Viking Age gold and silver from Irish crannogs and other watery places

It has been observed that Viking Age gold finds in Scandinavia and Britain are frequently associated with watery environments and may represent ritual or votive depositions. There is also evidence, literary and archaeological, for the ritual deposition of some silver hoards in the Viking world. This paper considers the evidence of those Viking Age gold and silver hoards and single finds from Ireland that derive from watery locations, including crannogs and their environs. It is noted that all recorded gold hoards, with one exception, have an apparent association with water or watery places and thus conform to the patterns noted elsewhere. Most of the crannog finds, which are invariably of silver, are from the midland region, and it is noted that a high proportion of them contain ingots and hack-silver and are thus most probably economic rather than ritual in function. It is suggested that these types of hoards evidence a close economic relationship between the Hiberno-Scandinavians of Dublin and the Southern Uí Néill rulers of this area. Some of the remaining silver hoards—from bogs, rivers, lakes, small islands and shorelines—which vary in terms of their contents, with both complete ornaments and hack-silver being represented, may have been ritually deposited, but this is difficult to establish with any degree of certainty. A general discussion of ritual hoarding is presented, and it is concluded that this practice may have been more commonplace than has generally been accepted to date and that some, at least, of the ‘watery’ finds from Ireland were indeed deposited in a ritual context.

The Viking age glass beads of Ireland and their North Atlantic context

Hitherto, the majority of studies which have included the discussion of Viking glass beads have mainly focused on the assemblages from individual sites, with limited use of known parallels. Exceptions to this include recent publications regarding the Icelandic material and Callmer’s 1977 catalogue of the finds from mainland Scandinavia, now over thirty years old. Analysis of these finds from Ireland was, for the most part, non-existent. The aim of this research is to address this lack of analysis within Ireland, while incorporating the wider context of the beads within the Viking North Atlantic. The research thus examines the use of glass beads of diagnostically Scandinavian manufacture and import found in Ireland, particularly in relation to their context and distribution. The history of research from Ireland as well as from across the Viking world is considered and explored throughout the thesis, with critique of methods and discussions used. Focussed analysis of both published and unpublished material detailing artefacts from Scandinavia (especially Vestfold), Britain, Iceland, the Faroe Islands and L’Anse aux Meadows is presented within the thesis in order to provide the greater picture for the core section of the thesis, the glass beads found in Ireland. Three appendices are included within Volume 2, databases of the glass beads under discussion from Ireland, the Vestfold region graves in Norway and the topsoil finds from the Kaupang trading place, also located within Vestfold. These appendices therefore represent the first-hand analysis of glass beads by the author. In total, this research represents the most up-to-date analysis of Viking glass beads from Ireland and presents a new look at the patterns of use, trade and interpersonal contact that affected the everyday lives of individuals living within Viking Age Ireland.

Carolingian culture in the North Sea world: rethinking the cultural dynamics of personal adornment in Viking age England

Boosted by a proliferation in metal-detected finds, categories of personal adornment now constitute a vital archaeological source for interpreting Viking-age cultural interaction in the North Sea region. Previous research in England has explored the potential of this metalwork in relation to the formation of ‘Anglo-Scandinavian’ identity, but without due consideration of a wider spectrum of cultural influences. This article redresses the balance by shifting attention to twenty-eight belt fittings derived from richly embellished baldrics, equestrian equipment, and waist belts manufactured on the Frankish continent during the period of Carolingian hegemony in the later eighth and ninth centuries ad. The metalwork is classified and then contextualized in order to track import mechanisms and to assess the impact of Carolingian culture on the northern peripheries of the Frankish empire. The main conclusion is that the adoption, adaptation, and strategic manipulation of Carolingian/northern Frankish identity formed an embedded component of cultural dynamics in Viking-age England, scrutiny of which sheds new light on patterns of interconnectivity linking peoples of the North Sea world.

Integrated geoarchaeological methods for the determination of site activity areas : A study of a Viking Age house in Reykjavik, Iceland

Acknowledgements The excavation was funded by the City of Reykjavík, and the geoarchaeological research was funded by a SSHRCC Doctoral Fellowship from the government of Canada, an Overseas Research Studentship, the Cambridge Commonwealth Trust, Pelham Roberts and Muriel Onslow Research Studentships from Newnham College, Cambridge, and Canadian Centennial Scholarships from the Canadian High Commission in London. Garðar Guðmundsson took the micromorphology samples, and supervised sampling on site. The bones were counted by Clayton Tinsley, the thin sections were made by Julie Boreham, and Steve Boreham and his team in the Department of Geography, University of Cambridge, provided technical support for all of the bulk geochemical analyses that were conducted by K. Milek, except for ICP–AES, which was conducted by ALS Chemex. Our gratitude is extended to Charles French, Catherine Hills, Peter Jordan and two anonymous reviewers for their support and helpful comments on earlier drafts of this paper, and to Óskar Gísli Sveinbjarnarson for his assistance with the figures.

