Using the evidence of archaeology, poetry, legal texts and annals, this volume investigates the social, economic and symbolic structures of early Scandinavia at the time of the Viking expansion. The contributors provide an outline ethnography, covering dwellings and settlements, kinship and social relations, law, political structures and external relations, rural and urban economies, and the ideology of warfare. The topics are discussed through case-studies from the contributors' recent research, illustrating the changing scholarly interpretations of this formative period in Scandinavian history. By addressing these key research questions, the contributions trace the background to and the impact of urbanisation and Christianisation, and the development of royal power, which stimulated the transition from the Viking Age to the medieval period in Scandinavia. This book brings together for the first time in English a wealth of current Scandinavian archaeological, historical and cultural research.
Author(s): Judith Jesch (ed.)
Series: Studies in Historical Archaeoethnology, 5
Publisher: The Boydell Press
Year: 2002
Language: English
Pages: 382
City: Woodbridge
INTRODUCTION. Judith Jesch. 1
DWELLINGS AND SETTLEMENTS: STRUCTURE AND CHARACTERISTICS / Bente Magnus 5
KINSHIP AND SOCIAL RELATIONS IN THE EARLY MEDIEVAL PERIOD IN SVEALAND ELUCIDATED BY DNA / Birgit Arrhenius 45
KINSHIP AND MARRIAGE: THE FAMILY, ITS RELATIONSHIPS AND RENEWAL / Elisabeth Vestergaard 59
LAW AND LEGAL CUSTOMS IN VIKING AGE SCANDINAVIA / Stefan Brink 87
RURAL ECONOMY: ECOLOGY, HUNTING, PASTORALISM, AGRICULTURAL AND NUTRITIONAL ASPECTS / Lise Bender Jørgensen 129
PATTERNS OF SETTLEMENT AND DEFENCE AT THE PROTO-TOWN OF BIRKA, LAKE MÄLAR, EASTERN SWEDEN / Lena Holmquist Olausson 153
URBAN ECONOMY IN SOUTHERN SCANDINAVIA IN THE SECOND HALF OF THE FIRST MILLENNIUM AD / Svend Nielsen 177
VIKINGS IN THE BRITISH ISLES: A QUESTION OF SOURCES. David N. Dumville 209
EAGLES, RAVENS AND WOLVES: BEASTS OF BATTLE, SYMBOLS OF VICTORY AND DEATH / Judith Jesch 251
THE 'LUDWIGSLIED' AND THE BATTLE OF SAUCOURT / Dennis H. Green 281
HARALD BLUETOOTH - A SAINT VERY NEARLY MADE BY ADAM OF BREMEN / Niels Lund 303
CURRENT ISSUES AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS IN THE STUDY OF THE SCANDINAVIANS / Summary of discussions with comments by Giorgio Ausenda 321
INDEX 353
