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Viking-Age Transformations
The Viking Age was a period of profound change in Scandinavia. As kingdoms

were established, Christianity became the encompassing ideological and cos-
mological framework and towns were formed. This book examines a central
backdrop to these changes: the economic transformation of West Scandinavia.
With a focus on the development of intensive and organized use of woodlands
and alpine regions and domestic raw materials, together with the increasing
standardization of products intended for long-distance trade, the volume sheds
light on the emergence of a strong interconnectedness between remote rural
areas and central markets.
Viking-Age Transformations explores the connection between legal and eco
nomic practice, as the rural economy and monetary system developed in
conjunction with nascent state power and the legal system. Thematically, the
book is organized into sections addressing the nature and extent of trade in
both marginal and centralized areas; production and the social, legal and eco-
nomic aspects of exploiting natural resources and distributing products; and the
various markets and sites of trade and consumption.
A theoretically informed and empirically grounded collection that reveals
the manner in which relationships of production and consumption transformed
Scandinavian society with their influence on the legal and fiscal division of the
landscape, this volume will appeal to scholars of archaeology, the history of
trade and Viking studies.
Zanette T. Glørstad is Associate Professor in the Department of Archaeology,

Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo, Norway.
Kjetil Loftsgarden is a research fellow in the Department of Archaeology,

History, Cultural Studies and Religion, University of Bergen, Norway.
Culture, Environment and Adaptation in the North
Series Editors:
Rane Willerslev and Sean O’Neill, Aarhus University, Denmark
Culture, Environment and Adaptation in the North constitutes a space for the
production and dissemination of new insights on societies in the northern
regions of the globe, including Scandinavia, and Scotland, Iceland, Greenland,
Canada and Alaska to the West, and Finland, the Baltic countries, northern
Russia, Mongolia and Siberia to the East. Loosely defined by latitude, the
North is also distinctive in the tight connections of environmental, historical,
geopolitical and cultural conditions that have characterised its regions, from
prehistoric times to the present day. Northern regions have held enormous
natural resources that have attracted peoples at various historical periods,
with their large reserves of oil and gas forming the primary focus today –
with all that this entails for environmental, social and cultural challenges. This
series produces cutting-edge, anthropological, sociological and geographical
knowledge of northern adaptations in relation to the natural and societal
environments of the northern regions.
Trade, Craft and Resources in Western Scandinavia
Edited by Zanette T. Glørstad and Kjetil Loftsgarden
https://www.routledge.com/Culture-Environment-and-Adaptation-in-the-
North/book-series/ASHSER1431
Trade, Craft and Resources in
Western Scandinavia
Edited by Zanette T. Glørstad

and Kjetil Loftsgarden
First published 2017
by Routledge
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and by Routledge
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 2017 selection and editorial matter, Zanette T. Glørstad and Kjetil
Loftsgarden; individual chapters, the contributors
The right of Zanette T. Glørstad and Kjetil Loftsgarden to be
identified as the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors
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Contents
Preface and acknowledgements vii

Abbreviations x
List of contributors xi
1 Viking-Age economic transformations:

the West-Scandinavian case 1
DAGFINN SKRE
PART I
Trade and traders 29
2 Approaching trade in pre-state and early state societies 31

EIVIND HELDAAS SELAND
3 The use of silver as a medium of exchange in

Jämtland, c. 875–1050 42
OLOF HOLM
4 Domestic and exotic materials in early medieval

Norwegian towns: an archaeological perspective
on production, procurement and consumption 59
GITTE HANSEN
5 The price of justice and administration of coinage 95

FRODE IVERSEN AND SVEIN H. GULLBEKK
vi Contents
PART II
Production and resources 109
6 The extensive iron production in Norway in the tenth

to thirteenth century: a regional perspective 111
OLE TVEITEN AND KJETIL LOFTSGARDEN
7 Viking-period non-ferrous metalworking and urban

commodity production 124
UNN PEDERSEN
8 Soapstone vessels and quernstones as commodities

in the Viking Age and Middle Ages 139
IRENE BAUG
9 The Uplands: the deepest of forests and the highest

of mountains – resource exploitation and landscape
management in the Viking Age and early Middle
Ages in southern Norway 160
KATHRINE STENE AND VIVIAN WANGEN
PART III
Sites of trade 189
10 A view from the valley: Langeid in Setesdal,

South Norway – a Viking-Age trade station
along a mercantile highway 191
ZANETTE T. GLØRSTAD AND CAMILLA CECILIE WENN
11 Heimdalsjordet: trade, production and communication 212

JAN BILL AND CHRISTIAN LØCHSEN RØDSRUD
12 The skeid and other assemblies in the Norwegian

‘Mountain Land’ 232
KJETIL LOFTSGARDEN, MORTEN RAMSTAD AND
FRANS-ARNE STYLEGAR
13 The urban hinterland: interaction and law-areas

in Viking and medieval Norway 250
FRODE IVERSEN
Index 277
Preface and acknowledgements
The centuries between ad 700 and 1100 are characterised by profound

changes in economic reasoning and organisation. This period saw the emer-
gence of markets, towns and a coin economy, as well as a substantial increase
in the rural production of marketable goods. The exploitation of outfield
resources takes place simultaneously with an expansion in the diversity as
well as the magnitude of craft production. Production was reorganised and
increased dramatically in scale; products became much more standardised and
were intended for long-distance trade. A central feature of these developments
is thus the essential, but often overlooked, increase in the use of resources and
raw materials from uncultivated areas. Thereby, remote rural areas were linked
to a wider market, developing a strong interconnectedness with towns and
marketplaces. This book attempts to examine these developments not as iso-
lated events but as interlocked phenomena, and thus bring forward economic
research on the Viking Age.
To stimulate such an approach, the Centre for Viking-Age Studies (ViS)
at the Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo, organised the confer-
ence The Power of the Market on 4–6 December 2013. The conference sought
to draw together the variety of ongoing research related to Viking-Age eco-
nomics in West Scandinavia, and move towards a shared platform for debate
and research.
The ViS group, which has been the editorial board for this book, wanted
to move beyond the conference proceedings format. Thus, following the con-
ference, some of the contributors were invited, inspired by the discussions
during the conference, to develop their contributions for this publication.
The contributions address disparate topics, and their discussion of economy
is not always explicit. Still, the theme of the conference resonates in all the
chapters. Although they cover developments roughly within the geographic
area of present-day Norway, we believe some general aspects to be relevant for
the rest of Scandinavia and indeed beyond, and this volume has aspirations to
encourage up-to-date discussion on empirical, theoretical and methodological
issues pertaining to the transformations of the Viking-Age economy and its
social ramifications.
viii Preface and acknowledgements
The anthology is divided into three main parts, set off by the introductory
chapter ‘Viking-Age economic transformations: the West-Scandinavian case’
by Prof. Dagfinn Skre, the leader of the ViS group. Skre provides an overview
of the Stand der Forschung in terms of trade, production and consumption in
the period, as well as connecting them to the main economic transformations
in western Scandinavia, and examines the pertinent theoretical considerations
embedded in the analysis of these economic processes. The three main themes
of trade, production and consumption form the basis for the rest of the vol-
ume, where each of the three parts retains a sharp focus on theoretical as well
as empirical aspects and challenges within each subject. In Part I, ‘Trade and
traders’, the theoretical platform that underlies the understanding of the early
trading system is discussed, followed by case studies examining the nature and
extent of trade in both marginal and centralised areas, and the social precondi-
tions and agencies of the case in question. Part II, ‘Production and resources’,
explores the social, legal and economic aspects of exploiting natural resources
and landscapes in uncultivated/mountain areas, and examines the mechanisms
behind the distribution of both luxury items and everyday products. Part III,
‘Sites of trade’, aims to present a more nuanced picture of the wide variety
of meeting points and markets in the period, where some represent various
specialised functions, while others can be characterised as multifunctional. A
key theme presented is the significance of the extensive interconnectedness
between legal and economic praxis, where the growing importance of the rural
economy and monetary system is seen in conjunction with nascent state power
and the legal system.
The terms designating these prehistoric periods in Scandinavian do not
always correspond to the terminology used on the Continent and in the British
Isles (Table 0.1). In Scandinavia, the term Late Iron Age covers the time inter-
val c. 550–1050, including the period known in Norway as the Merovingian
Period and in Sweden as the Vendel Period (c. 550–800), as well as the Viking
Age (c. 800–1050). The Viking Age is furthermore often loosely divided into
the early and late Viking Age, with the boundary between the two set at around
900 ad. The term Early Middle Ages, which is the preferred designation for this
period in international research bodies, is in Scandinavia reserved for the time
after the Viking Age ad (1050–1150), followed by the High Middle Ages (ad
1150–1350) and the Late Middle Ages (ad 1350–1520s/1537). The end dates of
the Middle Ages mark the national political restructuration and introduction of
the reformist church during these years, in Sweden and Norway respectively.
In addition to the clarification given here, the terminology and the designated
time frames of the periods are specified in the chapters.
We are grateful for the financial support allocated to the ViS group by the
University of Oslo for continued work to develop national and international
networks, and promote a progressive research scope. We are also thankful for
the generous sponsoring the conference received from the ‘Agrarian Network’
funded by the Norwegian Research Council’s programme Forskning i Felleskap
(‘Joint Research’). We would furthermore like to thank the Archaeology
Preface and acknowledgements ix
Table 0.1 An overview of the overarching time designations used in European
history c. 550–1500, compared with the corresponding general period
designations used in Sweden and Norway
ad Continent & UK Norway and Sweden Archaeological

era, Scandinavia
550
600

650 Merovingian Period/
Vendel Period (SE)
700
750
Early Middle Ages
800 Late Iron Age

850
Early Viking Age
900

950

1000 Late Viking Age

1050
1100 Early Middle Ages
1150 High Middle Ages
1200
1250 High Middle Ages
1300 Middle Ages
1350
1400 Late Middle Ages
1450 Late Middle Ages
1500

1537

Section at the Department of Archaeology, Conservation and History (IAKH),

University of Oslo, as well as the Department of Archaeology, History, Cultural
Studies and Religion (AHKR), University of Bergen, for supporting the con-
ference, and the postgraduate students Marie Amundsen and Torbjørn Preus
Schou, who provided invaluable help with the workshop.
Oslo, 30 May 2016

Zanette T. Glørstad and Kjetil Loftsgarden
Abbreviations
C King Christian IV’s Norwegian law code of 1604. Hallanger,

Fr. and Brandt Fr. 1855 Kong Christian den Fjerdes norske Lovbog
af 1604/efter Foranstaltning af Det akademiske Kollegium ved Det
Kongelige Norske Frederiks Universitet udgiven af Fr. Hallager og
Fr. Brandt. Carl Werner, Christiania.
DN Diplomatarium Norvegicum, eds. C. C. A. Lange, C. R. Unger et al.
1847–1990. P. T. Mallings Forlagshandel, Christiania/Oslo.
Egs Egilsoga translated by Leiv Heggestad, 1950. New edition 1994 by
Magne Heggstad. Norrøne bokverk 15. Det norske samlaget Oslo.
F Frostatingslova translated by Hagland, J. R. and Jørn Sandnes, J. 1994,
Oslo.
G Gulathing Law. Eithun, B., Rindal, M., Ulset, T. 1994. Den eldre
Gulatingsloven. Riksarkivet, Oslo, Norway. 208 pp.
Hkr Heimskringla, utgave Kongesagaer/Snorre Sturluson, translated by Anne
Holtsmark and Didrik Arup Seip (1979), Norges kongesagaer 1–2.
Oslo.
L Taranger, Absalon 1915: Magnus Lagabøtes Landslov. Cammermeyers
Boghandel. Kristiania.
KLNM Kulturhistorisk Leksikon for Nordisk Middelalder – fra vikingtid til
reformasjonstid I–XXII, 1956–78. København.
NgL Norges Gamle Love I–V, 1846–95. Christiania.
Contributors
Irene Baug Postdoctoral Fellow – Department of Archaeology, History,

Cultural Studies and Religion, University of Bergen, Norway
Jan Bill Professor – Department of Archaeology, Museum of Cultural History,
University of Oslo, Norway
Zanette T. Glørstad Associate Professor – Department of Archaeology,
Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo, Norway
Svein Gullbekk Professor – Section for Numismatics and Classical Arch
aeology, Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo, Norway
Gitte Hansen Associate Professor – University Museum of Bergen, Norway
Olof Holm Editor – The Riksdag Library/Centre for Medieval Studies,
Stockholm University, Sweden
Frode Iversen Professor – Department of Archaeology, Museum of Cultural
History, University of Oslo, Norway
Kjetil Loftsgarden PhD Research Fellow – Department of Archaeology,
History, Cultural Studies and Religion, University of Bergen, Norway
Unn Pedersen Associate Professor – Department of Archaeology, Conser
vation and History, University of Oslo, Norway
Morten Rammstad Researcher – Section for Cultural Heritage Management,
University Museum of Bergen, Norway
Christian Rødsrud Adviser/Archaeologist – Department of Archaeology,
Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo, Norway
Eivind Heldaas Seland Researcher – Department of Archaeology, History,
Cultural Studies and Religion, University of Bergen, Norway
Dagfinn Skre Professor – Department of Archaeology, Museum of Cultural
History, University of Oslo, Norway
Kathrine Stene PhD Research Fellow – University Museum of Bergen,
Norway
xii Contributors
Frans-Arne Stylegar Director – Varanger Museum, Norway
Ole Tveiten Area Planner – Vestre Toten municipality, Raufoss, Norway
Vivian Wangen PhD Research Fellow – Department of Archaeology, Museum
of Cultural History, University of Oslo, Norway
Camilla Cecilia Wenn Archaeologist – Department of Archaeology, Museum
of Cultural History, University of Oslo, Norway
1 Viking-Age economic
transformations
The West-Scandinavian case
Dag finn Skre
The economic turn

The title of this book reflects the last few years’ increased interest in the profound
economic transformations of post-Roman northern Europe: the emergence of
coinage, markets, towns, and mass production. The many publications within
this field of research reveal a diversity of approaches to past economies; some
study them within a narrow sphere of economy, while others apply a broad
societal approach. Which is the most adequate and productive approach to these
complex phenomena? To what extent may we rely on general theories when
analysing economic phenomena, and to what extent should the various cultures
and societies in question be taken into account? Is ‘economy’ a field in its own
right, or does the singling out of economic actions and relations from other
types of human dealings and interactions prevent us from understanding these
aspects of human life?
Since the 1970s the societal and cultural approach to past economies has
dominated, primarily inspired by the works of Karl Polanyi (1944: 142, 1957,
1963, 1968), Moses Finley (1973), and George Dalton (1975, 1977). Their
theoretical strand, substantivism, has been enormously influential in both
historical and archaeological research on early medieval northern Europe
(Seland this vol.). Substantivism has been contested repeatedly in terms of
theory, but, with the exception of some scholars adhering to classic economic
theories (formalism) as well as some attempts to employ historical materialism,
no coherent alternative has been applied in research on early medieval economic
issues (for a comprehensive overview of alternative approaches, see Oka and
Kusimba 2008).
In the last few years, however, several scholars in the field of Viking stud-
ies have explored theoretical alternatives and applied them in their research,
beginning with Ingrid Gustin’s Mellan gåva och marknad (‘Between gift and
market’, 2004) and Søren Sindbæk’s Ruter og rutinisering (‘Routes and routinis-
ing’, 2005). In Insular research the edited volumes The Long Eighth Century:
Production, Distribution and Demand (Hansen and Wickham 2000) and Markets
in Early Medieval Europe (Pestell and Ulmschneider 2003) have been particu-
larly influential. One may perhaps speak of an economic turn in early medieval
studies. Although economic issues had been investigated continuously through
2 Dag finn Skre
the post-Second World War era – in Viking studies, probably most diligently
and creatively treated by Johan Callmer (e.g. 1976, 1982, 1991, 1994, 1995,
2002, 2007) – the four mentioned books and other contemporary and subse-
quent publications have brought scholars of more diverse backgrounds into
the field. In addition, they have connected the discussion of economy more
explicitly to other current empirical and theoretical debates.
The new complexity of approaches is evident in Eivind Heldaas Seland’s
contribution to this book; he employs a number of analytical models and
concepts to explain various aspects of trade in pre- and early-state societies.
Pursuing a pragmatic and eclectic methodological and theoretical strategy in
Seland’s vein seems more viable than waiting for a full, coherent theory on
premodern economy to be produced (see also Oka and Kusimba 2008). The
economic history of humans is of course too diverse for any single theory to
cover all variations in time and space. High-quality results emerge when scholars
allow their theories and methods to be shaped by the reality of the societies and
phenomena under study, adjusting their models as suited for the task at hand
(Elster 2007: 447–8). This represents the likeliest path by which we can expect
theoretical innovations in economic studies to emerge in the future. (For a
related approach within sociology, see Swedberg 2014.)
My own contribution to this development has been to suggest that
Polanyi’s evolutionary model should be abandoned in favour of a view of
past economies as consisting simultaneously of a variety of transaction types
and circumstances of production. Correspondingly, Polanyi’s idea of the
economy as socially embedded should be fused with an understanding that
economic considerations are a part of the human disposition. Throughout
history, people have acted as simultaneously economic and social agents.
Depending on the situation and circumstances, humans might perform one
type of agency at the expense of the other. How these human inclinations
are played out at specific times and places cannot be deduced from general
theories, evolutionary or other, but calls for empirical investigation. I have
proposed the term ‘post-substantivism’ for approaches along these lines (Skre
2008, 2011a, 2015, in prep.).
In this introductory overview of the economic upsurge in Viking-Age
western Scandinavia, the main emphasis is on economic agency. Social agency
receives less attention here.
Viking-Age economic transformations

In Scandinavia, the Viking Age – in this context c. ad 750–1100 – is a period
of transformations. Towns were founded and became numerous, three king-
doms were established, Christianity became the dominant religion, production
thrived, and long-distance contacts, peaceful and hostile, brought Scandinavian
societies into closer and more regular contact with each other and the rest
of Europe. By 1100 the Iron Age communities, polities, and cultures of
Scandinavia had been transformed profoundly and irrevocably.
Viking-Age economic transformations 3
Few scholars have attempted to grasp the interconnectedness of these transfor-
mations; exploring any single transformation is more than enough for most of us.
Those who have discussed a combination of them have relied heavily on written
evidence; hence they focus on the two transformations that are best testified in
the texts: Christianisation and state formation (e.g. Bagge 2010). Consequently,
they mainly treat the latter part of the period: the tenth and eleventh centuries.
In addition, due to the nature of the written records, these studies are skewed
towards a top-down perspective on societal and cultural structures and processes.
Although sagas, skaldic poems, law codes, cadastres, and diplomas also contain
information on everyday life and commonplace occurrences, they say more
about the activities, perspectives, and interests of social elites than about those of
other groups. By contrast, the materiality of the archaeological record invites the
building of interpretations from the ground up, complementing the top-down
perspective of the written record. Thus, by consulting the archaeological record,
a new range of transformations can be studied, one connected more closely to
the social and economic agency of the broader population. Among the aspects
of Viking-Age society brought within closer reach by a combined exploitation
of written and archaeological evidence is the economy.
Within the economic sphere, the following transformations are particularly
prominent:
•• Production of marketable goods: While artisanal unica production was pre-

viously the norm, in the earliest Viking Age, artisans also began producing
series of identical items. In parallel, a rather different type of production,
based in domestic raw materials such as iron, soapstone, and whetstone,
was taken up or reorganised for trade over long distances. In the late Viking
Age such production rose to industrial proportions. In the same period
quernstone and reindeer antler production was converted from satisfying
local and regional needs to producing commodities for overseas trade.
•• Long-distance trade: Trade within Scandinavia and beyond increased
significantly in the earliest period and again around the turn of the millen-
nium. Goods from Arab, Frankish, and Anglo-Saxon lands were brought
to Scandinavian consumers.
•• Urbanisation and markets: Seasonal markets had existed in southern and
southeastern Scandinavia since the early first millennium ad; the establish-
ment of seasonal markets continued there throughout the period. In the
earliest Viking Age, the first four nascent towns were established. None
endured into the post-Viking period; however, numerous new towns
were established from the turn of the millennium onwards.
•• Monetisation: In the early Viking Age, silver bullion and coins were
introduced as means of payment. By the end of the period, the three
Scandinavian kingdoms had well-functioning monetary systems.
Why did these transformations happen, how were they connected, and what
wider societal and cultural significance did they have? An ample range of
4 Dag finn Skre
studies is necessary to answer such questions; this book is a step in that direc-
tion. The title of the book suggests that the expansion of the market sphere
within certain aspects of the Scandinavian economy played a role in Viking-
Age transformations. The idea behind the conference (see the Preface), and
indeed behind this book, was to foster an economic perspective on Viking-
Age Scandinavia – specifically on commodity production and the role of
markets. Several important aspects of economic life discussed in various
chapters of this book are not dealt with here. Thus, the scope of this book,
and certainly of the study of Viking-Age economic transformations, reaches
beyond what is discussed in this chapter.
Subsistence, commission, and commodity production

The production of commodities differs from production under the other two
types of circumstances of this period: subsistence and commission. While
commodities are intended to satisfy the needs of some unknown consumer,
subsistence production is intended for consumption by the producer and the
household. Production on commission is intended to satisfy the wishes of the
person who commissioned the item.
Only a selection of commodities is included in this overview, namely those
produced in western Scandinavia (roughly present-day Norway) that features
prominently in the archaeological record. There are two reasons for their high
numbers and general occurrence: first, they are everyday utensils or ornaments
for the populace, and second, they are less prone to decay than are other com-
modities known to have been produced. For instance, stone and iron products
have been found in abundance, while antler and walrus-ivory products have
only been preserved under favourable conditions, fur and hide have been docu-
mented only in exceptional cases (Wigh 2001: 120–3), and hardly any products
such as rope and tar have hitherto been successfully identified.
Thus, the commodities discussed in the following were not necessarily
those that had the highest economic and practical significance for producers,
traders, and consumers of that period. Rather, given the heterogeneous com-
position of tradesmen’s shiploads in premodern times, they may be seen as
gauges, or proxies, for the chronology and geographical scope of trade activi-
ties that no doubt have covered a much more diverse range of commodities.
Because overseas trade of the commodities in question primarily was directed
at southern Scandinavia – that is, medieval Denmark – evidence from that
area is involved in the discussion.
Commodity production for local, regional, and

intraregional trade
Prior to the Viking period, the only known large-scale commodity production
directed at long-distance trade was that of iron in the Early Iron Age (c. 400
bc–ad 550; Stenvik 2003; Tveiten and Loftsgarden this vol.). The following
two centuries (c. ad 550–750) saw little or no commodity production for
long-distance trade. Artisans and craftsmen in the sixth and seventh centuries
seem to have been producing on commission, while other types of production
appear to have been predominantly directed at subsistence, and perhaps local
or regional trade.
Artisanal production
Among artisans, serial production of identical items was taken up in the mid-
eighth century in southern Scandinavia. Artisans that worked with imported
raw materials, in casu metal-casters (Pedersen this vol.) and glass-bead makers,
were the first to develop serial production. Possibly, the knowledge of this
style of production was spread via the Frisian trade networks that brought these
raw materials into Scandinavia. While serial products are more likely to have
been presented to the consumer as finished products, the precise shapes and
ornaments of unica items would probably be the result of discussions between
the artisan and the person who commissioned them. Thus, the taking up of
serial production may indicate that the production process had become more
detached from the consumer and that in some transactions the contact between
producer and consumer was limited to the act of exchange. As concluded by
Pedersen (this vol.), there is good evidence that production on commission
was upheld in parallel to serial production. The introduction of serial produc-
tion added a new aspect to artisanal production and trade.
Several types of artisans bought their raw materials, some from regional,
others from long-distance trade networks. Smiths, comb-makers, and shoe-
makers would obtain iron, antler, and leather locally or from the not-too-
distant interior, while non-ferrous metalworkers and glass-bead makers would
have to rely on long-distance trade. Remains from non-ferrous metalworking
are found in sites where consumers ventured – towns, seasonal markets, and
aristocratic manors – indication that products were sold by artisans to con-
sumers, rather than in bulk to traders for resale. This was probably the case
for most artisans. Consumers may have arrived to markets and towns from
far afield. This is indicated by the substantial distribution of artisanal products
to regions many hundreds of kilometres from the nearest production centres,
for instance to northern Norway (Eldorhagen 2001) – some 1,200 kilometres
from the ninth- to early tenth-century town Kaupang as the crow flies, more
than 2,000 kilometres by sea. Although some artisanal products will probably
have been produced and sold on smaller sites along the coast, many will have
travelled that great distance after being purchased from the artisan in a market
or town in the south.
The pattern is rather different in towns established in the late Viking Age.
While artisans in the early towns appear to have produced goods for people
in a vast circumference, those in the later towns seem to have supplied mainly
the town’s own inhabitants. Regarding the artisanal production, the towns
established in the late Viking Age were ‘consumer towns’ (Hansen this vol.),
6 Dag finn Skre
while the early towns were ‘producer towns’. The main reason for this differ-
ence is probably that the later towns housed staff that administered royal and
ecclesiastical interests in the hinterland, while the early towns had few or no
such functions.
Rural production
Turning to rural production, Iron Age farms were never fully self-sufficient.
No single household could extract their own iron, quarry their own whet-
stones, soapstone vessels, and quernstones, breed their own horses, or produce
all the hide and wool they may have needed. To be able to obtain such goods,
some production of goods intended for exchange will always have taken place
on every farm.
The demand for such necessities may for the most part have been satisfied
through local and regional trade. The increase in rural commodity production
through the Viking Age made commodities from regions and towns far afield
available to most people (see below). However, some types of production were
not raised to that level until after the Viking period. This appears to be the case
for the dominant output from rural production: foodstuffs.
It has been generally assumed that only to a very low degree were bulky
foodstuffs transported over longer distances in Viking-Age Scandinavia, neither
for trade nor for other forms of acquisition. This assumption is based on two
circumstances. First, settlements are founded where cultivation is possible –
most densely in the most fertile regions. This implies that in general, people
settled where they could live from the land. This also goes for towns; the near
hinterland will have supplied townsfolk with food. Second, most foodstuffs
have high volume and weight, and therefore demand better means of transport
than were available – at least in the early Viking period.
However, long-distance trade in foodstuffs has received little scholarly
attention; among the few examples is research on evidence from excavations
in the four early Scandinavian towns. In the ninth century, plant remains and
animal and fish bones from Kaupang (Vestfold, c. 800–930) did not indicate
long-distance trade in stockfish, meat, or cereals. The latter two were probably
acquired from the hinterland and fish from the sea close by (Barrett et al. 2007:
303, 308). Similar results have been obtained in Birka (central-eastern Sweden,
c. 770–970), as well as Ribe and Hedeby (Jylland, c. 704–850 and 804–1070
respectively; Lepiksaar et al. 1977; Wigh 2001; Enghof 2006; Mikkelsen 2006;
Robinson et al. 2006). Still, it remains an open question whether agrarian
products with high value and low volume, such as butter, hide, and wool, were
produced to be traded over long distances in the early Viking Age.
Although long-distance bulk trade in foodstuffs cannot be verified in the
four Viking-Age towns, aristocratic lifestyles and local exchange may have
contributed to the development of a market for foodstuffs and to the very
idea that food could be produced for trade purposes. A greater volume in the
transport and trade in foodstuffs occurred at the very end of the Viking Age,
Figure 1.1 Sites and regions mentioned in the text.
Source: Map by Kjetil Loftsgarden.
8 Dag finn Skre
when ecclesiastical institutions and royal administrative seats were established
in the new towns of that period. An early example of such trade may be the
exceptional find in the late tenth-century Viking fortress Fyrkat in Jylland of
large quantities of pure rye, possibly originating from the Baltic-Slavic lands
(Helbæk 1977).
Commodity production for long-distance trade

