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SWEDISH NATIONAL HERITAGE BOARD RIKSANTIKVARIEÄMBETET Mwtwl ^ bfikj O Opw UmA mwfrtMs O Cme-fou ö {wert* RoA«l O "liWIøf'El'i'fcA Birka

Bente Magnus

National Heritage Board View from the Fort Hill towards the Black Earth and Hemlanden (“The Homelands ”) at Birka.

Birka is no. 2 in the series “Cultural Monuments in Sweden”, a set of guides to some of the most interesting ancient and historic monuments in Sweden.

Author: Bente Magnus wrote the original text in Norwegian Translator: Alan Crozier Editor: Gunnel Friberg Layout: Agneta Modig ©1998 National Heritage Board ISBN 91-7209-125-8 1:3 Publisher: National Heritage Board, Box 5405, SE-114 84 Stockholm, Sweden Tel +46 (0)8 5191 8000 Printed by: Halls Offset, Växjö, 2004

Aerial view of Birka, 1997.

The history of a town

In Lake Mälaren, about 30 kilometres west protectedlocation, it attracted people from of Stockholm, between the fjords of Södra far and near to come to offer their goods Björkfjärdenand Hovgårdsfjärden,lies the and services. Today Birka is one of Swe island of Björkö. Until 1,100 years ago, den’s sites on Unesco’s World Heritage List there was a small, busy market town on and a popular attraction for thousands of the western shore of the island. This was summer tourists. Birka, the only town on the Scandinavian Björkö measures 4 by 1.5 km, but in peninsula in the Viking Age. Because of its the Viking Age, when Mälaren was an arm

4 Grönsö

Ansgar's Chapel Björkö village Cemetery Ang- Museum ho|men Fort Town rampart Fort rampart Hemlanden Black Earth Cemetery

Excav. Terraces 1990-95 Villagejetty

Harbour area

Jetties

Key to the aerial photograph. of the Baltic Sea, the island was only half one can glimpse the medieval as big. The water level at that time was whitewashed church on the island of roughly 5 m higher than it is today, so that Adelsö. To the north-east you can see the southern part of Björkö was a separate parts of the old town area and the rampart island, consisting mainly of barren rock and that once separated the town from the moraine. It is crowned by a large burial biggest of the cemeteries, Hemlanden cairn from the Bronze Age. (“The Homelands”), with over 1,600 For those who come to Björkö for the burial mounds. To the south-east is first time, it is not easy to imagine what a Ansgar’s Chapel, dedicated in 1930, and market town in the Viking Age might have the village of Björkö, which today consists looked like and how it functioned. Narrow of only two farms. The village may have gravel tracks lead to grassy paths where been partly contemporary with Birka, and Birka once lay, and lovely birch woods grow the peasants there continued to farm the between the burial mounds. At the highest land onBjörkö when Birka was deserted. point of the island inside the fort rampart In 1996 a museum of Birka was there is an old stone cross erected in 1834 opened, a beautifullow wooden building to commemorate the first visit to Birka by down at Ångholmen, where all the the Benedictine monk Ansgar. There is a tourists land. The museum’s exhibition is broad panorama from here. In the distance based on the results of research into Birka

5 Map of the Mälaren area, showing some important place-names.

6 A day in Birka in late winter around 900. Model by Lars Agger, figures by Eva Rahmqvist.

and the Viking Age which has been going in 830; a scene from a winter’s day in the on since the 1930s, and especially the town just before 900; and a feast for for excavation and research project “Birka the eign merchants at the king’s residence on Viking Town”, which was carried out Adelsö some time in the first half of the between 1990 and 1995 under the tenth century. A long archaeological sec leadership of Björn Ambrosiani. tion through part of the town that was ex The overall theme of the exhibition is cavated in 1990-1995 shows how the his Birka as a meeting place. People from all tory of the town is reflected in layer upon corners of Europe met here to trade and layer from the beginnings until the aban deal, and this is reflected in the finds: raw donment of Birka after about 200 years. materials for the craftsmen, provisionsfor Under the section there are showcases with the townspeople, luxury goods of many examples of finds from the town: creepy kinds for the king and the most powerful things like snails, beetles, and flies, waste families. from various crafts, and finds that give us The permanent part of the exhibition insight into both winter and summer ac consists of three large models showing tivities. The large quantity of food refuse events in the history of Birka: Ansgar’s in the form of bones collected during the arrival in Birka harbour one autumn day large excavation serves as a basis for a

7 Glass beads from the Black Earth. The blue bead with white eyes and the pointed oval brown bead with blue bands are oriental.

“still life” in a separate showcase to illus distant past which visitors can take with trate what the townspeople ate. them as they go out to explore the cultural Birka has been best known for many landscape of Björkö. Birka museum should years for the unique finds from the not be regarded as a traditional museum; cemeteries which the scientist and the exhibitions are meant to be a archaeologist Hjalmar Stolpe investigated complement to the structures in the at the end of the nineteenth century. With landscape which the visitors can see on the aid of maps and splendid copies of their tour of the island,the town area (also luxury goods found in the graves - known as the Black Earth), the fortress rock gleaming sharp weapons, beakers of with its mighty rampart, the rampart round transparent glass, gilt ornaments, the town, the harbour, and the cemeteries. multicoloured glass beads and semi The original finds, which are fragile and precious stones, furs, colourful textiles and sometimes fragmentary, are preservedand silk - the exhibition seeks to show the exhibited at the Historical Museum and power of Birka and its international the Royal Coin Cabinet in Stockholm. character and to create some images of a Map of Europe and the Near East, showing important cities and trading sites.

A town comes into existence In the course of the eighth century several many reasons why this took place at this market towns were built on the northern particular time. One factor is that social periphery of Christian Europe: first Ribe development had reached a phase when the in western Jutland, then Staraya Ladoga leading families in large regions elected a in Russia, and then Birka. At the same time king and supported him in the establish coastal trading sites grew up and acquired ment of a fixed base for trade. In the sec varying degrees of importance, although ond half of the century another important they never became towns; examples are factor was the expansion policy of Char Paviken in Gotland, Åhus in Skåne, Grobin lemagne, who sought to gain power over in Latvia, Ralswiek on Rügen, Skiringsal Europe to the north and east of his Frank (Kaupang) in southern Norway. There are ish kingdom, controlling important trade

