Aun37

Ship and Society Maritime Ideology in Late Iron Age Sweden

Gunilla Larsson

UPPSALA UNIVERSITET

Department of Archaeology and Ancient History Uppsala 2007 Contents

2.2.5. Size and shape 39 Contents 1 2.2.6. The Viks boat and the principles for Preface and acknowledgements 13 interpreting the shape and size of the burial boats 39 Introduction 15 2.2.7. Reinterpretation of the boat in the 1.1. The maritime aspects of Late Iron Age burial Valsgärde 7, based on an analogy society 15 with the Viks boat 41 1.2. Purpose and questions 15 2.2.8. Reinterpreting the boat in the burial 1.2.1. The ship and the society 15 Gamla Uppsala 3 on the basis of an 1.2.2. Finding the people in the boat 15 analogy with the Viks boat 43 1.2.3. Tracing contacts and cultural 2.3. The boats in the burials of central connections 16 Sweden in the Late Iron Age 44 1.2.4. Technology and society 16 2.3.1. The problem with recognising the 1.2.5. Ships and seafaring 16 boats in burials 44 1.3. Material 17 2.3.2. Valsgärde 45 1.4. The theoretical journey from the past to 2.3.3. Vendel, Uppland 46 the present and back again 18 2.3.4. Tuna in Alsike Parish, Uppland.... 47 1.4.1. From the soil to the researcher: 2.3.5. Ensta, Uppland 48 obstacles and possibilities 18 2.3.6. Ultuna, Bondkyrka Parish, Uppland 1.4.2. Interpreting the past by analogy.... 19 48 1.4.3. A historical ethnoarchaeology 19 2.3.7. Prästgården, Gamla Uppsala Parish, 1.4.4. Reading the material 19 Uppland 49 1.4.5. Knowledge by experience and 2.3.8. Birka, Uppland 50 practice 20 2.3.9. Flosta, Altuna Parish, Uppland 50 1.4.6. The archaeologist and the past 20 2.3.10. Smedby, Hammarby Parish, 1.5. Earlier research 21 Uppland 50 1.6. The ships, from a contemporary myth to a 2.3.10. Fittja, Botkyrka Parish, pastreality 24 Södermanland 51 1.6.1. The myth of the large ship 24 2.3.11. Turinge, Södermanland 51 1.6.2. The myth of the seafarers 26 2.3.12. Norsa, Västmanland 51 1.7. From the ships to the society 26 2.3.13. Tuna, Badelunda Parish in Västmanland 51 2. THE SHIP-ARCHAEOLOGICAL 2.3.14. Sagan, Sala Parish, Västmanland 52 MATERIAL OF CENTRAL SWEDEN FROM 2. 4. Reused boat parts 52 THE LATE IRON AGE 30 2.5. Boat rivets and other rivets 53 2.1. Remains of boats and ships in the archaeological material 30 3. BOAT TYPES AND FUNCTION 57 2.1.1. The find-spots 30 3.1. An interpretation of the function and use 2.1.2. The sizes and types of boats 30 of Late Iron Age boats and ships 57 2.1.3. The social context of the boat finds 3.2. Fishing and fishing boats 57 33 3.2.1. Fish species and fishing boats 57 2.2. The Viks boat 34 3.2.2. Fishing as a structuring principle for 2.2.1. Find conditions 34 settlements in society 58 2.2.2. Dating 34 3.2.3. Boats for fishing from a comparative 2.2.3. Reconstruction 35 ethnoarchaeological perspective 59 2.2.4. Ship-technological analysis of the 3.3. Boats for seal hunting 60 construction 37 3.4. Boats for bird hunting 60 4.3.7. The introduction of the sail and sailing 92 3.5. Aristocratic boats for personal transports 4.4. Shipbuilding in the Late Iron Age 99 60 4.4.1. Material supply 99 3.6. Trade and the merchant ships 61 4.4.2. The boat-building site 100 3.6.1. Trade and trade routes 61 4.4.3. Tools and implements connected 3.6.2. How to identify the remains of ships with shipbuilding 101 for transports and trading voyages 61 4.4.4. Traces of tools and implements used 3.6.3. Finds of cargo ships 63 in the shipbuilding process 102 3.6.4. Traditional boats for local transport 4.4.5. The Mästermyr find: a boat builder's along the Uppland coast 65 complete tool chest? 108 3.6.5. Transport boats for the eastern 4.4.6. Social aspects of boat building and journeys? 65 handicrafts in the Late Iron Age 110 3.6.6. Boat finds related to the transport of 4.4.7. The tools and methods of a maritime ore 66 society 110 3.6.7. The names of cargo ships 66 4.5. The medieval changes in technology and 3.7. Maritime warfare and ships for war 70 society, 110 3.7.1. Written sources for warships 71 4.5.1. From radial splitting to sawing... 