Polynesians of the Atlantic? Precedents, potentials, and pitfalls in Oceanic analogies of the Vikings

Comparisons between Viking-Age Scandinavia and the cultures of Oceania have long antecedents, stretching back at least to the late nineteenth century, with a significant milestone in the first-ever synthesis of Polynesian archaeology – Peter Buck’s Vikings of the Sunrise published in 1938. This brief contribution offers some critical commentary on a recent example, Mads Ravn’s paper in the 2018 volume of this journal, setting it in disciplinary context and also against Hawaiian work on this topic that has been undertaken by the authors since 2013. We consider the very real potential in this kind of comparative research, with some discussion of possible ways forward, and a note on pitfalls that must be avoided. Long sequences of continuous historical data, with a focus on internal social processes in addition to external influences, are at the centre of our approach. Above all, we stress the need for an emphasis on emic perspectives, not only in relation to native Hawaiians and other Pasifika, but also – as far as possible – in the study of the Scandinavian Iron Age

Late Iron Age Whaling in Scandinavia

The use of bone from marine mammals as raw material in the manufacturing of gaming pieces in the Scandinavian late Iron Age have been observed and discussed during the last few years. New empirical studies have created a chronology as well as a typology showing how the design of the gaming pieces is tightly connected to different choices of raw material from antler in the roman and migration period, to whalebone in the 6 th century and walrus in the 10th century. The ocular examination of the whalebone can, however, rarely go beyond a determination of bone from cetaceans. The following article presents the results from 68 samples of whalebone gaming pieces that have been species determined using ZooMSms. The results show a consistent use of bones from North Atlantic right whale (Eubalaena glacialis) and is thus a strong argument for there being an active and largescale hunt for this type of whale starting inthe 6 h century. However, the manufacturing of gaming pieces was most likely not the reason for hunting whales, but merely a by-product that has survived in the archaeological record. Of greater importance was probably baleen, meat and the blubber that could be rendered into oil. The oil might have been an additional trading product on the far-reaching trade networks developing during the period

A maritime culture

Viking phenomenon projec

Monumentaliseringen av Gamla Uppsala

Gamla Uppsala - framväxten av ett mytiskt centru

Monumentaliseringen av Gamla Uppsala

Gamla Uppsala - framväxten av ett mytiskt centru

Ingrid Ystgaard (ed.) 2019: Environment and Settlement: Ørland 600 BC - AD 1250. Archaeological Excavations at Vik, Ørland Main Air Base. Cappelen Damm Akademisk/NOASP, Oslo. 426 p. ISBN: 9788202595319.

Anmeldels

The development and chronology of the Valsgärde cemetery

This article investigates the 62 cremation burials at Valsgärde, hitherto never discussed as a contextual whole. A chronology over the entire cemetery is constructed, on the basis of which it is possible to map activities on the site and to investigate the structural development of the cemetery in a long-time perspective. The earliest burials date to the Pre-Roman Iron Age; then, after a lacuna of maybe 400 years, there is a more or less unbroken chain of burials from the Late Roman Iron Age until the earliest, Scandinavian Middle Ages. Variations in burial customs suggest that at times, the cemetery was used for occasional, exclusive burials, whilst at other times it appears to have been used by a community of people of varying status.Valsgärdeprojekte

Marianne Hem Eriksen: Architecture, Society and Ritual in Viking Age Scandinavia Doors, Dwellings, and Domestic Space.

Bokanmeldelse av Marianne Hem Eriksens bok, Architecture, Society and Ritual in Viking Age Scandinavia Doors, Dwellings, and Domestic Space. &nbsp