9 or hird, a bodyguard of young mounted men who accompanied him on all his travels. They were tied to the king by powerful bonds of loyalty, which he reciprocated by means of generous gifts: weapons, fine horses, good food. Free born women were often pawns in a political and economic game between two families, their husband’s and their own, and had to mediate between conflicting parties. They were entitled to keep the bridewealth they received on marrying, and they could demand a divorce. The big farmers were a strong and con Three small female figures of silver. The one servative group, each with great power on the right is from Birka. Could they be within his own territory, and especially goddesses? when they assembled for war. They had the resources to equip men for warfare and plundering raids, to build and furnish routes and trading sites and converting the ships for trading voyages. It was their task pagans to Christianity. It was common in to maintain a good relationship both with this age for powerful families to collabo the great gods Thor, Frey, and Odin, and rate on enterprises, and there were oppor with the ancestors. They presided over the tunities for a son with initiative to achieve rituals at sacrifices. From early childhood a new and different life. they were trained in athletics and combat, Viking Age society was kin-based and and taught to act so as to achieve a good hierarchically structured. The most posthumous reputation. important dividing line ran between free Women were brought up to manage the and unfree people. The most powerful household and the servants, and to rear families - those with most cultivable land the daughters to become good housewives. and control of important natural resources The farm was their domain, and it was such as iron ore and forest timber, as well their task to maintain a good relationship as major communication routes and nodes to gods and other supernatural powers. where land and water routes intersected - Unfortunately,women ’s skills are not easy constituted an elite who were intermarried to trace in the archaeological material. to a high degree, but they could also be The hunting regions in the forests and engaged in feuds with each other. They mountains were inhabited by the ancestors chose one of themselves to be king and of the Saarni, formerly called Lapps and supported him as long as it was in their referred to in the Viking Age as Finns. They interests. The king was the first among migrated between winter and summer equals and had several farms. He often dwellings where they had their burial travelled from one farm to another or places and sacrificial sites. The farmers in visited other farms together with his retinue the Mälaren valley, like those further north,

10 ciple still just a big farmer, but he had a governor who represented him on Björkö and who was probably a town dweller. We do not know which king founded Birka around A.D. 790 or how large his king dom was. The town was no doubt small during his days, but it must have grown rapidly under his successors. Excavations in the cemeteries, the town rampart, and the fort rampart in recent years have also shown that there was settlement on Björkö before the king founded the town. Björkö before Birka is still a relatively new re search field, however, in which we expect new results in the future. As the structure of the town appears to us today, it essentially dates from the end of the tenth century, but is partially re shaped by a thousand years of agricultural work in the Black Earth area and by graz ing and tree planting in the cemeteries and around the town rampart and the fort. The excavations in 1968-1971 and 1990-1995 have shown that the houses in the town were relatively small, 8 by 5 metres, built in rows running up from the shore. Each plot was bordered by a wattle fence, and narrow alleys ran between the rows of houses. A row of wooden jetties erected on foundations of large stones pro truded from the shore. The houses were Spoon (?) of antler with interwoven bands, either dwellings or workshops or combi probably Saarni. nations of these, built of wattle and daub or horizontal planking. Each house had were dependent in varying measure on the an open hearth in the middle of the floor, Saarni if they wanted to acquire furs and which was either covered with planks or hides and elk antler for the production of hard-stamped clay. Remains of cooking combs. and meals were swept out into the alleys, A town community like Birka was where pigs, dogs, cats, rats, mice, and birds something completely new, which led to enjoyed the leftovers. If it became too dirty the birth of the first urban people in to walk, planks could be placed over the Scandinavia. The king’s estate was at gullies that ran down the middle of the Hovgården on Adelsö, so he was in prin alleys. Waste of all kinds was also dumped

11 terraces where houses stood of a different type from those in the town. They were long-houses with the roof supported by internalposts and walls of timber. It is easy to imagine that the people who lived here had a higher social status than those down in the smelly alleys, but this was obviously not the case. Only one of the long-houses has been excavated, in 1987-89. It is a 20- metre long building with the roof supported by rows of internal posts. It appears to have been built a short time before Birka was founded. Equal-armed costume brooch and a piece of Another type of building that we know the mould in which it was cast. The brooch from written sources to have existed at was found by Hjalmar Stolpe during his Birka is a church. It was no doubt a modest excavations in the Black Earth, while the wooden building, and many theories have mould was found during Björn Ambrosiani’s been proposed over the years as to the excavations over a hundred years later. location of the church, but archaeologists have not been able to trace it. In the from the jetties and along the shore. Since biography of Ansgar we are told that the just a very small part of the town - the king’s governor, Hergeir, was converted Black Earth - has been excavated, the to and had a church built on his property, but tal extent of the town is not known, nor we donot know where that property was. dowe know whether settlement was simi Another of the early missionaries who lar all over Birka. If the town covered an came after Ansgar was a priest named area of roughly 7 hectares, a maximum of Gautbert. The life of Ansgar says of about 700 people could have lived there. Gautbert that he was well received by the Craftsmen’s families apparently lived in king and the people when he came to the houses closest to the jetties, and it is Sweden and that he began to build a likely that craftsmen made up a large pro church. This church was probably on portion of the population. However, mer Björkö, but it may never have been chants and other visitors of various kinds completed, since Gautbert and his Christian would also have needed inns where they brothers were soon afterwards chasedout could spend the night and have meals. of the country by furious opponents of Who owned the houses? This was the Christianity. Some twenty years later, king’s land, but it is probable that big however, Bishop Ansgar on his second visit farmers in the Mälaren valley, merchants, to Birka got the king to grant his successor, and master craftsmen could own the priest Erimbert, a plot in the town on individual houses or even rows of houses which to build a chapel, and he himself if they paid a fee to the king. bought another plot with a standing On the rise above the town, just outside building as a presbytery. the rampart to the east, there are several

12 The Stuttgart manuscript of the biography of Ansgar, Vita Anskarii. This page, folio 16, ftrr-eYfenrc tnnor-o. IppyrxoYoffrnAor- . describes Ansgar ’s first voyage EtuI?m nextern ;m>-rvi cûicum c-ii: kamr fturn to Birka. On the fourth line Irrrr-A efcn A err rvc»er pm m ocj ui A em u t ctonjx from the bottom one can read: cocpCrirtf Ifj/ttctiriAoAhei/j “tandem ad portum regni uicn^ciupe-rxcifurtr- HtxumjuieY cromntx ipsorum qui birca dicitur peru- ^ u ,v£- Lxb ei/tuLerrrrr • srrtpfimxrpccLL enerunt ”, that is, “at length xJrc-rramfuętertre< eu^forttrc ' ] L>i rnvûe- they reached the harbour in er munmrf^tAî-iATt Huede/W-rc-clebite- their [the Swedes ’] kingdom rruvr- erdwmJujwAe-lj-xtwenancyjMkru^-' that is called Birka”. e-sc ce-prt> p Arr t m qf t-uxi f-oApp/t U t~y eriAiu fecum juife rre- e~cx{p apcrvonxj~tT -,' If-TerTû-xe-maynpme-xLL&rp/ûofXjfer- u mum ACithn Aj^-roûzerAm-- lUUfdtn&ten TtbufxmifemnT ’ 4 Møctt=vp/':xm>-eumqfuijJc r-ruc&i - cyxuLxm tn xnrtxxir-cAt^ponorernr /

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Law and justice in the king’s town The judicial assembly or thing was the most their set meeting places. When the thing important institution for resolving conflicts was in session, the law speaker recited the between individuals and families. All free law from memory, since laws in Scandina men were entitled to attend the thing, and via were not written downuntil the twelfth in principle women too. There were both century. Then the person who had sum local and regional assemblies which had moned the thing could put forward his case.