111 3.7.2. The warship in archaeological 4.5.2. From shell building to skeleton material 71 building 111 3.7.4. The names of warships 75 4.5.3. From clinker to carvel 111 3.7.5. The warship from the 13* century 77 4.5.4. Reflections of the ideological change 3.8. The main constructional differences in shipbuilding 112 between warships and cargo ships ca AD 800- 1200 78 5. ETHNICITY AND SHIPS 113 5.1. The main ship types in NW Europé AD 4. SHIPBUILDING IN A LONG-TERM 800-1200 114 PERSPECTIVE 80 5.1.1. The Nordic/Baltic Sea tradition.. 114 4.1. The connection between Iron Age 5.1.2. The cog tradition 114 shipbuilding technology and the success of 5.1.3.Thehulc tradition 115 Viking expeditions 80 5.1.4. The pråm tradition 116 4.2. The roots of the Scandinavian ship-type 5.1.5. The Celtic tradition 116 80 5.1.6 English/Anglo-Saxon tradition.... 117 4.2.1. Clinker-built boats 80 5.2. Shipbuilding traditions in the Baltic Sea 4.2.2. Logboat building technology 81 region 117 4.2.3. Shell building 82 5.3. Boats built with rivets and nails 117 4.2.4. The first riveted ships 83 5.3.1. The 'Baltic Sea boat type' 118 4.2.5. The emergence of the Scandinavian 5.3.2. The south Scandinavian boat type Iron Age type of logboat 84 119 4.2.6. The emergence of rowed ships 85 5.4. Boats built with the sewing technique 120 4.3. Late Iron Age: The revolution in boat- 5.4.1. History 120 building technology 85 5.4.2. The sewn boats of the Sami 121 4.3.1. The introduction of radial splitting 5.4.3. The sewn boats of central Finland technology 85 125 4.3.2. From tied to nailed ribs 87 5.4.4. Sewn boats of Karelia 125 4.3.3. Economic boat building 87 5.4.5. Russian-Estonian tradition 126 4.3.4. The results of a boat-building 5.5. Boats with treenails 126 method and relation to societal change ...88 5.6. Iron cramps in the east and west 130 4.3.5. Shipbuilding methods and the use of 5.7. Political history and boat-building naust 91 traditions 132 4.3.6. A modern-day boat builder's 5.7.1. Eastern influences in the north ... 133 reflection on prehistoric and medieval 5.7.2. Boats and Baltic contacts 135 shipbuilding, as it is visible in the Viks boat find 91 6. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF WATER 6.8.1. The Långhundra River: the life and COMMUNICATION IN THE LATE IRON death of a water route 165 AGE 141 6.9. To summarise: why a journey on a water 6.1. Journeys on land and water 141 route? 167 6.1.1. The choice of means of communication 141 7. THE JOURNEYS ABROAD 169 6.1.2. The conditions for travelling on land 7.1. Seafaring, ships and society 169 142 7.2. SHIPBUILDING AND SEAFARING 6.1.3. Winterroads 144 POSSIBILITIES 170 6.2. Travelling on water 144 7.2.1. Experience and history 170 6.2.1. Ships and possibilities for river 7.2.2. Scandinavian strongholds: naval communication 144 bases for light-built ships 171 6.2.2. Ships and harbours 144 7.2.3. Ships and river journeys 171 6.2.3. The inland water-communication 7.3. Problems and possibilities related to the systems: ranking the rivers 145 journeys across the Baltic Sea 171 6.2.4. Remains of a communication system 7.3.1. Small boats on a big sea? The boats in place names 147 used to cross the Baltic Sea 171 6.3. Water communication and the location of 7.3.2. The sailing capabilities of the boats some important central places 147 and ships used 173 6.3.1. Helgo 148 7.3.3. Environmental conditions 175 6.3.2. Birka 148 7.3.4. Sailing or rowing? 176 6.3.3. Old Uppsala and Samnan 148 7.4. Relation between navigational methods 6.3.4. Mora sten 149 and seafaring 176 6.3.5. Folklandstingstad 150 7.4.1. Navigation on the Baltic Sea in the Late Iron Age 177 6.3.6. Other central places on islands and by water routes 150 7.4.1. The problem of the sölarstein 'sun 6.4. The social and political system as shaped stone' 178 by the river routes 151 7.4.2. Influences from Arabic astronomical 6.5. The threat of enemies arriving by boatl52 navigation 179 6.5.1. The first piling of the rivers 152 7.5. Life on board on the journeys 181 6.5.2. Organised maritime defence 153 7.5.1. Food 181 6.5.3. The pole blockages of central 7.5.2. Overnight on journeys 182 Swedish river routes 154 7.6. The destinations of the journeys of the 6.5.4. Background for pole blockages... 156 Svear according to runic inscriptions 183 6.5.5. Place names as remains of pole 7.6.1 The maritime context of an 'abroad blockages 159 stone' 184 6.5.6. The organised maritime defence . 