Viking-Age rural commodity production for long-distance trade was based
on mineral, botanical, and zoological resources of the woodlands and alpine
regions. The large volume of these types of production as well as the dis-
tribution of the products indicate that the production was directed mainly
at long-distance trade. Nevertheless, local and regional consumers also had
access to these products.
The introduction of mass production and long-distance distribution took
place at different times for the various types of commodities. The evidence for
mapping these variations stems from production sites and from the remains
of commodities in the archaeological record. Numerous excavations and
detailed analyses have produced evidence that allows more precise assessment
of chronology, production volumes, and patterns of distribution than was
possible only 25 years ago (e.g. Steuer 1987). Production sites, some of them
containing evidence on the chronology, volume, and organisation of the pro-
duction, are well mapped for iron (Larsen 2004; Rundberget 2012; Tveiten
and Loftsgarden this vol.), quernstone (Baug 2013, this vol.), soapstone
(Skjølsvold 1961; Baug 2011, this vol.), and reindeer hunting (Mikkelsen
1994; Stene and Wangen this vol.).
The precision with which objects can be provenanced varies substantially.
On the one hand, the easily identifiable Eidsborg whetstones are known
to have originated from within a few square kilometres in upper Telemark
(Askvik 2008), and the quernstones made of a certain garnet mica schist have
been traced to quarries within an area of approximately 15 square kilometres in
Hyllestad by the mouth of the Sognefjord (Baug this vol.). On the other hand,
the production of whetstones from the dark fine-grained schist has not hitherto
been located more precisely than to the geological formation where this type
of rock occurs – the Caledonian belt covering the western Scandinavian coast-
land southward to Jæren (Askvik 2008: 7–8). Although some progress has been
made in developing methods for provenancing iron (Færden 1990b; Buchwald
2005), there is still a long way to go before that material can be securely traced
back to reasonably small areas of origin. Better progress has been made in
developing methods for provenancing soapstone items (Jansen 2015; Baug this
vol.), as well as for identifying the animal species from which the antler in
combs and other objects has been taken (ZooMS, Ashby 2009; Holstein et al.
2014; Ashby et al. 2015). Although the latter only point to the general areas
where the various species occurred in the Viking Age, it is a great step forward
to be able to distinguish between antlers from local red and roe deer used by
Ribe’s comb-makers and those from reindeer antler imported from the alpine
Scandinavian Peninsula. The application of isotope analysis and aDNA offers
hope for further refinement of antler provenancing.
The early period (c. ad 700–950)

Contexts suited for precise dating of early Viking-Age commodities are sparse.
The most significant in western and southern Scandinavia are the well-stratified
and find-rich urban deposits in Ribe and Kaupang. The finds from Hedeby
are also noteworthy due to their wide variety and large quantity; however,
the method of excavation employed there has rendered the chronology of
find contexts less precise. The high quantity in these towns of commodities
associated with long-distance trade adds to their relevance for assessing the
chronology and extent of trade in the early Viking Age.
Although indications of transit trade (coming in and going out in bulk
quantities) of iron into Frisian trade networks have been found in early ninth-
century Kaupang (Skre 2011b: 431–4), soapstone and whetstone transit trade
in the early towns appears to have been sparse (Baug 2011: 332; Resi 2011a:
393; Skre 2011b: 419–20). Still, the inhabitants’ needs for these products will
have created a substantial demand (see below).
Regarding the distribution of commodities in rural areas, finds in settlements
and graves are the primary bodies of evidence. However, only in exceptional
cases do these contexts supply datings within a timespan of less than a century,
a range too imprecise to address some of the research questions discussed here.
In addition, objects laid down in graves were selected for that purpose, and
do not necessarily reflect the material culture of everyday life. For instance,
soapstone vessels were in frequent use in rural areas in the ninth century, but
rarely occur in graves before the tenth (Stylegar 2007: 80–1). For these reasons,
distribution of commodities in rural areas can be discussed in less chronological
detail than their distribution in towns.
The dark, sometimes purple whetstones of fine-grained Caledonian schist
appear to be among those early commodities from western Scandinavia that
were traded over long distances, although the start date is not securely fixed.
The west-Scandinavian origin of this rock is well testified (see above), although
Viking-Age quarries have not yet been identified (Mitchell et al. 1984; Askvik
2008: 7–8). The stratigraphic information from Hedeby does not supply pre-
cise dates; nevertheless, it seems evident that this type of whetstone is present
from the early ninth century (Resi 1990: 44–7). They are present in early
ninth-century Ribe deposits, but their possible late eighth-century presence
there remains uncertain due to the lack of petrographic analyses (Feveile and
Jensen 2006: 140). The rock occurs in the earliest deposits at Kaupang – they
date from around ad 800 – and in large quantities through the ninth century;
the relation to Eidsborg schist there is 4:1 (N = 1,017:257; Resi 2011a). In
Hedeby, the relation is 3:1 (N = 7,374:2,419; Resi 1990: 17). The early date of
trade in this type of whetstone as well as their large quantities throughout the
10 Dag finn Skre
Viking Age merits a fuller investigation of the history of their production, trade,
and consumption. From the eleventh century onwards, the fine-grained dark
whetstones are far fewer; for instance, in deposits from twelfth-century Bergen
the relation is 1:3 (N = 23:74; Hansen this vol.). In eleventh to fourteenth-
century deposits from the excavations in Oslogate 6 in Oslo, the dark-schist
whetstones are outnumbered by Eidsborg whetstones by 1:12 (N = 28:350;
Lønaas 2001: 15–16).
The breakthrough in antler provenancing has shown that in the 780s and
790s comb-makers in Ribe used reindeer antler; the raw material must have
come from alpine regions in southwestern Scandinavia. Follow-up analyses of
finds from Kaupang and Hedeby, as well as from the towns established in the
late Viking Age (see below), will certainly result in additional information on
this type of commodity production and trade. At this time, production volumes
were moderate, and commodity production for long-distance trade probably
represents only a fraction of the yield from reindeer antler production.
Slightly more recent than the earliest long-distance trade in antler and dark-
schist whetstone is the introduction of trade in soapstone vessels. This rock can
be found in most of western Scandinavia as well as in Bohuslän and Halland on
the western coast of present-day Sweden. A small number of vessel shards have
been retrieved in Ribe in deposits from the last three to four decades prior to
the cessation of the well-stratified deposits there c. 850, simultaneously with
the first occurrence of soapstone items in Kaupang. In Hedeby, vessel shards
are plentiful, but dates are less precise. Evidently they appear in the ninth
century, and thenceforth in large quantities until the end of the Viking Age
(Resi 1979; Baug 2011, this vol.). Soapstone items found in rural Denmark
follow the same general chronology and occur in similar volumes (Sindbæk
2005: 137–42).
The later period (c. ad 950–1100)

Around the turn of the millennium furnished burials disappear from the
archaeological record in western Scandinavia. Moreover, very few rural
settlements from the subsequent period have been excavated. Thus, an
overview of commodity production and distribution must be based on
excavations of production sites and urban deposits. In Scandinavia, a second
wave of urbanisation began in the mid-tenth century (see below), and the
well-excavated deposits from Oslo, Bergen, and Trondheim in particular
supply ample evidence for mapping the urban distribution of the commo
dities discussed here.
From the mapping and analysis of production sites, it is evident that the
production of iron (Tveiten and Loftsgarden this vol.), quernstones (Baug
this vol.), and reindeer antler (Mikkelsen 1994; Stene and Wangen this vol.)
increased significantly from the mid-tenth through the eleventh century. For
the latter two commodities, this increase in production output was accom
panied by technological innovations (see below).
As for the early period, the difficulty of reliably provenancing most types
of products prevents an assessment of the extent of their distribution. Reliable
results have been obtained only for Hyllestad quernstones, which began turning
up in the late tenth century in Hedeby and other sites south of Kattegat (Baug
this vol.). Soapstone vessels and Scandinavian whetstones continued to occur
frequently in Hedeby in this period, but the lack of a precise chronology there
prevents an assessment of whether import volumes changed. Reindeer antler
constitutes only approximately 0.5 per cent of the antler there (Ulbricht 1978).
In Lund, only a slightly higher percentage of the antler – about 2 per cent – is
assumed to be from reindeer (Christophersen 1980).
While well-dated contexts from this period are sparse south of Kattegat,
some indications of commodity production may be found in Norwegian towns
that were established in the late Viking Age (c. 950–1100). In late tenth- to
eleventh-century Trondheim reindeer antler dominated, although Lena Flodin
(1989) supplies no figures. In eleventh-century Oslo combs from reindeer
antler occur in fairly large numbers (Wiberg 1977, 1987). Bone from reindeer
is frequent there as compared to bone from other types of game (Lie 1988).
Reindeer antler is found in Bergen from c. 1100 onwards (Hansen this vol.).
Iron objects are numerous in Oslo in the same period (Færden 1990a).
Gerd Færden’s (1990b) chemical analysis of the iron in nails indicate that in the
period 1000–1250 Oslo received iron from a diversity of areas, mainly from
the Uplands (inner eastern Norway; Stene and Wangen this vol.), but possibly
also western Sweden. Additionally, whetstones of the two types discussed here
appear in the eleventh to twelfth-century deposits in Oslo (Lønaas 2001).
Technological innovations
Both the early and late wave of increased commodity production appear to
have been accompanied by technological innovations. The production of
soapstone vessels began when such vessels first appeared in Kaupang, Ribe,
and Hedeby. At that time, the production of soapstone vessels in Scandinavia
had been abandoned for five to six centuries (Pilø 1990). Unlike, for instance,
quernstone and iron, it appears that the production of soapstone vessel as
commodities for long-distance trade was not preceded by an initial phase
of production for local supply, but was directed at long-distance trade from
the outset.
Somewhat earlier, iron production was reorganised. During the eighth
century, a new type of furnace replaced the old slag-pit furnace, and iron
extraction started up in more remote areas (Tveiten and Loftsgarden this vol.).
Probably, this shift was connected to the taking up of production for long-
distance trade. One of the new production areas was the Østerdalen valley in
the Uplands, recently intensively surveyed and analysed by Bernt Rundberget
(2013). He found that production there was taken up on a modest scale c. 700,
then expanded and intensified through the tenth and eleventh centuries, reach-
ing a maximum between 1100 and 1250. In total, some 130,000 tons were
12 Dag finn Skre
produced there over c. 600 years. Perhaps 10 per cent of that was produced
before 1100 (Rundberget 2013: 253–6), with an annual average throughout
the Viking Age of approximately 30 tons. Considering that this is one of five to
six production regions in the Uplands, the total annual Viking-Age production
was far beyond local needs – particularly in light of its location in woodlands
and mountains far from the lowlands where population density was greatest
(Tveiten and Loftsgarden this vol.: Figure 6.2).
In the late Viking Age, new quarrying techniques were introduced in the
Hyllestad quernstone quarries; that is, at the time when long-distance quern-
stone trade was taken up. While the earlier quarries in Hyllestad were what
Baug calls shallow quarries where stones were ‘cut along the cleavage plane’, a
technique of deep quarries was introduced around the turn of the millennium.
In deep quarries stones are ‘quarried in piles, one under another, leaving tall,
carved walls, sometimes with a step-like shape’ (Baug 2013: 58–9, 149–50).
This technique was better suited for producing a larger number of quernstones
of uniform diameter within a confined quarry area.
Large-scale reindeer trapping systems were introduced in the eleventh to
thirteenth centuries; the yield from reindeer hunting consequently multiplied.
The former technique of hunting with bow and arrow was complemented by
extensive fencing systems designed to trap entire herds of animals, or to lead
them into pitfalls (Mikkelsen 1994: 110–11). The fencing system near Tøftom,
Dovre, demanded a highly refined organisation of the hunt (Mikkelsen 1994:
104–8), and probably also of the collection of antler after the annual shedding.
Furthermore, the new techniques required a higher input of labour as well
as arrangements for managing resources and avoiding and resolving conflicts
(Stene and Wangen this vol.). Finds of antler in towns increase for the same
period (Mikkelsen 1994: 142–72); however, the recently developed methods
for secure identification of animal species have not yet been applied to this
material.
Urbanisation and seasonal markets

In Viking-Age Scandinavia, towns and markets came into being during
two periods. In the first period, c. 700–810, Ribe, Kaupang, and Hedeby
were established, as well as seasonal markets like Sebbersund by Limfjord,
Löddeköpinge by Øresund, and Heimdalsjordet by Sandefjord (Skre 2008:
337–8; Bill and Rødsrud this vol.). In the second period of urbanisation,
c. 950–1100, towns such as Århus, Roskilde, Lund, Skien, Oslo, Trondheim,
and Bergen were established (Hansen this vol.). While all the early towns were
located within a zone spanning medieval Denmark and Vestfold, which at the
time was probably under the authority of the kings of the Danes (Skre 2007),
the later towns also include the western coast of the Scandinavian Peninsula in
the urbanised Scandinavian zone.
Towns established in the early Viking Age appear to have had a modest
role in supplying their hinterland with imported goods of the types discussed
here. The occurrence of soapstone in Hedeby’s and Ribe’s hinterland is much
sparser than, for example, in the rural regions in northern Jylland and along
the coasts of Kattegat (Sindbæk 2005: 141–2). The trade of soapstone to these
latter regions appears to have been independent of towns. The same goes for
west-Scandinavian whetstones, which have a fairly even distribution in Jylland
(Sindbæk 2005: 142–5).
How, then, did consumers in rural areas gain access to necessities such as
soapstone vessels, iron, and whetstones? For Jylland, Sindbæk (2005: 142)
suggests that soapstone vessels were distributed by occasional trade between
fishermen and farmers in the area. Rather, it seems reasonable that the high
density of soapstone finds in the Limfjord area is due to its inhabitants acquiring
them at the seasonal Sebbersund market in the eastern part of the fjord, where
trade began in the early eighth century and persisted into the twelfth. It is one
of a number of seasonal market sites in southern Scandinavia, of which several
originated in the eighth century (Skre 2008: Fig. 9.1). Some sites are large,
for instance Löddeköpinge and Sebbersund (Christensen and Johansen 1992;
Svanberg and Söderberg 2000), while others are small landing places and beach
markets (Ulriksen 1998; Dobat 2007). Contrary to the towns, long-distance
trade goods are typically few or none in finds at market sites; the craftsmen
working there largely made use of local raw materials (Sindbæk 2005: 76–8,
87–97). Accordingly, these markets were not nodes of the long-distance trading
network but rather seasonal market sites of essentially intraregional significance.
In rural Scandinavia, trade in everyday necessities such as soapstone vessels,
iron, and whetstones perhaps occurred at such seasonal market sites and in local
and regional trade networks rather than in towns (Loftsgarden et al. this vol.).
Until now, only one market site from the early Viking Age has been
identified in western Scandinavia: at Heimdalsjordet in Vestfold, only 14 kilo
metres as the crow flies northeast from Kaupang (Bill and Rødsrud this vol.).
Nonetheless, finds there include more objects from far afield than do the
finds from Sebbersund and Löddeköping. The numbers of hack-silver pieces
and weights are much higher, and Sebbersund has no finds of Islamic coins,
while Heimdalsjordet has 174 – even more than have been found at Kaupang.
Conversely, compared to Kaupang, the paucity of, for example, Continental
pottery and artisanal products made of imported raw material, such as glass
beads, indicates the dominance of local and regional over long-distance trade at
Heimdalsjordet. These features can be found at two sites in the Danish realm of
that period, the so-called nodal markets Åhus in Scania and early Ribe before
permanent settlement occurred there, apparently in the late eighth century
(Skre 2008: 336–8). However, as Bill and Rødsrud (this vol.) emphasise, the
character and activities of the Heimdalsjordet site as well as its relation to nearby
Kaupang and to other Scandinavian market sites warrant further exploration.
Due to the paucity of securely identified seasonal Viking-Age market sites,
it remains an open question as to when such markets were established in western
Scandinavia beyond Vestfold. Pre-950 grave finds of weights and weighing
equipment indicate that markets from that period may have existed in Fjære in
14 Dag finn Skre
Agder, and possibly in Tune in Østfold (Pedersen 2008; Glørstad and Wenn
this vol.); however, no market sites have been identified in the vicinity of the
graves. This situation is bound to change, though. The Heimdalsjordet site
was identified through a combination of archaeological methods, most impor-
tantly metal-detecting and geophysics. When the wealth of finds discovered by
private metal detectors the last few years have been systematised and analysed,
new market sites may turn up. Nevertheless, a possible outcome is that market
sites did not exist in western Scandinavia (except for Vestfold) until the twelfth
century. The numerous tenth- to eleventh-century coin hoards along coasts
and waterways (see below) may indicate that in most of Viking-Age western
Scandinavia trade took place in contexts other than markets.
The west-Scandinavian market sites that have left substantial cultural
deposits appear to have been established in the twelfth century, although a
couple of them were church sites in the eleventh. They are Lusakaupangen
in Sogn, Borgundkaupangen in Sunnmøre, Veøykaupangen in Romsdal,
and Vågar in Lofoten. More elusive are the small market sites referred to in
medieval and more recent sources (Loftsgarden et al. this vol.). Can some of
these be of a Viking-Age date? Such sites have not produced any evidence
indicating a Viking-Age date, and those that have, such as Bjørkum in Lærdal
(Loftsgarden et al. this vol.), have not produced evidence that clearly defines
them as market sites.
Turning to the towns established in the late Viking Age, these had – at least
in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries – a more prominent role than the
early towns in providing their hinterland with commodities brought in from
the types of production sites discussed here (Baug this vol.). For the period
before c. 1150, however, this issue is difficult to assess; the evidence from rural
settlements is scant from that period. Moreover, although substantial high-
quality excavations have been undertaken in several west-Scandinavian towns
since the early 1970s, detailed chronological analyses of the huge amounts of
artefactual material from their first 100–200 years are few (Hansen this vol.).
Also, the late Viking-Age towns may have had a more prominent role than
the early towns in transit trade (Hansen this vol.). This appears to be the case at
least for Skien, where a high number of Eidsborg whetstone blanks have been
identified in the early deposits (Myrvoll 1992). Skien was established in the
late tenth century at the mouth of the valley and water system that runs from
Eidsborg approximately 95 kilometres inland to the coast. The production and
overseas trade in Eidsborg whetstones expanded in this period, and may have
been one of the reasons for the establishment of the town.
Trade routes and monetisation
Ancient sea routes

One of Irene Baug’s main results from her survey of quernstone finds in urban
and rural contexts in western Scandinavia is that, although they were quarried
much further from Oslo than the Hyllestad stones, quernstones from Saltdal
dominated in Oslo. Conversely, although ships carrying either Saltdal or
Hyllestad quernstones would sail along the same route from Sogn to Agder,
Hyllestad quernstones were most numerous in Hedeby and other sites south of
Skagerrak (Baug this vol.).
When such results appear for several types of commodities, a better under-
standing of the dynamics of late Viking-Age production and trade may be
obtained. For example, Baug observes that long-distance trade patterns estab-
lished in the early Viking Age, such as for soapstone vessels and whetstones,
persisted through several hundred years and came to include other types of
commodities. Thus, when long-distance trade of Hyllestad quernstones was
taken up in the late tenth century, it followed the routes along which these
other commodities had been traded for almost two centuries. These routes
led to a rather limited area in southern Scandinavia, namely eastern Jylland,
Fyn, Sjælland, and Skåne; that is, medieval Denmark. The stone commodities
from the north have not been retrieved in noticeable quantities further south,
for example in Dorestad or Hamwic. The spread of these commodities to the
British Isles, Ireland, and the North Atlantic is, as noted by Baug (this vol.),
most likely the result of travellers carrying them as personal possessions. How
were such long-lasting patterns of trade and non-trade established, and what
were the factors contributing to maintaining them over several hundred years?
Fittingly, Baug adapts Sindbæk’s (2005) concept of ‘routinised trade’ for
such patterns, and relates the routines to traditions, alliances, and cultural and
political regions. One could add that the same agents who conducted the trade
in whetstones and soapstone vessels possibly included the Hyllestad quern-
stones among their trade goods. It is noteworthy that the Viking-Age trade
across Skagerrak was preceded by other forms of contact. Peaceful and hostile
movement from western to southern Scandinavia has been frequent since the
Stone Age (Østmo 2011). Conversely, based on the very limited finds of Iron
Age imports to western Scandinavia from the Baltic, sea travel in that direction
appears to have been rather sporadic. Likewise, North Sea crossings do not
appear to have commenced until the late eighth century, while crossing the
North Atlantic to Iceland began in the late ninth. When long-distance trade
from production sites in western Scandinavia across the Skagerrak was taken
up around 800, travel patterns established in the eighth century and previously
may have directed trade. More recently established routes, such as those to
Britain and Ireland, appear not to have been used for trade purposes – or only
to a very limited degree (Skre 2011b).
Judging by the imports to western Scandinavia, there is one exception to
this pattern of trade routes. Finds from Kaupang indicate that the town was
connected to Frisian trade networks in the first half of the ninth century. The
Frisians brought in glass vessels, glass beads, amber, raw glass, copper alloy,
pottery, and metalwork – some of these as trade goods, others as personal
possessions (Skre 2011b). However, the overseas imports do not appear to
have been brought in vast quantities into Kaupang’s hinterland in Vestfold
16 Dag finn Skre
and the Uplands. Possibly, the majority of such commodities were consumed
at Kaupang by artisans living there, by local agents in the trade networks who
delivered overseas goods, and by agents who brought iron and other com-
modities to Kaupang from woodland and alpine regions in the hinterland.
Production, trade, and consumption: free agents or aristocratic control?