13 According to the Life of Ansgar, there was major activities and where at times there a thing site in the town of Birka where the may have been many foreigners. It is there people on one occasion had to decide fore probable that the king and the mag whether Ansgar and his priests should be nates agreed on a law that would apply allowed to continue their missionary work. only to the market town of Birka. At the The people followed the king’s recommen end of the tenth century, when many towns dation, but the king had to visit another were founded in Scandinavia and Birka assembly in his kingdom and put the mat was moved away, the law was adopted by ter to another group of people before these new towns. The law was called Ansgar received the definitive authoriza Bjarkeyjarréttr, that is, the Law of Björkö, tion. But the laws that applied in the rural and its oldest written form is the town law districts of Sweden were insufficient for the of Nidaros (Trondheim in Norway). new town, where trade and shipping were

Historical sources

There are many sources for the history of of Ansgar, the Benedictine monk who Birka, but they are highly fragmentary. visited Birka twice, in 830 and 852, to try They are pieces of people’s lives from a to convert the people to Christianity. distant past when it is difficult for us to Bishop Rimbert of Hamburg-Bremen, who understand the way people lived. succeeded Ansgar in that office, wrote Vita The most important sources are ar Anskarii, the Life of Ansgar, around 870. chaeological, that is, the documentation Two hundred years later Master Adam of and finds from excavationsin the cemeter Bremen wrote his history of the archdiocese ies, the town rampart, in the Black Earth, of Hamburg and its bishops, which in the rampart, around the fort, and in the contains a great deal of information of harbour. In addition, there are the increas significance for the history of Birka. Other ingly important results of various scien contemporary written sources which paint tific analyses in geology, botany, and the a picture of the times are Frankish and study of all the organic material, chiefly Anglo-Saxon annals of royal courts and waste from the part of the town that was large monasteries, and then the Russian excavated in 1990-1995. Research contin Nestorian Chronicle and the Icelandic ues, bringing new results that quickly al sagas, which were written down in the ter and qualify the picture we have today. early Middle Ages. We may also mention There are few written sources but they the great poems about gods and heroes have had a great impact on research into preserved in the Icelandic Elder Edda and Birka. First and foremost there is the Life the Old English epic Beowulf.

14 Hjalmar Stolpe ’s diary of the 1875 excavation.

Archaeological excavations

The most striking feature in the cultural Hemlanden, with over 1,600 graves, most landscapeof Björkö is the large number of of them marked with a mound, but there burial mounds. They are distributed in six are also graves with stone settings in the cemeteries which are known today as Hem shape of tricorns, circles, and ships. People landen, North of Borg, Borgs Hage and have always been tempted to excavate the Kvarnbacka, Kärrbacka, Grindsbacka,and burial mounds, and the first documented Ormknös. The biggest of the cemeteries is excavations at Birka took place in the 1680s.

15 Johan Hadorph, one of the first national natural history and archaeology of Björkö. custodians of antiquities in Sweden, introduced Stolpe’s excavations on Björkö continued until Sweden’s first law on ancient monuments in 1881, which was his last big season. Hjalmar 1666 and also a law that gave the state the Stolpe laid the foundation for all later research right to claim all archaeological finds of copper, into Birka, and the finds unearthed by his silver, and gold. Hadorph visited Birka and excavations in the cemeteries and the Black described his impressions of the fort, the Earth are the nucleus of the documentation of cemeteries, and the Black Earth that marked Viking Age Sweden. the location of the town, and he was convinced In the twentieth century one of the great that this was Viking Age Birka. The best contributions to the archaeology of Birka was cartographer of the day, Carl Gripenhjelm, made by Holger Arbman. His excavations in drew a map of Björkö and the southern tip of 1932 and 1933 sought to find Ansgar’s church, Adelsö. without success, and he investigateda number The first excavationsin the cemeteries were of burial mounds. However, Arbman did bring conducted by a Scottish amateur, Alexander order to the huge collection of finds and Seton, in 1825. In the course of three summers documentation which had been packed away he dug through a number of burial mounds since the deathin 1905 of Hjalmar Stolpe, who and was seized by such a desire to find treasure had too many other commitments to analyse that he wanted to excavate hundreds of them. Arbman had the finds conserved and mounds on Björkö, but he died before the published them in German in the series “Birka ”, plans were realized. Seton compiled a map of thus making them available to researchers and the northern part of Björkö which illustrates the general public. Greta Arwidsson ensured how centuries of farming by Björkö village have that the publication work was continued. erased all traces of former settlement in a broad The modern era on Björkö began with belt between the fort and Hemlanden. Birgit Arrhenius and Björn Ambrosiani’s ex The results of Hjalmar Stolpe’s excavations cavations in the harbour area of Birka, fol on Björkö are well known. He came from Gävle lowed by new excavations of the cemeteries. and studied science at Uppsala. In October These sought to establish whether there had 1871 he came to Birka for the first time to been settlement on Björkö before the founda look for amber, which he knew had been found tion of Birka. Birgit Arrhenius and students there, and to investigate whether it occurred from Stockholm University excavated burial naturally on the island or was brought there mounds at the Ormknös cemetery, including by humans. He took probes with the aid of a the biggest cairn on the top of the hillock. It spade and an auger. He did find some amber, contained few finds, but the structure and a but above all he discovered archaeological radiocarbon dating of a charred fir twig sug finds, includingbones from which the marrow gest that it was constructed around the birth had been extracted, which he interpreted as of Christ and that it was enlarged after a new food remains. With scientific accuracy he burial in the Viking Age. documented the results of his investigationsin In 1988 Lena Holmquist Olausson, while his diary, drawing sketches to show where he excavating one of the house terraces in front took his probes in the Black Earth. The of the town rampart, found a very special grave following year he gained a doctorate with a under the entrance to the house. It contained dissertation about his investigations in the the remains of a man aged 40-50 equipped

16 with weapons and with half an elk antler lying his large-scale excavations in the town area. on the left side of the head. A powerfully built These were the first professional scientific younger man between 20 and 30 was placed excavations conducted in the actual town of over the warrior’s grave. His skeleton was in a Birka, and they therefore yielded a huge amount distorted position and the body was severed of finds. As this material is analysed in the from the body, lying at the same level as the coming years, it will constantly add to our chest. He had no equipment. He was probably knowledge of settlement in the town. a slave who had to accompany his master into Since 1996, Lena Holmquist Olausson has the grave. conducted excavations in the fort rampart and In 1990-1995 Björn Ambrosiani directed outside the fort.