159 7.6.2. ...han austarla arpi barpi...: the 6.5.7. The background: periods of unrest social aspects of a journey abroad 184 and naval attacks 161 7.7. Times and distances 185 6.7.8. The interrelated changes in ship 7.7.1. Historical sources 185 types, seafaring and maritime defence ..162 7.8. Sailing routes across the Baltic Sea ... 186 6.6. Travelling in aroadless land 162 7.8.1. The coastal sailing route to the east 6.6.1. Sami water-communication system 186 162 7.8.2. Ships and sailing routes 186 6.6.2. Travelling to church among the 7.9. MARITIME TRACES OF THE SVEAR inhabitants of Enviken, Dalarna 163 ALONG THE EASTERN ROUTES 187 6.6.4. On land and water to Arjeplog's 7.9.1. Poland and the west Slavonic area church 164 187 6.6.5. The main communication route in 7.9.2. Scandinavian boat remains in the the 17* century from the port at Luleå to southeast Baltic 189 the silver mines above Kvikkjokk 164 7.9.3. Journeys to the south and east Baltic 6.7. With ships över land and water in ON in ON sources, inscriptions and chronicles material 164 192 6.8. The maritime landscape and how it 7.10. THE WATER ROUTES TO ASIA, disappeared 165 THE CALIPHATE AND THE ORIENT.. 195 7.10.1. The history of journeys to the East With their own ships? 237 195 7.14.2. Ships all the way? 237 7.10.2. Trade routes and political history 196 THE SHIP AS A SYMBOL 239 7.10.3. Seafaring and the development of 8.1. Boats and ships found in bogs and lakes trade 197 240 7.10.4. How to trace the remains of 8.1.1. Traces of ship parts in early Swedish seafaring in the East 197 sacrificial sites in the Lake Mälaren Basin 7.10.5. The Neva River, Lake Ladoga, and 241 the Volkhov River to Staraja Ladoga.... 199 8.1.2. The investigation of the sacrificial 7.10.6. The water route from Lake Ladoga site at Lake Hederviken, Närtunaby, to the lakes Onega and Beloozero 202 Närtuna Parish, Uppland 247 7.10.7. From the lakes Onega and 8.1.3. The context of the ship sacrifices: an Beloozero to the Northern Dvina, Onega interpretation 250 River and the fur-supplying areas of the 8.1.4. Ship sacrifices in other areas of north 202 Sweden 254 7.10.8. From Beloozero south to the Volga 8.1.5. Sacrifices on the sea journeys 255 and to the Northern Dvina 205 8.1.6. Regional differences in Scandinavia? 7.10.9. Maritime traces of journeys by 255 Svear along the Volga River and tributaries 8.1.7. A hierarchical ranking of ritual sites 205 256 7.10.10. With ships to the Caspian Sea.206 8.1.8. The relation between ships and 7.10.11. The problem of the maritime sacred water 256 journeys to Särkland 211 8.2. The ship symbol in depictions 257 7.10.12. The journey of Ingvar the Far- 8.2.1. Ships on picture stones 257 traveller 212 1.2.2. Ships on coins 261 7.11. THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE 8.2.3. Ships on textiles 262 ROUTE FROM THE VARANGIANS TO 8.2.4. Ship graffiti 265 THEGREEKS 219 8. 3. THE BOAT FN THE GRAVE 265 7.11.1. The beginning: 8.3.1. The boat-burial custom 265 Novgorod/Gorodische by Lake limen...219 8.3.2. The boat-burial ritual in written 7.11.2. Remains of Scandinavian ships and sources 267 seafaring from the journey to the Black Sea 8.3.3.. The problem with the orientation of and Constantinople 221 boats in burials 268 7.13. THE PROBLEM OF PORTAGES ...225 8.3.4. Ship construction: How to determine 7.13.1. An introduction to the problem.225 prow and stern in a boat burial 269 7.13.2. The discussion 225 8.3.5. An analyse of the orientation of the 7.13.3. The premises for the experiments boats in some of the burials 273 226 8.3.6. Other indications of the orientation 7.13.4. An ethnographic approach to the of the ships in the burials 275 problem of portages 226 8.3.5. An attempt to trace the factors 7.13.5. Some information about the behind the orientation of the boat 277 construction of portages from the historical 8.4. Remains of a value system 278 material 228 8.4.1. The evaluation of space within the 7.13.7. The ships used forportaging 232 boat 278 7.13.8. Special technological adaptions to 8.3.6. The spatial distribution within the the boats for portages 233 ship in the burial 284 7.13.9. Results of portaging as 8.5. The ship as an idea in structuring space experimental archaeology: ship replicas on 287 a reconstructed portage of the type with 8.5.1. The house as a ship 287 lunar 233 8.5.2. The churches as ships 288 7.13.10. A solution to the problem of 8.5.3. A reliquary as a ship-shaped house portages? 