{"title":"From Local Supply to Long-Distance Trade Networks","authors":"G. Sarah","doi":"10.1093/OSO/9780198827986.003.0011","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/OSO/9780198827986.003.0011","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter introduces the third theme of the volume: the sources of Viking wealth. It presents a theoretical and methodological framework for ‘fingerprinting’ early medieval silver by archaeometric methods. A combined approach, integrating elemental (especially gold and bismuth) and lead isotope analysis, is advanced. The methods involved, including state-of-the-art laser ablation ICP-MS, are introduced, and the limitations of the approach clearly laid out. These methods are then used to evaluate the diffusion of silver produced at the mine of Melle (Aquitaine, France): a major source of silver coinage in the Frankish kingdoms, which the Vikings acquired through their raids in Aquitaine during the ninth century.","PeriodicalId":267231,"journal":{"name":"Silver, Butter, Cloth","volume":"6 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-12-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129847093","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"On Silver Fragmentation","authors":"M. Bogucki","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780198827986.003.0004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198827986.003.0004","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter asks: to what extent do different methods of recovery affect the discovery and recording of hack-silver? The question is approached through the case study of the early eleventh-century silver hoard from Mózgowo, Poland, recovered through different techniques in three chronologically distinct phases from the nineteenth century to 2012. Study of the weight of silver pieces recovered on each occasion indicates that the degree of silver fragmentation reflects the method of recovery: the lightest pieces of silver were recorded through modern excavation, slightly heavier pieces through recent metal-detecting and the heaviest by recovery after ploughing in the nineteenth century. The implication is that data relating to both older discoveries and recent metal-detected hoards will contain biases that impact the reliability of metrological data.","PeriodicalId":267231,"journal":{"name":"Silver, Butter, Cloth","volume":"45 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-12-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129342747","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Reflections on Kingship, the Church, and Viking Age Silver in Ireland","authors":"J. Sheehan","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780198827986.003.0007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198827986.003.0007","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter considers the wealth of some of Ireland’s kings, as represented by Viking Age silver hoards, and relates it to investment in the ecclesiastical sphere. While the rich Irish annals do not contain references to hoards or hoarding, there are some mentions of the phenomenon in early literary sources, and these relate to the church. Considering the occurrence of hoards and silver-working on ecclesiastical estates, as well as the status of the cross-marked ingot, it is argued that Viking Age silver hoards were deposited on church land with higher frequency than has hitherto been appreciated. This finding, in turn, suggests Irish secular elites obtained considerable quantities of silver wealth from the Scandinavians and gifted it to the church, with whom they often had close dynastic connections.","PeriodicalId":267231,"journal":{"name":"Silver, Butter, Cloth","volume":" 38","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-12-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"120828193","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Vaðmál and Cloth Currency in Viking and Medieval Iceland","authors":"M. Smith","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780198827986.003.0014","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198827986.003.0014","url":null,"abstract":"In medieval Iceland, apparently alone among the North Atlantic Norse colonies, cloth evolved into a highly standardized form of currency within a broader-based commodity-money system imported from Norway. Within the Icelandic economy, the production of currency cloth (vaðmál or vöruvaðmál) was legally regulated and was used within Iceland to pay debts, taxes, and tithes. This chapter presents the first detailed analyses of over 1,000 archaeological textiles stored in Icelandic museum collections. The way in which this ‘legal cloth’ was woven and constructed provides insights into the emergence of standardized cloth currency and its use across Iceland. Analyses challenge the assumption that organic forms of commodity-currency are unavailable to archaeologists studying early economic systems. Cloth currency, produced chiefly by women, emerged around the end of the Viking Age. It was central to the Icelandic economy until the mid 1500s, after which its role progressively declined as Iceland entered into the increasingly globalized trade networks of the early modern industrialized world.","PeriodicalId":267231,"journal":{"name":"Silver, Butter, Cloth","volume":"23 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-12-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130877288","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Rise of Spiritual Economies in Late Viking and Early Medieval Scandinavia","authors":"Svein H. Gullbekk","doi":"10.1093/OSO/9780198827986.003.0006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/OSO/9780198827986.003.0006","url":null,"abstract":"With this chapter, the book moves to consider the role of precious metals within non-monetary economies. It compares attitudes to wealth in Scandinavia before and after the widespread adoption of Christianity, and argues that new Christian doctrines encouraged coin use within an ‘economy of salvation’. Harnessing archaeological evidence of coins found beneath the floorboards of Scandinavian churches, the chapter argues that Christian parishioners made regular offerings of low-denomination coins in exchange for salvation. Dating evidence suggests that this practice began in the late eleventh century, but expanded during the twelfth, and thus occured against a backdrop of wider societal monetization; indeed, devotional offerings of coins were one means for the church to raise revenues. This process reveals how the meaning and function of coins were transformed as they moved from the profane to ritual spheres.","PeriodicalId":267231,"journal":{"name":"Silver, Butter, Cloth","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-12-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128984584","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Provenancing Viking Age