Folk, Fä Och Fynd
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
ACTA ARCHAEOLOGICA LUNDENSIA SERIES IN 8°, No. 64 Folk, fä och fynd REDAKTÖRER BIRGITTA HÅRDH & LARS LARSSON UPPÅKRASTUDIER 12 Tryckt med bidrag från Gyllenstiernska Krapperupsstiftelsen och Ebbe Kocks Stiftelse. In den tryckta upplagan finns följande uppgifter: Omslagsbild: Völund eller Flygaren från Uppåkra. Förgyllt vikingatida beslag. Foto: B. Almgren, LUHM © Instituionen för Arkeologi och Antikens historia Grafisk form: Stilbildarna i Mölle/Frederic Täckström, sbmolle.com Tryck: Elanders Fälth & Hässler, Värnamo 2013 Distribution: HT-skriftserier, www.ht.lu.se ISBN 978-91-89578-54-8 ISSN 0065-0994 INNEHÅLL FÖRORD 7 Michaela Helmbrecht Figures, foils and faces – fragments of a pictorial world. Anthropomorphic images from the Vendel Period and Viking Age found at Uppåkra 9 Birgitta Hårdh Uppåkras vendeltida rektangulära fibulor 33 Iohannes Miaris Sundberg En praktfull kontinental silverfibula 51 Lothar Schulte Fibeln und andere Kleinigkeiten aus dem kaiserzeitlichen Uppåkra 57 Ola Magnell, Adam Boethius & Johan Thilderqvist Fest i Uppåkra. En studie av konsumtion och djurhållning baserad på djurben från ceremonihus och vapendeposition 85 Lars Larsson Rich women and poor men. Analyses of a cemetery at Önsvala in the hinterland of Uppåkra 133 T. Douglas Price Human Mobility at Uppåkra. A Preliminary Report on Isotopic Proveniencing 163 Karl-Magnus Lenntorp Ur det förgångna, Uppåkra 2000 177 Manuel Gabler, Immo Trinks, Wolfgang Neubauer, Erich Nau, Thomas Zitz, Alois Hinterleitner, Håkan Thorén First large-scale geophysical archaeological prospection at Uppåkra 191 Maria Åkesson Vägar kring Uppåkra 209 Figures, foils and faces – fragments of a pictorial world Anthropomorphic images from the Vendel Period and Viking Age found at Uppåkra Michaela Helmbrecht Abstract Figures, foils and faces – fragments of a pictorial world Anthropomorphic images from the Vendel Period and Viking Age found at Uppåkra This contribution presents the Vendel Period and Viking Age objects carrying human images from Uppåkra. Each object group is described and analysed in terms of typology, chronology, and iconography. On the basis of the results, continuities and discontinuities in the use of images at Uppåkra are discussed. Michaela Helmbrecht, Landsberger Str. 217, D –80687 München, Germany, [email protected] uppåkra has for a long time been known objects are probably scrap metal, meant for for the richness and exclusivity of its find mate- re-melting, for recycling, or simply waste, left rial. The sheer quantity of finds – among these because it was not needed, or they were lost. numerous objects made of gold and silver, This enables archaeologists to reconstruct the and imported objects – confirm Uppåkra as production and use of human images at aris- a supra-regional central place over several cen- tocratic sites in the Later Iron Age. turies. One characteristic of many such “cen- tral places” – settlement agglomerations that Gold foil figures played an important role as supra-regional trading posts, production sites and probably By far the largest find group from Uppåkra also as sites for religious ceremonies and cul- are the gold foil figures, small gold sheets with tic activities1 – is the large amount of objects stamped or cut-out images (Watt 1999). From with figurative imagery. Uppåkra, more than one hundred gold foils From central places, and especially from one (122 as of 2004) und five dies are known (Watt sub-category, the so-called aristocratic places, 2004; Helmbrecht 2011, nr 1013–1057), we can gain knowledge about the production which makes Uppåkra the second-largest find- and use of figural imagery. Some objects were spot of gold foil figures in Scandinavia, after intentionally deposited in the ground. Other Sorte Muld on Bornholm. The exact dating of FIGURES, FOILES AND FACES – FRAGMENTS OF A PICTORIAL WORLD 9 Fig. 1. Four gold foil figures from Uppåkra. From left to right: caftan-clad man with additional neck-ring folded around the gold foil (U6360); woman with large brooch and drinking horn (U2188); naked (?), “shouting” figure with neck-ring, staff and crossed legs (U6664); stylized, cut-out figure with enhanced eyes (U3444). Photos: Bengt Almgren, LUHM. Enlarged. the gold foil figures is still debated, but most There are also figures whose gender is ambigu- scholars agree that they were used in the Ven- ous. Most gold foil figures show characteristic del Period, probably with a very short overlap gestures and body positions: they may raise with the Migration Period gold bracteates, and their hands or stand on tip-toe. Some gold foils that the production and deposition of gold foil were treated in a special manner, for example figures ceased at some point in the 8th centu- a separate neck-ring was added (Fig. 1; Watt ry A.D. (Watt 2004:214–216; Helmbrecht 2004:172 Fig. 3a, 182 Fig. 14a). 