While many scholars have regarded aristocratic demands and initiatives as the
prime movers in the post-Roman economic upsurge in Europe (e.g. Hodges
1982; Wickham 2009), studies of production sites, find contexts, and trade
goods make increasingly clear that peasant and freeholder agency, individual
as well as communal, was significant at various times in post-Roman Europe
in production, trade, and consumption alike (Iversen et al. 2007; Skre 2008:
338–41; Theuws 2012).
Except for artisans, production is the lesser known of the three spheres in
this respect. The social basis and organisation of large-scale rural commodity
production is largely unknown and can be glimpsed only through indirect
evidence – for instance, the fact that iron production thrived in areas where
most farmers were freeholders (Tveiten and Loftsgarden this vol.) can be taken
as an indication of individual or communal agency. As pointed out by Stene
and Wangen (this vol.), the exploitation of resources must have been man-
aged on a communal level, potentially supracommunal, particularly in cases
where different resources in the same area are exploited contemporaneously.
Furthermore, considerable expertise, extensive division of labour, and complex
cooperative arrangements will have been necessary for managing the logistics
of production. Communal involvement in resource management and conflict
solving is inevitable; the question is whether it was the communal institu-
tions or the aristocratic families that initiated and had their people conduct the
various types of production. Probably, this varied between regions and types
of production; local studies are needed to address this question. Tveiten and
Loftsgarden’s contribution to this volume, as well as Stene and Wangen’s, open
fruitful avenues for future research on such issues.
Turning to the social aspect of the trade sphere, the nature of the networks
that brought commodities from mountains and woodlands to the coast is dis-
cussed in several contributions to this volume. As Baug has crucially observed,
the vast majority of soapstone vessel fragments found at Kaupang appear to be
derived from the same quarry – regrettably unidentified but probably located
in one of the many soapstone outcrops in the neighbouring regions of Østfold,
Romerike, or Agder (Baug 2011: 329–31, this vol.). Considering the vast
number – over 100 – of premodern quarries in western Scandinavia and south-
western Sweden, the uniform origin cannot be coincidental. Was the supply of
soapstone vessels to this ninth- and early tenth-century town the prerogative
of an aristocrat who ran a soapstone quarry, perhaps Kaupang’s local lord or
one of his associates? Was the lack of competition between suppliers unique for
the provision of soapstone vessels to the town, or was this a general pattern for
trade, including over longer distances? If the latter is the case, can we speak of
market trade, or does Polanyi’s concept of ‘administered trade’ provide a bet-
ter model for the social context of this exchange? One result from the analysis
of a single type of material from a lone site cannot decide such issues. Still,
Baug’s result brings to the fore questions regarding the nature of production
and power in the towns and markets as well as in the trade networks that
brought commodities from the interior to the coast and beyond.
Apparently, the nature of these networks changed during the second period
of urbanisation – that is, from the mid-tenth century onwards. At that time,
both silver and weighing equipment began turning up in substantial numbers
in hoards and graves in rural western Scandinavia, indicating that modes of
payment from urban contexts and long-distance trade had been adopted in
rural trade networks. In his analyses of finds of weights and scales in Jämtland,
Olof Holm (this vol.) concludes that farmers there operated as traders in that
period. The finds demonstrate that silver was among the types of payment
accepted and used. How were these traders connected to producers and con-
sumers? Were they free agents who sought a profit from buying cheaply and
reselling, or were they bound by aristocrats who controlled their access to pro-
ducers and possibly also to consumers? Holm (2012) argues convincingly that
because farmers in Jämtland were freeholders of fairly equal status and there-
fore were not bound by landlords, they could operate as independent agents.
If Holm is right, it would seem that in the mid-tenth century freeholders in a
rather marginal rural region began acting as independent agents of trade.
Holm’s findings are supported by the finds from the municipalities Valle
and Bygland in Setesdal discussed by Glørstad and Wenn (this vol.). As was
Jämtland, Setesdal was dominated by freeholders. The finds indicate that from
the mid-tenth century onwards farmers there acted as independent traders.
Probably, they would have brought iron from the extensive extraction activity
in the mountains some 50 kilometres to the north to coastal sites and possibly
to lands overseas. This suggestion is supported by the wealth of imported items
in Valle and Bygland graves. One of the coastal sites may have been Fjære,
some 90 kilometres to the southeast; grave finds there also contain a high quan-
tity of weighing equipment and imports (Glørstad and Wenn this vol.). The
evidence from Jämtland and Setesdal indicates that from the mid-tenth century
onwards, independent freeholders in these regions began buying and selling
commodities produced by others in neighbouring and more remote regions,
possibly also participating in long-distance networks at coastal trading sites.
Besides Jämtland and Setesdal, only the inland region Hedmarken in western
Scandinavia has a concentration of tenth- to eleventh-century finds of weigh-
ing equipment, all of them in graves (Pedersen 2008: Fig. 6.14), indicating
that traders were buried there. Hedmarken borders on several of the iron-
producing regions of the Uplands. However, regarding social stratification, the
regions with finds of weights and scales were rather diverse. While traders in
Jämtland and Setesdal probably were freeholders who took up trade as an addi-
tional activity, Hedmarken was a much more stratified region with landlords
18 Dag finn Skre
and tenants. The majority of the weighing equipment finds there have been
retrieved from graves on aristocratic farms with richly furnished burials, indi-
cating that aristocratic landlords or their staff were involved in trade. Possibly,
the late tenth- to eleventh-century Hedmarken aristocracy continued a tradi-
tion of administered trade established in the early Viking Age, as indicated by
Baug’s analysis of the soapstone vessels at Kaupang.
The contrast in social structure between Hedmark on the one side and
Jämtland and Setesdal on the other indicates that the relationship between trade
agency and social stratification was complex and is in need of further locally
based studies.
The third and final economic sphere for which the social agency is to be
considered here – consumption – is probably the best evidenced in the Viking-
Age archaeological record. While production sites and transport routes are
sometimes difficult to infer, consumption – at least the ultimate – can in many
cases be pinpointed to the site where an item is found.
Analyses of finds assemblages in a grave, a cemetery, or a settlement often
aim at encircling the person’s, family’s, or site’s social status. Economic analy-
ses of such assemblages are less common – except those that deal with tools
of trade (e.g. Holm this vol.). The scope of finds relevant for such analyses
could be expanded. Might, for instance, the presence of certain commodities
indicate that residents or sites had particular roles in economic networks? Such
analyses have been conducted for towns (Skre 2011c) and for seasonal market
sites (e.g. Bill and Rødsrud this vol.), but rarely for finds assemblages from
other types of sites.
Still, some general points regarding consumption in different social strata
can be made on the basis of the traded commodities’ nature and distribution.
As noted above, exotic items that have been found in rather large numbers at
Kaupang, such as vessel glass, exotic beads, and certain types of pottery (Gaut
2011; Pilø 2011; Resi 2011b), are found very sparsely elsewhere in western
Scandinavia. Typically, they occur in aristocratic contexts, such as in the chief-
tain’s residence in Borg in Lofoten, northern Norway (Munch et al. 2003).
However, it remains uncertain and perhaps unlikely that such items arrived
in Borg via Kaupang. Aristocrats at this high level may have had their own
networks where such items were available, and the occurrence in Kaupang
probably reflects local consumption.
Less uncertain is the identification of intended users for artisanal products
from the types of artisans working at Kaupang. Several aristocratic graves, for
instance the nearby Gokstad ship burial, contained non-ferrous metalwork that
appears to have been produced by artisans with skills displayed in the Kaupang
workshop remains. However, the wide and rich distribution in western
Scandinavia of Scandinavian-type ornaments made from overseas raw materials,
primarily glass, brass, and amber (Skre 2008: 340–1; Resi 2011c; Pedersen
this vol.), indicates that the prime group of consumers of artisanal work from
Kaupang-type craftsmen were the average freeholder or moderately well-off
farmer. A consideration of trade volumes supports this assessment: to uphold a
town of Kaupang’s size, the prime consumers would need to be drawn from a
vast social group – the general populace. The demand for luxury goods from
a narrow aristocratic class would not generate a volume of trade and artisanal
production sufficient for sustaining the town.
Turning to the consumption of products from raw materials originating
in western Scandinavia, the populace is an even more obvious target group
for traders. The products in question – whetstones, iron items, quernstones,
antler combs, soapstone vessels, and the like – are everyday utensils, not rare
luxuries. Of course, aristocratic farms also needed these items, but their general
occurrence in the west-Scandinavian archaeological record demonstrates that
the general populace formed the prime market. Probably, only poor peasants
would have had to suffice with what whetstones and quernstones they could
find in the ground, as everybody had done before such products became avail-
able in trade in the early and late Viking Age, respectively.
The interplay between the agencies of farmers, aristocrats, and eventually
kings in the three economic spheres in Viking-Age Scandinavia remains largely
under-investigated; its continued exploration potentially holds the key to a
deeper understanding of the period’s economic and social transformations.
The use of silver as payment in rural regions and towns

By contrast with finds of tenth- to eleventh-century weighing equipment,
contemporary hoards containing coins do not cluster in certain regions, but
rather are dispersed (Skaare 1976: 238–43, maps 7–12). It is noteworthy,
however, that hoards were deposited either near the coast or along water-
ways that led up into woodlands and alpine regions. Several of these finds
have been made in the most fertile rural regions, such as Ringerike, Jæren,
and Trøndelag, possibly indicating that Hedmark was not the only region of
aristocratic involvement in trade in the late Viking Age.
The distribution of weighing equipment and coin hoards indicates that
trade routes connecting production areas in woodlands and alpine regions with
coastal towns, markets, and harbours prospered from the mid-tenth century
onwards. These routes are also detectable in the ninth- and early tenth-century
distribution of scales and weights (Pedersen 2008: Fig. 6.14), although at that
time the use of silver had hardly spread from the coastal sites to the rural interior.
In the early Viking Age, minting and the use of silver appear to have been
urban phenomena. Minting in Scandinavia began in Ribe in the mid-eighth
century, was taken up in Hedeby from the early ninth, and in Sweden and
Norway from just before ad 1000. The use of cut silver as a medium of pay-
ment began in Kaupang, probably also in Birka, in the early ninth century,
and from the mid-tenth century hoards containing cut silver were deposited in
most of Scandinavia.
Apparently, the use of silver as payment, whether in the form of coinage or
cut-up silver, was in the eighth and ninth centuries mainly connected to trade
in towns with agents for overseas trade networks. The occurrence of silver,
20 Dag finn Skre
scales, and weights in rural areas is predominantly a phenomenon of the late
tenth and eleventh centuries – the very period when rural commodity pro-
duction underwent its second and largest expansion. However, it remains an
open question as to whether hoarding of silver and coins and the occurrence
of weights and scales in rural areas indicate that these means of exchange were
actually used there in the tenth and eleventh centuries. They may have been
kept and buried in rural areas until the occasion might arise for their use in
towns and on long-distance expeditions. Although Holm (this vol.) presents
a convincing case for the burial of actual users of silver, weights, and scales in
late tenth- and eleventh-century Jämtland, the items need not have been used
locally. Moreover, the fact that such concentrations of silver, weights, and
scales are found only in two other regions in western Scandinavia (Setesdal
and Hedmarken) would caution against regarding them as expressions of
common occurrences. The actual use of coins as payment in rural areas is not
securely testified in Norway until the late twelfth century when coins in large
numbers began to fall through gaps in the wooden floors of rural churches. In
addition to trade, the compensation to thingmen for their travels and provision
(Iversen and Gullbekk this vol.) may have contributed to bringing coinage into
rural people’s hands and purses.
However, as pointed out above, securely identified Viking-Age seasonal
market sites in western Scandinavia can be counted on one hand. Thus, except
for Heimdalsjordet, we do not really have rural sites where the use of silver for
payment would occur with a frequency sufficient for noticeable quantities to
be lost. As long as arenas for the rural use of coins and silver are absent prior
to the late twelfth century, the volume of tenth- to twelfth-century rural
coin use cannot be assessed. Identifying and dating potential arenas would be
worthwhile.
The coast and the interior

The transformations experienced by west-Scandinavian societies also influ-
enced conceptions of the land. In Ohthere’s account recorded at the court of
King Alfred the Great c. 890, it is said that the populated zone of his home-
land was narrow, except in the east, where cultivated land was found far from
the coast (Bately and Englert 2007: 46). The same conception of the land is
provided in greater detail in Historia Norwegie written in the 1150s or 1160s
(Ekrem and Boje Mortensen 2003). There, a distinction is made between two
parts of Norway: the Zona Montana (the Mountainous Land, the Uplands)
and the Zona Maritima (the Coastal Land).
Indeed, this division points to the striking characteristics of the western
parts of the Scandinavian Peninsula. While the majority of settled land in west-
ern and central Norway lies less than 10 kilometres (and a maximum of 50
kilometres) from the sea, settlement in eastern Norway stretches more than
250 kilometres northwards from the inner end of the Oslofjord. There, the
most populated regions (the Uplands; e.g., Telemark, Ringerike, Hadeland,
Hedemarken, Hallingdal, Valdres, and Gudbrandsdalen) are found in lowlands
and valleys more than 50 kilometres inland; Vestfold and Østfold were the only
densely populated coastal regions.
Developments in production and trade contributed to changing this con-
ception of the geography. Of the types of production discussed here, whetstone
(dark schist) and quernstone quarrying took place in the Zona Maritima. Iron
extraction, reindeer hunting, and quarrying of Hyllestad whetstones occurred
in the woodlands and mountains of the Zona Montana. Soapstone quarrying
may have happened in both zones. The same goes for artisanal production,
although some types appear to have been conducted primarily in the coastal
towns (Pedersen this vol.).
Of these types of commodities, iron – production of which had an average
annual output of well over 100 tons throughout the period – will have contrib-
uted the most significant economic value. Therefore, the increased commodity
production in the Viking Age, particularly that intended for overseas trade,
contributed to connecting the Zona Montana and the Zona Maritima. The trade
routes from one zone to the other, established in the early Viking Age and
significantly expanded from the late tenth to the thirteenth century, contri
buted to shaping the administrative landscape of the high medieval Norwegian
kingdom. The early organisation in the two rather homogeneous topographic,
economic, and climatic zones was converted to administrative units that con-
nected coastal towns with inland and mountainous areas where commodities
were produced (Iversen this vol.).
Concluding comment
In the seventh and eighth centuries rural commodity production was modest
and directed at satisfying local and regional needs. In the decades around ad 800
(whetstones, soapstone vessels, and iron), and again around ad 1000 (quernstones,
reindeer antler, and again iron), this small-scale production and distribution was
expanded, reorganised, and developed using novel technologies into large-scale
commodity production for long-distance trade. Only the production of soapstone
vessels was not preceded by local production, but rather was directed towards
long-distance trade from the start.
These two waves coincided with two waves of town foundation. In the
early wave four Scandinavian towns were established; none of these endured
throughout the Viking Age. The much more numerous towns established in
the second wave, c. 950–1100, have endured until the present. While the early
towns appear to have been mostly ‘producer towns’, meaning that the majority
of the population was engaged in some sort of craft or artisanal production, the
later towns were to a higher degree ‘consumer towns’ as they housed staff that
administered royal and ecclesiastical interests in the region. The early towns
had few or no such functions.
These and other developments in Viking-Age urbanism indicate that the
connection between rural commodity production and urbanisation is not
22 Dag finn Skre
direct and simple, but indirect and complex. Thus, I find the line drawn by
Ashby et al. (2015: 18) is too direct in concluding that those ‘involved in for-
aging expeditions in the Scandinavian outlands were . . . engaged in a quintes-
sentially urban activity’. There is much more to the story of rural commodity
production than the emergence of towns. Only a limited proportion of the
output from that production made its way to towns – for some commodities
only the quantities that were consumed by the towns’ inhabitants. Seasonal
markets, magnate sites, the rise of economic agency among the rural populace,
and ancient routes to the lands overseas – all these elements and more need to
be included to understand the profound economic transformations of Viking-
Age western Scandinavia.
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Part I
Trade and traders

2 Approaching trade in pre-state
and early state societies
Eivind Heldaas Seland
Introduction
Trade, broadly defined by economic anthropologist Karl Polanyi as ‘the mutually
appropriative movement of goods between hands’ (Polanyi et al. 1957: 266),
is a basic human activity like production and reproduction (Oka and Kusimba
2008). The role and importance of exchange, here used interchangeably with
trade, has varied between places and over time, but the autarchic, self-sufficient
economic unit, whether a family, a village, a tribe or a state, if it ever existed,
is an anomaly in the human experience. Polanyi’s definition, coined almost
60 years ago, remains useful. It underlines three aspects of exchange: mutuality,
materiality and right of disposal. Trade is of central interest to archaeologists.
The primacy of materiality is a shared trait between the academic discipline and
the object of study, and due to the mutual and property-related nature of trade,
it is an important mechanism of wealth distribution, economic specialisation
and thus also social stratification.
Almost a century ago sociologist Thorstein Veblen realised how effective
scarce resources are in creating and upholding hierarchies, by means of con-
spicuous consumption (Veblen 1957). Trade, in the broad sense of the word
employed here, was and remains arguably the most widespread way of get-
ting access to such resources. Societies demonstrating what scholars somewhat
arbitrarily consider sufficient levels of specialisation and stratification are often
referred to as complex societies, or in everyday terminology by the more
convenient ‘states’. This means that understanding the relationship between
trade and political power is of key importance to any inquiry into the socio-
economic organisation of premodern societies.
Trade in the premodern world was certainly not smooth sailing. Travel
was uncomfortable, slow and sometimes dangerous. Information rarely moved
faster than people. Political authorities walked a fine line between protec-
tion and predation, and effective enforcement of contracts and property
rights across political borders was complicated at the very least (Bang 2008:
131–201). People travelled and traded nevertheless, but to do so they needed
to create an institutional infrastructure that provided a necessary minimum
of security and predictability. This chapter aims to give an overview of how
32 Eivind Heldaas Seland
modern scholarship has sought to engage with this process by developing theo-
retical approaches to the study of trade in pre-state and early state societies.
The argument is made that conceptualising trade in terms of networks offers
opportunities for describing as well as explaining the process, using the partly
complementary, partly competing analytical perspectives developed by archae-
ologists, historians, economic anthropologists and economists.
Constraints of space, combined with the sheer scope of the subject, impose
selectivity with regard to the theoretical traditions discussed and the questions
raised below. Many issues within the field are, and have been, subject to fierce
scholarly debates. While these have obvious relevance, they are only touched
on briefly below, and interested readers are referred to the bibliography (Silver
1983, 2009; Manning and Morris 2005; Temin 2006; Bang 2007; Oka and
Kusimba 2008; Hann 2011: 50–71). Some historiographical points should
nevertheless be made to clarify the problems that need to be tackled.
The great divide

For nearly a century, scholars working with the economy of premodern
societies, whether from a historical or an anthropological point of view, were
all but forced to take a stand. The issue at stake was nothing less than the
nature of premodern economies. In classical studies the debate peaked in the
early decades of the twentieth century as well as in the 1970s to 1980s. In
economic anthropology the divide was most outspoken around 1960. Did
past economies resemble our own? Were they modern in the sense that they
can be approached with the same analytical tools as nineteenth/twentieth-
century liberal market economies? Proponents of this approach, such as
Eduard Meyer (1979), Mikhail Rostovtzeff (1932, 1936) and Scott Cook
(1966), were labelled modernists within classical studies and history, or for-
malists within archaeology and economic anthropology. Their opponents,
among them Karl Bücher (1979a, 1979b), Johannes Hasebroek (1931), Karl
Polanyi (Polanyi et al. 1957; Polanyi 1963) and Moses Finley (1973), who held
that economic interaction in premodern societies was embedded in political
and social contexts, and thus not possible to study separately, were called
primitivists or substantivists. In medieval studies the primitivist/substantivist
position found resonance with Henri Pirenne’s influential although never
uncontroversial model of a minimalist and stagnant early medieval economy
(Pirenne 1937; Hodges and Whitehouse 1983; McCormick 2001: 2–18).
By the 1980s, the primitivists seemed to have won the day, and were able
to proclaim the establishment of a new orthodoxy based on Finley’s model
of the ancient economy as primarily subsistence-oriented and status-driven
(Hopkins 1983: xi–xiv). The insistence on scholarly orthodoxy effectively put
the lid on the discourse, which by the 1990s had grown all but stale. The study
of the Greek and Roman economy had to a large extent been transformed
into a discipline of cultural history, and the insistence on the uniqueness, even
exoticism, of the classical world effectively barred economic historians of other
Approaching trade in early state societies 33
periods and regions from taking an interest in classical antiquity, and students
of the ancient economy from making their field relevant and interesting to
scholars dealing with other empirical and chronological settings. This, again,
has changed over the last decades, with scholars on one hand again taking
up modernising and quantitative approaches to the ancient economy (Temin
2001, 2006; Silver 2009), and on the other hand bringing in perspectives from
a range of social sciences, emphasising explicit methodology and preferably
also testability as the way forward (Manning and Morris 2005; Scheidel et al.
2007; Bang 2008).
Anthropologically oriented archaeology was not untouched by this debate,
which found its parallel in the formalist/substantivist controversy. Nevertheless,
archaeologists continued to rely on modern models in their approach to data,
as a lack of textual sources rendered the hermeneutical alternative less feasible.
Several important theoretical works were published in the 1970s, asking how
models can be operationalised to incorporate artefactual data (Renfrew 1975;
Sabloff and Lamberg-Karlovsky 1975; Earle and Ericson 1977; Renfrew 1977).
Arguably, the criticism against neo-evolutionist approaches outlined below,
along with the general postcolonial and postmodern trend away from diffu-
sionist interpretations and generalising scholarship, nevertheless caused studies
of trade to take a back seat in the development of archaeological research and
theory in the 1980s and 1990s.
Models and the study of the past

Readers familiar with the field might have noticed and possibly taken issue
with the conscious use of terminology borrowed by cultural anthropology,
key labels such as ‘pre-state’ and ‘early state’ carrying a scholarly heritage from
the neo-evolutionist discourse prevalent from the 1960s into the 1980s (Fried
1967; Claessen and Skalnik 1978; Cohen and Service 1978; Claessen 1984),
which became increasingly unfashionable in subsequent decades due to implicit
teleology and alleged Eurocentrism (Khoury and Kostiner 1990; Yoffee 2005:
4–41). The critique of the neo-evolutionary school was certainly justified in
underlining the uniqueness of societies past and present, the great diversity of
trajectories of development, and the problematic, arguably Eurocentric and
certainly teleological expectation and ideal of development in past societies.
Nevertheless, any archaeological argument builds on analogy, and analogy is by
nature comparative (Hodder 1982). Modern scholars do not have direct access
to the past, but are left with a mostly fragmentary and unrepresentative record
of signs that has come down to us from it. These signs must be interpreted, and
in doing this we are creating narratives about the past. The neo-evolutionary
narrative has been sidelined in scholarship, but along with other narratives of
early societies, it developed a range of analytical models that remain useful for
comparison between different empirical settings. Some past societies did actu-
ally experience increased economic specialisation and social stratification, and
it is interesting and useful to discuss the role of trade in that process. Arguably,
this can be done without descending into the fruitless discussions on categori-
sation and definitions that came to characterise parts of the neo-evolutionary
discourse.
Although there is no agreement among anthropologists on what a tribe is,
and the nature and organisation of what we call tribal societies vary over time
and space, ‘tribe’ remains convenient shorthand for non-centralised political
groups based on perceived common descent. Although complex societies in
early history were different from modern complex societies and from each
other, ‘chiefdom’ and ‘state’ are useful terms insofar as they enable comparison,
even if only to highlight diversity (Khoury and Kostiner 1990; Tapper 1990).
To cite one of the leading figures in the debate on the role of trade in early
societies, Sir Moses I. Finley, who was a strong advocate of the conscious and
explicit use of models in the study of the past, ‘The familiar fear of a priorism is
misplaced: any hypothesis can be modified, adjusted or discarded when neces-
sary. Without one, however, there can be no explanation’ (Finley 1986: 66).
Taking the cue from Finley, a number of analytical models are drawn upon
below. Some of them are mutually exclusive, others complementary. They all
have shortcomings as general descriptions of how trade took place in prehis-
tory and early history; nevertheless, they are all useful in explaining aspects of
exchange in past societies when they are perceived as tools of interpretation
rather than analytical straightjackets (Meyer 2000).
Models of interaction
Hungarian-born Karl Polanyi (1886–1964), who can be credited with spurring
the substantivist-formalist controversy in economic anthropology, also coined
some of the more influential analytical models of premodern trade. His ‘port-
of-trade’ model envisaged small, independent or semi-independent polities,
typically city states, which were seen as points of interaction between zones of
transit – oceans and deserts for instance, and larger territorial polities (Polanyi
et al. 1957; Polanyi 1963). Although the model has long since been discredited
as a universal description of how trade took place in the premodern world, it
retains its relevance to a number of specific, observable cases.
A more generalised approach to places as arenas of interaction in archaeology
is represented by the body of theory known as Central-Place Theory, inspired
by Walter Christaller’s study of settlement hierarchies in southern Germany
(Christaller 1933). Christaller, describing a predominantly rural environment
still retaining many premodern traits, was able to show that hierarchies of set-
tlements were based on how far people were willing to travel to get access to
certain goods or services. This can be expressed as the gravity of a central place
(Renfrew 1977: 87; Rivers et al. 2013). Markets for agricultural goods, mills
and churches are examples of institutions that were needed on a local level.
Access to judicial services and specialised tools and equipment was not sought
after on an everyday basis, and people were willing to travel further afield to
partake. Central-Place Theory made its way into archaeology in the late 1960s,
and has been important in explaining settlement hierarchies as well as the
distribution of trade goods (Renfrew 1977).
Central places tend to develop not only into economic nodes but also into
centres of political power, combining the factor of how far people are willing
to travel with the distance over which it is possible to exercise political and eco-
nomic dominance (Bekker-Nielsen 1989), thus adding the aspect of centrality
to that of gravity (Rivers et al. 2013). A major weakness of Christaller’s model,
however, which has complicated its application to archaeological contexts,
was that it did not take into account the challenges and costs of movement and
transport in the real world. Many central places are situated at strategic loca-
tions, which enable them to control a large hinterland, or make them difficult
or impossible to bypass. In this way they are turned into gateways, which con-
trol transit between different parts of a network (Rivers et al. 2013).
An example of a model focusing on people is Phillip Curtin’s ‘trade diaspora’:
merchants settled permanently or semi-permanently on foreign ground, build-
ing cultural expertise and establishing social connections, and thus acting as
intermediaries between home and host cultures (Curtin 1984). Curtin’s model
has drawn criticism for presupposing a centre or home culture as the wellspring
of the diaspora community. Many known merchant communities were in fact
polycentric, or oriented towards a homeland only in a very symbolic sense.
Sebouh D. Aslanian suggests instead the polycentric model of the ‘circulation
society’, which seems better adapted to longstanding groups maintaining a
common identity but without regular contact to a common geographic centre
(Aslanian 2011: 1–22). Nevertheless, Curtin’s model retains its relevance in
many other cases. Both models, however, presuppose that groups of merchants
were able to achieve a necessary sense of ‘groupness’ by building social cohe-
sion within the community and maintaining boundaries towards other groups
(Barth 1969; Brubaker 2002, 2005, 2009). This could be achieved by drawing
on institutional ties such as ethnicity, shared origin and religion (Seland 2013).
At the same time, however, they also depended on the ability to link up with
other communities.
Turning to the mechanisms of economic interaction, Polanyi, firmly believ-
ing that most economic relations in premodern economies were embedded
in socio-political contexts, also introduced three models explicitly inspired by
the anthropological work of Bronislaw Malinowski and probably also that of
Marcel Mauss, namely ‘reciprocity’, ‘redistribution’ and ‘exchange’ (Polanyi
et al. 1957: 250–2; Malinowski 2002; Mauss 2007). By reciprocity, sometimes
also called gift-exchange, he referred to transactions of more or less equal per-
ceived value, made between individuals of similar social status. Redistribution
described the collection and subsequent reallocation of resources through a
centralised institution, while exchange referred to what we normally describe
as trade, goods changing hands, whether as a result of barter or of market
transactions, without imposing further social obligations on the participants.
Although Polanyi had definite ideas about how premodern economies worked
in practice, his models can be used to characterise economic interaction under
any economic regime, including a modern liberal market economy or a highly
redistributive welfare state.
New institutional economics

