The Viking Age settlement pattern of Langholt,North Iceland: Results of the Skagafjörður Archaeological Settlement Survey

An archaeological survey of the Viking Age settlement pattern in the Langholt region of North Iceland suggests that being early in this sequence conferred tremendous advantages to the settlers of this previously uninhabited landscape. Many of the farms established during the settlement of Iceland (which began about a.d. 870) are in use today. However, accessing the Viking Age landscape is difficult. In Langholt the earliest layers of most farmsteads are buried under a thousand years of occupational debris, while the abandoned sites have been covered by extensive soil deposition. Here we report on our coring and test excavation results that outline Viking Age farmstead location, establishment date, and maximum size by the end of the Viking Age. There is a strong correlation between farmstead size and establishment date. This correlation suggests that during the rapid settlement of Iceland, the farmsteads established by earlier settlers were wealthier and that wealth endured.     

A Viking Ship Graffito from Kilclief,County Down,Ireland

Deep ploughing near Kilclief, County Down, near the site of an early monastery, disturbed a large quantity of buried stones. One of these displayed a Viking‐type ship with a furled sail. Decorative artwork on the stone suggests an 11th‐century date. The ship displays close similarities to Viking ship graffiti in Viking Dublin and in the Scandinavian homelands. This article describes the decorated stone and suggests that it represents an Irish ship constructed in the Viking style. Documentary sources indicate that ships were being granted by an Irish over‐king to a local king of this area at this time.     

Stable isotopes as indicators of change in the food procurement and food preference of Viking Age and Early Christian populations on Gotland (Sweden)

Archaeological samples of human and faunal remains dating from the Viking (9–11th century AD) and Early Christian (11–12th century AD) periods of Gotland, Sweden were assayed through stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis in order to investigate whether changes in subsistence occurred between these periods, particularly regarding the importance of seafood. The study was concerned with how the dietary regime of the Baltic trading port and farming settlement at Ridanäs, Gotland was affected by the widespread environmental and sociocultural transformations that characterized the end of the Viking Age. More generally, the research considers how changes in both food procurement and preference may account for observed differences in the dietary regimes of individuals from the Viking Age and the Early Christian period.     

The Scale and Impact of Viking Settlement in Northumbria

DISCOVERIES AT the Viking winter camp at Torksey indicate that the armies that invaded Anglo-Saxon England in the late 9th century were much larger than is often assumed, and that a literal reading of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle’s assessment of the size of Viking fleets may, after all, have been correct. Furthermore, study of the Torksey metalwork assemblage has allowed the identification of the archaeological signature of the Viking Great Army, and when applied to Cottam, it confirms the identification of an initial phase of raiding by an element of the Army, followed shortly thereafter by settlement represented by the development of a hybrid Anglo-Scandinavian culture. Taken together, over 25 categories of non-ferrous artefacts are diagnostic of Viking or Anglo-Scandinavian activity in Northumbria. Applying this model to sites, largely known only from metal-detecting, we can observe a common pattern. At the majority of sites, a large and fairly standardised middle Anglo-Saxon finds assemblage is succeeded by just a few Viking finds, which we attribute to raiding following Halfdan’s return to Northumbria with part of the Great Army in AD 876. At a smaller number of sites, assemblages of Anglo-Scandinavian finds relate to the establishment of settlements by the new landowners. The overall picture is of major settlement disruption and dislocation of existing land holdings and populations in the late-9th century. This demonstrates, for the first time from archaeological evidence, the scale and impact of Viking activity in Northumbria.     

Early medieval T⊘nsberg — dating problems and the results

According to the 13th century Icelandic Saga writer Snorre Sturlasson, there was a marketplace (in old Norwegian: Kaupstadir) in the T?nsberg area by the end of the 9th century. The origin of the medieval town of T?nsberg has therefore been much discussed in the light of this statement. Viking Age and early medieval settlements often lack material datable by archaeology alone. In T?nsberg radiocarbon dating has been used to distinguish between Viking Age deposits and medieval deposits, when stratigraphy alone does not state the differences. However, this dating method has produced various results and there is obvious need for a local calibration.     