236 288 7.14. The abroad journeys of the Svear: a 8.6. From a means of communication to a summary 237 symbol and an icon 288 8.6.1. Pars pro toto 288 9.7. Archaeological remains of a leiöangr 8.6.2. The ship in the Iron Age fertility cult organisation 341 289 9.7.1. Husaby villages and royal mounds 8.6.3. Ships in processions 292 341 8.6.4. Freya symbols in connection with 9.7.2. The 'leiöangr harbour' 341 the ship symbol 293 9.7.3. Reflections of the naval organisation 8.6.5. The time for sacrifices of ship visible on the ships 343 symbols 294 9.8. The question of Roden 345 8.6.6. The problem of the time for boat 9.8.1. Roden in the earliest sources 346 burials 296 9.8.2. The problem with the extension of 8.6.7. Continuity and change: the ship Roden 346 symbol in the Early Middle Ages 298 9.8.3. Roden: a löst part of the hundare? 8.6.8. The boat as a liminal agent 299 348 9.8.4. Roden and Roslagen, Rospiggar and 9. MARITIME IDEOLOGY AND SOCIETY the Rus 348 301 9.8.5. Roden, Sjaslland and Sjaland 349 9.1. The earlier discussion about the leiöangr 9.9. The maritime society 350 301 9.9.1. Svithiod and the national level in the 9.2. The leiöangr and territorial division ...305 hierarchy 350 9.2.1. Land and folkland 307 9.9.2. The age of the maritime society . 351 9.2.2. Hund and hundare 308 9.9.3. Evidence of the leiöangr as a naval 9.2.3. Skeppslag within the hundare-area organisation 352 311 9.9.4. A model for the maritime society353 9.2.4. Fiasrbunger'fourth part' 312 9.2.5. Tolft 312 10. The Ship Symbol in Social Interaction.... 355 9.2.6. Attunger 'eight part' 312 10.1 The ship symbol in jurisdiction 355 92.1. Hamna 313 10.1.1. The warship as a special 9.2.8. Other divisions 317 jurisdiction area 355 9.3. The territorial organisation established in 10.1.2. When the ship is out of'ward ok the 13th century 318 wacu' 358 9.3.1. The division into castle-/ä« 318 10.1.2. The raised shield on a ship as a sign 9.3.2. The härad 319 of ruling jurisdiction 358 9.3.3 From collective naval duties to 10.1.3. The merchant vessel and the personal obligations 319 Bjcerkoa rcetter 360 9.3.4. A hypothesis of the causes of change 10.1.4. Birka, town jurisdiction and the from a territorial organization representing ship symbol 361 'a maritime society' to the feudal-inspired 10.1.5. The ship-setting at Valsgärde and society in the High Middle Ages 319 related monuments 361 9.4. The territorial organisation during 10.1.6. The leiöangr organisation and the Christianization 320 thing 362 9.5. An analysis of hundare-å\s,tnc\s of 10.2. Ships in social communication 364 central Sweden 320 10.2.1. The glory of the ships as described 9.5.1. Sjuhundra hundare in Attundaland in skaldic poetry 364 321 10.2.2. Social hierarchy displayed on the 9.5.2. Lagunda hundare in Fjädrundaland ships 364 326 10.2.3. The most valuable possession on 9.5.3. Bro skeppslag in Roden 329 the journey 367 9.5.4. Åkerbo hundare in Västmanland 331 9.6. Organised naval expeditions in the Late 11. Gender aspects on ships and seafaring .... 369 Iron Age and Early Middle Ages 334 11.1. Gender aspects on the interpretation of 9.6.1. Linguistic evidence 334 the boats in burials 369 9.6.3. The leaders of naval journeys 336 11.1.1 Prosperity, power, priesthood, 9.6.3. Naval expeditions in the written symbolism or descent? 369 sources 338 11.1.2. Women, power and boats at Tuna in Badelunda Parish 370 11.1.3. Aspects on gender, ships, and the The ships of a maritime society 380 use of space in the ship based on the boat The boats and ships of the Svear 380 burials at Tuna in Alsike 372 Seafaring and cultural contacts 381 11.1.4. Gender and boat type in Alsike and The ship as an idea 381 Badelunda 372 Power, ideology and religion 381 11.1.5. Chronological and geographical The boat burial: a central public ritual in differences from a gender perspective ..373 the Freya cult? 382 11.1.6. Gender aspects on the maritime Religion and ideology within the central journeys 374 Swedish royal dynasty in the Early Middle Ages 382 12. THE MARITIME SOCIETY 377 People in the past and in the present 382 The maritime organisation that shaped the Aun 385 society 377 Leiöangr: the maritime structuring principle 378 Continuity and change 378