A Viking Period Metalworking Hoard from Alvena in Mästerby Parish, Gotland Gustafsson, Ny Björn Fornvännen 2011(106):3, S
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A Viking Period metalworking hoard from Alvena in Mästerby parish, Gotland Gustafsson, Ny Björn Fornvännen 2011(106):3, s. 242-245 : ill. http://kulturarvsdata.se/raa/fornvannen/html/2011_242 Ingår i: samla.raa.se Korta meddelanden 238-254:Layout 1 11-10-19 14.18 Sida 242 242 Korta meddelanden studies of prehistoric agriculture in northern Ångerman- järnålder. Resultat av pollenanalyser. Arkeolog i i norr land. Early Norrland 1. Stockholm 6/7. Umeå. IntCal 09 C-14 calibration curve. OxCal online version Welinder, S., 1998. Del 1, Neoliticum–bronsålder 4.1. Bronk Ramsey, C . (2009). Bayesian analysis of 3900–500 f.Kr. Welinder S. et al. (eds). Det svenska radiocarbon dates. Radiocarbon, 51:1. jordbrukets historia, jordbrukets första femtusen år. Bo - Runeson, H., 2007. Den goda ordningen. Gustafsson rås. P. & Spång L.G. (eds). Stenålderns stationer. Arkeo- Viklund, K., 1989. Förkolnade frön från anl 1-3, Raä 16, logi i Botniabanans spår.Riksantikvarieämbetet. Stock- Umeå sn, Västerbotten. Institutionen för arkeologi, holm. Umeå universitet. Schierbeck, A.,1994. Hedningahällan – en undersökning – 2002. Makrofossilanalys av jordprover från Potatis- för att skydda och vårda. UV Stockholm, Rapport landet 14, Umedalen, Umeå kn, Västerbottens län. 1994:31. Stockholm. Miljöarkeologiska Laboratoriets rapportserie 2002 Segerström, U.,1990. The natural Holocene vegetation –019. Umeå universitet. development and the introduction of agriculture in nor - thern Norrland, Sweden. Dept of Ecological Bo tany, Karin Viklund University of Umeå. Miljöarkeologiska laboratoriet Sundström, S., 2002. Arkeologisk undersökning av boplats, Potatislandet 13 och 14, Umeå sn och kn. Västerbottens Institutionen för idé- och samhällsstudier mu seum, Umeå. Umeå universitet Wallin, J-E., 1996. Ekonomi och bebyggelsemönster vid Övre SE–901 87 Umeå Norrlands kustland under bronsålder och förromersk [email protected] A Viking Period Metalworking Hoard from Alvena in Mästerby parish, Gotland In October 2010 archaeologist Jonas Paulsson and 2006. From the first visit it was evident that made a remarkable discovery during a metal de - the field contains a settlement site. The recov- tector survey which formed part of Gotland ered artefacts point firmly towards the Late Iron County Council’s project “Ett plundrat kultur- Age and Middle Ages (c. AD 400–1500). Several arv” (“A looted cultural heritage”). On land be - finds are clear indicators of advanced metalwork- longing to the farm Eskelhem Alvena 1:21 in ing on the site (e.g. copper-alloy smelts, frag- Mästerby parish he recovered what is most likely ments of hearth lining, scrap metal and a possible a ploughed-out hoard of bronze objects (fig. 1). maste r model for a pendant). Most of these were The project’s goal is to re-surv ey recorded find found in the northern part of the field. This part sites with the intention to recover as much as of the parish is mostly known for an all together possible of the metallic stray finds in the topsoil. different event – the fabled battle of Ajmunds Campaigns like the current one have been launch- bridge, fought between an invading Danish force ed intermittently since the 1970s, when the and a Gotlandic muster in 1361. It was a less- development of metal detectors had reached a known prelude to the final end to Gotlandic point when anyone thusly equipped could get at resistance brought on by the Battle of Visby on 27 the often very rich finds in Gotlandic fields (cf. July 1361. Jonsson & Östergren 1990). The battlefield area in Mästerby has recently The field in Mästerby had previous ly seen attracted the attention of several researchers, and metal-detecting by archaeologists in 1984, 2000 in 2006 one of two teams metal-detected the Fornvännen 106 (2011) Korta meddelanden 238-254:Layout 1 11-10-19 14.18 Sida 243 Korta meddelanden 243 Fig. 1. Five sword pommels and fourteen unfinished fish-head pendants from the Alvena metalworking hoard. field discussed here in search of traces from the dent that neither they, nor the 2006 find are battle. Nothing directly relatable to that event actually brooches. They are pendants of an in- was found. However, at one spot the detectorists digenous Gotlandic type generally referred to as found what the finds list refers to as a “Fish-head fish-head shaped (Sw. fiskhuvudformiga hängen). shaped brooch” (Landgren et al. 2006). The find Such pendants are known in considerable num- spot was later added to the Swedish National bers from Gotland (cf. Thunmark-Nylén 1982), Heritage Board’s register of ancient remains but the ones from Mästerby are different in an (Raä Mästerby 88). Since the