The grave of the “elk man” with his weapons. The skeleton of the slave is shaded grey.

17 It is picturesque and peaceful on a summer ’s day among the burial mounds in Hemlanden. Eleven hundred years ago this site must have looked very different.

Belief and life, death and burial The more than 1,100 excavated graves on great concern that people had for their Björkö are memorials to people who lived deceased and that there was a firm belief in a time of change in Scandinavia, a time in a life after death. We also have a hint of when Christianity gained a foothold and the strict rituals observedat a burial. Over turned the Nordic kingdoms into Christian half of the graves at Birka are cremations, European states. Most of the people buried the rest are inhumations,and the two types in the cemeteries received a non-Christian are interspersed in the cemeteries. What burial, but there are groups of graves the deceased took into the grave depended oriented east-west with no grave goods, on his position in society and the role he which are probably the last resting places played. We donot know why some people of Christians. The pagan graves show the were cremated while other bodies were

18 b

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a. Chamber grave, no. 581, for one of the king ’s mounted soldiers. He was buried seated in the dr/ilii X : \ j ] chamber, surrounded by food and drink, his weapons, and his game board with glass pieces. ^■-r 3.Zjh* On a ledge outside the chamber lay his two c horses. b. The clay pot from grave 142 contained the cremated bones and the incinerated grave goods. Drawn and described in Stolpe ’s diary. c. Coffin grave, no. 1054, without grave goods, probably for a Christian person.

19 of them may of course have been brought to the king on Adelsö from the rulers of the kingdom of Kiev in Russia, a family of Swedish origin, according to the Russian Nestorian Chronicle. What is sure at any rate is that the variation in the population of Birka was much greater than we can imagine. The most important members of the royal family were probably buried at Hovgården on Adelsö. But the king’s governors and their families would no doubt have been buried on Björkö, and the king’s retainers, the families of big farmers, Iron neck ring from grave 985, known as a merchants, and master craftsmen must Thor’s hammer ring, with hammer- and axe surely have been laid to rest near the town. shaped amulets. Neck rings like these were A characteristic of the graves in Birka common in the Mälaren valley and in the is that they lie as a protective ring around Russian kingdom of Kiev in the Viking Age. the town, showing the close contact between life and death. Our knowledge of Viking Age belief and religious life is limited. The Christian church forbade inhumed without burning. It may be cremation; bodies were wrapped in white connected with a belief in a twofold soul. and laid in a simple grave with the face to The body was perceived as a solid soul the east, to be able to see the risen Christ which housed a free spirit. This free spirit and enter paradise with him. Those who could detach itself from the body and be were not Christians - and this means most active on its own, in dreams, hallucinations, of the people in Birka - were given food, and delirium. clothes, and equipment as if they were The most common mortuary practice going off on a long journey.The notion of in the Viking Age in Sweden was the Hel - the cold, grey, dismal underworld cremation of the corpse on an open pyre. to the north - is much older than the Viking For this reason, the many inhumation Age, and the same is true of Odin’s graves at Birka are interpreted as the buri Valhalla, which was the abode of good als of strangers from elsewhere. This warriors who had fallen in battle. The king applies in particular to the richly furnished was of divine family and had contact with chamber graves with traces of foreign the major gods at sacrifices. But what costumes and not infrequently horse would happen if the king was baptized? sacrifices. Yet the women in the chamber There has been a great deal of speculation graves are buried in the ordinary dress of about the symbolic meaning of hammer free women of good family in the Viking shaped amulets - Thor’s hammers and Age, and the splendid horsemen in tunics silver crosses - in the graves. A person who were most likely the king’s retainers. Some was buried after the pagan fashion but with

20 a cross around the neck would have been familiar with Christianity and may even have been prime-signed, that is, signed with the cross as a preliminary to baptism. Yet the bereaved relatives ensuredthat the burial followed traditional pagan customs. Iron rings with Thor’s hammers are a powerful symbol showing a connection between fire, iron, and the god Thor, who held the giants and other forces of chaos in check. Judging by the number of burial Four equal-armed silver crosses from tenth- mounds at Birka, burial must have been a century women’s graves in Birka. significant part of life in the town. There was no official Norse religion, but a number of myths explained the character istic spheres of responsibility of the vari ous gods and the rituals associated with the year and the life cycle. The mortuary rituals may have varied depending on the representative of God on earth, and he was traditions of the dead person’s family. supported by the mighty pope and church The cemeteries at Birka lie high in the of Rome. The king was therefore elevated terrain, and this was important. This was above all other powerful men, but he could where all the ceremonies associated with no longer perform the ancient hereditary the deceased were celebrated. For there sacrificial rites to ensure fertility and good was a widespread belief that the dead had fortune. History shows that this caused hidden knowledge of what would happen problems, and it took many generations to the survivors in the future. The burial after the introduction of Christianity until mound was a memorial place, but first and it became the only permitted religion. On foremost a place where the relatives could the other hand, it was in market towns like seek contact with the deceased and ask for Birka, Hedeby, and Ribe, where trade advice. There was a strong belief that allowed people from different places to people’s fate was determined by the Norns, meet, that Christianity could gain a and people tried to take omens before foothold. They came to these places from every big decision. The behaviour of birds Christian and non-Christian parts of was particularly important. In the Life of Europe, from different social backgrounds Ansgar there is a story that the king could and with different religious beliefs. There not give Ansgar permission to preach the is no reason to doubt that a small church gospel at Birka before he had consulted was built at Birka, but there is no reason the gods by casting lots. This took place to believe that it lasted. For Birka remained in the open air, but we are not told how a non-Christian town despite the people the ceremony was conducted. whom the priests from Western Europe In a Christian society the king was a managed to convert or at least prime-sign.

21 The scales were one of the merchant’s most important tools. The folding type seen here was first used in Sweden at the end of the ninth century. From grave 644.