2011:260–261). The foils from Uppåkra have many fea- Judging from their clothing and hairstyle tures in common with those from Sorte Muld. (Mannering 2006), most figure foils from Many motifs are the same, and some figures Uppåkra represent men. These are caftan-clad from Sorte Muld and Uppåkra respectively standing or pacing figures, sometimes with a were even produced from the same die (Watt staff. Figure foils showing women are rarer. 2004:173, 184 f.). Some of them carry a drinking vessel. One As to the iconographic meaning of the gold die shows a woman who, in addition to the foil figures, there are several fundamentally drinking vessel, even carries a club and/or some different interpretation models. The German sort of twig (U4469; Bergqvist 1999:117 Fig. medievalist Karl Hauck interpreted the gold 5; Watt 2004:211 Fig. 36b; Helmbrecht 2011, foil figures as representations of individual nr 1013). There are also some foils with cou- gods, whose names are known from later writ- ples, i. e., a man and a woman embracing or ten sources, mainly Thor, Odin, Frey and Freya grasping each other (Watt 2004:196 Fig. 28). (Hauck 1992a; 1992b; 1993; 1994; 1998). The gold foil figures show varying degrees Ing-Marie Back Danielsson interpreted the of stylisation. Some figures seem to be naked. majority of the gold foil figures as masked per- 10 MICHAELA HELMBRECHT Fig. 2. Distribution of figure foils associated with House 2. The figures were found in the fill of post holes and wall trenches associated with the building phase of the house. After Watt 2004:169 Fig. 2. sons, e. g., shamans performing rituals (1999; Iron Age into Medieval times. These places 2007). Other scholars have been more cautious probably also had some sacral functions, and about the identification of these figures with were the seats of the upper strata of society. specific gods or persons. Probably the figures’ What purposes might the gold foil figures have body positions, gestures and conspicuously served at these sites? enhanced details were the most significant part M. Watt interpreted the gold foil figures of the pictorial messages (Watt 2004:199–214; from Sorte Muld as a special means of pay- Helmbrecht 2011:112 ff.). ment, offerings to gods at temple sites (Watt Most of the gold foil figures were found in 1992:224). The foils were not ordinary means 2001–2004 during the excavation of a substan- of payment in commodity exchange, but were tial house structure, the so-called “ceremonial used in ritual contexts for the communication building” (Fig. 2; Larsson & Lenntorp 2004). with gods. In the following, I would like to On other sites, too, gold foil figures were found explore this idea further. in connection with special houses. At Helgö, For the production of the foils, gold seemed more than 20 gold foil figures were found to have been regarded as essential. The precious within the central building complex (Lamm metal is more than a direct expression of value, 2004). At Slöinge in Halland, a quantity of of wealth and social status. In the Old Norse foils were excavated from postholes (Lundqvist sources, gold was also ascribed special powers et al. 1996). These buildings are a recurrent due to its enduring radiance and immaculate feature of central places. Many of these sites brilliance. It had a mythological or supernat- were continuously inhabited from the Roman ural origin and magical powers; in the Eddic FIGURES, FOILES AND FACES – FRAGMENTS OF A PICTORIAL WORLD 11 poem Völuspá, the gods play with golden dice. have been deposited there before the post was Gold is a symbol and embodiment of wealth, erected. Probably, the deposition of the gold peace and fertility (Holtsmark 1960:573 f.). foils was a highly symbolic ritual, connected Gold was apparently considered ideal or even to the (re-?)building of the house. In line with necessary for communicating with gods or my arguments above, I would like to suggest supernatural beings. that the figures were supposed to establish Assuming the gold foil figures represented and maintain the perpetuated communication significant, regulated or maybe even ritual- between the members of the elite with gods ised activities, as suggested by their attributes, and other beings, in order to ensure fertility, gestures and body positions, they could have prosperity, continuity and legitimation of the embodied different messages. The gold foil ruling family.2 figures with an embracing couple could, for example, have represented a plea for a success- Bird brooches ful and procreative marriage; a man with a staff or a woman with a drinking horn could have Bird brooches are a large Vendel Period find embodied a reverent greeting that honours group mainly from Southern Scandinavia. the god(s). These messages found their phys- M. Ørsnes subdivided them into several types ical expression in a durable and incorrupti- (Ørsnes 1966:101–105), some of which feature ble way by being stamped in gold. The act of a human face on their back. Ørsnes’ type D3 their deposition then established a permanent, (ibid.