Silver","authors":"S. Merkel","doi":"10.1093/OSO/9780198827986.003.0012","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/OSO/9780198827986.003.0012","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter investigates the changing sources of silver during the tenth century at Hedeby, an important Viking Age trading centre and mint situated between the economies of the Baltic and North Seas. It first characterizes regional and chronological differences in Viking Age silver, in terms of both elemental composition and lead isotopes. A dual archaeometric approach to the analyses of silver items is then advanced. Observed differences in the trace elements and lead isotope ratios of Anglo-Saxon, Carolingian, and Islamic coin are exploited to determine the likely origin of silver bullion and coin circulating at Hedeby. The so-called Malmer KG7 coinage, together with a significant hack-silver assemblage, appears to be related to silver of eastern origin, which reached southern Scandinavia and the Baltic region prior to the large-scale influx of Samanid silver in the early-to-mid tenth century. Such results provide new insight into the chronology and movement of silver in the Viking Age.","PeriodicalId":267231,"journal":{"name":"Silver, Butter, Cloth","volume":"9 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-12-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130556985","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A Viking Age Gold Hoard from Essu, Estonia","authors":"E. Oras, I. Leimus, Lauri Joosu","doi":"10.1093/OSO/9780198827986.003.0009","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/OSO/9780198827986.003.0009","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter presents in full the small gold hoard from Essu, north-east Estonia, on the Vikings’ Austrvegr (eastern route). The hoard was found in a peat bog in the nineteenth century, and comprised six gold pendants dating to around the last quarter of the ninth century. This chapter provides a detailed analysis of the six pendants—one Arabic dinar-pendant and five pendants decorated with filigree and granulation—discussing their decoration and cultural parallels. Results from recent Scanning Electron Microscopy-Energy Dispersive X-Ray Spectroscopy (SEM-EDS) analysis cast new light on the pendants’ production, alloy content, and use-wear. It is suggested that the filigree pendants were manufactured within Scandinavia and originally formed part of an elaborate female necklace, while the dinar-pendant reached Estonia via the Nordic countries. Overall, the hoard illustrates the prominence of gold within the Viking Age display economy. The chapter concludes by discussing the significance of the hoard from a gender perspective, relating it to a wider group of Viking Age ritual deposits of gold female jewellery sets (so-called ‘themed deposits’).","PeriodicalId":267231,"journal":{"name":"Silver, Butter, Cloth","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-12-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129057128","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Importance of Containers for the Deposition and Non-Retrieval of Silver Hoards","authors":"J. Gruszczyński","doi":"10.1093/OSO/9780198827986.003.0010","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/OSO/9780198827986.003.0010","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter investigates the reasons for the deposition and non-retrieval of Viking Age silver hoards, focusing on the two areas with the biggest hoard concentrations in the Baltic zone: Gotland and Pomerania (the southern shore of the Baltic sea area in modern-day northern Germany and Poland). The chapter advances a new model for determining the possible reasons for hoard deposition and non-retrieval, arguing that hoards intended for retrieval were placed in containers, with containerless hoards likely deposited for ritual motives, without the intention of recovery. The impact on local soil chemistry on the preservation of hoard containers is considered. The evidence for containers is then integrated with analysis of the weight of hoards and local settlement archaeology. A key finding is that, on Gotland, the practice of symbolically depositing small silver hoards on ‘broken fields’ (newly established farms) was widespread.","PeriodicalId":267231,"journal":{"name":"Silver, Butter, Cloth","volume":"21 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-12-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116452590","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Beyond Economics","authors":"Florent Audy","doi":"10.1093/OSO/9780198827986.003.0008","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/OSO/9780198827986.003.0008","url":null,"abstract":"In this chapter, the social, symbolic, and cultural attributes of Viking Age silver is addressed through an exploration of coin-pendants: coins taken out of circulation and suspended on necklaces to be worn as jewellery. Surveying material from a newly collated dataset, the chapter first outlines the key features of coin-pendants from across Scandinavia, including the rate of transformation of different coin types and their technical features. It then addresses the question: what made coin-pendants desirable? Discussion considers the aesthetic and bullion content of the pendants, as well as their value as exotic items and/or as items with long life histories. A case study is presented of an Arabic dirham-pendant, found in an inhumation grave at Birka, Sweden.","PeriodicalId":267231,"journal":{"name":"Silver, Butter, Cloth","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-12-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129574998","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Royalty and Renewal in Viking Age Ireland","authors":"A. R. Woods","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780198827986.003.0005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198827986.003.0005","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter examines the relationship between coinage and kingship in early medieval Ireland. First, the Hiberno-Scandinavian coinage produced in Dublin is contextualized within a discussion of the use of silver in Ireland between the tenth and twelfth centuries. The chapter then discusses the coinage’s organization and administration. Study of coin weight and silver fineness, alongside evidence for currency renewal (the demonetization of official coins, and the issuing of a new type), reveals that the coinage constituted a well-regulated currency that was effectively monitored by successive kings of Dublin. Examination of the timings of currency renewals reveals that, rather than being overtly political, they were motivated by commercial viability, with the aim of facilitating trade around the Irish Sea.","PeriodicalId":267231,"journal":{"name":"Silver, Butter, Cloth","volume":"2015 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-12-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121443376","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}