Merchants and warriors

When the king founded the town of Birka lemagne, who was also interested in the it was part of a strategy to ensure control flow of goods transported on this sea from over as much as possible of the trade in the north to south and from east to west, came Baltic Sea and hence to safeguard his power into conflict with the king of the Danes, and prestige. The Frankish emperor, Char Godfred. Under the pretext of Christiani-

22 silver coins, dirhams. Some 70,000 of these have been found in Gotland and about 10,000 in the rest of Sweden. The dirhams are thin coins of silver with a quotation from the Koran stamped on one side and the name of the caliph and a date on the other, but never a portrait of the caliph, for religious reasons. Dirhams were struck Silver coin from grave 66, struck for the for different Arab rulers, mostly in present- Frankish emperor Charlemagne. The obverse bears the image of the emperor while the day Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan,and in Russian reverse shows a temple with a cross. Central Asia. The Arabs played a major role for trade in Europe in Birka ’s time as a market town. zation, Charlemagne conquered the land The Arabian caliph dispatched ambassa of the pagan Saxons and thus came as far dors who brought back reports on what as the south coast of the Baltic. The con they had witnessed. These accounts are very flict between the Danish king and Charle important for the interpretation of the sig magne led Godfredto forcibly move Dan nificance of the Norsemen (Rus) in East ish craftsmen and merchants fromReric to ern Europe and especially Russia. Hedeby, a market town founded at roughly In early Birka times (roughly until the the same time as Birka and Ribe. Hedeby middle of the ninth century) the import of lay in a highly strategic location in south Arabian goods came via the Caspian Sea east Jutland, deep inside a fjordfrom where and the Caucasus, that is, though the it was a short distance overland to the kingdom of the Khazars. In the course of North Sea. the ninth century the centre of gravity was The most important thing for the shifted eastwards to the cities of Tashkent merchants was that they could travel in and Samarkand, and the trade routes relative safety with their cargoes, without passed through the kingdom of the Volga being attacked by robbers. The king Bulgars at the Volga Bend. The caravans therefore had to secure the passages in and that brought the silver coins also carried out of the trading sites and the most silk, polished beads of cornelian and rock important trade routes. The merchants crystal, and spices. also had to have special agreements so that The finds from the graves at Birka show the king could be sure that they would come that most of Birka ’s long-distance trade back again with their valuable cargoes. until the mid-ninth century was with South Trade in Scandinavia in the Viking Age ern and Western Europe. Then contacts was synonymous with the exchange of with Eastern Europe were intensified. It goods for other goods or services. None was at this time that the Vikings made their of the kings minted any coins in Birka, and big raids on Hamburg, Paris, and other the nearest coiners were Danes, Frisians Frankish and Frisian cities occurred, tak on the Dutch coast, Franks, and Anglo- ing advantage of internal disputes between Saxon kings in England. But the earliest the sons of the emperor Louis the Pious. coins in circulation at Birka were Arabian There is a significant element of Scandinavian

23 On the way to Birka. finds in Russia, and a particularly strik the Arabian silver coins were not valuable ing number of women’s graves with oval as coins but as metal. Moreover, they had brooches. The market town of Staraya a fixed weight and a good silver content Ladoga on the River Volkhov has Scan and were easy to transport. They could dinavian finds from before the foundation be divided into pieces as needed. The of Birka. Staraya Ladoga, which the Vi merchants therefore carried small folding kings called Aldeigjuborg, was an impor scales and a leather pouch with small tant stopping place before the big water standardized weights. These weights have falls where the goods were reloaded for been found in many of Birka ’s graves and portage to Novgorod. The town of Kiev could be owned by both women and men. on the Dnieper, which flows into the Black The fact that no scales have been found in Sea, became an important point for the women’s graves, while both dirhams and eastward thrust of the Norsemen. Kiev ac weights have, may indicate that men and quireda Swedish royal family, which natu rally reinforced this presence, since the The silver hoard with 450 Islamic coins was family probably had close ties to the dy found in Birka in 1872. The coins lay on an nasty on Adelsö. iron dish together with a large number of silver For the Norse merchants and warriors, ornaments.

24 25 women did not trade in the same goods. the profit. The merchants travelled widely The weight system that can be reconstructed and could be away from home for years with the aid of the weights is an eastern at a time. one (originally Arabian) which applied in Birka was evidently at the junction of Sweden andthe countries on the other side many trade routes, both summer and win of the Baltic. Norway and Denmark ter. None of the written sources for the followed a western weight system. Vikings’ trading activities tell us what kind The king ensured that the merchants and of goods were important for the develop their ships with armed crews could travel ment of Birka. We believe that it was pri safely on Lake Mälaren and could offer marily iron, followed by furs and perhaps their goods for sale in a safe place like antler. Iron was an important raw mate Birka. It is not inconceivable that they paid rial, and the Scandinavia bog-ore iron was a small fee to the king in the shape of a of particularly good quality - better than certain proportion of the cargo; it may European iron, according to modern have been one of the governor’s tasks to smiths. The production of iron took place ensure that the king received his share. in the forest regions of Dalarna, Gäst Trading contacts took place at several rikland, and Hälsingland, involving many levels in Birka. This is easiest to trace in people. In winter the crude iron could be the graves with imported goods such as transported to Birka by sleigh. Iron was bronze vessels, remains of silk tunics with essential in the Viking Age, and the need fancy trimmings, glass beakers, beads of was almost insatiable. Iron was needed for semi-precious stone, and the like. The king nails with which to build ships, and for and the social elite in Birka needed to all kinds of edged tools from the all-pur acquire exquisite luxury goods which they pose knife to scythes, sickles, hammers, could present as gifts to people they wanted tongs, saw blades, and of course weapons. to attach to them. The king did this by Furs are not so easy to detect in the ar going on Viking raids and coming back chaeological material, but with modern with rich booty. This could be converted excavation techniques it is possible to find into prestige goods to bestow as gifts in small claws and bones from the fur-bear order to retain his power. It is not known ing animals, which gives us an idea of the how large a share of the trade in Birka kinds of furs that were current: winter this constituted. squirrel, red fox, beaver, marten, hare, The merchants were no doubt both ermine. Some of these may have been professional and semi-professional. They caught in traps, others shot with blunt acted as intermediaries. They swapped wooden arrows which did not damage the their goods for other commodities in the fur. Fur is thickest in the winter, so we may harbour and exchanged these for other suppose that the fur traders chiefly came goods or silver coins in another harbour. to the winter markets. It is also possible Several men could band together to furnish that sealskin, and hides from elk, deer, and man a ship (our word fellow comes reindeer, bear, and wolf were also sold in from the “fee” that each partner would the winter. “lay” in such an investment) and then share The most important thing for those who

26 lived and worked at Birka was the local In principle it would also have been trade in basic goods for everyday possible to fish and put out nets in the consumption and raw materials for craft summer and to jig for fish in the winter work. The large quantities of bones from when the lake was covered with ice. the excavations of 1990-1995 show that It is highly uncertain how all the goods the animals were brought to the place on transactions took place. There were prob the hoof and slaughtered there. There can ably storage places for specific types of hardly have been any grazing around the goods in the town close to the jetties. There town for any animals except the horses used is no sign that the early towns had a mar by the garrison in the fort. We do not know ket square; perhaps they could hold the how much food an individual craftsman’s market on the ice in winter. If the ice was family could produce on its own. They thick enough, they could cross the Baltic may have had a pig and a couple of hens. Sea on skis or by horse-drawn sleigh via

Fur-lined mantles and coats were much sought after by the princely courts of Europe and the Orient. Palaces, castles, and monasteries were icy and draughty in the winter. With hides as merchandise, the Nordic merchants could obtain prestige goods such as glass beakers, ornaments of precious metal, valuable weapons and silk garments, and fine textiles of wool and linen.