Notices of Remains of Ecclesiastical Architecture in Norfolk,Supposed to be of the Saxon Period

Documentary research shows that an unprovenanced, non-matching ‘pair’ of Viking oval brooches now in the British Museum are, in fact, from a grave in the Viking cemetery discovered in the nineteenth century at Pierowall, Westray, Orkney. Found in 1839, they had subsequently passed through the hands of a number of private collectors and dealers, sadly losing their grave associations and sustaining a little damage in the process. It is even more disturbing to note that eventually their provenance was lost (or suppressed?). Fortunately the ‘pair’ was never split up, which has facilitated their re-identification.     

Peverell’s Castle in the Peak

The church at Hardham is a small simple building constructed of sandstone and ironstone rubble interspersed with Roman tiles; originally it was whitewashed. It was built without a tower, but a bell turret was added in Victorian times. There are no features which prove that it was built before the Conquest, but three of the deeply-splayed windows are primitive; one of them has a rebate on the outside for a shutter. Other windows were cut later, the earliest being a double lancet behind the altar which dates from the thirteenth century. The church consists of a nave, 9.6 m x 5.8 m (31 ft 6 in x 19 ft), and chancel, 5.2 m x 4.7 m (17 ft x 15 ft 6 in). The insertion of the lancet window has destroyed the centrepiece of the decorative scheme of paintings which extended over both parts of the church and formed an integrated whole (Johnston 1901a, 74; 1901b, 62; Milner Gulland 1985, 27, 43; Baker 1986, 49–49). In both nave and chancel the theme of the decoration is the contrast between good and evil. Thus, in the nave the Sacrificial Lamb with angels waving censers is placed over the chancel arch and is confronted by a representation of the damned in hell which faces it on the west wall. In the chancel, Christ seated in Majesty, adored by Cherubim and the Elders of the Apocalypse, was painted on the east wall and faced a representation of the Fall of Man and the history of Adam and Eve on the east face of the chancel arch. This scheme interprets the words of St Paul, As in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive' (I Corinthians xv, v 22). The central part of this composition was destroyed by the insertion of the thirteenth-century window. The theological idea that sin was brought into the world by the disobedience of Adam and Eve, and could only be expunged by the Life and Passion of Christ, is often illustrated in the Middle Ages. This, for instance, is the theme of the illustrations in the St Albans Psalter, which was produced during the first half of the twelfth century (Dodwell et al. 1960, 49; see especially Pacht 1962, 49–53).     

Florida's Mystery Wreck

During the summer of 2005 the Florida Bureau of Archaeological Research and the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary investigated an unusual shipwreck in 6 m (20 ft) of water off Marathon in the Florida Keys. Known locally as the 'Mystery Wreck' it remained relatively undisturbed for over two decades until State of Florida and Sanctuary archaeologists conducted a research project to learn more about this fascinating early shipwreck. This paper presents a summary of field investigations and a preliminary interpretation of the shipwreck.
© 2006 The Authors     

Cultivation History Beyond the Periphery: Early Agriculture in the North European Boreal Forest

We have investigated the environmental history of human occupation and the development of agriculture in the eastern interior Lake District of Finland. The material consists of archaeological data, which is reviewed in topographical and agrogeological context, and pollen analytical evidence of agricultural indices from eight precisely dated (varved) lake sediment sequences. Before the Viking Age, archaeological evidence, consisting of stray finds, dwelling sites, and graves, is very scarce. Iron Age finds are clearly confined to the lowland environs with silty and clayey soils. During the Viking Age, the number of stray finds multiplies and the first cemeteries are established. Comparison between Viking and Crusade Period finds reveals a topographic shift toward higher locations and morainic soils. Most of the cup-stones are located on upland sites—that is, not in connection with known Iron Age sites. These are interpreted as medieval indicators of slash-and-burn farming of the fertile but stony supraaquatic morainic soils. There is pollen analytical evidence of sporadic cultivation in the area from the Bronze Age onward. Afterca. AD 700, the occurrence of cereal pollen grains becomes regular but remains discontinuous at each site until after the turn of the millennium. There is then an exponential rise in the cereal pollen rain, indicating a fully agricultural population.     

The Tune Viking Ship Reconsidered

The Tune Viking ship has been a riddle for more than 150 years, since being found within a burial in the Oslo fjord area in 1867. It was long thought that the ship's freeboard was too low for it to have crossed the North Sea. Advances in documentation methods and a detailed study of the preserved parts of the ship have provided new data, and this article outlines a new proposal for how the ship looked when it was built in the early 10th century AD. The Tune ship is reinterpreted as a seagoing vessel, in no way inferior to the Oseberg or Gokstad Viking ships.     

