Water Politics

Water politics. Wet deposition of human and animal remains in Uppland, Sweden Fredengren, Christina http://kulturarvsdata.se/raa/fornvannen/html/2015_161 Fornvännen 2015(110):3 s. 161-183 Ingår i samla.raa.se Art. Fredengren 161-183_Layout 1 2015-09-28 15.43 Sida 161 Water politics. Wet deposition of human and animal remains in Uppland, Sweden By Christina Fredengren Fredengren, C., 2015. Water politics. Wet deposition of human and animal remains in Uppland, Sweden. Fornvännen 111. Stockholm. This paper presents evidence for deposition of human and animal remains in watery locations in Uppland province. Likewise, deposition of artefacts in watery locations also seems to continue into the historical period. This changes the previ- ous understanding of such depositions with regards to their geographical distribu- tion, their contents and how long the practices continued. It is argued that the changing water landscape and the deposition of bodily remains of certain human and animal others co-worked agentically to change a variety of relations over time, which had political effects. These assemblages oper- ated to draw attention to and from settlement clusters and central places, and were important in negotiations of boundaries. Furthermore, some depositional sites used in earlier periods seem to have attracted renewed attention at the end of the Viking Period. Hence, these depositions may have been important in the transition from Paganism to Christianity, and also helped merge communities and faiths. Christina Fredengren, Archaeological Research Laboratory, Dept of Archaeology and Classical Studies, Stockholm University, SE–106 91 Stockholm [email protected] There may have been no clearly established or material through landscape, buildings, deposi- institutionalised religion or unified cosmology tions and other activities at these central places. in the Norse area in prehistory (Sundqvist 1998; The literary sources mention human and ani- 2002, p. 76 ff). But a number of features do recur mal sacrifice, in the case of Old Uppsala in con- in the archaeological and written material. Among nection with a well. Adam of Bremen’s fourth these are the sacred grove, the hall building and book describes this well as a place where the the well. In Norse mythology the world tree pagans would get their wishes fulfilled if they Yggdrasil draws water from two wells at its roots, threw in, and thus sacrificed, a living human. A the wells of fate and wisdom. condition of this wish fulfilment was that the sac- Wells have been found at central places like rificial victim should not be found and retrieved Gudme, and these would have been important in from the water (Adam, History ch. 26, scol. 138). the construction of a cosmological landscape that It is not clear if this is a reference to a built well, a mimicked Asgard (Hedeager 2001; 2011, pp. 148– spring or some other type of watery environment. 163; Jørgensen 2009). As argued by Lotte Hedeager Furthermore, so far, very little material evidence (2011, p. 152) other central places such as Upp - for such a sacrificial well has been found. There åkra (Hårdh & Larsson 2007), Helgö (Zachris- have been various candidates at Old Uppsala. son 2004) and Old Uppsala (Sundqvist 2004) One is “Odin’s well”, excavated by Martin Ols - may have been organised and developed following son (1912). Museum Gustavianum holds a collec- similar mythological models. Asgard was made tion of bones that may or may not be connected Fornvännen 110 (2015) Art. Fredengren 161-183_Layout 1 2015-09-28 15.43 Sida 162 162 Christina Fredengren to the use of this well. The museum inventory deposit humans and animals in wet contexts, states that horse and cattle bones were found at a who was deposited and what effects this had. In depth of 1.4 m below the surface, and that human particular this research aspires to produce an bones were found at a depth of over 2 m. However, understanding of how these depositions would deep excavations right beside the well have also have worked, particularly in the Late Bronze Age produced bones, which suggests that the well and the Iron Age, and to see if the depositions may have been dug in a cemetery. Odin’s well was were connected to practices of social inclusion long believed to date from the 17th century and exclusion. (Sundquist 1953), but recent dendrochronologi- This paper aims to examine the role of depo- cal dating places it around AD 1180 (Linderson sition and watery environments in geopolitics 2013; Frölund 2014). and water politics, as well as in tensions between Two other possibilities would be the former faiths, and presents material mainly from Upp- lake Myrby träsk, located to the north-west of land. This means that it deals with how political the three great barrows (Damell 1980) and the power made use of human and animal bodies and natural spring “Minurs brunn” (Raä 