O. Grimm, Game grounds in western and ship races in eastern Scandinavia (original) (raw)

The Beginning of the Viking Age in the West

Journal of Maritime Archaeology, 2018

During the Viking Age, Arctic Scandinavia was a source of exquisite furs, down, walrus ivory, and other commodities that met with high demand in England and on the Continent. Hitherto, the earliest firm evidence of this trade has been Ohthere’s account c. 890, but in light of this paper’s findings, its history may be pushed further back in time. Geological analyses of whetstones retrieved in eighth- to early ninth-century Ribe, south-western Jylland, in present-day western Denmark, demonstrate that the majority were quarried near the aristocratic manor Lade (‘loading/storing place’) in Trøndelag, present-day central Norway, some 1100 km by sea to the north. Because of their high numbers and durability, whetstones retrieved in Ribe and other urban sites may be regarded as a proxy for long-distance seaborne trade from the Arctic. The peak in this trade on the threshold of the Viking Age invites a reconsideration of the coinciding and conflicting interests of Scandinavian long-distance traders, kings, and Vikings. It is argued that coalitions and conflicts that arose from these interests, and new constraints and opportunities that emerged for these three types of agents, provide keys to understanding why and where Vikings raided overseas up to the mid-ninth century. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11457-018-9221-3

Stone ships – continuity and change in Scandinavian prehistory

The focus of this paper is the tradition of building stone-ship burials in Scandinavia during prehistory. This tradition is found to different degrees at different times in various regions in Scandinavia during the Bronze Age and the Iron Age (1700 BC–AD 1000). Real ships made for warfare and long-distance voyages call for an unequal social organization with a captain and ordinary men. The relation between symbolic ships and real ships was used in various social strategies that changed in space and in time. In some areas this relation was underlined and the symbolic stone ships were reserved for few people, while in other areas this relation was not admitted and a broader spectrum of the population was buried in stone ships; finally there was the tradition of not using manifest stone ships in connection with death rituals.

The Social Context of Boats and Maritime Trade in Late Medieval Norway: Case Studies from Northern and Southern Peripheries

IKUWA6 Shared Heritage: Proceedings of the Sixth International Congress for Underwater Archaeology. Rodrigues, J.A. and Traviglia, A. (eds.). Archaeopress Publishing. http://www.archaeopress.com/ArchaeopressShop/Public/displayProductDetail.asp?id={153A2BF3-349E-4939-B96A-BA8FC5D2A5F6} , 2020

In this paper, boat remains from two widely separated regions of Norway provide a point of departure for exploring the social context of maritime trade in the late medieval period (AD 1350–1550). The wrecks of two 15th-century cargo vessels from adjacent offshore islands near the Arctic Circle, built of southern Norwegian timber, provide insights into the extensive stockfish (dried cod) trade. Diverse small finds illuminate social aspects of communities participating in a flourishing international maritime trade network. Due to urban expansion in Oslo, ongoing mitigation archaeology in the in-filled former harbour at Bjørvika has revealed more than 30 wrecks from the medieval period up until 1624 when the main port was relocated following a massive fire. The Barcode 17 wreck, dated to the mid-14th century, illustrates the role of maritime trade in Oslo, which, despite being a central urban port, was also a European commercial backwater. Although northern Norway may have been on the periphery relative to Oslo, both locations were marginal when viewed from a European economic perspective. The cases presented here demonstrate the potential for going beyond nautical technology to an understanding of the maritime cultural contexts in which watercraft performed.

Viking-Age and Early Medieval Scandinavia, chapter 1: Introduction

Our most recent and thorough publication is written in English (2001), but was pubished in German a year later ("Die Welt der Wikinger"). We have been encouraged to make this work available in English and here are the the first chapters. A list of references will follow soon.