27 Bone skates were strapped fast to leather shoes.

the Åland Islands or across the Gulf of pole his way forward with the aid of an Bothnia in the north. It may have been iron-tipped stick; it is said that these bone easier in the winter to cover large distances skates worked best on smooth ice. They over frozen water. From the graves at Birka could also be used as runners on sleighs. and the town itself there have been finds People may have been a marketable of crampons to be worn on ice by horses commodity in Birka. The Life of Ansgar and humans, and bone skates made from tells us that there were many Christian the metatarsals of cows or horses. These captives in Birka when the missionary first were rubbed with grease and attached with arrived. They were probably sold as slaves. straps under the shoes. The wearer could

28 The combmaker has done good business at the winter market and is coming back with an elk antler on a sledge.

The craftsmen

There are numerous traces of the many casting, comb making, bead making, craftsmen’s families that lived in Birka, but wrought-iron work, textile production,and not a single name has survived for poster fur preparing. Without any material we ity. This is in contrast to later in the Mid may assume that tanning, shoemaking and dle Ages, when many people could write leather work, carpentry and house building, runes and we find messages of varying andboat building were important elements length - often including names - carved in of life in the town. All crafts were pieces of wood, antler, and bone. The only specialized, with skills and knowledge that names we have from Birka are in the Tife was no doubt kept within a narrow circle. of Ansgar, mostly names of kings and a The bronze caster depended on raw governor,priests and monks, and a couple material from outside: scrap bronze, of pious Frisian women. copper, lead, silver, and gold for gilding, The various crafts that can be detected along with a variety of clays for crucibles in the archaeological material are bronze and moulds. He either worked alone or

29 perhaps with the aid of older children or apprentices. Since the work required open fire from a hearth, the workshop was down near the shore. It was easy for fire to spread, so it was important to be close to water. The fragments of moulds show what the most popular goods were: ornaments for women’s costume, chiefly the equal armed brooches and the large oval brooches. The comb maker was dependent on fresh A beautiful comb was a highly valued elk antler. Since elks shed their antlers in possession. January, they had to be collected before they were eaten by rodents. It was probably the Saamis who knew the migration paths of the elk and could find the antlers early. Either directly or via middlemen, the antlers came to the comb makers in Birka. Among the many exquisite antler combs found in Birka ’s graves and in the Black Earth there are occasional ones with a peculiar ribbon decoration cut out in the connecting plates. To highlight it further, it is inlaid with a material like tar or resin. This decoration is also found on horn spoons and the hammers for the Saarni shaman drums, which makes it likely that items of Saarni hornwork were among the goods that found their way to Birka. Of the waste from comb making the comb maker could make spindle whorls, shafts for knives and other tools. His tools were highly specialized, consisting of a fine-toothed saw, a drill, knives, an anvil and hammer, and a riveting iron for making the rivets with which to fasten the parts of the comb together to make the finished product. A comb was an important part of personal equipment for keeping hair, beard, The amulet shows a human face with well- and moustache clean and neat. Hair was tended hair and beard. Is it one of the Norse a living part of a person, and one had to godsf

30 ensure that not even the smallest strand fell into evil hands. Hair indicated a person’s age, status, and social affiliation. In some of the chamber graves at Birka there are even horses buried along with big coarse-toothed combs with which to groom the horse’s mane and tale. Among the Birka craftsmen, the bead maker occupied a special position since strings of beads were so important for women and children. Beads of glass and semi-precious stones were among the most Small beads of dark-brown glass with yellow important commodities throughout Europe transverse stripes, known as wasp beads, were made in the market town of Ribe on the west in the Viking Age, both as semi-manufac coast of Jutland. tured goods in the form of rods of multi coloured glass and tesserae (square blocks of glass for making mosaics). There are from there. Polished beads of cornelian, signs to suggest that the merchants acquired amethyst, and rock crystal also came with large quantities of beads in both Western the Arabian merchants and were spread and Eastern Europe and brought them to westwards along the large rivers of Russia. Birka in small bags. Finds of raw material It is clear from reports left behind by from the excavations in 1990-1995 show Arabian ambassadors who met Norse that bead making was carried on in Birka. merchants on their travels that beads were In Ribe and at Åhus, a trading site in popular. First the Viking merchant would Skåne, the finds show that bead making trade his goods, for example, furs, with was done by specialists who mastered the the Arabian merchant for a certain weight most difficult techniques. Glass rods were in silver, in dirhams. He could then use probably produced in Italy and were used the dirhams to buy beads, ornaments, and as merchandise. Bead fashions came and other things. In the first case it was an went in waves, and some types of beads exchange; in the second case the can be used by archaeologists for dating commodity had a certain price which had purposes. One of the most famous beadsis to be paid in coins. a small brown cylindrical glass bead with The study of Viking Age beads paints three horizontal threads of yellow glass. It a picture of a time in Scandinavian history is called a “wasp bead” and was produced when individuals (read: men) had great in Ribe in the earliest phase in the history opportunities to set off and acquire power of the town, 800 years ago; it also occurs and honour. As professional warriors, in the earliest layers at Birka and was merchants, and craftsmen, much of Europe found during the excavations on Adelsö. was open to personal initiative. The new Bead making was an important source market towns such as Birka, Ribe, and of income in the Caliphate, and many of Hedeby in Scandinavia and all the other the most beautiful glass beads in Birka come trading sites in the east and south with

31 A Viking ship with crew and horsemen on large, powerful horses is one of many scenes on this unique wall hanging from Överhogdal Church in Jämtland. Radiocarbon dating shows that the hanging comes from the Viking Age. Similar hangings may very well have been woven in Birka.

a permanent population became melting clothes; this is evident from the many pots where the new urban way of life took needle boxes with sewing needles found shape. at Birka. As usual, it is difficult to trace the It is highly uncertain what social status female part of the population in Birka. The the craftsman (or craftswoman) enjoyed fact is that household work, making and what his relationship to the king and clothes, and small-scale trade leave few the powerful landowners was, whether he traces in archaeological material. Textile owned his own house in Birka and lived crafts were the women’s domain, and there with the family the whole year without the constant production of wool round, or just stayed in the town in the from their hands, the population would summer and lived on a farm in the winter. have had to dress in hides. The wool We do not know whether the craftsman probably arrived in sacks from the farms was free to travel around and sell his in the Mälaren valley and was sorted, products or if he produced on commission. washed, carded, and spun into yarn It probably varied depending on the and woven into cloth at Birka. Dyeing, person. It is also likely that craftsmen from fulling, and combing were important for other parts of Europe who madetheir way making strong, water-repellent outer to Birka were allowed to settle for a while garments. Sewing was also a female craft, with their tools and their raw material to both decorative stitching and making make their products.

