VV king king HeritageHeritagemagazine 2/2001 NORTH SEA VIKING LEGACY Viking Heritage Magazine 2/01 IN THIS ISSUE The fortification of Birka, the first Editorial urban settlement in Sweden 3–6 Children's Images of Vikings on Dear Readers, display in Istanbul 7 We are very happy to present you with a special, extended summer issue The Vikings: Eastern Traders, of the Viking Heritage magazine! Among all the interesting reading, we Merchants, Empire Builders and Royal Guards are proud to publish five articles in co-operation with the Nordic Spirit A Nordic Spirit Symposium in Symposium, which took place in Thousand Oaks, California in February California Sheds Light on Viking 2001. The theme of the symposium was The Vikings: Eastern Traders, Image 8–9 Merchants, Empire Builders, Royal Guards, which also is the highlight of this present issue. The first Scandinavians in The summer season is in full bloom with many important excavations northern Rus’ 10–11 of Viking-age towns and trading places going on around in the Vikings’ BAGHDAD CHRONICLES world, for instance in Wolin, Gnezdovo, Birka, Kaupang and Fröjel. Here The Islamic Record of Vikings you can read about the latest results of the excavations of Birka. In in the East 12–14 coming issues we hope to tell you more about results from other Viking- The Saga of Ibn Fadlan's age related excavations. Manuscript 14–15 This is the last issue in collaboration with the international North Sea Viking Legacy project that has now come to an end. Therefore we would The Lur of the Vikings 15–17 like to thank everyone from the project who has contributed interesting Runestones tell about articles in the last six issues! Hopefully we will work together again in the mercenaries going east 18–19 up-coming Destination Viking project (read more on page 35). We also want to welcome our new readers! Today we have subscribers New book 20 in 27 different countries all over the globe! And of course many more are Ken Walters – the first Viking welcome to join! re-enactor craftsman to become Lastly, I would like to thank my co-workers here at Viking Heritage, Mia a Member of the Guild of Göranson, Alexander Andreeff and Therese Lindström, who have done a Master Craftsmen! 20 great job making this issue the most extensive ever! Viking highlights from Sogn og Fjordane on the Western coast of We hope you will enjoy reading it! Norway 21–24 The Viking way 24–28 Marita E Ekman Brewing up a Storm 29 Editor E-mail: [email protected] Obituary: Helge Ingstad Proved Vikings Sailed to America 30–32 The Viking Project in Ale County continues… 32 The British Columbia Words of Wisdom Viking Ship Project 32–33 Foolish is he who frets at night, And lies awake to worry’ A weary man when morning comes, He finds all as bad as before. Looking back – and ahead 34–35 From Hávamál Symposium in September at (Words of ”The High One”) Birka, Sweden 35 About the front page: Heritage News The big Viking from Fröjel, who was found in one of the graves excavated in 2000. He was around 50 years old and his skeleton showed that he had worked hard during his lifetime. Just underneath him another skeleton was found, a woman lying in the opposite direction with her feet under his Heritage News 36–39 head. Photo: Tove Eriksson Miljömärkt med Svanen. Lic nr 341 487 http://viking.hgo.se 2 Viking Heritage Magazine 2/01 The hillfort of Birka. Photo: Jan Norrman The fortification of Birka, the first urban settlement in Sweden Results from the latest years’ archaeological excavations By Lena Holmquist Olausson This special excerpt concerns plans for a concerning military organisation and raid aimed at plundering Birka. But it never fortification has been neglected in terms of took place; for several reasons the action academic studies of the late Iron-age society “They made a lightning raid came to nothing. Instead the banished King in Sweden. Former research projects and on the inhabitants who were Anund, who led raid, travelled on with his excavations on Birka have largely focused on living there in peace and quiet Danish followers to a place on the other side the town and cemeteries. The aim of the of the Baltic Sea, in present-day Estonia. It research project, Hillforts and fortifications in and took the town by armed seems from the quotation that they were Central Sweden 400-1100 AD, is to fill this force and returned home after more successful there. The description knowledge gap. taking much booty and many provides an excellent picture of the social Birka is strategically situated at a junction treasures.” conditions of that time. of trading routes along the waterways in the For