Potassium-argon ages of schist honestones from the viking age sites at Kaupang (Norway), Aggersborg (Denmark), Hedeby (West Germany) and Wolin (Poland), and their archaeological implications

Viking age honestones from four large sites in northern Europe have been made from two different types of quartz-muscovite schist: one dark grey, very fine-grained schist, and a light grey, fine-grained schist. In order to determine the provenance of these schist hones, KAr ages have been determined on 16 selected representative hones. The dark grey schist hones yield Caledonian ages of 403–446 Ma. and consideration of petrographic evidence leads to the conclusion that the hones were quarried in the Caledonian area (presumably) of Western Norway. The light grey schist hones are Precambrian, with KAr ages of 931–946 Ma, and are presumed to originate from Telemark, South Norway. The amount and homogeneity of these honestone groups from different parts of the Viking world indicates the existence of large quarries, and demonstrates that production and trade were more wide-ranging than had hitherto been assumed.     

Social status in the Merovingian and Viking periods in Norway from archaeological and historical sources

Generally, the social structure (stratification of the society) in the Merovingian and Viking periods in Norway has been studied by historians using mainly historical and linguistic material. However, prehistoric burials are supposed to reflect the social status of the deceased, and in the present study social status in the Merovingian and Viking periods in western, central and eastern Norway has been examined through 4629 grave finds recorded in the museums’ list—3796 were defined as men's grave finds and 833 as women's. On the basis of the composition of the grave material both the men's and women's graves could be divided into three groups: a large lower group with plain grave material, a small upper group with the richest finds, and an intermediate group. This grouping was supported by studies of the professionally excavated graves from 1956–1978 and indicated three distinctive social groups of free men and women. The grouping of the men's graves on the basis of weapon composition showed only a fair association with the weapon requirements and the social status indicated by the provincial laws from the early Middle Ages. However, studies of 177 precisely dated weapon graves demonstrated a closer association between the requirements of the laws and the weapon composition of the 10th century graves than of those from the 8th and 9th centuries. Accordingly, the grave finds from the Merovingian and Viking periods as well as the historical sources from the early Middle Ages reflect a society with marked differences in social status, the grave finds from the 10th century showing the best correspondence to the provincial laws.     

Viking woollen square-sails and fabric cover factor

The discovery of the five scuttled Viking ships of Roskilde Fjord in Denmark and the subsequent excavation, preservation and analysis of the remains has initiated a programme of reconstructive archaeology led by the Viking Ship Museum of Roskilde in which four of the five hulls have now been reconstructed together with their rigs and square-sails. The reconstruction of the sails has been based on fragments of heavy woollen cloth found within the roof of Trondenes church in Norway dating to the mid-13th century. This paper uses the'cover-factor' modelling methods of modern textile engineering to analyse the'Viking' sail fabrics and assess their strength, resilience and performance in comparison with the linen sails from the wreck of the Vasa .     

Craft economies in the north American Southwest

Debates concerning sociopolitical organization in the North American Southwest are clarified and confounded by the conclusion that craft specialization was not always a sufficient condition of complexity in the region. Understanding the relationship between varying dimensions of craft specialization (e.g., context, scale, and intensity) and sociopolitical organization in the region requires us to examine a variety of social institutions (e.g., leadership, gender, and ethnicity) that potentially generated differentiated economies. New research on middle-range societies in the North American Southwest and elsewhere in the world should focus on identifying and interpreting the archaeological signatures of specific social institutions and their linkages to craft economies.     

Sherborne Old Castle,Dorset. Archaeological Excavations 1930–90

Abstract

THIS is an account of both the history and the recent findings of the Mosfell Archaeological Project. Excavation is part of an interdisciplinary research approach that uses archaeology, history, anthropology, forensics, environmental sciences and saga studies to construct a picture of human habitation, power relationships, religious and mortuary practices, and environmental change in the region of Mosfellssveit in south-western Iceland. The valley system with surrounding highlands and lowland coastal areas has interlocking natural and cultural components which developed from the 9th-century settlement of Iceland into a Viking Age chieftaincy dominated by the family at Mosfell/Hrísbrú. Excavations of both pagan and Christian sites are providing significant information on the changing periods of occupation, with implications for the larger study of Viking North Atlantic. During the Viking Age, Mosfell was a self-contained social and economic unit connected to the rest of Iceland through a network of roads, including a major E.–W. route to the nearby assembly place for the yearly Althing. With its ship's landing or port at Leirvogur, in the bay at the valley's mouth, the region was in commercial and cultural contact with the larger Scandinavian and European worlds.     