32 Greyish splinters of bone and charred grains are virtually the only remains of meals found by archaeologists. A still life like this gives a good idea of the food available to the people ofBirka.

Everyday life and festive occasions The Eddie poem Rigsthula gives us some agree with the diet of the people of Birka? insight into the kind of food that people ate Judging by the large quantities of food in the Viking Age and how food reflects refuse found during the excavations at different social groups. The poem divides Birka in 1990-1995, beef was most popular, society into four levels: the king, the earls, followed by pork and mutton. The animals the freemen, and the slaves. The earl and were slaughtered at Birka, so the meat was his lady dined at a laid table: pork and fresh when it came to the consumers, who roast fowl and thin white loaves of wheat cooked and conserved it in various ways. flour. With this they drank wine. The Smoking and drying were probably the farmer and his wife ate roast veal and bowls most common methods, and perhaps full of accompaniments, while the slaves salting or curingfor those who had access served meat broth with heavy loaves baked to salt. Every part of the animal was used, of poor barley and bran. How does this from hooves to intestines. Fish such as pike-

33 perch, pike, and bream were caught in Lake Mälaren in the spring, and one could jig for perch through holes in the ice in the winter. Ducks and seafowl tasted good early in the spring when stocks of food were low, and the women and children cleaned the feathers and down to stuff and packed it into pillows and eiderdowns of thin leather. There is little documentation of the way food was cooked. The fireplace was at floor level, and in the embers the housewife could bake bread and roast meat andfish. In pots hanging from iron hooks over the fire she could make porridge from barley or oats or soup from meat and marrowbones. Porridge was probably more common than bread. Normal household vessels were ceramic pots and wooden containers. It was the custom to bury a small loaf or two with a dead person. If the body was cremated, it sometimes happened that the bread did not burn up but was preserved by charring and can now be studied by microscope. A total of 64 loaves of bits of Three small loaves of bread from grave 469 bread have been found in the cremation were so fresh when they were placed on the graves at Birka. Most of them are small pyre that they all took on the same shape. They unleavened loaves, round or oval, and must have been lying at the edge of the fire, since they were not consumed by the flames, about half a centimetre thick, but there are just charred. also bigger loaves, 17-18 cm in diameter and up to 1.5 cm thick, baked of sourdough. The loaves are mostly baked with several that it is more often found in women’s than different types of cereal, usually oats and men’s graves. But since the organic barley, but also rye. Mixtures of pea meal material from the inhumation graves has and barley meal occur, and mixtures of mostly disappeared, we donot know what several different kinds of wheat, as well as funeral meal was common. The seeds of linen and goose-foot and vetch. distinctiveness of the grave loaves is also The loaves from the Birka graves should seen in the way they can be perforated and be interpreted, not as food for the journey strung on threads of iron or bronze. In of the deceased, but as ritual bread with a grave 469 there were three small oval symbolic meaning associatedwith fertility loaves which had been threaded together and regeneration. It is clear that the bread while still warm and had therefore taken belongs to a high stratum in society, and the same shape.

34 The map shows the cemeteries at Birka. 1. Hemlanden. 2. The cemetery north of Borg. 3. Borg. 4. Borg ’s Pasture and Kvarnbacka. 5. Grindsbacka. 6. Kärrbacka. 7-8. Ormknös. Graves containing bread are marked.

35 Cornfields in the Viking Age contained significant quantities of what we today would define as weeds, such as goosefoot, brome, and vetch. Botanists believe that goosefoot (fat hen) was allowed to grow freely in cornfields and that it was har vested and threshed together with the grain. Macrofossils such as seeds and grains from excavations provide important material for the interpretation of bygone society. Another source for the study of food in Birka is the many coprolites, that is, fossilized dung which is found in the masses of waste from the Black Earth. The pigs that went rooting everywhere swallowed a lot of charcoal thrown out of the hearths, and their excrement became almost black. The dogs ate bone and horn, so the dog West Slavic pot from grave 1143. droppings are whitish and full of splinters. The analysis of one coprolite from Birka proved that it came from a person who had been drinking mead. The excrement contained pollen from lime flower, meadow sweet (once known as “mead wort”), and dog rose, all of which indicate honey from wild bees. There were no lime woods in Sweden in the Viking Age but they did occur in the areas east and south of the Baltic. The honey probably came to Birka as a commodity which, like salt, was packed in the big, grey West Slavic clay pots with wavy band decoration. Honey was necessary for making mead, the drink of the gods which was an essential part of the ritual feasts where the king displayed his generosity and hospitality. The rituals associatedwith the drinking of mead are recorded in many of the Icelandic sagas, but most clearly in the Old English heroic epic Beowulf. The wine jug from the Rhineland has tin-foil decoration. It comes from a women’s grave.

36 A funnel glass bad to be downed in one draught and placed upside down on the table. The two glass beakers come from two different women’s graves at Birka.

37 The excavation of the fort rampart in 1997.

The fort is on fire

The Birka fort is a large semicircular ram south. The fort rampart varies in width part surrounding the highest point of between 3 and 5 metres and has three open Birka, where the Ansgar cross stands to ings, the so-called King’s Gate to the north, day. On the west side the cliff dropped pre another gateway facing the town, and a cipitously 30 metres into the sea in the Vi third opening towards the village of Björkö king Age, and from the top there was a and the south of the island. Close to the wide panorama over land andsea. We may eastern part of the rampart there is a flat assume that warriors stood on guard here, grassy area. There were probably houses keeping an eye on traffic in the fjord, sig here, anda few graves are also known from nalling if necessary to a colleague on guard this area. In 1997 archaeologists from Stock at Hovgården on Adelsö. No defensive wall holm University investigated the rampart was needed on this side, unlike the land by digging a broad trench through it. After scape gently sloping to the north, east, and several weeks ’ work it was proved that the

38 fort had burnt on at least three occasions. The last fire had been so powerful that large stone blocks had cracked with the heat, and the rampart had never been rebuilt. On the large rampart which was designed as a breastwork there had been a wall built of horizontal boards. On the inside of this palisade there was a wooden parapet where the guards could patrol. The fort rampart was built in two stages, the earliest of which was relatively modest in size. In the rampart structure there was an enormous stone block weighing more than a ton, which proved to be part of a grave marker. Under the rampart was a

One of the king ’s mounted soldiers wearing a fur-lined kaftan of silk and a fur-brimmed hat with silver decoration.

trench grave. It held the remains of a skeleton of a middle-aged man and a small stallion. In the rampart over the grave there were a few remains of the skeleton of another middle-aged man with no grave goods. He may have been killed when his master was buriedin the trench grave. The stone block marked the grave above ground. The grave is from the first half of the eighth century, thus predating the A trench grave which was incorporated in the foundation of the town of Birka. oldest fort rampart. The big stone that stood on Birka ’s fort is actually built in the same the top of the grave can be seen in the top left way as hillforts from the Migration Pe corner. In the foreground is the skull of a man riod, and we know of no other fort of this who was buried with a horse at his feet. archaic type built and used in the Viking

39 3?