261; Lind - watery landscapes to bring about both stability qvist 1936, p. 82). Another possible location is and change. Some material from the Bronze Age the former wet area located to the south-east of, is presented, but the particular focus is on the and framed by the major mound alignment. Late Iron Age and relationships around Old Upp - Some scholars including Magnus Alkarp (2009) sala and River Fyrisån. Hence, the paper address- have seen the documentary descriptions as not es the theme of human and animal sacrifices at having much bearing on lived reality, and the central places such as Old Uppsala, but also in the archaeological material that would support an surrounding area. interpretation that ties human sacrifice to a well The questions asked are: Where did these de - at Old Uppsala is less than clear. positions occur and when? What was the rela- Significant finds of what has been understood tionship to settlement centres and landscape? as human sacrifices in wetlands, such as Tollund This leads to further questions, such as what the man, have however been made in Denmark and relationship was between these depositions and belong to the Pre-Roman Iron Age (Glob 1969). central places such as Old Uppsala, as well as their Bog body research generally centres on Western importance in the transition to new faiths. Europe (Sanden 1996; Bennike 1999; Aldhouse- Green 2002) and few such finds are known from Research design Sweden. However, there are uncertainties both This paper operates at a general landscape level. with the spatial and temporal boundaries of the The questions have been dealt with through a practice of depositing human and animal remains screening of museum inventories for human and in waters and wetlands. While some sites were animal bones from wet contexts. The collections noted by Ulf Erik Hagberg (1967), Per Karsten of the Swedish History Museum in Stockholm, (1994) and Gunilla Larsson (2007), much of the and Museum Gustavianum and Upplands-museet data set collected for this paper is new to re- (both in Uppsala) are in focus. The site register of search. It was compiled in the project “Tidens the Swedish National Heritage Board has also Vatten” and adds material from Sweden that has been consulted. Note however that there may be not been the subject of archaeological debate an underestimation of the number of sites as such before. The data indicate that wetland deposi- bone depositions many not always have been tions of bodily remains took place much farther assigned full site status. The appended catalogue north than what previously understood and con- lists finds from wet contexts and contexts that tinued well beyond the Pre-Roman Iron Age in may have been wet in the past as judged by sedi- this area. ment types and land elevation models. The finds The project aims to offer an overview of such have been recorded and compiled in a database depositions in Sweden. The overarching research with coordinates used for GIS mapping. The maps questions are when and where it was common to draw on Plikk 2010 and Sund 2010 for shoreline Fornvännen 110 (2015) Art. Fredengren 161-183_Layout 1 2015-09-28 15.43 Sida 163 Water politics 163 displacement models, outlining areas covered with Zachrisson (1998, p. 118) on the contrary argued water in the past. Note that the shoreline displace- that wetland deposition of precious metalwork ment history around present-day Uppsala and continued in central Sweden throughout the Late Fyrisån is complex and needs further research. Iron Age. Hedeager (1999; 2011, p. 168 f) claims Bones have been radiocarbon dated, with at that wetland artefact deposition continued at least least two samples from either human or animal up until AD 1000, but suggests that the practice individuals collected from each site. However, of depositing hoards may have continued on into finds from a number of identified sites have not the 16th century, increasingly focusing on coins. been located in the museum storages. This has This discussion has however not dealt with any added an element of randomness to the statistics, continued deposition of human and animal and other patterns may emerge once these finds remains in wetlands throughout the Iron Age are retrieved and dated. The dates have been cali- and into the period of written history, which is brated with Oxcal 4.2 at 2 sigma. For a few sites presented in the present paper. there are radiocarbon dates from earlier projects. There are references to human sacrifice in ico- These have been recalibrated if available in a suit- nography and documentary sources (Hedeager able format with a clear measurement of statistical 2011, p. 103), and there are examples from dry error. There may be a need to review some of these archaeological contexts. Human sacrifice is often in the future, particularly the earlier analyses.

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