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. Vikings • Rock provenancing • Seafaring • Arctic commodities • Maritime economy • Early medieval trade * Dagfinn Skre
Late Iron Age Whaling in Scandinavia
Journal of Maritime Archaeology
The use of marine mammal bone as a raw material in the manufacturing of gaming pieces in the Scandinavian late Iron Age has been observed and discussed in recent years. New empirical studies have created a chronology as well as a typology showing how the design of the gaming pieces is tightly connected to different choices of raw material; from antler in the Roman and Migration periods, to whale bone in the sixth century, and walrus in the tenth century. Macroscopic examination can, however, rarely go beyond determining that the material is ‘cetacean bone’. The following article presents the taxonomic identifications of 68 samples of whale bone gaming pieces, determined using Zooarchaeology by mass spectrometry analysis. The results demonstrate the consistent use of bones fromBalaenidaesp. most probably the North Atlantic right whale (Eubalaena glacialis). This paper presents strong evidence for active, large-scale hunting of whales in Scandinavia, starting in the sixth century. The...
Whalebone Gaming Pieces: Aspects of Marine Mammal Exploitation in Vendel and Viking Age Scandinavia
European Journal of Archaeology, 2018
Discussions of pre-Viking trade and production have for many decades focused on products made of precious metals, glass and, to some degree, iron. This is hardly surprising considering the difficulties in finding and provenancing products made of organic matter. In this article we examine gaming pieces made from bone and antler, which are not unusual in Scandinavian burials in the Vendel and Viking period (c.ad550–1050). A special emphasis is placed on whalebone pieces that appear to dominate after aroundad550, signalling a large-scale production and exploitation of North Atlantic whale products. In combination with other goods such as bear furs, birds of prey, and an increased iron and tar production, whalebone products are part of an intensified large-scale outland exploitation and indicate strong, pre-urban trading routes across Scandinavia and Europe some 200 years before the Viking period and well before the age of the emporia.
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.
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.
Acta Borealia A Nordic Journal of Circumpolar Societies, 2018
During the course of the 14th century the Swedish Crown and the Catholic Church made robust attempts to include the areas beside the Bothnian bay within their central fiscal and clerical organization. Salmon fishing in the productive river rapids became major targets for external commercial interests. Written records inform us about the situation from the perspective of the exploiters. However, there is a story running in parallel – that of the local population already occupying the lands and the fishing grounds. The study aims to analyse the significance of hunting and fishing to the overall subsistence of coastal communities in northern Sweden during the period AD 500–1600. The social context is of particular interest, specifically in relation to the successive conformation by the local communities to the Swedish fiscal system. The study draws on archaeological records and on historical records from the 14th to the 17th century, in addition to ethnographic accounts for hunting and fishing. We conclude that the legal cultures embraced by the indigenous population and that of the Swedish central powers were in essence incompatible. The acquisition of land and fishing rights was never settled between two equal parties, but one-sidedly enforced by the party holding the pen.
Delivering the Deep. Maritime archaeology for the 21st century: selected papers from IKUWA 7 BAR INTERNATIONAL SERIES 3170, 2024
A comprehensive assessment of boat-related bog finds from the collection of the Arctic University Museum of Norway (Norges Arktiske Universitetsmuseum, NAU) materialises the entanglement of boat technology and cultural meaning in northern Norway during the Iron Age. Nineteen boat parts and related equipment made of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) from 17 bog locations have been documented. As the Early Iron Age and pre-Iron Age bog finds have been discussed in an earlier publication (Wickler 2019), this chapter focusses on bog boat finds from the Late Iron Age. The documentation of bog boats has emphasised absolute dating using radiocarbon and dendrochronology, in addition to detailed descriptions and graphic documentation of the objects. Some finds are related to ritual activities which include votive bog offerings and a boat grave. Most of the Late Iron Age boats have sewn planking, a construction technique which predates the use of iron rivets first documented in the Roman Iron Age and which is also associated with indigenous Sámi boats. Hybrid vessels combining sewing with treenails and rivets are also represented. Bog boat remains are discussed in the context of relevant explanatory frameworks in order to evaluate their significance for the development of boat technology and as expressions of northern Norwegian maritime culture.
The Earliest Wave of Viking Activity? The Norwegian Evidence Revisited
European Journal of Archaeology, 2019
This article discusses the chronology and nature of the earliest Viking activity, based on a group of early burials from Norway containing Insular metalwork. By focusing on the geographical distribution of this material and applying the concept of locational and social knowledge, the importance of establishing cognitive landscapes to facilitate the Viking expansion is highlighted. It is argued that the first recorded Viking attacks were only possible after a phase in which Norse seafarers had acquired the necessarily level of a priori environmental knowledge needed to move in new seascapes and coastal environments. This interaction model opens the possibility that some of the early Insular finds from Norway may represent pre-Lindisfarne exploration voyages, carried out by seafarers along the sailing route of Nordvegr.
This is the manucript of a chapter in Vinland Revisited; the Norse World at the Turn of the First Millennium, ed. Shannon Lewis-Simpson, [Selected papers from the Viking Millennium International Symposium Sept. 15-24, 2000, New Foundland and Labrador], St. John's 2003, pp. 51-64.