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Sword Parts and Their Depositional Contexts - Symbols in Migration and Merovingian Period Martial Society Fischer, Svante Et Al

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Sword Parts and Their Depositional Contexts - Symbols in Migration and Merovingian Period Martial Society Fischer, Svante Et Al Sword parts and their depositional contexts - Symbols in Migration and Merovingian Period martial society Fischer, Svante et al. Fornvännen 2013, s. 109-122 http://kulturarvsdata.se/raa/fornvannen/html/2013_109 Ingår i: samla.raa.se Artikel Fischer et al s 109-122:Layout 1 13-05-31 09.54 Sida 109 Sword parts and their depositional contexts – Symbols in Migration and Merovingian Period martial society By Svante Fischer, Jean Soulat and Teodora Linton Fischer Fischer, S.; Soulat, J. & Linton Fischer, T., 2013. Sword parts and their deposition- al contexts – symbols in Migration and Merovingian Period martial society. Forn- vännen 108. Stockholm. A key feature of swords from the Migration and Merovingian Periods is that they consist of many different parts, as recently highlighted by the discovery of the Staffordshire hoard. This paper seeks to understand sword parts and their deposi- tional contexts by interpreting them as symbols of kleptocracy, animated by their object biographies in a martial society. This is done by evaluating four important finds from Sweden: a stray intact sword from Scania, a cremation grav e from He- berg in Halland, a wetland deposit from Snösbäck in Västergötland, and the settle- ment finds from Uppåkra in Scania. The presence of the various different parts varies substantially in the different kinds of contexts. In particular, the Uppåkra settlement is missing hundreds of sword parts that ought to have been there given the professional excavations and systematic metal-detecting over many years there. This allows for the interpreta- tion of the Uppåkra sword parts as the remains of a battlefield of about AD 600 where most of the sword parts were removed from the site shortly after the battle. Svante Fischer, Institutionen för arkeologi och antik historia, Uppsala Universitet, Box 626, SE–751 26 Uppsala. [email protected] Jean Soulat, Université de Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, 7,rue du 11 Novembre, FR-77920, Samois-sur-Seine, France. [email protected] Teodora Linton Fischer, Hedinsgatan 17, SE –115 33 Stockholm. This article was inspired by the 2009 discovery of The Staffordshire hoard may only be under- some one hundred sword pommels and thousands stood in comparison with other contexts that have of fragments of sword parts in an Anglo-Saxon produced very large numbers of sword pommels gold hoard at Ogley Hay in Staffordshire (Leahy from the same era. Apart from burials, there are & Bland 2009). In March 2010, we presented a no such contexts in Britain. We thus argued that paper on the chronology and typology of sword one must compare the Anglo-Saxon hoard with pommels at the Staffordshire symposium at the similar contexts in Sweden, especially hoards, wet- British Museum (available at www.finds.org.uk). landdepositsandcentralplacesettlements,butalso, There we pointed out that the Staffordshire hoard given typological constraints, burial contexts such is the largest known assembly of sword pommels asboatgravesandcremations.Burialcontextshow- from t he 6th and 7th centuries. ever are not good comparisons. Instead, the first Fornvännen 108 (2013) Artikel Fischer et al s 109-122:Layout 1 13-05-31 09.54 Sida 110 110 Svante Fischer et al. site that comes to mind is the settlement of Upp- 3. Other individual inhumations (e.g. åkra in Scania with some 29 reported finds of Krefeld-Gellep 1782, Pirling 1979) sword pommels. The second site is a bog at Snös- 4. Mass/mixed cremations (e.g. Vainionmä- bäck in Västergötland with four sword pommels. ki, Purhonen 1996) 5. Mass inhumations in boats (e.g. Salme, Material Konsa 2009) Northwest European swords from the period AD 6. Settlements (e.g. Uppåkra, Helgesson 2010) 375–700 form a single cohesive group of objects 7. Wetland deposits (e.g. Snösbäck, Fischer due to their piecemeal make-up. They are peculiar et al 2008) artifacts as they consist of several interchange- 8. Dry-land hoards (e.g. Staffordshire, able parts made from different metal alloys. This Leahy & Bland 2009; Webster et al. 2011) distinguishes them from their predecessor s of the 9. Workshop assembly lines (e.g. Mästerby, BronzeAgeandthePre-RomanIronAgeandtheir Gustafsson 2011) successors of the Viking Period, which tend to be 10. Decontextualised museum objects (e.g. made of one single alloy or ore. At certain chrono- SHM 9822:826, Behmer 1939) logical junctures specific assemblies of sword parts were fixed in time through deposition. One dis- The literature offers four major studies of Migra- tinct elite phenomenon with a short life span is the tion/Merovingian Period sword pommels. The so-called Goldgriffspathen-Horizont c. 450–490, the first large sword catalogue is that of Elis Behmer “horizon of gold-grip spathas” with weapons that (1939).Secondly,wehaveVeraEvison’s1967study are derivative of Romano-Byzantine designs. They of ring swords. Thirdly, we have the larger study are generally only found in opulent burials. A case by Wilfried Menghin (1983), a catalogue with in point is the grave of King Childeric from AD some 151 swords from all over Europe selected 481/482withitsprestigiousswordfittingsandeclec- from over 200 burial contexts. The drawback to ticmixtureofRomanandbarbaricinsigniaamongst these publications is that they are outdated by other grave goods. These sword types soon disap- now and difficult to access. The distribution pat- peared from circulation, and the opulent burials tern of sword pommels from graves based on these became less grandiose. Instead there was a shift in studies formed two zones, one centered on the favor of new types of sword parts, ring pommels English Channel and the other in Scandinavia in particular. (Steuer 1987; Hedeager 1991). A few thousand swords are known from north- Fourthly, there is Nørgård-Jørgensen’s exten- western Europe from this period. This vast materi- sive catalogue of weapon burials in Scandinavia al must be interpreted from a wide perspective. Yet 520/30to900(1999),whichdoesnotincludemain- the iron sword blades do not fare well in Scandina- land Sweden, however. vian soil. By contrast, pommels, scabbard mouths, In addition, Fischer etal. 2008 is a critical revi- hilt decorations and chapes in various alloys are sion of Evison’s and Menghin’s work in the North often well preserved and lend themselves well to Sea area, listing 42 sword pommels. It focuses on comparative analysis with the Continental mate- the Bifrons-Gilton type and runic inscriptions in rial. In total, there are some 400 known pommels burials along the English Channel, but it also dis- from the period. These are found in at least ten cusses Swedish pommels not included in the other different kinds of context, each of whose chrono- four works. The research surveyed above shows logy may be very different, despite the typologi- that the Continental chronological horizon for cal parallels between sword parts or the hierar- sword burials lasts from c. 375 to 650 and is much chical structures behind them. more sharply defined than that of Scandinavia, where sword burials are less common. In England, 1. Individual cremations (e.g. Heberg, the trend in the grave goods was similar to that of Lundquist 2008) the Continent, but lagged behind, c. 500–700, in- 2. Individual boat inhumations (e.g. Vals- cluding the opulent early 7th century inhuma- gärde 7, Arwidsson 1977) tions of Sutton Hoo and Prittlewell. Fornvännen 108 (2013) Artikel Fischer et al s 109-122:Layout 1 13-05-31 09.54 Sida 111 Sword parts and their depositional contexts 111 The use of metal detectors in recent years has how social order had successfully been maintain- changed everything, and Staffordshire is a mile- ed by means of recycled pommel rings. We sug- stone within the research field of the Late North- gest that the drinking was a public ritual in front west European Iron Age. The generous laws re- of a lot of people who understood that a sword gulating the retrieval of prehistoric metal objects ring served as pars pro toto in the reproduction of in Britain and Denmark in particular has caused the ruling order. Object biographies might also a vast increase in reported finds of sword parts. coalesce in hoards as the result of certain collec- Staffordshire, by contrast, is a peripheral area given tive events. These may have been battles, where earlier archaeological research and metal detect- the spoils of war were gathered afterwards, or the ing. It is no exaggeration t hat this find has put all paying of a levy or ransom by a number of parties canonical literature and scholarship on Anglo- to appease a threatening warlord or tax collector. Saxon, Merovingian and Vendel Period material In any case the coalescing of individual biographies culture and art history into question, as well as into one was probably dictated by a need to limit the study of Latin epigraphy. the future number of potential sword wielders. Secondly, we use the concept of kleptocracy Interpretive model (Fischer 2005), “the rule of thieves”. This implies The Migration Period’s new emphasis on the pre- that competing warlords would seek to reduce stige of sword parts can be interpreted as a search the available material goods of rivals, in particu- for symbolic order and stability in a new society lar such items that pertained to social status and with different rules of engagement. For our pro- political legitimacy. In the Roman Period, the ject to verify this underlying hypothesis, we must equipment of entire military units had been sac- integrate and reconcile the material and contex- rificed into bogs. This was no longer the case in tual extremes. To do so, our perspective must dis- the Migration or Merovingian Periods. Instead, the tance itself from the theory of the burial ritual as deactivation and disarmament of political oppo- a mirror of martial society (Effros 2003).
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