Where substantivists and formalists alike failed at adequately describing the
economic organisation of early societies, neo-evolutionists were equally
unsuccessful in explaining their political development. Meanwhile, however,
the discipline of economics had moved forward. While specialists in prehis-
tory and early history were debating whether the people they were studying
had acted rationally in economic respects, many economists had long realised
that modern people frequently fail to. Scholars developing the field of New
Institutional Economics, in part directly inspired by Polanyi’s work, started to
investigate how institutions shape economic behaviour (North 1977, 1990;
North et al. 2009). Douglass C. North, John J. Wallis and Barry Weingast sug-
gest that societies can be studied as consisting of organisations and institutions. By
organisations North et al. (2009: 15) describe ‘groups of individuals pursuing a
mix of common and individual goals through partially coordinated behaviour’.
In early history, such groups would include tribes, chieftaincies, robber bands,
empires and other political organisations. Organisations in premodern socie-
ties, according to North et al., specialise in containing violence, and engage
in generating revenue that is distributed among elite and non-elite members
(2009: 14–19). Trade was one important source of such revenue, along with
landed property and plunder, for instance.
Although North and his colleagues hold that political organisations were
the predominant form in premodern societies, groups of merchants or artisans
could also be approached as organisations within this framework. Institutions,
on the other hand, are described as the ‘“rules of the game”, the patterns of inter-
action that govern and constrain the relationships of individuals’ (North et al.
2009: 15). The market is certainly one important institution in this respect, but
there are also many others, including the reciprocal and redistributive mecha-
nisms emphasised by Polanyi. New Institutional Economics has also brought a
number of other useful approaches to the attention of scholars working with
early trade: Transaction Cost Theory is able to deal not only with high costs
of transportation but also with issues of security, protection, administration
and enforcement (Silver 2011). The realisation that rationality is bounded –
restricted and shaped by a lack of information, cultural and social constraints,
and so forth (Simon 1997) – also helps explain how different economic mecha-
nisms can come into play at the same time. Agency theory, dealing with situ-
ations of imperfect information, where economic actors, ‘principals’, need to
rely on representatives, ‘agents’, with potentially conflicting self-interest, high-
lights not only the challenges but also the possibilities for creating trust among
actors engaging in economic interaction (Eisenhardt 1989).
The great contribution of New Institutional Economics to the study of early
trade is that the field enables us to deal with social, political and economic
relations within the same framework, thus allowing for the embedded aspects
of premodern economic behaviour and the record of data, which is more often
than not fragmentary, and biased towards elite sections of society and their
self-representation, while at the same time opening the opportunity to bring in
economic concepts and tools describing market transactions, which clearly also
held an important place in most premodern economies.
Explaining trade as networks

At the heart of archaeology as well as trade is materiality. The main archaeo-
logical proxy of trade is the existence of artefacts that can be traced to points of
origin or production different from their find-spots. The scholarly expression
of this is the distribution map, showing the spatial contexts of archaeological
finds. Under many circumstances, exchange is the likely agent of the mobility
of objects, but other mechanisms are also possible and well attested, such as
migration, travel, taxation or plunder, to name a few.
Colin Renfrew famously characterised trade as ‘action at a distance’
(Renfrew 1975). This accurately captures the interactive nature of the under-
taking. Trade establishes direct and indirect, explicit and unseen connections
between people. A recent surge in scholarly interest in network theory has
provided possibilities for approaching this aspect of exchange by combining
places, people, objects and relations within the same framework (Malkin 2003,
2011; Sindbæk 2007, 2009; Knappett et al. 2008; Brughmans 2010, 2013;
Knappett 2011, 2013; Seland 2013). Networks intersect at nodes, which might
be individuals, groups, places or even objects. Nodes are connected by ties,
often called ‘edges’ in network terminology, which can, on one hand, include
interpersonal relations of friendship, kinship, personal dependence, contract
and so forth, or shared characteristics of religion, ethnicity, profession and so
on. On the other hand, ties can also be constituted by routes, roads or simply
the presence of similar objects in geographically distinct places, presupposing
some kind of connection. In the same manner, however, as moving from dis-
tribution maps to interaction poses a potential problem, so, too, are network
approaches faced with the challenge of moving from description to explanation.
This is where the theoretical dimension comes back into play.
Nodes in a network related to trade will often be places such as find-spots,
archaeological sites, known locations of harbours, markets, periodical trading
fairs, production sites, settlements, elite residences or places of religious signifi-
cance. Most archaeological modelling of geographical nodes approaches them
as central places. Nodes, however, may also be people. Political elites engaged
with trade, either directly, by taking part in the procurement and exchange of
goods, or indirectly, by offering protection in return for taxation, or by pre-
dation. Groups of merchants constituted social networks, for instance in the
form of trading diasporas or circulation societies, and linked up with producers,
distributors, transporters, purchasers and political authorities in the process
(Seland 2013). Most networks based on trade can be described as belonging to
what in network terminology is known as the ‘small-world’ type. Such net-
works are characterised by each individual node being directly connected only
to relatively few other nodes, but nevertheless being able to access the whole
network indirectly by way of these connections (Wasserman and Faust 1994:
53–4; Malkin 2011: 27–30).
Conclusion
It might be argued that most theoretical approaches to premodern economies
are better at explaining than describing, while the opposite is the case for
many archaeological applications of network approaches. If this is true there
should be considerable analytical potential in combining the two. The defin-
ing feature and strength of network approaches is the emphasis on relations.
Visualising and, in cases where the data allows it, measuring these ties reveals
where explanation is needed. Typical relations in social networks include, but
are not limited to, individual ties of friendship, kinship, marriage and enmity,
and group-level identity markers such as ethnicity, religious affiliation and
profession. They may also include individual and group-level action, such as
reciprocity, redistribution and exchange, and also taxation, robbery, warfare
or protection. Here network theory intersects with other bodies of theory,
including the substantivist and formalist traditions of economic anthropology
traditions outlined above, which aim at explaining but lack the descriptive
capacity of network analysis. To name but one example, New Institutional
Economics enables us to explain social networks in terms of organisations, and
most of the ties constituting networks can be described as institutions, thus
potentially combining description and explanation.
Sociologist Michael Mann argues that four interrelated fields of power
constitute society: ideological, economic, military and political. These fields,
however, materialise only in the formation of social elite networks – power
cannot be distinguished from the people wielding it, and power is always exer-
cised by people and in relation to people (Mann 1986). For the archaeologist
who aims to grasp the role of trade in the formation of such power structures
in pre-state and early state societies, the challenge remains to move from the
static evidence provided by archaeology to the once dynamic but long-finished
process of exchange. Above I have argued that this requires the conscious use
of analytical models, some of them developed specifically for the study of pre-
modern trade, others from economics, sociology and anthropology, and that
these models should be viewed as complementary rather than mutually exclu-
sive. In my view, conceptualising economic interaction in terms of networks
is currently our best bid for describing as well as explaining processes of trade,
and integrating them with other aspects of the human experience.
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3 The use of silver as a medium of
exchange in Jämtland, c. 875–1050
Olof Holm
Introduction
At Viking-period emporia such as Kaupang and Birka there is an abundance
of archaeological evidence of silver being used as money (Blackburn 2008;
Pedersen 2008; Gustin 2011). This is understandable. Silver in various forms –
coins or bullion – was a perfect medium of exchange, being durable, valu-
able, easily cut and weighed into desired quantities, and widely accepted as a
means of payment in large parts of the Old World. For people living at these
emporia, who had to trade off their produce to buy food and other necessi-
ties, and therefore performed transactions frequently, this medium must have
been very practical to use, once it had become accessible (Skre 2011: 81–3;
Williams 2011: 355). A commonly accepted medium of exchange expands the
possibilities for exchange by enabling purchase and sale to be separated in time
and space (see, e.g., Melitz 1974: 53–8).
But what about rural areas in Scandinavia? Dagfinn Skre (2011: 69–80) has
remarked that for a farmer whose household was more or less self-supporting
with regard to necessary goods, essential commodities with a utilitarian value,
such as cattle or cloth, might have been preferred as media of payment in
transactions, instead of silver. Silver did not have a utilitarian value (except
for the silversmith) and could not sustain people in cases of crisis, for, as Skre
puts it, ‘Who would exchange their cows, butter or grain for metal in times of
famine?’ If a household member did not have to buy necessities so often, he or
she might have had the time to search for trading partners to barter with. Then
one commodity could be traded directly for another commodity, without the
use of silver or any other medium of exchange.
Still, there might have been rural areas in the Viking period where, for
various reasons, the inhabitants were trading more actively than in others, and
therefore found it practical to use silver as money, just as in urban settings.
However, according to Skre (2011: 85), this is hard to ascertain:
There is little evidence to indicate when, and to what extent, silver was
taken into use in rural trade outside of markets. Hoarding of silver in rural
areas increased in the tenth century, as did the proportion of hack-silver
Silver as a medium of exchange in Jämtland 43
in the hoards (Hårdh 1996). But this cannot be taken as secure evidence
of silver being used as payment in rural trade; the silver may have been
assembled through raiding or through trade in markets and towns and then
hoarded for later use there.
This statement begs a question that warrants further research. In this chapter
I will focus on a regional case: an area located inland, right in the middle of
the Scandinavian Peninsula, nowadays in Sweden but belonging to Norway
between the late twelfth and mid-seventeenth century, namely the province
of Jämtland (Figure 3.1).1 One could perhaps presume that in a remote rural
region like this (as seen from Viking-period trading centres such as Birka,
Hedeby and Kaupang) silver was not used in trading activities to any large
extent among the populace. But the archaeological evidence from the middle
and late Viking period (c. 875–1050/75) suggests the opposite.
Figure 3.1 The position of Jämtland on the Scandinavian Peninsula.

Source: Map based on Sawyer and Sawyer (1993: Fig. 2.1), with kind permission.
44 Olof Holm
In Jämtland no large-scale metal detector surveys have yet been carried out,
and almost no Viking-period settlement sites have hitherto been investigated. It
is thus not possible today to study to what extent there are lost coins, hacksilver
and small weights lying in the ground on old farms or at possible marketplaces
in Jämtland. But a number of graves from the Viking period have been exca-
vated, mainly within agricultural settlement districts close to Storsjön and other
larger lakes, but also outside these, in forested and mountainous areas. The
latter graves are, in at least some cases, most probably the graves of nomadic
or semi-nomadic people. Graves from the middle and late Viking period very
often contain weights and/or balances. I will argue that these tools were used
for weighing silver in transactions, and that their frequent occurrence in graves
implies that trading with silver used as money was widespread in the region.
Weights and balances found in graves in Jämtland

Before I proceed, I would like to make a source-critical remark. It is pos-
sible that there was a special meaning behind weights and balances in graves,
conditioned by locally rooted religious notions and customs of which we lack
knowledge (cf. Gustin 2004: 113, note 6). The bereaved might have consid-
ered that the deceased had use for these tools in the afterlife. The weighing
equipment may also have been accessories in the funeral rites. However, the
weights and balances in question must reasonably have been owned by local
people – either by the deceased or by the bereaved who participated in the
funerals – before they were deposited in the graves. The balances and almost
all weights found in graves in Jämtland belong to types that were, as far as we
know, only manufactured at the most important trading places of the middle
and late Viking period, such as Birka, Sigtuna and Hedeby (Pedersen 2008: 121,
126–7 and refs. therein; Söderberg 2008: 122–3). Thus, the owners of these
items in Jämtland must have made an effort to obtain them from distant places.
This makes it reasonable to assume that the local population really needed and
used these tools. I will present empirical support for this assumption below.
A huge number (c. 700 or more) of grave mounds, cairns and stone set-
tings have been registered in Jämtland, and we know from experience that
a large proportion of them (especially the mounds) contain the cremated or
non-cremated remains of men and women buried with grave goods in the
middle and late Viking period (cf. Magnusson 1986: Figs 135–6). There are
also an unknown number of undetected and practically invisible cremation
graves on flat ground in forested and mountainous areas. In addition, innumer-
able graves have been ploughed out, plundered, excavated by non-professionals
or destroyed in other ways. The museums possess an impressive record of stray
finds of axes, spearheads, arrowheads, swords, oval brooches and other notable
objects from the middle and late Viking period, many of which can be assumed
to originate from destroyed graves (Magnusson 1986: Tab. 43). All in all, it can
be established that, at least in the more densely populated settlement districts in
Jämtland (cf. Figure 3.2), the custom of burying men and women in furnished
Figure 3.2 Distribution of finds of weights and balances from the middle and late
Viking period in Jämtland and sizes of agrarian settlements as expressed by
sizes of parish churches built in the twelfth (or in some cases possibly in
the thirteenth) century. A find of two weights in a grave at Ljungdalen,
in present-day Storsjö parish, Härjedalen ( JLM 28050), is marked on the
map as well.
Source: The church data are based on Holm (2001, 2012).
Note: Data concerning the parish churches of Berg, Hallen and Oviken are uncertain.
46 Olof Holm
graves was widespread during this period. How common this custom was in less
populated settlement areas is not so clear.
A small but seemingly representative sample of all graves from the middle
and late Viking period in Jämtland has been wholly or partly excavated by pro-
fessionals. A closer look shows that a remarkably large proportion of the male
graves from this period (distinguished primarily by weapons and belt buckles)
have yielded finds of a more or less fragmented balance and/or one or several
weights, despite the fact that the conditions for recovering finds were far from
ideal in several cases (Holm 2015b: Catalogues 1 and 2). If we look only at
securely dated male graves, eight out of 14 – about one half – contained such
weighing equipment. Now, it is of course not always possible to date graves
securely before or after c. 875 based on typologies and find combinations,
and some graves, where only gender-neutral objects have been recovered,
cannot be gendered. But even if we include all such uncertain graves in the
calculation, the proportion of male graves containing balances and/or weights
is considerable: 8 out of 22 graves, or about one third. Arguably, weights and
balances represent the most common category of metal objects found in male
graves in Jämtland from the middle and late Viking period, along with knives,
firesteels and arrowheads.
Among the expertly investigated graves in Jämtland there are also one or
two examples of a female grave containing a weight and/or a balance (one of
these also contained fragments of oval brooches and an ornamental pendant;
the other had a burned cornelian bead and a hook made of copper-alloy wire,
probably used for a string of beads). In general, women’s graves containing
weights and/or balances are unusual in the countryside in Norway and Sweden,
while they are much more common in the urban setting of Birka (Kyhlberg
1980: 203; Gräslund 1980: 79–80).2 There are also finds of weights or balances
from two non-expertly excavated graves, and one stray find of a weight. (All finds
and their find contexts are described in detail in Holm 2015b: Catalogue 1.)
This makes 13 finds in total, mostly from farming settlement districts, but in
one case in a grave situated far outside these districts (Figure 3.2).
A few male graves stick out from the rest, being characterised by exclusive
and expensive grave goods (see below). These graves might belong to the high-
est social strata of the population in Jämtland. However, most finds of balances
and weights have been made in male graves in farming districts furnished with
objects of ordinary standard in Jämtland, such as belt buckles and penannular
brooches of copper alloy or iron, axes, spearheads, arrowheads suitable for
hunting, knives, combs, fire-making tools and whetstones. Reasonably, these
graves represent a middle-class segment of the farming population in Jämtland.
Based on find combinations and typologies, all graves with weighing equip-
ment and with reliable find associations can be dated more or less accurately
to the middle and late Viking period (Figure 3.3). The two non-expertly
excavated grave finds must belong to this period as well. The single stray find
of a weight might originate from a destroyed eleventh-century grave or from
an eleventh/twelfth-century settlement context.
Grave Burial
875–900
900–925
925–950
950–975
975–1000
1000–1025
1025–1050
1050–1075
customs
JLM 24336 crem.;

Prästlägden, Lit mound
JLM 25410 crem.;

Josvedviken, flat gr.
Rödön
JLM 902 crem.;

Västbyn, Frösö mound
JLM 20774 Präst crem.;

bordet, Brunflo mound
JLM 26 Sota, crem.;

Rödön* cairn
JLM 23347 crem.;

Sanne, Hackås mound
JLM 1001 Rösta, inhum.;

?
Ås* stone s.
SHM 12426 M IV, inhum.;

?
Rösta, Ås mound
JLM 29826 crem.;

Jormön, flat gr.
Frostviken
JLM 9036 Hög inhum.;

?
gärde, Lockne mound
SHM 12426 M I, inhum.;

Rösta, Ås mound
SHM 12426 M III, inhum.;

Rösta, Ås mound
Figure 3.3 Chronological chart showing approximate datings (based on find combinations
and typologies) of graves in Jämtland containing weights and/or balances.
Note: * = Non-expertly excavated; crem. = cremation; gr. = grave; inhum. = inhumation; stone
s. = stone setting.
The better-preserved balances were all originally collapsible, with a foldable

beam, so that they could be kept securely in a small case of wood or other
material (for two examples, see Figures 3.4 and 3.5). In two cremation graves
only small fragments of the scale pans were recovered.
Figure 3.4 A balance found in a grave at Höggärde in Lockne parish (JLM 9036,
c. ad 975/1000–25). Note how a crack in one of its scale pans (the right
one in the picture) has been repaired by making three pairs of extra holes,
through which thin threads were inserted. One of these threads is still in
position. Diameter of the scale pans: c. 57 mm.
Source: Photo by Bengt Nordqvist, Jamtli.
Note: Two knots, where the suspension threads from each scale pan converged, are not shown
in the picture.
Figure 3.5 A balance found in a grave at Prästbordet in Brunflo parish (JLM 20774,
tenth century).
Figure 3.6 Some of the best-preserved weights found in Jämtland. Upper row from
left: 1. Nyland, close to Josvedviken at Lake Storsjön, Rödön parish
(JLM 25410). 2. Rösta in Ås parish (JLM 1001); diameter: 26.5 mm.
3. Sanne in Hackås parish (JLM 23347). Lower row: 1–3. Rösta
(male grave I; SHM 12426). 4. Jormön in Lake Lill-Jorm, Frostviken
parish (JLM 29826). 5. Vamsta in Brunflo parish (belonging to Brunflo
hembygdsförening). The last is made of copper alloy; all the others are iron
weights with a copper-alloy coating.
All of the metal weights are shaped as oblate spheroids (Figure 3.6), with
the sole exception of a small, cubo-octahedral weight in a set of weights in
one of the inhumation graves. However, judging from the position of finds
in inhumation graves, and from analogies, there are some other objects that
probably or possibly have been used as weights as well, such as a knob from an
oval brooch (for parallels see Kyhlberg 1980: 224–7 and Jansson 1985: 157), a
cube of lead and two small stones.
Equipment for trade?

The use of weights and balances for measuring out the desired amount of
silver in payment transactions is well attested in different kinds of sources
(Kyhlberg 1980; Steuer 1987, 1997; Sperber 1996; Gustin 2004: 97–107;
Kilger 2008, 2011; Brather 2010). But such equipment was also used to
weigh non-ferrous metals in connection with casting activities, such as
bronze casting (Gustin 2004: 107–8 and refs. therein; Pedersen 2008). Can
it be that the weights and balances found in Jämtland have been used for
the latter purpose?
The archaeological evidence contradicts this possibility. First, in three
out of four inhumation graves in Jämtland, small amounts of hacksilver and
silver coins (whole or in pieces) have been found lying together or in close
proximity to a balance and one or several weights (Figure 3.7). This makes a
50 Olof Holm
Figure 3.7 Silver found close to the balance (Figure 3.4) and a weight in the
Höggärde grave (JLM 9036). Total weight: c. 10 g. Length of rod: 37 mm.
strong argument that the weights and balances in question actually were used,
and maybe also were intended to be used (in the afterlives of the deceased),
for weighing silver in payment transactions. Second, in terms of their mass,
the oblate spheroid weights found in Jämtland can, in general, be ascribed to
the same weight standards that were commonly used in Birka and Sigtuna,
for example, in the middle and late Viking period (Schultzén 2014, 2015).
Their mass is often calibrated as a certain number of units (usually marked on
their polar surfaces) corresponding to multiples of either c. 4.0 g or c. 4.27
g (see Table 3.1).3 This suggests that the owners of the weights and balances
were using the same principles of dealing with silver as people did at these
trading centres.
A couple of finds are of special interest. As Figure 3.4 shows, the balance
recovered in an inhumation grave at Höggärde, in Lockne parish, had been
broken and subsequently repaired. This indicates that the balance was not
new and that it had been frequently used by its owner before it ended up
in the grave. The weight from a grave at Sanne, in Hackås parish, also bears
Table 3.1 A selection of oblate spheroid weights found in Jämtland and Härjedalen
divided into two classes: one calibrated to a certain number of units
corresponding to multiples of c. 4.0 g, the other calibrated to a certain
number of units corresponding to multiples of c. 4.27 g
Units (punch-marks on the poles) Modules: c. 4.27 g
c. 4.0 g
3 (2+1) c. 12 g: #3
6 (3+3) c. 24 g: #3 c. 25.6 g: #Lj.
8 c. 34.2 g: #Lj.
10 (5+5) c. 40 g: #3, #6, #12 c. 42.7 g: #8
14 c. 59.8 g: #1?
Note: Figures (#) refer to the finds in Holm 2015b: cat. 1; ‘Lj.’ refers to weights found in a grave
at Ljungdalen, in Storsjö parish in Härjedalen, not far from the present Jämtland border (JLM
28050). The three best-preserved (but now missing) weights from find no. 3 (Man’s Grave III
at Rösta, Ås parish) are listed here with their weighed masses according to Kjellmark 1905. All
others are listed with their reconstructed masses according to Schultzén 2015.
signs of having been used. At the point of manufacture, it must have weighed
about 18.3 g, a mass deviating from all possible multiples of the units men-
tioned. However, on one of its poles, two furrows have been deliberately
made, probably with a file (these are now filled with rust from its iron core;
see Figure 3.6). The furrows might have been made to adjust the mass of the
weight, reducing it to four units of either c. 4.0 g or c. 4.27 g, making the
total mass c. 16 g or 17 g, which might have made it more useful (see Steuer
1997: 312–15 for similar cases).
My conclusions, based on analysis of the grave material from Jämtland, can
be summarised as follows:
•• The balances and weights found in graves have been produced mainly
in distant emporia such as Birka and Sigtuna, and were used by people
living in Jämtland primarily as tools for trade, namely to weigh silver in
payment transactions. (This conclusion does not exclude the idea that the
weighing equipment may have carried symbolic meanings when used in
the funerary rites.)
•• These finds are so common and so widespread among the population in
the middle and late Viking period that trading in that period cannot have
been restricted to or controlled by a small elite in Jämtland. Instead, many
people living there were included in trading networks and participated in
buying and selling goods to such an extent that they found it practical to
use weighed silver as a medium of exchange.
•• The grave finds suggest that mostly – but not exclusively – men were
familiar with weights and balances as tools of trade.
•• They belonged to households not only in the farming districts of Jämtland
but outside the farming districts as well (cf. Figure 3.2).
52 Olof Holm
Supporting evidence
These conclusions based on the grave material gain support from other sources.
A small silver hoard was found in the early eighteenth century at a farmstead on
Frösön formerly called Kråksta (Zachrisson 1991; Wiséhn 1992: Cat. no. 14).
It is not preserved but was reported as mainly consisting of Arabic (Islamic)
coins cut into pieces. The fact that many coins had been fragmentised is to be
expected in an area where silver was used as a means of payment according to
weight. This observation also matches the cut coins found in the inhumation
graves mentioned above. The Oriental origin of the coins suggests that the
hoard was deposited in the middle Viking period.4
The runic inscription on the iron ring from Forsa in Hälsingland (Liestøl
1979) is also elucidatory. It has been dated to the tenth century on linguistic
and runological grounds (Källström 2010) and tells us that a fine for a certain
offence was, according to what was called ‘the law of the people’ (liūðrēttr),
one ox and two aura. If the offence was repeated, the fine was to be doubled
each time. The word aura is the plural accusative of øyrir (Sw. öre; Norw. øre),
denoting a certain amount of silver (Källström 2010: 229; Jonsson 2011: 254).
This piece of evidence shows that the value of such a weight unit of silver at
that time was commonly known in Hälsingland, just as was the value of an
ox. Reasonably, this implies that oxen as well as weighed silver were used as
universal means of payment in this province – which lies not far south-east of
Jämtland (cf. Figure 3.2).
A somewhat younger but still very early written source is a legal prescription
from the now-lost older Frostathing Law, probably dating from the late
eleventh or early twelfth century (Frostatingslova: xi; Ljungqvist 2014: 370–1).
The prescription has been inserted and preserved in a paragraph (VII: 27) in
the extant thirteenth-century version of the same law (Norges gamle Love indtil
1387 I: 204). The Frostathing Law was the law valid in Trøndelag in Norway,
bordering Jämtland in the east. The paragraph states that if the Norwegian
king had proclaimed a ban on leaving the country (farbann), people were still
allowed to travel abroad with the king’s permission ‘to Frösö or other fairs’
(til Fræseyiar eða i aðrar caupstemnur) to carry on trading (caupum caupa) – even
with the king’s enemies, if they had gone there too. An institutionalised fair in
central Jämtland, attracting visitors from far away, is just what can be expected
at that point in time with regard to the widespread use of silver as a medium
of exchange here since the tenth century. Fairs are important as interregional
trade opportunities for the populace, and the visibility of marketplace transac-
tions is necessary to deter fraud (Lie 1992: 513).
Concluding remarks
The Jämtland case demonstrates that even in a rural area far from the large
trading centres of the Viking period, there might have been many people who
were active in buying and selling goods, performing transactions with many
partners and using silver as a medium of exchange – not dissimilar to what
urban people did. To help them in this they had weights and balances, which
in Jämtland are very commonly found in male graves from the middle and late
Viking period.
But how do we explain why so many people in Jämtland were actively
trading? An explanation that immediately suggests itself is that the conditions
for grain production in this region were risky, due to the harsh climate. There
are many historical parallels of marginal areas where farmers try to increase
the margin of security against want by seeking out the possibilities of market-
oriented production and extensive trade (see, e.g. Martens 1992; Maarbjerg
2001; Loveluck 2013: 361). With access to exchange products or capital, house-
holds had better chances to barter or buy things which they really needed but
which were sometimes missing, such as seed after crop failures. Reasonably,
this must have been an incentive not only for a few but for numerous farming
households in Jämtland to get involved in trading activities and produce goods
for exchange (Holm 2011: 213).
However, this explanation alone is not sufficient. Northern Norway, for
example, was likewise a marginal area for farming, but it seems that silver did
not circulate as a medium of exchange to any large extent there. Hoards found
there usually consist of whole silver objects and scarcely any hacksilver (Hårdh
1996: 120, 172–3). A complementary explanation might be that Jämtland was
a region characterised by comparatively low local stratification, which enabled
popular participation in trade, while exchange in northern Norway may to a
larger extent have been in the hands of chieftains (as outlined by Hansen 1990;
this explanation is developed in Holm 2015b).
The evidence I have put forward suggests that Jämtland was not stratified
in the middle and late Viking period to the degree that a small, dominant elite
group was in control of trade. But there were still differences in wealth and
power between households and individuals. For example, the wealth necessary
to acquire and deposit the valuable horse equipment in male grave III at Rösta,
in Ås parish (SHM 12426), including silver-coated bridle mounts (Kjellmark
1905: Fig. 11), appears different from the more modest wealth needed for
depositing the simple horse equipment in the contemporary or somewhat
older grave at Höggärde, in Lockne parish (i.e. the grave with the repaired
balance, JLM 9036). The state-of-the-art sword of Petersen’s type S with silver
inlay on the pommel and guards (Holm 2015b: Fig. 10), deposited in the grave
at Jormön in Frostviken parish (JLM 29826), displays greater affluence than,
for example, the simpler type-M sword (though with a decorated antler grip)
deposited in another, probably somewhat older grave in a mountainous area of
Jämtland (Holm 2015a).
Popular involvement in trade in Jämtland must also have been facilitated
by the fact that winter, not summer, was the best season for transport in this
part of Scandinavia (cf. Friberg 1951: 78–9, 88, 104, 119, 276–81). Members
of the farmers’ households were in wintertime not occupied with agricultural
activities and thus more free to travel with their horses on trading journeys,
using sledges for transporting goods. Other factors might have been important
54 Olof Holm
as well, such as the peculiar geographical position of Jämtland, between eastern
and western Scandinavia, in an area where the mountain range was compara-
tively low (Figure 3.1), and economic complementarity between farmers and
other groups of people living in the region.
The evidence put forward in this chapter originates from the middle and
late Viking period. In the early Viking period (late eighth century – c. 875),
people in Jämtland might have been involved in trading networks as well,
using media of exchange other than silver, or to a large extent trading one
commodity directly for another. This is impossible to know, due to the lack
of sources. However, it seems very likely that silver facilitated exchange, once
it became more accessible in the middle Viking period and once principles
of dealing with it were accepted. It is thus possible that the use of silver as
a medium of exchange stimulated the economy as a whole in the region of
Jämtland – a region which saw a considerable population growth throughout
the Viking period (Holm 2011: 222).
A final reflection might be appropriate. The Viking-period expansion of trade
in Jämtland and the acceptance of principles of dealing with silver as a medium
of exchange came about even though Jämtland was not incorporated into a
medieval kingdom. In Historia Norwegie (c. 1150/75) Jämtland is still described as
belonging neither to Norway nor to Svethiudh (the core of the Swedish realm;
Holm 2003: 183). This reminds us of the relevance of a remark made by Dagfinn
Skre (2008: 340), namely that ‘production and trade grow out of natural condi-
tions, social relationships, cultural norms and an economic agency – all of which
lay well beyond the range of control of the earliest kings’ (cf. Sindbæk 2005:
25–7, 266–7; Roslund 2009: 219, 237–8; Loveluck 2013: 367).
Acknowledgements
The research presented in this chapter was funded by Landsprosten Erik
Anderssons Minnesfond and by a postdoctoral scholarship from the Department
of History, Stockholm University. My thanks especially to Joakim Schultzén
(Archaeological Research Laboratory, Stockholm University) for analysing the
mass of several weights and to Bengt Nordqvist and Anders Edvinsson (JLM)
for help with accessing finds.
Abbreviations
JLM:
Jamtli (Jämtlands läns museum), Östersund, Sweden (number
denotes inventory number)
SHM: Historiska museet, Stockholm (number denotes inventory number)
Notes
1 For two other recently published regional case studies, see Gullbekk (2014) on
Vestfold and Ingvardson (2014) on Bornholm.
2 Anne Stalsberg (1991: 78–9) asserts that ‘17%’ of 47 gendered graves in Norway
containing balances are female graves. That figure, often cited in the literature (e.g.
Sørheim 2014: 114), is not reliable, since she has included a number of non-expertly
recovered and obviously mixed or uncertain grave finds in her calculation (see
Christensen 1996: 6–8). Erik Jondell (1974: 34), analysing the same material, could
not observe any definite female graves containing balances.
3 The best-preserved weights from Jämtland have been analysed by Joakim Schultzén
at the Archaeological Research Laboratory, Stockholm University, using CAD meth-
odology to digitally reconstruct their original volumes and masses (for the method,
see Schultzén 2011).
4 Another lost hoard consisting of Islamic coins has been reported from Hällesjö in
eastern Jämtland (Hasselberg 1976: 11–12). A couple of stray finds of Viking-period
coins and hacksilver have been recorded as well (Wiséhn 1992: Cat. no. 22; JLM 996).
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4 Domestic and exotic materials in
early medieval Norwegian towns
An archaeological perspective on
production, procurement
and consumption
Gitte Hansen
Introduction
A new generation of towns emerged in Norway in the late tenth to early
eleventh centuries. During the Middle Ages the towns became local, regional
or even superregional and international centres of administration, religion and
trade. What types of production took place in these towns; what was con-
sumed? From where and how did raw materials and produce end up there?
In research on towns of the Viking Age these are almost classical questions
that have received much attention (e.g. Callmer 1994; Sindbæk 2005, 2007).
In contrast to this situation, broad comparative studies of medieval urban
production, procurement and consumption of domestic and exotic materials
are rare; most often towns, crafts, objects or raw material groups are treated
individually (e.g. Christophersen and Walaker Nordeide 1994; Hansen 2005;
Baug 2013; and papers in Gläser et al. 1999; Gläser et al. 2006; Gläser et al.
2008; Engberg et al. 2009). In a Scandinavian context Broberg and Hasselmo’s
(1982) study of seven Swedish towns is still a rare example of a broader
synthesising approach.
The present chapter is a first attempt to give a broadly based overview of
early medieval Norwegian urban production, procurement and consumption
of domestic and exotic materials. The chapter is mainly based on archaeologi-
cal sources. It is broad in the sense that it involves several types of production,
raw materials and goods and applies a comparative perspective where most of
the known early medieval Norwegian urban sites are included. It is narrow,
however, in its time perspective, focusing in detail on the early phases of the
towns’ history, from their beginnings in the tenth or early eleventh century
to the middle of the twelfth century. The survey includes major productive
activities carried out in the early medieval Norwegian towns and the raw
materials included in the production. The most frequent domestic and exotic
products consumed in the towns are also included. Procurement networks that
supplied the urban consumers with raw materials and goods are addressed on a
general level with a view to the resource areas that delivered the raw materials
60 Gitte Hansen
and products. The social aspects of the networks will not be addressed at any
length, since this is a subject that cannot be given justice within the limits
of the chapter. The aims are thus to give a first overview and a discussion of
immediate patterns, and to uncover potential for further studies.
Data and methodology