the people of Birka the threats of Lake Mälaren. During the Viking Age the pillage and armed conflict were most lake was the main communication link in This quotation is from the chronicle about certainly part of daily life. Recent studies on the Mälar Basin. Even during the winter, the life of Ansgar, the missionary. It is the Continent have shown that the pre-state when ice covered the water surface, it was written by his successor, Rimbert, who was societies were characterised by violence and the best means of transport. But its archbishop of Bremen, sometime between aggression. Threats of this kind were used in accessibility also made the town vulnerable the years of 865 (the time of the death of the power struggle between petty kingdoms to attack. Clearly the town had a strong Ansgar) and 888 (the year of Rimbert’s in Scandinavia and Europe in the Viking defence from its very beginning. Birka’s death). Age and early Middle Ages. Research defence system consisted of a hillfort and a 3 http://viking.hgo.se Viking Heritage Magazine 2/01 rampart semi-circling the town down to the waterfront where a pole barrier continued out into the lake, protecting the passage into the harbour. The Garrison outside the hillfort also belonged to the defence system. Around the Baltic Sea and in Northern Europe there are similar trading places that were surrounded by semi-circular ramparts, like Hedeby (Haithabu) in present Germany, Århus in Denmark and Ipswich in England. It has been said about these places that they were “open settlements”, from the beginning of their existence in the 8th century, and not fortified until a later stage, in the 10th century. Cross section of the hillfort’s Now research on these questions is in rampart. Drawing: Fransciska progress and new results, not least from Sieurin-Lönnqvist Birka, indicate that the picture will be modified. The town rampart The town of Birka was surrounded by a rampart, 450 metres long today but originally 700 metres long. There are seven openings in the rampart and it is hard to say if all of them existed from the beginning. These openings ought to have been fitted with towers in order to fulfil the purpose of the rampart, but only an excavation can verify if this has been the case. The rampart is a stone construction with earth filling and topped by a wooden palisade. When examining the southern part of important in this context; marine Many men were needed to defend such a the rampart in the thirties, a large number archaeologists have also found wooden long rampart. From calculations we know of rivets that archaeologists call boat rivets constructions there. that one man every third (every fifth) metre were found. Holger Arbman, who carried is necessary to ensure good protection. out the examination, interpreted the rivets The hillfort Perhaps we should consider that the hillfort as being remains after boats that had been The embankment construction of the was the main defence and that the rampart piled up on the very well-built stone and hillfort represents a striking element in the filled other purposes than only defence. It earth rampart. Piling up old wooden landscape. It is one of the most grandiose may have served as a landmark, the town rubbish on this carefully prepared structures we know from the Scandinavian where special laws were prevalent. The law construction seems strange. My opinion is Viking Age. In the Mälar Basin there are “Bjärköarätten”, which is the oldest known that the iron rivets were used when building around 500 ancient forts. The designation is urban code in Sweden, can have had its the wooden palisade, but that doesn’t a technical antiquarian term including origin in Birka. exclude the re-use of old parts of boats in structures with different functions over a The rampart ends abruptly in the south, the construction. Three thousand rivets were long period of time, from the Bronze Age to where it has been altered by cultivation in needed to build a Viking-age ship and the the Viking Age. One important fact is that later times. There have been discussions of shortage of wood must also have been the hillfort of Birka is the only one whether the rampart could have had widespread. Rampart excavations show that excavated so far that has been dated to the extended up towards the hillfort and, in that it has been enlarged upon several occasions, Viking Age. The rampart of the hillfort has case, where it stretched. In order to the first at the same time as the town was a semicircular form, is 350 m long and has a understand the whole system of the defence founded. Thus, the assumption that the height of 2-3 m.