Integrated geoarchaeological methods for the determination of site activity areas : A study of a Viking Age house in Reykjavik, Iceland

Acknowledgements The excavation was funded by the City of Reykjavík, and the geoarchaeological research was funded by a SSHRCC Doctoral Fellowship from the government of Canada, an Overseas Research Studentship, the Cambridge Commonwealth Trust, Pelham Roberts and Muriel Onslow Research Studentships from Newnham College, Cambridge, and Canadian Centennial Scholarships from the Canadian High Commission in London. Garðar Guðmundsson took the micromorphology samples, and supervised sampling on site. The bones were counted by Clayton Tinsley, the thin sections were made by Julie Boreham, and Steve Boreham and his team in the Department of Geography, University of Cambridge, provided technical support for all of the bulk geochemical analyses that were conducted by K. Milek, except for ICP–AES, which was conducted by ALS Chemex. Our gratitude is extended to Charles French, Catherine Hills, Peter Jordan and two anonymous reviewers for their support and helpful comments on earlier drafts of this paper, and to Óskar Gísli Sveinbjarnarson for his assistance with the figures.

Bullion rings in Viking Age Britain and Ireland

This paper examines a simple type of silver ring, here termed the ‘bullion-ring’, that occurs in several Viking Age contexts in Britain and Ireland. It is proposed that the type may be dated to the later ninth and early to mid-tenth century, and that it developed in Ireland as a convenient way of storing silver as a result of inspiration from southern Scandinavia. Its distribution patterns suggest that it may have developed in one of Munster’s Scandinavian settlements rather than in Dublin, the core of the Hiberno-Scandinavian silver-working tradition.

A Viking Age maritime haven: a reassessment of the island settlement at Beginish, Co. Kerry

The results of O'Kelly’s excavations on Beginish Island are reassessed and it is proposed that there was a long-lived settlement there that functioned as a Viking-age maritime way-station. This re-evaluation is conducted in the light of recent scholarship on the nature of Scandinavian and Hiberno-Scandinavian settlement in Ireland and, in part, is based on the finds that have emerged on Beginish since the conclusion of the excavations there. The site is considered in the context of its location on the sea route that joined Hiberno-Scandinavian Cork with Limerick, and it is suggested that other such way-stations await.

Death, Destruction and Commemoration : Tracing ritual activities in Finnish Late Iron Age cemeteries (AD 550-1150)

The thesis is connected with death, memory and ancestor commemoration during the Merovingian Period, the Viking Age and the beginning of the Crusade Period (AD 550-1150) in Finland. During this time, cremation was the dominant burial rite. It was not until the end of the Viking Age that inhumation became more common but both cremations and inhumations are performed even at the same sites throughout the time. Three different burial types 1) cremation cemeteries below level ground, 2) inhumation burials and 3) water burials are discussed in five articles. I consider these burial forms from three different viewpoints; collectivity-individuality, visibility-invisibility and cremation-inhumation. The thesis also discusses the topics of memory, memorialisation and monument re-use, which have been neglected subjects in Finnish archaeology until now. Both cremation cemeteries below level ground and inhumation burials have been re-used during their time of usage, and on most occasions are situated in a landscape that is overlaid by other monuments as well. The main questions of the thesis are: What kinds of ritual behaviour can we detect in the burials during the period (AD 550-1150)? How did people perceive the moraine hills that functioned as burial places? What kind of re-use can be detected in the Iron Age cemeteries? Why have ancient sites and artefacts been re-used? This thesis shows that it is possible to claim that both artefact and site re-use is a much more widespread phenomenon than has previously been thought in Finnish archaeology. It is also a conscious and deliberate behaviour that can be related to an ancestor cult and commemoration of the dead. The funerary rituals during this time period show great variation and complex, both regionally and nationally. Not only have the dead been buried using elaborate rituals, they have also been mourned and commemorated in intricate ways that proves that death was not an end product, but the start of something new.

Age determination and stable carbon isotope ratios of Cassidulina laevigata of sediment core Svanic90_9004

A well-dated high-resolution d13C record of the last 2400 a, based on the benthic foraminifera Cassidulina laevigata, is presented for Gullmar Fjord, Sweden. The time interval covers die Roman Warm Period (RWP), the Viking Age/Medieval Warm Period (VA/MWP), the little Ice Age (LIA) and the most recent warming. There is little variation in the d13C record until the early Viking Age (AD 800), when the d13C signal becomes significantly more negative and continues to decrease throughout the VA/MWP, The d13C signal increases both at the beginning and at the end of the LIA but is marked by more negative values during the larger part of the period. Since about 1970, the d13C values are more negative than the long-term average. This general negativity of the record may result from a higher flux of organic matter, possibly of terrestrial origin due to land-use changes together with moderate changes in stagnation periods since the VA/MWP. In most recent times, the oceanic Suess effect together with increased number of extended stagnation periods are probably the main causes of the shift towards more negative d13C values.