Doctoral dissertation 2007, Department of Archaeology and Classical Studies, Stockholm University.
This thesis explores bodily representations in Late Iron Age Scandinavia (400–1050 AD). Non-human bodies, such as gold foil figures, and human bodies are analysed. The work starts with an examination and deconstruction of the sex/gender categories to the effect that they are considered to be of minor value for the purposes of the thesis. Three analytical concepts – masks, miniature, and metaphor – are deployed in order to interpret how and why the chosen bodies worked within their prehistoric contexts.
The manipulations the figures sometimes have undergone are referred to as masking practices, discussed in Part One. It is shown that masks work and are powerful by being paradoxical; that they are vehicles for communication; and that they are, in effect, transitional objects bridging gaps that arise in continuity as a result of events such as symbolic or actual deaths.
In Part Two miniaturization is discussed. Miniaturization contributes to making worlds intelligible, negotiable and communicative. Bodies in miniatures in comparison to other miniature objects are particularly potent. Taking gold foil figures under special scrutiny, it is claimed that gold, its allusions as well as its inherent properties conveyed numinosity. Consequently gold foil figures, regardless of the context, must be understood as extremely forceful agents.
Part Three examines metaphorical thinking and how human and animal body parts were used in pro-creational acts, resulting in the birth of persons. However, these need not have been human, but could have been the outcomes of turning a deceased into an ancestor, iron into a steel sword, or clay into a ceramic urn, hence expanding and transforming the members of the family/household. Thus, bone in certain contexts acted as a transitional object or as a generative substance.
It is concluded that the bodies of research are connected to transitions, and that the theme of transformation was one fundamental characteristic of the societies of study.
Author(s): Ing-Marie Back Danielsson
Series: Stockholm Studies in Archaeology, 40
Publisher: Stockholm University
Year: 2007
Language: English
Pages: 348
List of Illustrations 9
Acknowledgements 12
PART ONE – FOUNDATION 15
Levelling 16
Buto dance, quantum physics and the absence of disorderly archaeologies 16
Purported purposes 17
How the thesis works 18
The moving needle in the seamless web 19
Scientific reproaches and approaches 25
Queer theory – not quite as queer as the queer of the normal 26
Oral communities, medieval texts and interpretations of Iron Age bodies 29
Images and representations of bodies 43
Images and sex 46
Categorisation and Variability – the Control of Gender and Sex and the Resistance of Material culture 49
The discursive limits of sex – especially in archaeology 50
The constraining order of gender dualisms 51
The sorting of bodies through centuries 52
The sorting of bodies within archaeology 59
The never-ending story with manly swords and female jewellery – the not-so-hardcore sexing 60
The hardcore sexing: skeletons and genes 63
Example one: gold foil figures 70
Example two: the serving and waiting 81
Example three: sexing as educating and self-explanatory 85
Slamming doors to other worlds 87
Conclusive thoughts on "sex" 88
Good riddance, sex! 89
Essential Engagements 91
Introduction 91
Persons and personhoods 91
Essential disembodiments 93
Examples of disembodiments – sejd and shamanism 94
Masking and Performance – Bodily Metamorphoses 99
Masking and performance as socio-cultural practices 100
Introduction 100
The complex of masking 100
Masks in transitional situations 104
Masks – events – deaths 107
Masks and reversals 107
Creating acts of revelation: the mask and its wearer 108
The importance of the audience 114
The purposes of masking 115
Masking practices during the Iron Age in Scandinavia 117
Make up and doll up – figures of speech 117
Representations of facial masks 131
The mask – a favoured concept already in the Late Iron Age 148
Rune stones, mounds and masks, or the meanings of transitional events and objects 150
Kuml – the guiding marks and masks for body passages and transformations 152
Rune stones – directing dwellers on thresholds 156
Bridging gaps between different worlds 163
Mounds and colourful rune stones 164
Conclusions: 'kuml' 167
Concluding remarks: Masking and Performance 168
PART TWO – DIRECTING MICROCOSMIC BODIES 170
The Workings of Miniaturization 171
Miniaturization – to make the world and other worlds intelligible, negotiable and
communicative 171
Miniaturization, manipulation and metaphorical thinking 172
The human body as a vehicle for metaphorical thinking 175
The recognition of the contextual and socio-cultural body for creating and making
worlds 176
Contacting Divine Forces Through Shiny Metal 180
The origins of gold 180
The importance of colour symbolism within metals 181
The ontophany of gold 187
Brilliant Bodies – Histories and Interpretations 189
Introduction 189
Anyone can have a go – the positive predicament 191
Gold foil figures – an heterogeneous delivery 193
Excavating foils 197
Earlier interpretations 198
How they were used 202
Making sense of senses – creating somatic experiences 204
Playbills Directing Performances of Union and Consummation – Gold Foil
Couples 214
Introduction 214
(Em)barking up the right tree – gold foil figures assisting in the births of houses 214
A framing device – making two into one 221
Fire down the hall 225
The absence of aristocratic individuality in "transit halls" 226
Embracing stories – the pendants from Norsborg and Roskilde 227
To Tell One’s Beads 228
Introduction 228
Portability 228
The seated travellers 228
Props that guide and direct – supporting transformations 229
Birds of a feather – feathers of birds 232
The Hemdrup staff – a Sealing Orchestration 233
Introduction 233
Curing a body – the Hemdrup staff 233
Paying attention to details 235
To Figure Out Figures – How and Why They Worked 240
PART THREE – DE-PARTING BODIES 242
Re-circulating Bones 243
Introduction 243
The Great Divide – re-distributing and sharing body parts at moments of interment 243
Bones as objects and as substance 245
Bones as transitional objects that work like masks 245
Bone as a generative substance 246
Bones, semen, flour: regeneration and eternity 251
Other arenas for mixing animals, humans, and things 252
Animality within humanity 252
Animal ornamentation 253
Concluding remarks: dividends for dividuals 256
Reciprocal Engagements 257
Introduction 257
Starter 257
Ingenious ignition 260
Keeping engines running 261
Communications: rivers and roads in the shade 267
Conclusions: picturing paramount motions 269
The Connections Between the Preparation of Foods and Burials 271
Introduction 271
Bread for the dead 271
A (t)rough start 274
Transforming food utensils 278
Summary with Conclusions 280
Part One – Foundation 280
Part Two – Directing Microcosmic Bodies 286
Part Three – De-Parting Bodies 288
Concluding Remarks – The Late Iron Age as the Time of Transformations 291
Sammanfattning 293
Del Ett – Foundation 293
Del Två – Directing Microcosmic Bodies 301
Del Tre – De-Parting Bodies 305
Sammanfattande slutsatser 308
References 309
Abbreviations 309
Bibliography 310
Unpublished sources 344
Personal communicators 344