The fort at Birka.

Age. It has been calculated that Birka ’s defence known since the time of Johan Hadorph. numbered about fifty men, both infantry It was intended to prevent enemy ships and cavalry, and that some of these warri from storming the town. A length of about ors are buried in the chamber graves with 450 metres of the town rampart is pre their weapons and their horse. The garri served, with openings for six gates. It was son may have been stationed on the slope built in two stages and had a wooden above the fort rock. Both Hjalmar Stolpe structure along the top. About 50 skeleton and Holger Arbman were interestedin this graves were built into the rampart. These area because it so clearly is a weak link in were excavated by Hjalmar Stolpe and are the defence of the town. Arbman’s inves dated to the end of the ninth century and tigations unearthed a meter-high terrace beginning of the tenth century. They must of gravel and stone with a thick occupa originally have been covered with burial tion layer and finds of special character, mounds. When a stouter defensive ram namely, arrowheads and fragments of part was needed earlyin the tenth century, other weapons, remains of mail and la the burial mounds were incorporated in mellar armour, a large number of iron pad the rampart. Scientific investigations have locks, coins, and so on, but not a single recently been carried out in this area which object to show that women hadlived there. was has been tilled since Birka was de Birka ’s defensive system also included serted, andthe studies have revealed where the town rampart and the pilework in the the rampart ran. water outside the town. The latter has been

40 A woman with her children dressed for a feast.

Clothes as language

Through contacts with Arabs, Khazars and costume in particular varied; some of the Volga Bulgars, Franks, Frisians, and Anglo- officers in the king’s cavalry may have had Saxons, costume in Birka was subject to outfits which showed that they had served special kinds of influence which reflected the prince of Kiev in Russia. In some of the the different social levels in the town. Male chamber graves there are remains of tu-

41 nies and kaftans of colourful silk with but and the frock the women wore a tight-fit tons and trimmings of gold and silver ting cloak and over it a cape. This is how thread, and belts with ornate bronze freeborn Scandinavian women were bur mountings and headgear with oval tassels ied, whether it was in Russia or the Ork of silver thread. A costume like this prob neys, in the Mälaren valley or the Norwe ably included a fur-lined coat, wide trou gian fjords. The grave finds tell us noth sers, and boots of soft leather. ing about their everyday dress. The small The king and his family no doubt wore silver female figures found at Birka and costumes showing the influence of their elsewhere in Sweden show exactly the contacts with foreign courts. The common same costume viewed from the side. The feature of dress in this top layer of society woman’s headdress is a mystery. For even was that a person wore several different if the costume appears to have been the garments, one on top of the other, often of same for all women of a certain social exclusive wools of different colours and rank, it must have shown whether she was with applied bands with gold and silver married, unmarried, or widowed, and embroidery or cut strips of beautifully what her role in the social hierarchy was. patterned silk brocade. Fur-lined coats and We are familiar with peasant women’s cos capes in bright colours were also part of tumes in more recent times, with the head the splendid royal wardrobe. Distinguished dress telling which phase of life they are women wore two tunics of thin, finely in, but we have no trace of any headgear combed yarn woven in broken lozenge for women from Birka. twill. The over-tunic, which was open at There were of course children in Birka the front, could have applications of silk, too, and there are many children’s graves. and the under-tunic was decorated with Children had little chance of growing up tablet-woven bands. to be adults, and of the 500 inhumation The women’s costume of which remains graves at Birka, about one-fifth contain have been found in Birka was evidently children. Both infants’ and teenagers’ worn only by well-off women. It consisted graves have been found, and occasionally of a shift of linen, over which came a frock the children were buried in the same grave with straps attached with large oval as adults. Certain types of objects, such brooches made of richly decoratedbronze. as small bells, a little mirror, and some Between the oval brooches a woman hung glass beads indicate children’s graves. chains of multicoloured beads of glass and When boys of high-ranking families died semi-precious stone and hanging ornaments at the equivalent of our confirmation age of silver and bronze. Hanging down from they could be given magnificent burials. the oval brooches there were small tools Two of the chamber graves in Hemlanden such as knives and scissors, since there was proved to have been made for two different no belt with this costume. Over the shift ten-year-old boys.

42 The silver crucifix from grave 660. Christ is bound to the cross, not nailed. The crucifixion is depicted in the same way on the large runic stone from Jelling in Jutland, on which King Harald Bluetooth proclaims that he has turned the Danes into Christians.

The destruction of Birka

Birka was a place for meetings and con is no trace of the town having been plun versations between people from many cul dered or burnt, but the fort was destroyed tures. Despite this, Birka was abandoned. by fire at roughly this time - a fire that Some time at the end of the tenth century, must have been visible over much of the people moved away from Birka. Young and Mälaren area. Who ordered the people of old, women, children, and men all set off Birka to move? What happened to them? with their belongings, never to return. There Did everyone leave? Where did they go?

43 No king of the Swedes struck coins at Birka. Olof Skötkonung (“Tax-King”), on the other hand, wanted to show that Sigtuna was a Christian town by setting up a mmt there. The obverse of the coins bears the portrait of the king and his name, while the reverse has a cross, the name of the place where the coin was struck, and the name of the mint master.

With the removal of Birka, the royal were movedand a new town was founded manor on Adelsö lost its significance, and nearby. Ribe, for instance, was moved a new town - Sigtuna - was founded on across the river, Hedeby was moved to the mainland, on the road to Old Uppsala. Schleswig on the other side of the Schlei The question is whether it was founded by estuary, and in Vestfold in Norway the same dynasty that had ruled at Birka. Skiringsal or Kaupang was abandoned in Despite repeated missionary efforts, favour of the town of Tønsberg. A new Birka never became a Christian town. Peo age was dawning, when Christianity ple stuck to ancient ways, the old tradi would gradually change people’s everyday tional rituals, which brought prosperity lives, and when ownership of land would and fortune to people and kept the forces become crucial. of chaos at bay. The last Christian priest Ansgar was canonized and the day of in Birka, Bishop Unni, died in 936, accord his death, the third of February, was cel ing to Adam of Bremen, and was buried ebrated in southern Scandinaviathrough there. Right from the start, Sigtuna was a out the MiddleAges. The traditions about Christian town where the king and the life in the market town of Birka became church supported each other. The same myths which were told and retold all thing happened elsewhere in Scandinavia, around the Baltic Sea for many genera where Viking Age towns and trading sites tions.

44 Birka Museum viewed from the north, with its characteristic projecting roof. The architect was Gunnar Mattsson. Stockholm.