In "Relations and Runes" a number of specialists from the fields of archaeology, numismatics and runology explore the complexity of developments and relations in the Baltic Sea region during the Late Iron Age and Early Middle Ages. The contributions in the book cover a wide spectrum of topics and approaches highlighting how islands functioned as nodes in interaction and communication, while constructing and maintaining individual identities. With special focus on the islands of Öland, Gotland and Bornholm, in-depth studies of specific archaeological materials are set in a broader context of cultural development and change in the Baltic.
This book is the outcome of a joint venture between two research projects – The Viking Phenomenon and Everlasting Runes, and Gotland Museum.
Author(s): Laila Kitzler Åhfeldt, Charlotte Hedenstierna-Jonson, Per Widerström, Ben Raffield (eds.)
Publisher: Swedish National Heritage Board
Year: 2020
Language: English
Pages: 182
City: Visby
Introduction 5
Charlotte Hedenstierna-Jonson / Entering the Viking Age through the Baltic 11
John Ljungkvist / A maritime culture 23
Ben Raffield / No one is an island: in-group identities in the Viking Age Baltic 31
Ludvig Papmehl-Dufay / There’s something about islands: similarities and differences between Öland and Gotland in the Migration period 41
Christoph Kilger / Long distance trade, runes and silver: a Gotlandic perspective 49
Dariusz Adamczyk / Did the Viking Age begin on the southern shore of the Baltic Sea? Early Norse Trading Networks centred on Janów Pomorski/Truso 65
Ny Björn Gustafsson / On the significance of coastal free zones and foreign tongues. Tracing cultural interchange in early medieval Gotland 79
Per Widerström / The fourth road – new insights about Visby 91
Torun Zachrisson / Öland during the Late Iron Age and Early Middle Ages (550–1200 AD): a donkey between two strips of hay 107
Magnus Källström / The typology of the short-twig runes and contacts in the Baltic Sea 127
Laila Kitzler Åhfeldt / Islanders' attitudes to runic script – personal objects with runic inscriptions on Öland, Gotland and Bornholm 151
Cecilia Ljung / Regional diversity and religious change – Late Viking Age burial and commemoration on Öland and Gotland 167