so-called brooch important respect: not one of them is finished. date s from the Viking Period it met with little Most of the pendants are rather severely dam- interest, and it was not until Paulsson’s re-survey aged, probably from ploughing, and have mainly of the area in 2010 that the site’s full potential lost their original surface. Yet it can still be ob - was discovered. In the very same area, spread served that they all lack the suspension holes cru- over a surface of some 10 m2, Paulsson found an cial to pendants. Instead, all are fitted with an additional 13 similar objects. It now became evi- iron stud piercing the middle part and a smaller Fornvännen 106 (2011) Korta meddelanden 238-254:Layout 1 11-10-19 14.18 Sida 244 244 Korta meddelanden Thunmark-Nylén’s WKG chronology (2006). Three such pommels are currently known from other sites: from Gråsand in Ginding, Den- mark (Horn-Fuglesang 1980, s. 157), Pacuiul lui Soare on the Bulgarian border with Romania (Popa 1984) and the Taman peninsula of Russia (by kind information from Sergei Kainov, Mos- cow). All these are partly gilded and fitted with ornate silver ca sings. Two of the pommels from Mästerby (finds no. 207–208) do however show signs of some fur- ther working. They had apparently been some- what miscast and had several unintended holes. The caster tried to mend these by adding fitted pieces of a sixth pommel which had been cut up. These patches were soldered to the pommels by means of a copper-alloy based solder (fig. 2). By the time of their recovery, on e of them (no. 208) had lost its mending patch, leaving a ring of sol- Fig. 2. Repaired miscasting on one of the Alvena der around the edges of the hole. Analysis by sword pommels. means of SEM-EDS showed that the two pom- mels were cast in an alloy consisting of roughly 92% copper, 7% zinc, 1.5% tin and small amounts stud in the basal end. These studs fulfilled an im- of lead (0.5 atomic %). The solder was found to portant purpose as they fixed the cores of the consist of an alloy of approximately 70% copper, casting moulds in which the pendants were cast. 20% tin, 4% zinc and 0.5% lead. The five pom- To cast a hollow object it is necessary to have mels measu re between 66 and 67 mm at their a core around which the molten metal can solidi- longest point, 30.8 and 33.3 mm at their highest fy – a mould without a core cannot produce a hol- and 23.1 and 25 mm at their widest. low object in a single casting. The full procedure In the spring of 2011 the area was re-surveyed of the line-of-production of the pend ants from yet again and two more unfinished pendants were Mästerby will be described in a forthcoming recovered, thus making the total number 16 so paper though – as the unfinished pendants were far. All in all it is hard to overestimate the value not the only objects recovered. of the Mästerby find – not only does it consist of Within the same area, Paulsson also found 16 pendants and five pommels, but due to the something previously unseen on Gotland: a col- f act that they are all unfinished, they offer hith- lection of five cast sword pommels in a zoomor- erto unseen clues as to the methods of Gotlandic phic style. They are very similar to a master mod- bronze casters in the Viking Period. The whole el or rather cast found by metal detector in Fole find is currently undergoing in-depth analysis at parish on Gotland in 1992 (now in the Histo rical the Archaeological Research Laboratory at the Museum, Stockholm, inv. no. 34300a:67). All University of Stockholm and will be exhaustive- five pommels display the same damage as the ly published in a forthcoming paper. pendants, i.e. a nearly complete loss of original surface, but judging from the small portions that still cling on, none of them were ever finished off References Horn Fuglesang, S., 1980. Some Aspects of the Ringerike like similar pommels from other sites. Taken Style. Odense. together, the pendants and pommels from Alve- Jo nsson, K. & Östergren, M. 1990. The Gotland Hoard na in Mästerby suggest a date of deposition most Project and the Stumle hoard : an insight into the likely in the late 10th century judging from Lena affairs of a Gotlandic “farman”. Jonsson, K. & Fornvännen 106 (2011) Korta meddelanden 238-254:Layout 1 11-10-19 14.18 Sida 245 Korta meddelanden 245 Malmer, B. (ed.). Sigtuna Symposium on Viking-Age av fiskhuvudformiga hängen och några andra före- Coinage, proceedings of the Sigtuna Symposium on målsgrupper. Gotländskt arkiv 54. Visby Viking-Age Coinage 1–4 June 1989. Stockholm. – 2006. Die Wikingerzeit Gotlands III. KVHAA. Stock- Landgren, J. Pettersson, M. & Ström, J., 2006. Arkeo- holm. logisk undersökningsrapport över forskningsprojekt Fjäle - myr 1361, Mästerby sn, Gotland. Archive report in the Ny Björn Gustafsson ATA archives, Stockholm.