In documentary records, fourteen places are mentioned in urban terms in relation
to the period before 1200 in medieval Norway (Helle and Nedkvitne 1977:
206). With the exception of Steinkjer in Nord-Trøndelag County, where no
relevant data is found for the period in focus here (Helle et al. 2006: 53), all of
these places are included. To avoid the classic discussion of if and when these
places were towns, I cut the Gordian knot and call them towns from their ear-
liest non-rural phases onwards. Dates for the first relevant activities differ. In
Trondheim, Veøy, Borgund, Kaupanger and Skien, non-rural activities based
on various criteria and levels of certainty date from different parts of the tenth
century (Myrvoll 1992: 167; Christophersen and Walaker Nordeide 1994:
266–74, Fig. 23; Knagenhjelm 2008; Larsen 2008; Solli 2008: 122; Brendalsmo
and Molaug 2014). Meanwhile, in Vågan, Bergen, Stavanger, Tønsberg, Oslo,
Hamar, Borg (Sarpsborg) and Kungahälla (the latter located in present-day
Sweden), the first non-rural activities are tentatively dated to parts of the elev-
enth century (Lindh 1992; Hansen 2005; Helle et al. 2006: 41–62; Carlsson
2008: 229; Molaug 2008: 76; Ulriksen 2008: 96–7). Figure 4.1 shows the loca-
tion of the places in today’s counties and the approximate dates of their oldest
non-rural phases. The survey addresses production and consumption in the
first 150 to 200 years of the towns’ history, here called the early medieval period,
from their beginnings to the mid-twelfth century (c. 1150–70). As a finely
meshed chronology for the early medieval period is not available for most
places, the period is treated as a whole.
To establish analytical categories, the towns are classified as large, medium
or small based on the approximate number of monuments erected or initiated
during the early Middle Ages (see survey of monumental building activities
below; for a similar approach, see Andrén 1985). Furthermore, a distinction is
made between the western and eastern Norwegian towns.
•• Small – one or two monuments: Veøy, Kaupanger, Stavanger, Hamar and

Borg.
•• Medium – three to five monuments: Borgund, Skien, Tønsberg and
Kungahälla.
•• Large – six or more monuments: Trondheim, Bergen and Oslo.
The grouping is rough, and knowing in retrospect that places like Hamar and
Stavanger became important ecclesiastical centres, and that Borgund in the late
fourteenth century was characterised as a small trading place (koupstad) in a
law of 1384 (NgL: 222), it might be argued that the number of early medieval
Materials in early medieval Norwegian towns 61
Figure 4.1 Counties in today’s Norway and thirteen early medieval towns in medieval
Norway, with approximate dates for the oldest non-agrarian activities.
The size of the dots reflect the size of the town: L = large, M = medium,
S = small.
Source: Map by Gitte Hansen.
monuments is not a valid measure of size or ‘importance’. In the present sur-

vey, however, the early medieval period is in focus and a perspective from this
period is considered relevant.
62 Gitte Hansen
For Scandinavia, written sources that concern urban production, consumption
and procurement of materials and goods are rare and deal almost exclusively with
periods after the early Middle Ages. For our purpose the archaeological data thus
constitutes the main source. Information from the urban places varies greatly, for
example from the written records’ brief mention of the foundation of a church
or of small-scale archaeological data from the early days of medieval archaeology,
to detailed datasets retrieved in recent decades from large-scale excavations. In
Trondheim, Bergen, Tønsberg and Oslo large-scale excavations have been carried
out and much data has been investigated and made accessible (e.g. Oslo 1977–91;
Bergen 1985–2013; Trondheim 1985–94; Tønsberg 1989; Christophersen and
Walaker Nordeide 1994; NIKU 1996–2016; papers in Andersson et al. 2008).
For these places it seems likely that the published and otherwise accessible data is
fairly representative for production and consumption in these towns’ early medi-
eval phases. Objects dating before 1100 are, for methodological reasons, limited in
Bergen, but from c. 1100 the dataset is considered fairly representative for activi-
ties here (Hansen 2005). The sources for Skien and Kungahälla also seem quite
satisfactory; here a few, rather large sites excavated by modern methods provide
relevant finely meshed information (e.g. Myrvoll 1992; Andersson et al. 2001).
While it is hard to judge whether the material from these two towns is repre-
sentative in the true meaning of the word, here it is assumed that the finds reflect
some general trends for the towns. From Veøy and Kaupanger, old, relatively
small-scale excavation data, supplemented with more recent pinpoint investiga-
tions, gives valuable insight albeit not so finely meshed as regards dating (Solli
1996, 2008; Knagenhjelm 2004, 2008). From Borgund a large dataset exists, but
only a few artefact categories have been studied, and generally the data is not
published in any detail (e.g. Larsen 2008). Regarding Stavanger, data is sparse,
mostly retrieved during the early days of medieval archaeology (e.g. Lillehammer
1972), and is not extensively published. From Vågan (Bertelsen 2008) and Hamar
archaeological sources are not informative for the period under research.
If the available sources from the individual sites were representative of the
production and consumption occurring during the early medieval period,
one might conclude based on both the presence of materials and ex silentio.
However, with the actual variation in the level of detail and amount of data
from town to town, the main approach in this survey has been to emphasise
the presence rather than absence of information, and thematically include the
individual towns in so far as relevant data was available. Archaeological and
historical studies of individual towns, crafts, object groups and raw materials,
syntheses of large excavation projects and to some extent original documenta-
tion in museum archives have been surveyed.
In a comprehensive study of activities in early medieval Bergen, sixteen
productive activities were identified archaeologically (Table 4.1) (Hansen
2005: Tab. 58). The Bergen list gives an empirically well-founded example
of the rather narrow scope of archaeologically recognised crafts encountered
in a newly established early medieval Norwegian town. In several of the con-
temporary towns many of the same activities are found. Here an overview is
attempted for the most common and most raw material/resource-demanding
Table 4.1 Production documented from c. 1020/30–c. 1170 in Bergen
Date
Combmaking
Antler, bone, horn and
whale/walrus bone
working
Shoemaking
Leatherworking
Metalworking
Large-scale stoneworking
Small-scale stoneworking
Large-scale woodworking
Small-scale woodworking
Skin dressing
Textile production
Fishing
Hunting/war/game
Basic cooking
Food processing
Beverage processing
1020/30– ? ?
c. 1070
c. 1070– ? ? X X ? ? ?
c. 1100
c. 1100– X X X X X X X X X X
c. 1120s
c. 1120s– X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X
c. 1170
Source: After Hansen (2005: Tab. 58).
productive activities. Also, the most commonly recognised domestic and

exotic objects are included in the survey and the presence of early medieval
monumental structures mentioned in written records is incorporated.
The raw materials and objects in focus originated from Norway (domestic)
and from areas outside medieval Norway (exotic) and were brought to the
towns through procurement networks. As already mentioned, the social
dimensions of networks are not addressed at any length here. The distances
between the towns and source areas define procurement networks with three
levels of geographical reach: (1) Networks with a regional reach that supplied
the towns with resources and products derived from the town’s hinterland. The
hinterland is defined broadly as the modern-day county where the respective
towns are located (cf. Figure 4.1); (2) Networks with an interregional reach that
supplied the towns with materials from domestic regions beyond the county;
(3) Networks with an international reach that supplied the towns with exotic
resources and objects. The presentation follows this three-levelled scale: First,
large-scale production requiring domestic raw materials; second, small-scale
crafts production involving domestic and exotic materials and portable objects
made of domestic stone materials; and third, imported pottery.
Production, procurement and consumption
Constructing the towns: consumption of stone and timber

The large-scale production carried out in the early medieval towns involved
construction of the towns’ buildings and infrastructure. From archaeological
64 Gitte Hansen
and written sources we know that churches, royal seats, bishops’ seats and
monasteries were planned and erected in this period. Often the exact number
of monuments is difficult to establish and it is hard to decide how to count
successive generations of buildings. A tentative overview shows the follow-
ing: in Vågan one church was founded and in Trondheim the number adds
up to about nine (Helle et al. 2006: 50–4), at Veøy two or three (Solli 1996),
at Borgund three or four (Larsen 2008: 42), at Kaupanger one (Knagenhjelm
2008), in Bergen fifteen monuments were initiated before 1170 (Hansen 2005),
in Stavanger at least one (Helle et al. 2006: 48) and in Skien one church and
two monasteries (Myrvoll 1992: 17), altogether making three monumental
building complexes, in Tønsberg perhaps four or five (Ulriksen 2008), in Oslo
about six (Molaug 2008: 76–85), at Hamar at least one, two at Borg (Helle
et al. 2006: 58) and finally three or perhaps four in Kungahälla (Carlsson 2008:
229–30). Most of the monuments were, if not initially, then eventually built
in stone and altogether more than fifty stone-built monumental structures were
initiated in the towns’ early medieval period. Some may have been quite small
so an assessment of stone resource demands should be balanced according to
the place in focus. Still, from the end of the eleventh/beginning of the twelfth
century, stone seems to be the preferred material, and then only roof construc-
tions and details in the building were made of wood (Ekroll et al. 2000: 11, 19).
Wood was the main resource used in the towns’ non-monumental secular
settlement and the towns’ infrastructures – roads, passages, wells, harbour
structures, etc. – were almost exclusively built in timber. Figure 4.2 shows the
reconstruction of central areas of the largest towns in the eleventh to twelfth
centuries: Trondheim, Bergen and Oslo. We get the impression of rather
sparsely built settlement areas. The eleventh to twelfth-century Norwegian
towns were not very large by any measures. Still, some towns, notably Bergen
and Oslo, were repeatedly ravaged by large fires and the need for fresh timber
was significant, even though wood was reused (Hansen 2015a). An estimate
based on archaeological data suggests that 10,000 mål (1 mål = 1000 m2) of
woodland was required to meet the demand for buildings in Oslo about ad
1300 (Fett 1989: 85–8). The estimate is not directly transferrable to the early
medieval phases of the towns, but nevertheless gives an idea of the demand for
timber to satisfy the needs of a medieval urban community in Norway.
It’s obvious that we are dealing with large amounts of stone and wood,
which had to be procured and transported to the new towns. Building stones
that have been identified in early medieval monuments in different parts of the
country include granite in the Østfold and Vestfold counties, limestone in the
Mjøsregion, marble in Trøndelag and Northern Norway and chlorite schist
and soapstone in West and Central Norway (Ekroll et al. 2000: 22). The type
of stone that was used thus varies from one part of the country to another, and
suggests a regional provenance of raw materials. Geological and archaeologi-
cal cross-disciplinary determination of the provenance of chlorite schist build-
ing stone in the Stavanger cathedral, chlorite schist and soapstone used in the
Nidaros Cathedral in Trondheim and soapstone in the twelfth-century Bergen
a
b c
Figure 4.2 Reconstruction of central settlement areas in early medieval Bergen (a),
Oslo (b) and Trondheim (c).
Source: Trondheim: from Christophersen and Nordeide (1994: Fig. 222), drawing by Kari
Støren Binns; Oslo: from Molaug 2008, drawing by Marianne Brochmann; Bergen: drawing by
Egill Reimers and Per Bækken University Museum of Bergen.
66 Gitte Hansen
churches confirms that both ashlars and ornamental stones came from regional
quarries (Ekroll et al. 2000: 22; Storemyr and Heldal 2002; Jansen 2005; Jansen
et al. 2009; Storemyr et al. 2010; Storemyr 2015: 173–236). For wood, growth
ring patterns in Norwegian conifer dendro-chronologies show that consum-
ers in Trondheim, Bergen and Oslo received their construction timber from
regional forests (Thun 2002: 218–27).
To sum up, large-scale investments in building the towns’ infrastructure
were carried out. The production required large quantities of stone and wood,
obtained from regional quarries and forests.
Small-scale crafts: consumption involving domestic and

exotic raw materials
Articles for everyday use and personal accessories were produced and con-
sumed in the towns. Here crafts production and consumption related to iron
working, non-ferrous metalworking, comb production and shoemaking are
treated. Some of these productive activities potentially involved raw materials
of both domestic and exotic origin (see Table 4.2).
Iron may have been supplied to the towns as a raw material that was further
processed in town or as finished objects. In the archaeological literature, iron
working in the towns is mainly identified through finds of slag and scrap iron
(Hansen 2005: 165 with references). In central areas of Trondheim deposits
of small amounts of slag dating from c. 1000 and throughout the early medi-
eval period are interpreted as the remains of iron working (Bergquist 1989:
108–21). From c. 1150 and on, large-scale iron production was established
in the outskirts of the town (Christophersen 2015). At Veøy smithies were
Table 4.2 Summary of the small-scale urban production involving domestic and