Bands of brothers: a re‐appraisal of the Viking Great Army and its implications for the Scandinavian colonization of England

Although the ninth‐century Viking Great Army has been subject to intensive historical and archaeological study, it remains an enigmatic entity. This article explores the evidence for the Great Army in England through the consideration of archaeological materials in addition to the organizational structures underpinning the formation of Viking ‘armies’. In light of this, I argue that the Great Army is better considered as a mobile society or polity rather than an armed force. Viewing the Great Army in this way influences not only the interpretation of evidence recovered in the field, but also our understanding of the Scandinavian settlement of northern and eastern England during the late ninth century.     

Book Reviews

Andrea Augenti Il Palatino nel Medioevo. Archeologia e topografia (secoli VI–XIII)
Tatjana Berga Latvian Collections: Anglo-Saxon and Later British Coins
Giles Constable Three Studies in Medieval Religious and Social Thought: The Interpretation of Mary and Martha, the Ideal of the Imitation of Christ, the Orders of Society
Giles Constable The Reformation of the Twelfth Century
Kate Cooper The Virgin and the Bridge: Idealized Womanhood in Late Antiquity
Robert DiNapoli An Index of Theme and Image to the Homilies of the Anglo-Saxon Church: Comprising the Homilies of Ælfric, Wulfstan, and the Blickling and Vercelli Codices
Johann Englberger Gregor VII. und die Investiturfrage. Quellenkritische Studien zum angeblichen Investiturverbot von 1075
Michael Enright Lady with a Mead Cup. Ritual, Prophecy and Lordship in the European Warband from La Tène to the Viking Age
Colman Etchingham Viking Raids on Irish Church Settlements in the Ninth Century
Stephen S. Evans The Lords of Battle. Image and Reality of the Comitatus in Dark-Age Britain
R. Francovich and G. Noyé La Storia dell'Alto Medioevo Italiano (VI-X Secolo) alla Luce dell'Archeologia
Hans-Werner Goetz Frauen im frühen Mittelalter     

A ‘DIVINATION STAFF’ FROM VIKING‐AGE NORWAY: AT THE BRITISH MUSEUM

A long iron rod in the British Museum's Viking collection (accession number 1894,1105.5) has been reclassified by curators. Accessioned in the nineteenth century as a fishing tool and later recast as a roasting spit, it can now be added to a group of enigmatic iron rods that are widely interpreted as the special attribute of the völva, or Norse seeress.     

From poachers to gamekeepers: Scandinavian warlords and Carolingian kings

This article represents the first comprehensive study of the commendation and conversion of Viking leaders by Carolingian rulers, from the first recorded instance under Charlemagne to the agreement with Rollo in the early tenth century. The survey underlines how widespread the practice was, and permits an assessment of its effectiveness as a defensive strategy against Scandinavian incursions. The outcome varied: some Scandinavians found themselves defending Frankish territory against Viking attack, others acted as intermediaries between Franks and Scandinavians, still others were granted Frankish benefices but never trusted, and ultimately killed. Nonetheless, the article demonstrates that in the majority of cases the practice of commendation and conversion worked to the Carolingians' advantage, neutralizing potential enemies or even turning them into useful allies.     

Energy-Dispersive X-Ray Fluorescence analysis of Haleakalā basalt adze quarry materials, Maui, Hawai‘i

One of Hawai‘i’s major prehistoric basalt adze quarries (SIHP 50-50-11-2510) is located in the summit region of Haleakalā, Maui. Situated at approximately 2750 m above sea level (9000 ft), the quarry shares a similar high-altitude setting with the Mauna Kea adze quarry on Hawai‘i Island. Adding to a growing Energy-Dispersive X-Ray Fluorescence (EDXRF) database for the Hawaiian Islands, we present the results from 255 geological and archaeological lithic samples from the Haleakalā quarry site. We also briefly discuss why this non-destructive XRF technique is particularly applicable in the Hawaiian cultural context.