 AD) and caused a major modification of the organic carbon influx. On the other hand, diatom assemblages demonstrate that the lake ecology was not strongly impacted by medieval agriculture at this site. After 1325 AD, until the end of the Norse tenure in the mid-15th century, terrestrial vegetation showed signs of rebound and soil erosion decreased. This agricultural diminishment, probably in relation to the beginning of the Little Ice Age, is consistent with an important change in subsistence patterns evidenced by archaeology in this region. The reestablishment of agriculture at the beginning of the 20th century marks the reinvigoration of erosional processes that are similar in intensity to that of the Norse settlement. On the other hand, the intensification and modernization of farming practices during the 1980s is responsible for marked soil erosion (21 mm century-1) and a shift in lake ecology (eutrophication) that is unprecedented in the 9500 yr history of the lake. The combined effects of agriculture and climate warming already underway (initiated in the 1920s at Igaliku) will have large environmental consequences for the future of this region

A review of archaeometallurgical studies carried out in the 1980s and 1990s of early medieval (c. AD410-1100) iron knives revealed several patterns, with clear differences in knife manufacturing techniques present in rural cemeteries and later urban settlements. The main aim of this research is to investigate these patterns and to gain an overall understanding of the early medieval iron industry. This study has increased the number of knives analysed from a wide spectrum of sites across England, Scotland and Ireland. Knives were selected for analysis based on X-radiographs and contextual details. Sections were removed for more detailed archaeometallurgical analysis. The analysis revealed a clear change through time, with a standardisation in manufacturing techniques in the 7th century and differences between the quality of urban and rural knives. Analysis of cemetery knives revealed that there was some correlation between the knife and the deceased. Comparison of knives from England, Dublin and Europe revealed that the Vikings had little direct impact on England's knife manufacturing industry, although there was a change in manufacturing methods in the 10th century towards the mass produced sandwich welded knife. This study also suggests that Irish blacksmiths in Dublin continued their 'native' blacksmithing techniques after the Vikings arrived. Using the data gathered a chaîne opértoire of the iron knife was re-constructed, this revealed that there was a specific order to the manufacture process and decisions were not only influenced by the cost of raw materials, the skill of the blacksmith and the consumer status, but also by cultural stimulus.

This master thesis investigates the phenomenon of men with filed (modified) teeth in Scandinavia during late Iron Age. More than 100 buried men with filed teeth have up till now been discovered. Of these, 92 are included in my analysis. Burials containing men with filed teeth have been discovered on Gotland, in Skåne, Uppland, Västergötland and Öland in Sweden, on Fyn in Denmark and in one mass grave in Dorset, England. Most of the men derive from burials on Gotland.   The men with filed teeth have hitherto mostly been studied from an osteoarchaeological approach. Instead, this study regards the burial contexts in which they were found. In order to study this, I have compiled a data base in which available information about these men and their burial contexts have been gathered. The term ¨burial context¨ in this essay refers to the grave finds and the aspects of the burial itself, as well as the landscape in which it is situated.   The aim of the study is to try to determine what unites, and separates, the men with filed teeth; what can be said about the dating of their occurrence, the men’s origin/provenance and what social status and occupation they may have held.

Tre skelett från en kyrkogård daterad till Gotlands sen-vikingatid till tidig medeltid har analyserats avseende aktivitetsspår. Metoden som användes innebar observation av muskelutvecklingen tillsammans med förändringar i entesiterna som är fästen för muskler och ligament. Hittills har forskningen ägnat sig åt att studera dessa förändringar på ett kvantitativt sätt, genom att tilldela poäng till de olika förändringarna enligt hur utvecklade de är och sedan skapa en statistik. Men dessa metoder har fortfarande många begränsningar, eftersom det är väldigt få av dessa entesiter som har studerats. Syftet med studien har varit att undersöka vilka muskler var utvecklade och utröna hur dessa rörde sig tillsammans för att återskapa ett rörelsemönster som kan hjälpa att skapa en teori om vilka aktiviteter individerna sysslade med (arbetsuppgifter, fritidssysslor, m.m.). Analysen har gjorts med hjälp av litteratur om aktivitetsspår, paleopatologi, fysioterapi och med referensmaterialet från Osteologilaboratoriet vid Uppsala Universitet, Campus Gotland.

This paper contains an analysis of the bronzed keys with bird motifs that were discovered during archaeological investigations between the years 1991 and 1997 at Kyrksundet, in the archipelago of southwestern Finland. Bronzed keys with bird motifs have never been found in Finland before, but similar keys have been found both in Birka and on Gotland, Sweden. The aim with this paper is firstly to analyse and compare the keys from Kyrksundet, Birka and Gotland, and their find contexts. Secondly, together with the results from the analysis, the following questions will be discussed; What is the meaning behind the bird motif, why can these keys be found at Kyrksundet, and who were the people that had these keys in their possession during the Viking Age. The symbolic aspect of the keys is a strong theme in this discussion, because the underlaying theory in this paper is that the keys most likely had both a worldly and a cosmological meaning. Earlier archaeological investigations mainly have associated these keys with the Nordic peoples and their eastern connections during the Viking Age. Reason behind this association is that the birds on the motif have been interpreted as falcons and the falcon has a relatively strong connection to the Rurik dynasty that ruled in Novgorod and Kiev. Whether the bird is a falcon or not, is however a question that will be discussed in this paper. The analysis performed in this paper, shows that the bird motif on the keys shares more similarities with a raven motif that was used on the British Isles than with the falcon motif that was used in Novgorod and Kiev. This paper will therefore include a suggestion for another perspective, where the keys might be connected to the Nordic peoples and their western connections.