exotic raw materials in early medieval Norway. 10th: Tenth century,
E11th: Early eleventh century (c. 1000–1030), M11th: Middle eleventh
century (c. 1030–70), L11th: Late eleventh century (c. 1070–1100),
E12th: Early twelfth century (c. 1100–30), M12th: Middle twelfth century
(c. 1130–70)
Metalworking/iron
Size Site name 10th E11th M11th L11th E12th M12th
L Trondheim 900s–
West
S Veøy 900s–
S Kaupanger 900s/1000–s
L Bergen 1020/30–
M Tønsberg 1000s–
East
L Oslo c. 1000–
M Kungahälla c. 1100–
Metalworking/non-ferrous
L Trondheim 900s–
West
L Bergen 1020/30–
M Skien 900s–
East
L Oslo c. 1000–
Combmaking
L Trondheim 900s–
West
L Bergen 1020/30–
S Stavanger 1100s–
M Skien 900s–
East
L Oslo c. 1000–
Shoemaking E = embroidery,
S = silk yarn
L Trondheim E/S
West
900s–
M Borgund E
900/
1000s–?
L Bergen E/S
1020/30–
M Skien 900s– E
East
M Tønsberg
1000s–
L Oslo E/S
c. 1000–
M Kungahälla
c. 1100–
Note: Merged cells = broad dating evidence. Only towns with available data are included.
68 Gitte Hansen
established in the course of the twelfth century, and iron working intensified
in the subsequent periods (Solli 1996: 176). At Kaupanger iron working dates
back to the period under research and is intensified in the subsequent periods
(Knagenhjelm 2008: 64 and Christoffer Knagenhjelm pers. comm. 2016). In
Bergen, iron working is documented through small amounts of slag from the
1120s and, according to written sources, some blacksmiths were probably sed-
entary from the mid-twelfth century (Hansen 2005: 165–8). In Tønsberg iron
working is documented from c. 1150 onwards (Jakobsen 1991). In Oslo slag
associated with iron working is found from the late eleventh century (Molaug
2002: 62, Petter Molaug pers. comm. 2016). In Kungahälla, iron working is
documented through small amounts of slag from c. 1140 (Rytter 2001: 78, 104).
As seen in Table 4.2, iron working has been documented in seven of the
towns. In Trondheim, Bergen, Tønsberg, Oslo and Kungahälla the docu-
mented iron working seems modest, with only small amounts of slag found. In
the smaller west Norwegian towns of Veøy and Kaupanger, data is too sparse to
make any speculations on the size of production in the early Middle Ages, but
iron working seems to become important here, as in Trondheim, in the periods
to come. The craft was probably carried out by both sedentary and itinerant
smiths (Hansen 2005, 2015b). Iron working is documented to have taken place
in central parts of the towns where ordinary people lived. Additional iron work-
ing may, being a fire hazardous activity, perhaps also have been carried out in
the outskirts of the towns, as mandated in Magnus Lagabøter’s late thirteenth-
century town law (Helle 1982: 432 with references). In Bergen no traces of
major iron working have been found in the outskirts of the early medieval town
even though large areas have been investigated, so for this town the impression
of modest early medieval production is still valid. Iron may well also have been
worked in connection with the development of monumental buildings, but this
cannot be substantiated from the archaeological sources at hand. The impression
from the survey is thus that iron working in large and medium towns both in
the west and east of Norway was rather modest in the early medieval period.
The size of production in small western towns awaits further research.
Urban consumption of iron has to date not been studied in detail, and
information on iron finds from the above-mentioned towns is scarce. In a pilot
study the variety of objects used, and the amount of iron needed in medieval
Scandinavian towns, was addressed with Bergen as one of the cases. A compi-
lation of iron object categories found in mid-twelfth-century Bergen showed
that, even if the repertoire of objects was not particularly wide, iron was used
in many spheres of life, for example in connection with buildings e.g. door
hinges and door locks, and as portable objects e.g. tools and keys (Andersson
et al. 2015). It is possible that this applies to all towns. In Skien, iron objects
are thus found from the earliest phases and onwards (Myrvoll 1992: Appendix),
and the same applies to Oslo (G. Færden 1990: Tab. p. 183).
The urban consumption of iron is worth more consideration. When the
amount of iron consumed in a fifty-year period in mid-twelfth-century
Bergen was estimated, quite surprising results came up: Based on the weight of
archaeological objects of iron retrieved per excavated m2, and the size of Bergen
in the mid-twelfth century, a calculation showed that iron objects amounting to
only c. 82 kg would have been lost or discarded by the townspeople during this
time, and thus would have gone out of circulation. Even if the weight is mul-
tiplied several times to consider, for instance, taphonomic factors, the amount
of iron that went out of use was much smaller than expected (for further details
see Andersson et al. 2015: 223–5). So, in spite of the fact that the calculation
does not directly reflect the amount of iron in circulation in Bergen, one is
still left with the impression that Bergen was not a large consumer of iron dur-
ing the twelfth century. In contrast, medieval iron objects in Oslo retrieved
archaeologically are characterised as ‘numerous’ (G. Færden 1990: 184); Petter
Molaug (pers. comm. 2016) has kindly informed me that at the Mindets Tomt
site iron finds make up c. 9 per cent of the total find assemblage from the
eleventh century to the early twelfth century. In Bergen, iron finds from the
mid-twelfth century make up 1.9 per cent of the total finds from the town
area (Andersson et al. 2015: 223). If we take these numbers at face value, the
consumption in Bergen is relatively modest compared to Oslo. The seemingly
modest consumption in Bergen could be explained by the town’s location
some distance away from the most significant iron production districts; most
iron production took place in the eastern parts of Norway, as well as in the
Trøndelag region, beyond Bergen’s hinterlands in the period under study
(e.g. Stenvik 1997; Larsen 2009; Christophersen 2015: 100).
In conclusion, one may assume that since some urban iron working has
been documented, some objects must have been produced by smiths in town.
Trace element analysis showed that iron objects from Oslo dated to the period
before c. 1275 must have come from four main resource areas; after 1275, the
number of sources diminishes and includes only one source area after 1500
(A. Færden 1990: 328). The resource areas are not localised. The analysed
material is limited, but if we accept this data, it may imply a development over
time from many to fewer suppliers involved in providing urban consumers
with iron objects/raw material (cf. Schia 1989: 151). Still, whether the early
medieval Norwegian towns were self-suppliers of objects of iron, or if some
were brought into town, cannot be substantiated through the available datasets.
Several large-scale iron production sites were located in valleys and mountain
areas in mid- and eastern Norway. With this in mind, iron was most likely
a domestic product. Since the extraction areas were some distance from the
towns, it is assumed here that iron was brought to the towns through networks
with an interregional reach.
Non-ferrous metalworking is documented in the towns through crucibles,
moulds, metal waste and specialised tools. Identification of metals through
geochemical analysis has only been carried out in a few of the places. In
Trondheim remnants of non-ferrous metalworking are found from the
end of the 900s and throughout the early Middle Ages. Copper with zinc
and/or lead were the most important metals. Silver was also used for per-
sonal accessories and from 1050–1100 minting was possibly carried out
70 Gitte Hansen
(Christophersen and Walaker Nordeide 1994: 217–22 with references;
Christophersen 2015). At Veøy and Kaupanger non-ferrous metalworking
is documented, but whether the activities date back to the period under
study is uncertain (Solli 1996: 176; Knagenhjelm 2008: 64). In Bergen non-
ferrous metalworking is documented from c. 1100 (Hansen 2005: 165–8,
191–4). In Skien metalworking involving copper alloys is recognised from
the second half of the 900s onwards (Myrvoll 1992: 240–4: Figs 90–1).
In Tønsberg the presence of non-ferrous metalworking is considered to be
likely from c. 1150 (Jakobsen 1991: 152). In Oslo non-ferrous metalworking
is demonstrated from the eleventh century, using copper alloys, silver and lead
(G. Færden 1990: 186–95; Wikstrøm 2006: 68–70). Finally non-ferrous met-
alworking is documented in Kungahälla from c. 1140 (Rytter 2001: 102–5).
It is likely, but not empirically confirmed, that, like in Viking-Age Kaupang
(Pedersen 2015), crucibles used by the early medieval urban crafts people
were made of kaolin clay. This kind of clay has been sourced in Southwest
Scandinavia and Western Europe (Pedersen 2010: 306–9 with references).
Copper alloys must also originate from places outside Norway. Aachen in
Southwest Germany has been suggested as a likely candidate for Viking-Age
copper alloys (Pedersen 2010: 233–8 with references).
The inventory of non-ferrous objects consumed in the towns is not yet
widely studied (but see Molaug 1998; Viken 2009), and the consumption
of non-ferrous objects in the urban setting cannot be securely assessed. Also,
the products from urban non-ferrous metalworkers are not well covered in
archaeological research. Still, in Trondheim moulds show that objects with a
Christian symbolic content were in the repertoire (Christophersen and Walaker
Nordeide 1994: 217–22 with references; Christophersen 2015). In Bergen, it
is documented that some non-ferrous metalworkers were also combmakers
who made rivets and decorative plates for the combs that were produced and
consumed in the town (Hansen 2015b: 44–6), and the same can be seen in
Kungahälla (Rytter 2001: 102–5). In all the documented cases the amounts
of production waste and detritus are sparse and spread over several properties
(for a discussion of relative amounts of production waste and detritus, see
Hansen 2005: 180–4).
As seen in Table 4.2, the survey shows that non-ferrous metalworking was
carried out in at least six of the towns during the period under study. These
were large towns in western Norway and large and medium-size towns in
eastern Norway. Regarding the small towns, data is uncertain for the early
medieval period. Overall production is relatively small. I have argued else-
where that it was for intra-urban consumption and carried out by itinerant
craftspeople (Hansen 2005: 203, 2015b). The procurement of raw materials
needed for non-ferrous metalworking involving copper alloy and crucibles –
possibly of kaolin clay – must thus in all likelihood have come to the towns via
networks with an international reach.
For combmaking, reindeer antler and copper alloy rivets and decorative details
were the preferred raw materials in early medieval Norway (Wiberg 1977;
Flodin 1989; Rytter 1997; Hansen 2005). Combmaking is mainly identified
through reindeer antler production waste and specialised tools. In Trondheim,
combmaking occurs in the earliest phases, in the mid-900s – and through
the entire period investigated here (Flodin 1989). In Bergen reindeer antler
detritus, along with melted drops of copper alloy, is documented from c. 1100
until c. 1170 (Hansen 2005, 2015b: 45). In Stavanger the craft is also docu-
mented in the period under study (Lillehammer 1972; Reed 2005; dates for the
material pers. comm. Reed 2010). In Skien combmaking is documented from
the second half of the 900s onwards (Myrvoll 1992: Figs 90–1). In Tønsberg
antler production waste is found in the late twelfth century (Ulriksen 1996:
Fig. 27). In Oslo, reindeer antler have been found from the last half of the
eleventh century onwards (Wikstrøm 2006: 62 with references), and finally in
Kungahälla combmaking is documented from c. 1140 (Rytter 2001: 75–110).
In all the places where combmaking is documented, detritus occurs in rela-
tively small amounts and is spread over several properties (for a discussion on
relative amounts, see Hansen 2005: 180–4).
Detritus from combmaking has been documented in six of the towns
(cf. Table 4.2). These include two large and one small town in the west and
one large and two medium towns in the east. When encountered, produc-
tion is small scale, and most likely carried out by itinerant craftspeople for
intra-urban consumption (see discussion in Hansen 2005: 203, 2015b). The
reindeer antler is derived from Norwegian mountain regions that hosted
wild populations of reindeer in the Middle Ages. We await the results from
ongoing ancient DNA analyses of production waste from Trondheim,
Bergen and Skien to see which mountain areas supplied craftspeople with
antler (Røed and Hansen 2015). Antler must have ended up in the towns via
networks with an interregional reach. The combmakers also needed cop-
per alloys for the manufacture of comb rivets and decorative plates for the
combs. The occurrence of melted drops of copper alloy in production waste
testify to the fact that combmakers handled non-ferrous metal needed in
combmaking (Hansen 2015b). They would thus also need crucibles, prob-
ably made of kaolin clay. Copper alloys and clay for crucibles, as already
mentioned, must have come to Norway via networks with an international
reach (cf. Pedersen 2010: 233–8 with references). Raw materials needed for
combmaking accordingly arrived in towns via both interregional and inter-
national networks.
Shoemaking is identified through leather waste and specialised tools such as
lasts. In Trondheim the craft is documented from the 900s and throughout the
period studied here (Christophersen and Walaker Nordeide 1994: 231–4). At
Borgund shoes were made in phases tentatively given a broad dating ‘from the
tenth/eleventh centuries until sometime before 1100’ (compare dates in Larsen
1970, 2008). In Bergen the craft is documented from c. 1100 (Hansen 2005:
162–5, 186–9). In Skien shoemaking is documented from the second half of
the tenth century (Myrvoll 1992: Figs 90–1). In Tønsberg leather crafts have
been broadly dated to the eleventh and twelfth century (Ulriksen 2008: 102).
72 Gitte Hansen
In Oslo shoemaking is carried out from c. 1000 (Tørhaug 1999; Wikstrøm
2006 with references), and in Kungahälla remnants of shoemaking are found,
but are later than the period under study (see Rytter 2001: 78). With the
exception of Borgund, where data regarding the quantity of the waste materials
is not available, detritus generally occurs in relatively small amounts (for a dis-
cussion on relative amounts, see Hansen 2005: 180–4). Embroidery yarn of silk
has been demonstrated on early medieval shoes from Bergen, Trondheim and
Oslo (Hansen 2015c). In the archaeological collections from Borgund shoes
with embroidery have been observed (Larsen 1970). Typologically they date
to the early Middle Ages. According to Myrvoll’s observations (1992: Fig. 40),
a shoe found in twelfth-century Skien has incised décor. Based on my experi-
ence with twelfth-century shoe material, I find that this shoe is almost cer-
tainly an embroidered shoe where thread is not preserved. Embroideries on
shoes were surprisingly common in the period studied here. Thus one-third of
all shoes retrieved from the twelfth century in Trondheim, Bergen and Oslo
were embroidered with decorative seams. Studies of Bergen shoes show that
embroidery yarn of silk was most common. A rough calculation of the amount
of silk embroidery yarn consumed in Bergen during the middle of the twelfth
century shows that at least 5 kg of yarn would have been used over a fifty-year
period (Hansen 2015c).
As seen in Table 4.2, shoemaking was documented in six of the towns:
these comprise two large and one medium-sized town in the west as well
as one large and two medium-sized towns in the east. Shoes with traces of
embroideries were found in five of the surveyed towns. In three of these
towns (all large) silk yarn has been observed. We do not know precisely when
silk embroidery yarn was introduced during the early Middle Ages. Where
shoemaking has been studied in some detail, it was found to be a small-scale
enterprise, suggesting that shoes were produced primarily by itinerant craft-
speople for intra-urban consumption (see discussion and further references in
Hansen 2005: 203, 2015b).
Shoemaking required supplies of tanned leather, sewing thread, and for some
shoes embroidery yarn for decoration of the shoe. Tannery sites have not been
identified in any of the towns prior to the late twelfth century so it is possible
that leather was brought to the towns ready-tanned. This, as well as assessing
the types of leather used, awaits further research. However, in twelfth-century
material from Bergen I have observed that goat leather was commonly used,
but the issue has not been dealt with in any detail. Also in Bergen thread of
animal hair/wool from goat has been used to stitch the shoe together (Pedersen
1982). Leather and sewing thread may have domestic origins through networks
with regional or interregional reach, although this has not yet been exam-
ined. However, the silk yarn in all probability came from the Mediterranean
area, distributed to Norwegian towns via networks with an international reach
(Hansen 2015c). Thus raw materials needed for shoemaking must have come to
the towns via both networks with a regional/interregional reach and networks
with international reach.
Table 4.3 Summary of the urban consumption of domestic stone products in early
medieval Norway. 10th: Tenth century, E11th: Early eleventh century
(c. 1000–1030), M11th: Middle eleventh century (c. 1030–70), L11th:
Late eleventh century (c. 1070–1100), E12th: Early twelfth century
(c. 1100–30), M12th: Middle twelfth century (c. 1130–70)
Quern stones: H = Hyllestad, O = Unspecified
L Bergen H
West
1020/30–
L Oslo c. o/O o/O o/O

East
1000–
Hones: E = Possible Eidsborg, C = Possible

Caledonian, O = Other
L Trondheim 900s– E, c/C, o/O
West
L Bergen 1020/30– E, c/C, o/O

M Skien 900s– e
East
M Tønsberg 1000s– E, C, o
L Oslo c. 1000– E, C, o/O
M Kungahälla c. 1100– E, C, o
Bakestones: Øl = Ølve, S = Soapstone, O = Unspecified

L Trondheim 900s– o
West
L Bergen 1020/30– øl, s/S

M Skien 900s–
East
L Oslo c. 1000– ØL ØL, s/S
M Kungahälla c. 1100– s
Soapstone vessels: A, B, C = Myrvoll’s types,

O = Other/unspecified
M Borgund 900/1000s–? a/A, b/B
West
L Bergen 1020/30– a/A, b/B, C

(continued)
74 Gitte Hansen
Table 4.3 (continued)
Soapstone vessels: A, B, C = Myrvoll’s types,
O = Other/unspecified
M Skien 900s– c/C
East
M Tønsberg 1000s– c/C

L Oslo c. 1000– A, b/B, c/C
M Kungahälla c. 1100– o/O
Note: Small letters = regional supply, capital letters = interregional supply, merged cells = broad
dating evidence. Only towns with available data are included.
To sum up (Table 4.2), production in the form of iron working took place
in large, medium and small towns in the west and east. Production of acces-
sories that involved both domestic and exotic raw materials was found in both
large and medium-sized towns in the west and in the east. Data regarding
these crafts is generally scarce for the small towns. However, combmaking was
documented in the small town of Stavanger. There seems to be no significant
difference in the variety of small-scale crafts present in the large and medium-
sized towns of the west and the east.
Consumption of domestic stone products

The most common portable objects made from domestic stone resources
include quern stones, baking slabs, hones and soapstone vessels (Table 4.3).
Quern stones are seldom found in the published material on the towns
treated here. We thus await results from the Mill stone project on this subject,
but see Baug (2002, 2013). However, some published information has been
retrieved: in early medieval Bergen, one fragment and one complete quern
stone have been found from before 1170. Both are provenanced to the quar-
ries in Hyllestad in the Sogn og Fjordane County in southwestern Norway
(Hansen 2005: Tab. 57, classification pers. comm. Irene Baug, Tom Heldal
and Øystein J. Jansen 2010; Baug 2013: 219). Furthermore, according to an
Oslo study (Wikstrøm 2006: 31), one quern stone fragment was found to
date between 1025 and 1075, none have been found that date to the period
between 1050 and 1100, and only a few have been found that date to later
periods. This gives the impression of few quern stones in the early medieval
period in Oslo. Quarries that delivered quern stones are not located in Oslo’s
or Bergen’s regions, thus quern stones must have been distributed through
networks with an interregional reach.
Hones/whetstones are frequently found in archaeological contexts, and their
provenances are especially interesting. During the early Middle Ages two
large suppliers of quartz-muscovite schist hones are known. Eidsborg quar-
ries in the Telemark County in South Norway delivered hones of light-grey,
fine-grained schist. The second source is of an unknown location which produced
dark-grey, very fine-grained schist hones. The latter hones are of stone dated to the
Caledonian era – and are commonly called Caledonian hones – which place the
quarries in a geological area in western Norway (Mitchell et al. 1984). In addition
to these two types, a variety of whetstones of other stone sorts are often found.
Their provenance is unknown but the hones are often thought to have a local or
regional origin. In the present examination, hones are divided into three catego-
ries: Eidsborg (i.e. possible Eidsborg), Caledonian (i.e. possible Caledonian) and other.
The identification method used in the published data is ocular, not geochemical;
however, in most cases geologists or archaeologists with a special competence in
stone have been involved in the identification, and general trends in the spatial dis-
tribution patterns should be reliable. Finely meshed chronological studies of early
medieval urban hone consumption have not yet been given detailed attention in
archaeological research; however, see Myrvoll (1986: Fig. 10). The present survey
is thus rather sparse.
In Trondheim, hones (N = ?, precise numbers are not given) are found from
the tenth century onwards, with Eidsborg hones constituting the largest share
in the period studied here. A ‘violet’ hone type has also been found from the
mid-tenth century onwards. Additionally, hones of ten other stone types occur
until the mid-twelfth century (see Christophersen and Walaker Nordeide 1994:
Fig. 213, with references to Siri Myrvoll). By the description of the ‘violet’
hones, I suggest we may be dealing with Caledonian hones – this is based on
observations of the variety of colours of hones classified as Caledonian in the
Bergen material in connection with my research (see below). The Eidsborg
hones must have arrived in Trondheim through networks with interregional
reach. Regarding the remaining hones, precise provenances are not known
and they may have arrived through both regional and interregional networks.
In Bergen 124 hones are found in layers dating to between 1100 and 1170.
The hones have been identified by the author with the help of geologist
Helge Askvik; 59 per cent are identified as Eidsborg type, 19 per cent are of
Caledonian type and the rest – 22 per cent – are of unknown origin. Of the
twenty-three Caledonian hones 30 per cent are unused blanks, compared to
7 per cent of the seventy-four Eidsborg hones and 10 per cent of the twenty-
nine unknown types (Hansen 2005: 205–18 and author’s research data). The
high percentage of Caledonian stone blanks could perhaps indicate that they
were brought to Bergen and intended for transit. The Eidsborg hones must
have arrived in Bergen through networks with an interregional reach. The
remaining hones may have arrived through both regional and interregional
networks (i.e. their provenance is unknown).
In Skien, hones in large numbers (N = ?, precise numbers are not given) geo-
logically matching Eidsborg stone are found from the late 900s and onwards,
where unused blanks are the most common (Myrvoll 1986, 1992). Skien is
located in Telemark County, some 100 km directly from the Eidsborg quarries.
Skien is connected to the quarry area by Telemarkvassdraget, a river system which
may well have suited as a regional transport vein. Siri Myrvoll has suggested
76 Gitte Hansen
that the blanks found in Skien were to be re-distributed from there, which
may indicate that Skien functioned as a transit port (Myrvoll 1986, 1992). The
Eidsborg hones must have come to Skien via regional networks. In Tønsberg,
Eidsborg hones have been found from the 1100s (Myrvoll 1986: Fig. 10). It
is not established whether other stone types have been found here. Eidsborg
hones must have come to Tønsberg via interregional networks.
Hones in Oslo were studied in a Master’s thesis that dealt with a 670 m2
large site (Lønaas 2001). We may assume that the results are quite repre-
sentative of the consumption trends in this town. Here it was found that the
pre-urban phase, from the 900s to c. 1050, yielded one Eidsborg hone. From
c. 1050 and through the Middle Ages (precise dates and numbers are not
given), Eidsborg is responsible for 83 per cent of the hones and 85 per cent
of the hone blanks found at the site (Lønaas 2001: 14–16; see also Myrvoll
1986). Other stone types are also present in the early medieval phases at
the site, both a ‘violet’ stone type and hones in stone types that may have
regional provenance (Lønaas 2001: 14–16). By the description of the ‘violet’
type, I suggest that Caledonian hones were also present in Oslo during the
early Middle Ages. Oslo was thus most likely supplied with hones via net-
works with both regional and interregional reaches.
In Kungahälla, hones (N = ?, precise numbers are not given) dating to the
mid-twelfth century are described as ‘a light and a dark kind’, and are believed
to include Eidsborg, Caledonian and regional hones, the latter from the local
‘Marstrand formation’ (Kindgren 1991). Kungahälla was accordingly supplied
with hones through networks with both regional and interregional reaches.
Altogether, hones were identified in six of the surveyed towns (Table 4.3).
Possible Eidsborg hones are found in large and medium-sized towns in the
west and east. Possible Caledonian hones are also found in large and medium-
sized towns in the east, but not in Skien. The lack of Caledonian hones in this
medium-sized town may perhaps have methodological explanations, but with
Skien’s proximity to the Eidsborg quarries in mind, one might rather suggest
that consumers in Skien found no reason to procure hones from other places.
It appears that the early medieval Norwegian towns received hones through
networks with interregional reach. Additionally they have also likely received
hones from regional – as yet unknown – quarries.
Bakestones are circular or oval stone slabs of chlorite-rich talc-amphibole schist
(clorite schist) or soapstone, incised with grooves and used for baking and heating
foodstuffs over fire. In Norway three quarry areas are known for the production
of chlorite schist slabs: Øye in the Trøndelag County, Ølve/Hatlestrand in the
Hordaland County and Rennesøy in the Rogaland County (Weber 1989; Baug
2015). The location of quarries for soapstone baking slabs is not known.
Bakestones are found in small numbers at the Library site in Trondheim
from c. 1050–1100; the stones did not become more frequent until after
c. 1150. The provenance is believed to be regional, but is unknown. Slabs that
may come from Ølve/Hatlestrand in Hordaland are dated from the last quarter of
the twelfth century onwards (Weber 1989: Fig. 3; Christophersen and Walaker
Nordeide 1994: 249). At Veøy two fragments of bakestones were retrieved; their
precise dates are unclear (Solli 1996: 174) and their provenance is unknown.
In Bergen, 379 bakestones are dated to between 1100 and c. 1170 (Hansen
2005: Tab. 57). In a study of raw material for bakestones from a tenement
in the central parts of the town area, a good half of the stone slabs from
the twelfth century were identified as probable Ølve/Hatlestrand slabs. The
remainder were of soapstone. In the group of soapstone slabs, great vari-
ety in the visual appearance of the stone was observed (Tengesdal 2010:
20–1, 35, Fig. 5.3). Such variation is, however, characteristic of soapstone
sources/quarries (Hansen et al. 2017). Thus, visual variety alone cannot
indicate whether the soapstone slabs came from few or many quarries. The
Ølve/Hatlestrand quarries are located in Bergen’s regional area. Sigrun S.
Tengesdal points out that 59 per cent of the bakestones do not have traces
of use (soot traces), suggesting that Bergen may have been a transit port for
stone slabs for cooking. Information provided in Tengedal’s (2010) appendix
showed that 56 per cent of the bakestones dated to between 1120 and 1170
have no traces of soot, of which 59 per cent are of soapstone slabs and 41
per cent of chlorite schist slabs. Thus in the period before 1170, the share of
slabs without visible traces of use is high for both stone types. If we accept
lack of soot as a tentative criterion for unused slabs, the high share of unused
soapstone slabs might indicate that Bergen functioned as a transit port for
bakestones, not only from Ølve/Hatlestrand, as suggested in earlier research
(Tengesdal 2010; Baug 2013: 317), but also from as yet unknown soapstone
quarries where bakestones were produced. Given that soapstone quarries in
Hordaland County (where Bergen is located) delivered the majority of soap-
stone vessels to Bergen in the period under study (see below) (Hansen et al.
2017), it is highly likely that many bakestones of soapstone found in Bergen
were also produced in the region. Chlorite schist bakestones from Ølve/
Hatlestrand came to Bergen via networks with a regional reach; it is sug-
gested that the same applies to slabs of soapstone. Additionally, bakestones
may have been supplied through networks with an interregional reach.
In Skien, bakestones have not been found at the excavation at Handelstorget,
where the youngest phase is dated from the middle of the 1100s to late 1100s/
early 1200s (Myrvoll 1992: 167, 246). In Tønsberg bakestones are found in
small numbers from the end of the twelfth century, but so far not in the early
medieval phases (Ulriksen 1996: 92). In Oslo bakestones seem to be few before
c. 1100, thus at Mindets Tomt and Søndre felt sites only two slabs are found
that date to between 1050 and 1100, and they may originate from Ølve. The
share of Ølve stones is, according to Birthe Weber (1989: 18), ‘small’ until
c. 1300. In addition to chlorite schists slabs, soapstone baking slabs are also
found in medieval Oslo (Wikstrøm 2006: Tab. 1), but more precise find data
is not provided in the archaeological literature used here. In Kungahälla, bake-
stones of soapstone have been dated to the 1100s (Kindgren 1991: Tab. 9).
Four slabs have been analysed by a geologist applying ocular methods and a
provenance to regional quarries is suggested (Kindgren 1991: 69).
78 Gitte Hansen
As summarised in Table 4.3, bakestones have been identified in at least
four towns in the early medieval period; these comprise two large towns in
western Norway as well as one large and one medium town in the eastern
part of the country. Baking slabs seem to be found less frequently and later
in the east compared to the west. In Oslo bakestones were probably supplied
through networks with interregional reach, possibly from Ølve/Hatlestrand. It
is assumed that Bergen received soapstone bakestones through networks with
a regional reach. Thus, urban consumers received bakestones via networks of
both regional and interregional reaches.
Medieval soapstone vessels are only rarely given attention in archaeological
reports or synthesising studies; however, a short summary of the situation may
be attempted. Soapstone vessels of the medieval type A and type B (typology
according to Lossius 1977) were most likely produced in western Norway
(Lossius 1977). It is not known whether differences in type have functional or
chronological significance, or if both types were produced in the same quarry
or region. One may thus expect to find both types A and B within an assem-
blage of vessels quarried in early medieval west Norway. Type A and B vessels
in western Norwegian towns may have been supplied by both regional and
interregional networks. Vessel type C is held to be of east Norwegian origin
(Lossius 1977: 63–7), but the locations of quarry sites are as yet unknown. If
such vessels are found in eastern Norwegian towns, they may thus have been
supplied through either regional or interregional networks.
At Borgund a comprehensive study of soapstone vessels is at our disposal
where vessel types A and B are represented (Lossius 1977). Soapstone vessels
are found in phases broadly dated to ‘from the tenth/eleventh centuries until
sometime before 1100’ (compare context information in Lossius 1977 and new
dating evidence in Larsen 2008). The presence of both type A and B vessels
indicates several suppliers. The vessels may have been distributed through net-
works with regional and interregional reaches.
In Bergen, ninety-four vessels are dated to before 1170. Through transdisci-
plinary analyses of geochemical and archaeological datasets, provenance studies
found that about two-thirds of the vessels (both types A and B) originated from
several different regional quarries, while one-third probably stems from quarries
located outside the Hordaland region. The non-regional vessels were mostly
of type A, but type B and C were also represented in small numbers. Bergen
was thus supplied with soapstone vessels through networks with a regional and
interregional reach (Hansen et al. 2017).
In Skien a vessel of type C was found at the Handelstorget site, dating to the
early medieval period (Myrvoll 1992: Appendix, p. 297). In Tønsberg, a vessel
of type C dating to the twelfth century has been found (Lossius 1977: 51). In
her thesis on material from the Nordre bydel (Northern part) of Tønsberg, Eli
Ulriksen (1996: 45) mentions soapstone vessels dated to the twelfth century,
but does not quantify or describe the vessels. In a Skien and Tønsberg context
type C vessels may be of a regional or non-regional provenance.
In Oslo soapstone vessels of type A, B and C have been found. It seems that
type C vessels are the most common, whereas A and B vessels are few in the
period under study (Lossius 1977: 51, 1979: 70). The variety of types shows that
several sources supplied the town with vessels, certainly through interregional
reaches, but perhaps also from regional networks.
In Kungahälla vessels of a ‘round bottom type’ are dated to the 1100s. Four
vessels have been analysed by geologists applying ocular methods, and the
aluminium and magnesium contents of one of the shards have been assessed.
Based on this a provenance to two different local soapstone deposits is sug-
gested (Kindgren 1991: 71–2). Recent research has shown that provenancing
soapstone is complicated due to the inhomogeneous character of the rock (e.g.
Hansen et al. 2017 with references). This calls for caution regarding the prov-
enance of the Kungahälla shards, and for now, it feels safe to treat the shards
as unprovenanced. They may accordingly have come to the town through
networks with a regional or interregional reach.
Thus, soapstone vessels have been identified in six towns (Table 4.3): one
large and one medium-sized town in the west and one large and three medium-
sized towns in the east. In Bergen and Oslo vessels were supplied through both
regional and interregional networks. We do not know the reach of networks
that supplied Borgund, Skien, Tønsberg and Kungahälla; they may be either
regional or interregional.
To sum up, the consumption of domestic stone products is not well studied
in the materials from the small towns, so they are hardly present in the survey.
Regarding other towns, stone products have been consumed in both large
and medium towns in west and east Norway. There are some interesting dif-
ferences in the procurement and consumption patterns when looking at the
western versus the eastern towns, and looking at Bergen versus other western
towns. These themes are addressed further in the discussion.
Exotic products: ceramics

In early medieval Norway no domestic pottery traditions existed, thus all
ceramics found here are imported from European pottery districts through
networks with an international reach. Ceramics are found in many of the
towns in the survey, both in well-dated contexts and without detailed con-
textual information. In the latter cases ware types produced before c. 1150 are
included if present at the sites. The pottery has almost exclusively been visually
provenanced, generally by archaeologists with special expertise. The number
of ware types from each pottery district is summarised for each town. Some
ware names may cover several pottery producers whereas a few ware names
may have different conventions for the same ware. For our purposes, this is
unproblematic. Unprovenanced pottery is not included here, except for the
category ‘Black ware cooking pot’, which is frequently encountered in western
Norway. This category might contain wares of Baltic type.
80 Gitte Hansen
Table 4.4 Summary of the urban consumption of pottery in early medieval Norway
Size Site name
Great Britain
France
Mediterranean
‘Byzans?’
SW Germany
Belgium
Southern
Scandinavia
Baltic sea area
Black ware
cooking pot
Total
L Trondheim 4–5 1 2 1 8–9
West
M Borgund 3 2 1 1 7
S Kaupanger 1 1 1 3
L Bergen 7 3 2 1 1 14
S Stavanger 2 1 3
M Skien 1 1 2
East
M Tønsberg 1 2 1 4
L Oslo 1 2 1 1 1 6
M Kungahälla 1 1 1 3
In early medieval Norway, nine ware types from the British Isles are
mentioned in the archaeological literature: East Midlands, Grimston, Hedon,
Lincoln-type, London, Scarborough, Shelly, Stamford and Torksey wares.
From the Belgian pottery district Andenne ware is represented. From southwest
Germany (SW-Germany) Paffrath and Pingsdorf wares are represented. From
south Scandinavia one ware type – ‘coarse ware cooking pots’ – is identified. From
the Mediterranean area one type is found in the archaeological literature, termed
‘Byzans?’. Three wares are found from the French pottery district: ‘Normandy
gritty’, ‘French type’ and ‘Northern France’. From the Baltic Sea area pottery dis-
tricts the ‘Slavonic/Baltic’-type wares are identified. These wares have not been
further subdivided into types in the literature used here, but detailed studies have
shown that the ‘Slavonic/Baltic’-type wares may have been produced in various
places around the Baltic Sea both in Slavic areas and in southeastern Scandinavia
(Roslund 2001). Both cooking wares and table wares are represented in the
ceramic types found. Table 4.4 summarises the urban consumption of pottery.
In Trondheim, pottery types identified before c. 1150 comprise four or
five wares from the British Isles, two wares from SW-Germany and one from
Belgium. Additionally, the Mediterranean district is represented by one shard
from the early eleventh century (Reed 1990: Fig. 23, appendix 1–2).
At Borgund eleventh to twelfth-century pottery in undated contexts
includes: three wares from the British Isles, two from SW-Germany and
one from Belgium. In addition, ‘Black ware cooking pots’ are identified
(A. Rory Dunlop in Manuscript by Arne J. Larsen, TopArk). At Kaupanger
eleventh to twelfth-century pottery found in poorly dated contexts com-
prises one SW-German ware, one Belgian and Black ware cooking pots
(Knagenhjelm 2004: 60, 98). In Bergen seven wares from the British Isles
are represented before c. 1170. In addition, two SW-German, three French,
one Belgian and Black ware cooking pots are found (Hansen 2005: 205–18,
notes 81–4). In Stavanger relevant pottery found in undated contexts com-
prises two SW-German and one Belgian type (Lillehammer 1972: 65–6). In
Skien, ceramics dating to before the late twelfth century comprise Baltic wares
and one type from SW-Germany (Myrvoll 1992: Fig. 64, p. 162). From the
twelfth century in Tønsberg, two wares from the SW-German area are identi-
fied, possibly also one from the Belgian area and possibly one from the British
Isles (compare Molaug 1987; Eriksson 1990: 84). In Oslo only a few unprov-
enanced shards have been dated to the eleventh century. From the twelfth
century, two SW-German, one Belgian and one south Scandinavian ware are
found in addition to Baltic-type wares. One type of ware from the British Isles
is introduced after 1125 in small amounts representing less than 5 per cent of
the pottery (Molaug 1977: 110, 1987: 314, Fig. 49, dates: Fig. 8, 1999: 541). In
Kungahälla, Baltic wares prevail in the late eleventh and first half of the twelfth
centuries. Additionally one SW-German and one Belgian ware are represented
(Carlsson 2001: 71).
As seen in Table 4.4, imported pottery was found in nine of the surveyed
towns. Pottery was consumed in large, medium and small-sized towns in both
the west and east. There are some distinct differences in the consumption pat-
terns between the western and eastern towns and to some extent between the
towns of various size. This is treated in more detail below.
General patterns discerned and comments for further studies

From the observations made theme by theme, some general patterns in the
production, procurement and consumption transcend the various sized towns
in the west and east. Differences are also observed among towns.
Urban production
In all urban sites treated here, large quantities of domestic stone and wooden
materials were needed to establish the towns’ monumental architecture and
secular settlements. The amount of raw materials of course depended on the
number of monuments and the size of the built-up areas. In addition to large-
scale building enterprises, small-scale iron production took place in both large
and medium-sized towns in the west and east. The extent of this production in
the small towns is a question for future research. In Trondheim, iron produc-
tion increases after c. 1150. As small towns are generally underrepresented in
the datasets regarding other production, the patterns discerned here have some
uncertainties. Small-scale production of accessories that involved both domestic
and exotic raw materials, i.e. non-ferrous accessories, shoes with silk embroidery
and combs with copper alloy details, was found in both large and medium-sized
towns in the west and east. Furthermore, combmaking took place in the small
town of Stavanger in the west. There seem to be no significant differences in the
variety of small-scale crafts present in the large and medium-sized towns of the
82 Gitte Hansen
Table 4.5 Procurement of raw materials and products through networks of various reach
Raw material/product Made in the Regional Interregional International
town
Building stone X
Timber X
Iron raw material X
Iron objects X
Non-ferrous metal X
Clay for crucibles X
Non-ferrous accessories X
Reindeer antler X
Combs X
Tanned leather X?
Sewing thread (goat-wool?) X?
Embroidery yarn of silk X
Shoes X
Quern stones X
Hones X X
Bakestones X X
Soapstone vessels X X
Pottery X
west and east. Altogether, one may point out that crafts production in the early
medieval towns was modest and thus in all likelihood for intra-urban consump-
tion. That is, production was primarily aimed at the townspeople’s needs, even if
visitors could probably buy things as well (see e.g. Christophersen and Walaker
Nordeide 1994: 236–8; Rytter 2001: 107; Hansen 2005: 157–205; Andersson
et al. 2008). Consumption of urban products in the rural hinterlands of towns
should be addressed in future research, to further elucidate the character and
scope of early medieval urban production. However, based on the current data,
one may assert that in contrast to their Viking-Age counterparts, early medieval
Norwegian towns were primarily consumers, not producers.
Procurement and consumption

From a procurement perspective, raw materials and products ended up in
towns through networks with varying reach (Table 4.5). The towns were,
however, not only consumers and an end station for the materials consumed;
they also served as nodes in international, interregional or regional networks
of exchange.
Domestic materials and objects
The survey of iron consumption in Oslo showed that several resource areas/
rural producers supplied Oslo with iron in the early Middle Ages. Similarly,
when looking at the use of domestic stone products, the towns generally
received similar utensils from several suppliers. An exception to this rule is
Skien where Eidsborg hones were apparently preferred to other kinds of whet-
stones. There are accordingly many producers on the market, as opposed to
a monopoly situation. It would be interesting to follow up the survey over a
longer time period to examine whether the trend observed for the distribution
of iron to Oslo – from many suppliers to fewer in the later Middle Ages – is a
general trend that has bearing for other resources and domestic products. From
a rural producer perspective, one can furthermore make the point that produc-
ers of domestic household utensils generally supplied many towns and many
engaged in both regional and interregional distribution networks.
The survey has accumulated some useful details on concrete physical nodes
in procurement networks: Skien has in earlier research been suggested as an
important port of export for Eidsborg hones (Myrvoll 1986, 1992), Oslo has
been suggested as an intermediate station for this product (Lønaas 2001) and
Bergen has been proposed as a transit port in a trading route for chlorite schist
bakestones from Ølve/Hatlestrand (Tengesdal 2010; Baug 2013). Here Bergen
is suggested as a transit harbour for Caledonian hones, and possibly for bake-
stones of soapstone as well.
To further elaborate on domestic stone objects as commodities, both new-
comers and old timers in the long-distance trade market are represented;
Eidsborg and Caledonian hones, quern stones from Hyllestad and soapstone
vessels were traded internationally during the Viking Age (Resi 1979, 1987;
Mitchell et al. 1984; Myrvoll 1986; Baug 2013: 231, this volume). In contrast,
bakestones are a new phenomenon in early medieval Norway. Against this
backdrop it is interesting to assess the behaviour involved in the use of old
and new products in the domestic distribution networks of the early Middle
Ages. Are there differences across the Norwegian towns of different sizes, and
between towns of the west and east?
In large and medium-sized early medieval towns, both in the west and east,
the Eidsborg and Caledonian hones are the stone commodities encountered
earliest and most frequently, with the exception of Skien where only Eidsborg
stones were found. One may ask if the producers and distributors of Eidsborg
and Caledonian hones managed to have such a wide distribution because they
leaned on old traditions for long-distance international exchange, and thus had
well-organised and established network relations as a foundation for trade with
the new urban communities.
Regarding soapstone vessels, successful international trade appears to dwin-
dle by the early Middle Ages (Risbøl 1994; Sindbæk 2005: 137; Baug this
volume). However, in early medieval Norwegian towns soapstone vessels are
still encountered, both in large and medium-sized towns in the west and east,
84 Gitte Hansen
and generally speaking they are distributed through networks of both regional
and interregional reach. However, despite this interregional exchange, the sur-
vey revealed that west Norwegian towns mainly consume west Norwegian
products (types A and B) and east Norwegian towns mainly consume vessels
of east Norwegian origin (type C). The early medieval soapstone procurement
networks apparently have a relatively limited radius. Did the operators of the
networks not have the social contacts needed for strong recurrent relations
between eastern and western parts of the country? Did fundamental changes
in the organisation of soapstone vessel production and procurement take place
during the transition to the early medieval period, so that even though old
traditions for long-distance trade had existed, these were not sustained into the
early medieval period?
Bakestones are found in both large and medium-sized towns in the west and
east; however, and again when examining details, there are some differences
in where and when the bakestones appear in the large town of Bergen and the
towns in the west and east. With the premise that the surveyed literature from
Trondheim and Oslo gives a fairly representative picture of the early medieval
consumption of bakestones in these towns, it seems that this new domestic
product was not a part of the earliest phases of Trondheim’s and Oslo’s history.
In the eastern Norwegian towns of Skien and Tønsberg, bakestones are also
late phenomena; here no slabs have been dated to the period under research.
In Bergen, however, the slabs are numerous from c. 1100. Recall that portable
finds are, for methodological reasons, scarce in Bergen before 1100, so we
do not know exactly how far back the use of bakestones dates in this town.
In recent research it has been suggested that bakestones were introduced to
Norway from the British Isles, and that the associated food traditions spread
by way of the sailing routes along the coast. These suggestions are based on
early dates of bakestones in Atlantic Scotland and the spatial distribution of
bakestones found in (broadly dated) rural and urban contexts along the coast
of Norway (Øye 2009; Baug 2015 with references). With the present survey’s
relatively high temporal resolution, the contours of the spread of bakestone
usage may be discerned in more detail: if the patterns recognised here are valid,
they indicate that bakestones were introduced first in the west – perhaps in the
Bergen area or perhaps through Bergen – and were gradually introduced and
consumed in other parts of Norway during the latter part of the early Middle
Ages, with towns in eastern Norway as latecomers.
Early medieval domestic procurement has great research potential that has
not attracted deserved attention; debates of exchange organisation, between
producers and consumers in the towns, as well as the scale and reach of domes-
tic interregional exchange networks, are worthwhile. In the survey of the dif-
ferent domestic raw materials and products some insights from previous studies
have been accumulated and new details added. A comparative approach to
the domestic materials provides new insights and new questions arise. One
insight is – with the fear of stating the obvious – that domestic resources and
products must have circulated in a variety of perhaps competing networks
which operated within different geographical and perhaps social orbits. Future
research might usefully apply an actor perspective on the sources and address
who were the consumers of raw materials and objects, and who owned quar-
ries, forests and the bogs with iron ore. Through such an approach one may
develop a deeper understanding of the social dimension of the domestic pro-
curement networks; how, by whom and for whom networks were operated
and controlled on different social levels.
Exotics
Distinct differences are discerned in the consumption of pottery, along the
east–west axis and among the various sized towns. A general observation is
that the large towns have a greater variety of wares, as seen in Table 4.4.
Bergen has fourteen wares, Trondheim eight to nine and Oslo six, whereas
the smaller and medium towns, except Borgund (with seven wares), have
between two and four wares. Furthermore, the west Norwegian towns have
more ware types than the east Norwegian towns. A bias that influences the
east–west imbalance may be that there is a research tradition for dividing
British and French wares into many subgroups, whereas this is not the case
for the Baltic and south Scandinavian wares (compare Reed 1990 and Molaug
1987), thus more suppliers might ‘hide’ in the latter groups. If so, this would
raise the number of wares encountered in the large and medium-sized towns
in eastern Norway, where Baltic and south Scandinavian wares prevail. It
seems valid that the large towns received more wares than those of lesser size.
This may be interesting for our understanding of the procurement of goods
in a domestic network perspective; cf. studies of Viking-Age networks and
towns (e.g. Sindbæk 2005, 2007).
Going into more detail on the pottery, we observe that in all towns where
data is available, pottery from the Belgian and/or SW-German districts is
found. In contrast, other pottery types are not consumed so uniformly between
the west and east. In the west Norwegian towns pottery from the British dis-
trict is represented in great variety. In the large town of Bergen, French types
are also present; wares procured from western Europe/the North Sea area thus
dominate in the west Norwegian towns. In Bergen, and perhaps Borgund and
Kaupanger, there is possibly an association eastwards, indicated by the black
ware cooking pot category, which may perhaps ‘hide’ some Baltic wares. A
rarity in the west is a single shard of a Mediterranean ‘Byzans?’ ware found in
Trondheim. In contrast to this, British wares are scarce in eastern Norwegian
towns and they are introduced late in the period under research. Furthermore,
in eastern Norwegian towns, wares from the Baltic and south Scandinavian
districts prevail.
The many pottery types from the British Isles in western towns testify to
strong repeating connections across the North Sea. Judging by the amount
of pottery shards found in these towns, ceramics was a commodity and not
brought to the towns as personal belongings by visitors. Trade across the North
86 Gitte Hansen
Sea in the early Middle Ages is also reflected in written records, for example
for twelfth-century Bergen (Orkn 1913–16: 141; Holtsmark 1970: 93–4). The
relatively early consumption of bakestones in the west fits well with this pic-
ture. The early medieval connections may have roots back into the Viking
Age, when connections across the North Sea were practised on many levels
(e.g. papers in Hines et al. 2004; Barrett 2015; Sindbæk 2015). They may thus
reflect a continuation – or knowledge – of long traditions for interaction across
the North Sea from western Norway.
Baltic and south Scandinavian pottery frequently found in eastern Norwegian
towns may in the same fashion reflect an eastern and southern orientation
towards the Baltic Sea, south Scandinavia and resource areas there. A similar
trend for Swedish towns was observed by Broberg and Hasselmo (1982) in
their survey of slightly younger phases of Swedish towns, where especially the
details from Lödöse, located south of Kungahälla, are of relevance here. The
eastern orientation of the early medieval Norwegian towns thus seems to be a
tendency that finds support in other datasets. A continuation of older traditions
or knowledge of such contacts may also be reflected here (e.g. Christophersen
1991; Callmer 1994; Sindbæk 2005).
Pottery from the Belgian and SW-German districts are, like the Eidsborg
and Caledonian hones, widely found both in western and eastern Norwegian
towns. The same goes for copper alloys (and possibly kaolin clay for crucibles),
used in connection with the non-ferrous metalworking and antler crafts. As
stated above, Aachen in SW-Germany, close to the Belgian border, has been
suggested as a resource area for ingredients in copper alloys of the Viking Age
(Pedersen 2010: 233–8). The Belgian ware Andenne as well as the SW-German
wares Pingsdorf and Paffrath are all from the same general resource area (the
area is today located in different countries). Badorf-type pottery, also from
SW-Germany, as well as copper alloys, are found in the Viking-Age town
Kaupang in Vestfold County in eastern Norway (Pedersen 2010; Pilø 2011:
286–91). Again it may be suggested that old trading routes or knowledge of
such were applied. One might suggest that the routes went by way of Haithabu
where Eidsborg and Caledonian hones as well as Norwegian soapstone vessels
were consumed during the Viking Age (see Resi 1979). One may also suggest
that well-maintained social or economic networks were leaned on and made it
possible to distribute the products from this part of northern Europe so widely
into the new urban landscape in Norway.
Like copper alloys (and possibly kaolin clay), silk yarn used for embroidery
on leather shoes is another exotic commodity found both in the western and
eastern Norwegian towns. There are indications that this exotic material was
procured by way of western/North Sea connections; shoes similar to the
Norwegian specimens are known from several British towns and the shoes here
display embroidery patterns that are similar to those found on the Norwegian
shoes (Hansen 2015c). With the silk yarn probably being a Mediterranean
commodity, it is tempting to ask how the Mediterranean pottery in Trondheim
may possibly fit into the picture. Having said this, shoes with silk embroideries
in the same style as in Norway are also found in contemporary Sweden and
Denmark (Hansen 2015c), so no conclusions should be drawn without more
research on this issue.
Details concerning the distributive networks of exotic commodities such as
silk embroidery yarn, non-ferrous metals and possibly kaolin clay and how they
entered Norway are thus still unresolved. And we do not know whether the
raw materials were introduced through one or several towns or harbours. It is
thought-provoking that the exotic raw materials were worked by craftspeople
that visited the newly established Norwegian towns for a short time and made
affordable accessories for townspeople. Søren Sindbæk has demonstrated that
a hierarchy existed within the eighth to ninth-century towns in northern
Europe; here crafts that required exotic raw materials in addition to domestic
were only found in the largest centres of trade, the nodal points that had direct
access to international trade. At smaller centres that served a local market these
crafts were not found since artisans could not procure the exotic raw materials
here (Sindbæk 2007). If a similar model situation is relevant for the early medi-
eval period (some 200 years later), it would implicate a direct import of exotics
in all the towns where combmakers, shoemakers and non-ferrous metalwork-
ers carried out their crafts. A question is, however, whether the craftspeople
acquired their raw materials upon arrival in the towns, as implied in Sindbæk’s
model for the earlier period. Or perhaps, as an alternative scenario, one might
suggest, they were ‘vehicles’ in the domestic distribution of the exotic materials,
i.e. procuring the exotics at one port, and then transporting them from place
to place as part of a raw material stock?
As with the domestic materials, the exotic objects and raw materials were
certainly distributed through intersecting and perhaps competing networks that
worked within different geographical and social orbits. Again, one may usefully
ask who were the producers and consumers and through an actor perspective
get better insight into the ways of procurement networks.
Final comments
Urban production, procurement and consumption in early medieval Norway
have not previously been surveyed, and much less studied within a nar-
row chronological framework, neither on a broad basis nor in a compara-
tive perspective with archaeological sources as a foundation. Medieval
archaeology has traditionally dealt with single towns, single crafts, sin-
gle raw material groups and single object groups. With the present study
a first overview is given of the most common urban production and the
domestic and exotic raw materials involved, as well as significant groups of
domestic and exotic objects consumed in thirteen of medieval Norway’s
fourteen known towns. Much interesting information lies in the details,
thus some new and basic insights have been obtained, and patterns have
88 Gitte Hansen
been discussed. However, with new insights more questions usually arise.
Medieval archaeology as a discipline has rapidly developing research
fields where, for instance, focus on objects and raw materials with a
provenance attracts increasing attention. With cross-disciplinary studies
involving archaeology and diverse natural sciences, new research data and
insights are made available, enabling large research potentials to be realised.
Acknowledgements
I am grateful to Axel Christophersen, A. Rory Dunlop, Christoffer Knagen
hjelm, Petter Molaug, Eli Ulriksen and Brit Solli for comments on the chapter.
Errors that may still lie in the empirical data are of course my responsibility,
as are the interpretations. Also Steven P. Ashby is thanked for valuable and
constructive feedback, and the editors of this volume deserve thanks for their
patience and efforts.
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—— 2008: Tønsberg – bebyggelse og beboere fra 1000–tall til 1200–tall. In: Andersson,
Hans, Gitte Hansen and Ingvild Øye (eds): De første 200 årene – nytt blikk på 27
skandinaviske middelalderbyer. UBAS Universitetet i Bergen Arkeologiske Skrifter.
Nordisk, vol. 5: 93–108. Institutt for arkeologi, historie, kulturvitenskap og religion,
Viken, Synnøve 2009: Å smykke seg. Drakttilbehør og sosiale strategier belyst ved
arkeologisk materiale fra middelalderens Trondheim. Unpublished Master’s thesis
in archaeology. Vitenskapsmuseet/NTNU. Trondheim.
Weber, Birthe 1989: Baksteheller – en handelsvare. Meddelelser: Fortiden i Trondheims
bygrunn, vol. 15. Riksantikvaren, Utgravningskontoret for Trondheim. Trondheim.
Wiberg, Christina 1977: Horn og benmaterialet fra ‘Mindets Tomt’. In: Høeg, Helge,
Hans-Emil Lidén, Aslak Liestøl, Petter Molaug, Erik Schia and Christina Wiberg
(eds): De arkeologisk utgravninger i Gamlebyen, Oslo. Feltet Mindets Tomt. Stratigrafi –
Topografi– Daterende funngrupper, vol. 1: 202–13. Universitetsforlaget. Oslo.
Wikstrøm, Tone 2006: Utviklingen av hushold og håndverk i Oslos tidlige middelalder.
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tomt. Unpublished Master’s thesis. IAKH, Det humanistiske fakultet, Universitetet
i Oslo. Oslo.
5 The price of justice and
administration of coinage
Frode Iversen and Svein H. Gullbekk
The thing is the oldest known communal organization in Northern Europe.

The term þing or thing existed in all Germanic languages. It is derived from
the Gothic term for time, þeihs, and another word meaning ‘to congregate’.
The meaning of thing is therefore ‘to meet at a certain place at a certain time’
(Iversen 2013), and the thing participants had to travel to these meetings.
In its early phase, the thing was the highest authority in all areas of society.
The highest judicial power sat at shire level. During the Viking Age, lawth-
ings were established for even bigger judicial areas in Norway, such as the
Gulathing, Frostathing, Eidsivathing, Borgarthing and Hålogaland (Iversen
2014, 2015a, 2015b). These were representative things, which attracted del-
egates from vast areas.
Expenses and travel routes

This chapter will investigate the cost of arranging lawthings in the thirteenth
century. The calculations are based on the so-called tingfareøret (economic com-
pensation for attending the thing) in the Rural Law of Magnus the Lawmender
from 1274 (L I, 2). The guiding principle of the compensation scheme was
simple: the longer the distance, the higher the compensation. The Faroe Islands
can be used to illustrate how the travel compensation was calculated. According
to Faroese law, the island group was divided into no fewer than 21 tariff
zones (NgL IV: 666). Representatives living closest to the assembly site, from
Kollafjørður, Ragtangi and Nólsoy, received five ells of woollen cloth (vaðmál),
while those furthest away, from the southern part of Suðuroy, received as much
as 20 ells of cloth (Taranger 1915: 8). Norway differed significantly from the
Faroe Islands both administratively and geographically. As an extension of
the thing compensation scheme (tingfareøret), it will also be investigated how the
king and the state used the thing to administrate the monetary system, namely
to exchange old coins for new ones – so-called recoinage or renovatio monetae.
A recoinage meant that all old coins were replaced with new ones issued by
the king. This was a widespread European phenomenon, described in detail
for the first time in Carolingian sources: in the Edict of Pitres from ad 864.
In Norway, this phenomenon can be traced from the reign of Olav Kyrre
(1067–93) to the middle of the fourteenth century.
96 Frode Iversen and Svein H. Gullbekk
What kinds of sums or values were in circulation at the Norwegian lawthings?
According to the sections attributed to King Olav in the Gulathing Law, each
thingman was entitled to half a month’s worth of food as travel compensation,
unless he had even further to travel. In addition, he should also receive a sold of
malt and an øre in silver. This custom existed in the eleventh century but it may
be even older. In the slightly later text of King Magnus the travel compensation
was specified according to region (G 3).
According to Christian IV’s Norwegian Law of 1604, thingmen were to
receive four Danish shillings for every mil (c. 11.3 kilometres) as travel com-
pensation (C IV, 2). By this time, the system had been changed, as both
the Gulathing Law Code and the Rural Law of Magnus the Lawmender
calculated the compensation on the basis of provinces and thing districts. In
addition, from 1604 there was no longer a set number of representatives. The
royal ombudsman or bailiff (fogd) appointed as many thingmen as he saw fit.
The Rural Law of Magnus the Lawmender, on the other hand, specified both
the number of representatives and the travel compensation paid out to the
different districts. These regulations form the basis of our calculations. The
additional expenditure for priests and high-ranking royal officials (lendmaðr
and sysselmaðr) has not been included in this study.
The Rural Law of Magnus the Lawmender mentions 31 areas in total,
spread over three law-districts, namely the Gulathing, Frostathing and
Eidsvathing, and it is clear which areas belonged to the different lawthings.
In accordance with customary law, the thingmen of the Borgarthing district
were also to be compensated, but unfortunately these areas are not specified
in the law. There is, however, a law from the fifteenth century which pro-
vides information on this for the law-district of Skien (NgL IV: 478). This
means we have information regarding travel compensation for four lawthings
in medieval Norway. The available sources contain information on how much
bóndafé (payment from farmers) was required for holding the lawthings in 1274,
while the information for the Skien lawthing is somewhat later. The funds were
collected under the auspices of the lawman, who, according to the Rural
Law of Magnus the Lawmender, should later present his accounts to the thing
(L III, 1, 6; KLNM II, 83).
The overwhelming majority of the tariffs for travel compensations in the
Rural Law of Magnus the Lawmender are based on silver, namely on the
following units: 1 mark silver = 8 øre = 216 grams of silver. On two occasions
(for Namdalen and Nordmøre) it is clear that the law refers to weighed silver.
This particular measurement often formed the basis for the payments set out
in the laws. Tariffs based on coins were more unstable and more difficult to
use, since they varied with the royal minting strategy. Weighed silver was
also closer to a burnt mark, the most common unit of value in the time of
the Rural Law of Magnus the Lawmender. Indeed, silver marks constituted
the most common measurement for official purposes in Norway in the High
Middle Ages. For the mountainous areas of the Gulathing law-district, on
the other hand, the tariffs were calculated in monthly allowances of butter.
Justice and the administration of coinage 97
This was a traditional measurement used in areas where the economy was
largely based on animal husbandry. In 1274, nine units of butter (mmb) were
equal to one burnt mark silver. The tariff zones of the Gulathing Law are
defined in more exact terms than the areas from which the representatives were
to be selected. For example, 30 thingmen were to be appointed in Rogaland,
an area divided into two tariff zones with an estimated 15 representatives per
zone. Corresponding regulations applied to the whole Gulathing district, with
the exception of Agder, Sogn and the mountainous areas.
Tariffs are provided for six geographical areas of the Frostathing district:
Namdalen, Nordmøre, Inntrøndelag, Uttrøndelag, Oppdal and Romsdalen
(Table 5.2; Figure 5.2). The tariffs varied from 6 øre silver for each repre
sentative from the most outlying areas (Namdalen and Romsdalen) to 2
øre silver for the representatives closest to the thing site (Inntrøndelag and
Uttrøndelag). Representatives from the areas at an intermediate distance
were compensated with 4 øre silver (Oppdal and Nordmøre). The total sum
for the 485 thingmen of the Frostathing district was 1208 øre silver, which
amounted to 32.6 kilograms of silver.
The coastal area of the Gulathing law-district was divided into ten different
tariff zones (Table 5.1; Figure 5.1). There were also four valleys in the interior
to which the same tariff was applied: Valdres, Hallingdal, Setedal and Otredal
Tables 5.1–5.4 Travel compensation and geographical zones stipulated in the Rural

Law of Magnus the Lawmender (1274), and the regulations for the
Skien lawthing (fifteenth century)
The Gulathing Representatives Tariff Sum
Agder 12 10 120
Ryfylke, South 15 8 120
Ryfylke, North 15 7 105
Sunnhordland 20 5 100
Nordhordland 20 3 60
Sogn 20 5 100
Firda, South 10 6 60
Firda, North 10 7 70
Sunnmøre, South 6 8 48
Sunnmøre, North 6 10 60
Sum 134 843
Silver (kilogram) 22,761
Valdres 4 5 20
Hallingdal 4 5 20
Setesdal 2 5 10
Otredal 4 5 20
Mmb butter 14 20 70
In total, silver (kilogram) 27,81
(continued)
Tables 5.1–5.4 (continued)
The Frostathing Representatives Tariff Sum

Namdalen 18 6 108
Nordmøre 48 4 192
Inntrøndelag 160 2 320
Uttrøndelag 240 2 480
Oppdal 3 4 12
Romsdalen 16 6 96
Sum 485 1208
The Eidsivathing Representatives Tariff Sum

Gudbrandsdalen, North 4 6 24
Gudbrandsdalen, South 8 4 32
Hedmark 24 3 72
Romerike 24 2 48
Hadeland 24 3 72
Østerdalen, South 4 4 16
Østerdalen, North 2 6 12
Sum 90 276
The Skien lawthing Representatives Tariff Sum

Hovin (Gjerpen) 2 6 12
Grenland 4 6 24
Bamble 2 6 12
Numedal 2 6 12
Sum 10 60
Silver (kilogram) 162
Skattlandet
Hjartdal 2 6 12
Tinn 2 6 12
Vinje 2 6 12
Lårdal 2 6 12
Seljord 2 6 12
Fyresdal 2 6 12
Kviteseid 2 6 12
Tørdal 2 6 12
Sum 16 96
(5 mmb butter). The tariffs applied to the coastal zones varied from 3 øre in
Nordhordland to 10 øre in Agder and Sunnmøre, which lay furthest from the
assembly site. The total compensation for the 134 thingmen from the coastal
area was 843 øre silver (22.8 kilograms of silver), and from the four mountain
districts 70 monthly rations of butter (5 kilograms of silver) were to be paid
out. In total this amounted to 27.8 kilograms silver, which is slightly less than
for the lawthing at Frosta.
The Eidisvathing district was divided into seven tariff zones: Gudbrandsdalen
north of Rosten, Gudbrandsdalen south of Rosten to Humlen, Hedmark,
Romerike, Hadeland and Østerdalen south of Åmot and Østerdalen north
of Åmot (Table 5.3). Here, too, the principle of ‘the longer the journey,
the higher the compensation’ was applied. Furthest away were northern
Gudbrandsdalen and northern Østerdalen (6 øre). The tariff for Romerike,
where the assembly site was situated, was only two øre per thingman. The total
for the 90 representatives was 276 øre or 7.5 kilograms of silver.
According to the fifteenth-century law for the area of Skien, two men were
to ride from Hovin (Gjerpen) to the Skien lawthing (Table 5.4). There were
also to be four thingmen from Grenland (Lindheim and Ulefoss) and two from
Bamble (NgL IV: 478; Taranger 1915: 7f.). Finally, there were to be two
representatives from Numedal. In addition, there were two representatives
from every parish in Skattlandet, considered to be synonymous with upper
Telemark County. The tariff for these areas was set at 6 øre silver. In 1647 there
were eight parishes in upper Telemark: Hjartdal, Tinn, Vinje, Lårdal, Seljord,
Fyresdal, Kvitseid and Tørdal. If only these 18 thingmen were compensated, the
total sum would have come to 96 øre silver; that is, 2.6 kilograms of silver. If
all the thingmen were paid compensation, this would have meant an extra 1.6
kilograms of silver.
In total, the cost of full attendance of the Frostathing was 32.6 kilograms of
silver. The equivalent for the Gulathing was 27.8 kilograms. The Eidsivathing
had fewer representatives, most of whom had a shorter journey, and the cost
of holding this assembly therefore came to about 7.5 kilograms of silver. Some
uncertainty surrounds the Skien lawthing, but the likely cost for Skattlandet
alone was 2.6 kilograms of silver. There is no information for the law-areas
of Hålogaland and Jämtland or for the Borgarthing district. It is also uncertain
whether Voss, Hardanger, Mandal and Nedenes were included in the tariffs for
the Gulathing district (Iversen 2015a). These areas were home to just over 30
per cent of the population of Norway, Bohuslän and Jämtland in 1769.1
An overview of the compensation scheme

The holding of the thing meetings for the four known lawthings came to a total
of 70.5 kilograms of silver in bóndafé. To this must be added the cost for the
areas for which the compensation rates are unknown. An estimate suggests
that holding the lawthings in the late thirteenth century cost approximately
100 kilograms of silver a year. This sum, if converted to coins, corresponded
to about 500,000 bracteates (0.2 grams), which were minted in large quanti-
ties during Magnus the Lawmender’s reign until the 1270s, when a major
coin reform took place. At this time the bracteates were replaced by the more
solid penninger (1.2 grams). About 80,000 of these would have covered the
cost of travel to the things at the end of the reign of Magnus the Lawmender
(Gullbekk 2005).
It is reasonable to assume that the costs of holding the thing meetings were
much lower in the High Middle Ages than before. The number of thingmen in
the Law of the Gulathing had been severely reduced from the eleventh century
onwards. According to the text attributed to king Olav the Saint (1015–28,
1030), there were to be 375 thingmen in Firda, Sogn, Hordaland, Rogaland
and Agder. The circumstances stipulated here for the year 1274 applied to 122
representatives in this area and to 148 for the whole Gulathing district, which
by this time had been expanded in geographical terms. In total, this is still only
close to 40 per cent of the number of representatives in the eleventh century.
A similar development is plausible for the other law-districts, and – assuming
that the level of compensation in the eleventh century was similar to that of
the thirteenth century – the costs would have been correspondingly higher.
The economic system of the thing site

When it comes to the question of the economic reality faced by the thingmen
and the organizers of the thing system in thirteenth-century Norway, it seems
clear that the compensation mirrors the willingness and ability to use economic
tools to sustain the social order. In this context, it is interesting to examine
what types of economic values and money were used at Norwegian thing sites.
The provincial laws contain many references to economic value and money,
the majority referring to marks and øre. It can be hard to determine whether
these terms refer to mark silver, in terms of monetary value, or to the mark as
a common denominator for other values. The laws had to be generally appli-
cable, and it is therefore likely that they refer to the latter form of mark and
øre, in which case it would have been up to the parties involved to agree on
an acceptable payment. One article in the Law of the Gulathing provides an
insight into valid commodities used for payments of wergild (mannebøter). This
concerns the fine for manslaughter, regulated according to social status (G 223).
The provincial laws are preserved in documents dating from the second half
of the twelfth and the beginning of the thirteenth century. There is an abun-
dance of scholarly works dealing with the provincial laws: cf. Sandvik 1997.
Now payments can be made in grain, bulls, and cows of calf-bearing age,
fines and baugar. The wergeld shall be paid in gold or burned silver, if these
are available. Pay in horses, but not mares; stallions, but not geldings; and
no horse that has a protruding rectum or a whitish sheath or weak urinary
organs or is wall-eyed or suffers from some other defect. Sheep may be
given in payment, but not goats; odal land may be given in payment, but
not land acquired by purchase. A ship may be given in payment, but not
one that has been rebuilt or is so old that the original rowlocks have rotted
away; nor shall one give a ship with a broken prow or one that is patched
with boards, unless they were laid when the ship was raised on supports
(was built). Nothing that is worth less than an øre shall be given in pay-
ment, unless someone has a fine of smaller amount coming to him; then he
shall take the payment [in things of less value]; but the one who pays may
increase the fine to one øre . . .
Weapons may be given in payment, if they have been tested by use [and
are] whole and hard and without defect; those that the man was slain with
shall not be offered. Let no one pay wergild with a sword, except it be fret-
ted with gold or silver. Wadmal or linen cloth may be offered in payment,
[if it is] entirely new, or any other cloth that is new and uncut, or even cut
cloth, if it is new and the payee is willing to accept it. One may pay with
cloth; for men, but not for women; new cloth, and not old. Black sheep
pelts may be given in payment, [if they are] new and not worn, and finer
cloth, [if it is] new and uncut. Slaves may be given in payment, if they have
all been brought up at home and are not younger than 15 winters, unless
the payee is willing to take them younger. Bondwomen shall not be given
to pay the wergeld. Now the [classes of] property that may be used to pay
the wergeld have been enumerated (G 233).
(Larson 1935)
These are the most detailed regulations concerning valid forms of payment that
have been preserved from medieval Norway. The guidelines are so detailed
that they seem to be based on a long tradition of actual experiences in old
Norwegian society, in which various forms of payment were defined in detail.
These regulations refer to high-quality goods. A horse was not accepted as
payment unless it was in perfect health. Similarly, a ship that had been repaired
and patched with new strakes was not considered adequate payment. Slaves
are mentioned along the same lines as other forms of payment. This does not
mean that ships and slaves were common payment types. Slavery was abolished
in Norway in the thirteenth century, and Viking ships or other ships are not
mentioned as payment in contracts for land transactions from the end of the
thirteenth or the fourteenth century, a time when prices and the means of pay-
ments used are often described in detail. The regulations quoted above provide
an intriguing insight into the system of payments in kind in a particular context,
but cannot be applied as a basis for ascertaining what types of money were
accepted or commonly used in medieval Norway as a whole.
The lack of regulations regarding minting in the provincial laws is in stark
contrast to our current knowledge of minting and the organized monetary
system of Norway in the second half of the eleventh century, the last quarter
of the twelfth century and the thirteenth century. One possible explanation
could be that it was not the issuer of coins – the king – who formulated the
laws. The older sections of the provincial laws were discussed and agreed on by
the things, partly as agreements between the farmers and partly as agreements
between the farmers and the official powers, i.e. the king and the Church. The
earliest examples of regulations for the whole kingdom date from the 1150s
and 1160s, but these still had to be accepted by the lawthings to become valid
law. This is despite the fact that the role of the things in the issuing of law had
been reduced. It was not the royal coinage, but the types of money used by
the farming community that was the most important to the men who issued
law at the lawthings.
Money and its use at the thing

In the economic system of the Middle Ages the use of goods as a form of
payment was based on tradition, while the monetary system was organized by
the kings. To organize this for the kingdom as a whole, it seems likely that
the Crown made use of the lawthings. Here, changes could be announced and
practical measures introduced to the most important men within each law-
district. These men then returned home and announced the royal decrees at
the things at shire and local levels. The distances separating the central power
and the Norwegian farmers could be measured by the organization of the
thing system. In this context it is reasonable to assume that the kings used
the thing meetings on various occasions when coinage was on the political
agenda, for instance in the implementation of monetary measures, such as
renovatio monetae, or recoinage.
Recoinages can be identified on the basis of numismatic, archaeological
and written sources, and were carried out especially after the accession of
new kings. New rulers asserted themselves through the monetary system; this
was one of their time-honoured royal regalia. A supply of silver was essential
for this custom, and since Norway did not have any substantial natural silver
resources in the Middle Ages, it was through recoinages that the new kings
obtained silver for their new coins. This was also an opportunity for the king
to rid the monetary system of foreign coins. Medieval Norwegian recoinages
seem to have been carried out with great efficiency, as the great majority of
coin hoards dating from about 1070 to 1320 only contain coins issued by one
king or of a singular type, rather than many different ones (Gullbekk 2009: 33).
During such recoinages the thingmen would bring their own coins as well as
those of others, and exchange them for new coins in accordance with the royal
decree. At the same time, royal representatives would have had an opportunity
to travel to the thing meetings where new coins were to be introduced. There
are no written sources stating that such procedures took place at the assemblies,
but from what we know of the thing site as a venue for trade and exchange it is
difficult to imagine that processes of national character, such as recoinages, took
place without the use of the thing as a well-established forum of society. In this
way, the use of coins quickly became part of the economics of the thing site.
The text of the laws suggests that the thingmen brought coins to the assem-
blies. That coins were part of the world of the lawmakers is reflected in the
Law of the Gulathing, where it is stated that all thingmen should pay their fines
Figures 5.1–5.2 (continued)
(continued)
Figures 5.1–5.2 Travel compensation and geographical zones in the Gulathing and
Frostathing law-areas stipulated in the Rural Law of Magnus the
Lawmender (1274)  Frode Iversen/Svein Gullbekk.
at the assembly (G 3: 22), irrespective of whether the guilty party or his rela-
tives intended to pay. If he did not accept his obligation to pay the fine, the
king or barons (lendmaðr) should pay and then claim twice the amount from the
guilty party after his return home (G 3: 23).
Until he shall offer atonement at the thing or in the presence of assembled

men and have the money there to pay over. (G 34: 4) . . . [T]hen he shall
proceed to the thing and shall show by witness what their agreement was;
then he shall offer [redemption] money. But if the other man has author-
ised no one to receive the money, let the suitor have it and keep it until
the other man comes to get it.
(G 286: 6–7)
It is difficult to imagine how the thingmen could have brought other forms of
payment than silver and coins to meet the demands of compensation at the
thing. Unfortunately, there are no extant accounts of how fines were paid at
the lawthings in the High Middle Ages (Gullbekk 1998; Lunden 1999). For
such descriptions we need to look to the Faroe Islands and Iceland. The Faroe
Islanders’ Saga describes how Thorir paid his compensation for manslaughter:
Finn shouted to him to bring out the money. Thorir told him to go ashore
and then he would bring it. Then Finn and his men went ashore and
Thorir came to him and paid out silver. Out of one bag he produced ten
marks by weight, and then took out a number of purses. Some held a mark
by weight, others half a mark or perhaps several öre.
(Faroe Islanders’ Saga 1975: ch. 45)
There is no doubt that Thorir paid his fine in silver. Several accounts in
the Icelandic sagas confirm that silver and coins were used at the assemblies
(Gullbekk 2011), among them Egil’s Saga, where we are told that the old Egil
planned to scatter English silver coins from the law rock to create chaos among
the thingmen. Egil was, however, persuaded to stay at home with his chests full
of English silver, which had been given to him by King Aethelstan after the
Battle at Brunanburh in 937 (Egs: 85).
The Norwegian provincial laws contain numerous references to silver and
coins. One such regulation, which illustrates the economics of the thing, is
found in the Law of the Frostathing (F I: 2), ‘Concerning the holy bands that
the royal steward (ármaðr) set up’, which states that:
All men who are appointed to the law court shall sit in it as long as men
wish the thing to remain [in session], except that one may leave for private
needs. But if a man leaves the law court and goes elsewhere outside the
enclosure, he shall be fined a mark in current coin (tald mark).
(F I: 2)
The term tald mark means marks by the tale and refers to Norwegian coins
or royal coins that had been minted in one of the king’s workshops and were
valid currency. Foreign coins were, on the whole, not seen as valid unless they
contained burnt silver. In Norway it was above all English sterling that was in
wide circulation. As everywhere, counterfeiting coins was considered a severe
offence. The Rural Law of Magnus the Lawmender explicitly stated that ‘If
someone counterfeits the coins of our king, he shall be punished by permanent
outlawry (ubotamål)’ (L IV: 4.2).
As mentioned above, the assembly regulations stated that the representatives
of Namdalen and Romsdalen were entitled to 6 øre silver in travel compensa-
tion, while the representatives from Nordmøre and Oppdal were entitled to
4 øre and those from the interior to 2 øre. The money was to be paid to the
‘farmers’ fund’ of Nidaros, a joint fund for the levy fleet (leiðang) and the law-
thing managed by the lawman, who was a royal henchman as well as a trusted
farmer (Taranger 1929: 17).
A similar ‘levy-fleet fund’ is mentioned in Bergen, too (Helle 1995: 542).
If a levy-fleet man travelled home without access to food, he was allowed to
slaughter two sheep equivalent in value to that of one cow without incurring a
fine, as long as he left the hide and head along with 2 øre silver in current coin.
Everyone in the Gulathing district should pay half a weighed øre in lawman’s toll
(NgL III, no. 60). Those responsible for these law texts must have been living
in a time when it was common for those on levy-fleet missions to carry coins.
This most likely meant that others who travelled in Norway likewise brought
money, thus forming part of the economic sphere of the thing and the thingmen.
Ecclesiastical law and money

In terms of the Church and church law, the monetary fine system was already
established in the earliest ecclesiastical laws (Kolsrud 1937–9: 472). In 1162
Archbishop Øystein made a deal with the farmers in the bishopric that fines
should be paid in weight rather than coins by tale, i.e. twice the value of the
royal fines, which would be paid in coins of burnt silver, but with reduced
weight (Hkr., Magnus Erlingssons saga: chs 16, 21). This led to a dispute
between Erling Skakke and the archbishop. Erling argued that such an increase
in the ecclesiastical fines contradicted the laws of king Olav the Saint. The
archbishop responded that there was nothing in Olav’s laws prohibiting an
increase of God’s share (Kolsrud 1937–9: 474–5). This continued to be a
source of conflict during the reign of Sverre Sigurdsson, who again brought
it up for discussion. A letter of privilege issued by Pope Celestine III for the
Norwegian Church on 15 June 1194 reads:
No king or chieftain should be allowed to change the accepted regulations

and laws of the kingdom without the consent of the bishops and wise
men, nor the monetary fines for clerics and lay people, contradicting old
custom, to the detriment of the Church or the clerics.
As sagas mention this dispute on several occasions, in addition to which it is
confirmed by a papal letter, it seems reasonable to assume that the Church had
established a functioning monetary fine system already in the middle of the
twelfth century or perhaps even earlier.
Conclusions
The lawthing served as a hub for spreading news, decisions and proclamations,
which delegates brought back to the things at shire and local levels across the
kingdom. With regard to recoinages, the exchange of coins was announced at
the thing, and it is argued that gatherings at various levels of society were used
as venues for the exchange of old coins for new ones. The economy of the
thing was, just as other parts of the economy, multi-faceted. As coins gained a
wider distribution in society during the High Middle Ages, the royal money
became more and more important for the thing economy.
The size of the compensation for the thingmen who met at assemblies dur-
ing the course of a year added up to 100 kilograms of silver or 467 marks of
burnt silver, which would have been the equivalent of several hundred thou-
sand bracteates in the middle of the thirteenth century, or close to a hundred
thousand penninger around 1300. Despite the fact that the economic system of
medieval Norway was to a large extent dependent on goods and money, it
seems that silver and coins were practical forms of payment at the thing. People
travelled great distances, and it was expected that settlements would be reached
during the thing meetings. The coins constituted the royal means of payment
and were easy to bring on journeys. In this sense they were well suited as
payment for the thingmen across the realm. Compared to the tax collected by
the king at around 1300 – estimated at 3,500 marks of burnt silver annually –
the compensation paid for the thingmen’s travel in the time of Magnus the
Lawmender constituted about 15 per cent. In reality, the costs of implementing
the thing system were significantly higher, and were to a large extent covered
by Norwegian farmers.
Note
1 This constituted 217,000 out of 691,000 (31.4 per cent). The Norwegian figures are
taken from the census of 1769.There were then 90,000 inhabitants in the areas corre-
sponding to Borgarthing district (apart from Grenland, which is included in the Skien
law-district) in the Middle Ages (an estimated 22,000 for Bohuslän). Altogether, there
were c. 60,000 inhabitants in Hålogaland and Finnmark (c. 6,000), and c. 52,000 in
Nedenes,Voss and Hardanger. The estimate for Jämtland is c. 15,000.
References
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X: 281.
Faroe Islanders’ Saga: George Johnston (ed.) 1975: Faroe Islanders’ Saga. Oberon. Canada.
Gullbekk, Svein H. 1998: Medieval law and money in Norway. Numismatic Chronicle,
vol. 158: 173–84.
—— 2005: Lite eller mye mynt i Norge i middelalderen. Historisk Tidsskrift, vol. 84:
552–72.
—— 2009: Pengevesenets fremvekst og fall i Norge i middelalderen. Museum Tusculanum
Forlag. København.
—— 2011: Money and its use in the saga society: silver, coins, and commodity money.
In: Sigmundsson, Svavar (ed.): Viking Settlements and Viking Society. Papers from the
Proceedings of the Sixteenth Viking Congress, Reykjavík and Reykholt, 16–23 August
2009, pp. 176–89. University of Iceland Press. Reykjavík.
Helle, Knut 1995: Bergen bys historie. Kongssete og kjøpstad. Fra opphav til 1536. Bind 1.
Alma Mater Forlag. Bergen.
Iversen, Frode 2013: Concilium and Pagus – revisiting the early Germanic thing-system
of northern Europe. Journal of the North Atlantic, 5: 5–17.
—— 2014: Om aritmetikk og rettferdighet. Tinget i randen av Europa i jernalderen.
In: Gullbekk, Svein (ed.): Ja, vil elsker frihet – En antologi, pp. 246–56. Dreyer. Oslo.
—— 2015a: Community and society – the thing at the edge of Europe. Journal of the
North Atlantic, 8: 1–17.
—— 2015b: Hålogaland blir en rettskrets. Heimen, 2: 103–25.
Kolsrud, Olaf 1937–9: Kong Magnus Erlingssons kronings-eid 1163. Nye document til
norsk historie millom1152 og 1194. Historisk Tidsskrift, vol. XXXI: 453–88.
Larson, Lawrence M 1935: The Earliest Norwegian Laws: Being the Gulathing law and
the Frostathing Law. Translated from the Old Norwegian by Lawrence M. Larson.
Records of Civilisation 20. New York. Columbia University Press.
Lunden, Kåre 1978: Korn og Kaup. Studiar over prisar og jordbruk på Vestlandet i mellomalderen.
Universitetsforlaget. Oslo-Bergen-Tromsø.
—— 1999: Money economy in medieval Norway. Scandinavian Journal of History,
vol. 24: 245–65.
Sandvik, Gudmund 1997: Dei norske landskapslovene frå mellomalderen. Nokre
aktuelle problemstillingar og forskningsoppgåver. In: Dybdahl, Audun and Jørn
Sandnes (eds): Nordiske middelalderlover – tekst og kontekst. Skrifter, vol. 5: 33–8.
Senter for Middelalderstudier. Trondheim.
Taranger, Absalon (ed.) 1915: Magnus Lagabøtes landslov, translated by Absalon Taranger
1915. Cammermeyers boghandel, Kristiania.
Taranger, Absalon 1929: Trondheims forfatningshistorie. Det Kongelige Norske
Videnskabers Selskabs skrifter 5. Trondheim.
Part II
Production and resources

6 The extensive iron production
in Norway in the tenth to
thirteenth century
A regional perspective
Ole Tveiten and Kjetil Loftsgarden
Introduction
Iron production from bog ore, often referred to as ‘bloomery’ or ‘primitive’
iron production, is known in Scandinavia from the Early Iron Age up to the
end of the Middle Ages. In this chapter we will discuss the intensification
of iron production from the late tenth century ad onwards. An important
question in this regard is: what factors made it possible – what were the pre-
conditions for this increase during the later Viking Age, and for subsequent
large-scale production during the eleventh to thirteenth century? This chapter
aims to examine these questions by discussing aspects of the structure and tech-
nology of iron production, as well as the actors involved. Our main focus areas
are the valleys and mountainous areas of South Norway. A closer look at the
general development in this area is presented through a case study of Gravdalen
in Valdres, Oppland, South-East Norway (see Skre this vol., Figure 1.1), which
illustrates the comprehensive changes in iron technology and intensity of pro-
duction. However, we argue that the themes explored will be applicable and
have relevance beyond South Norway.
Today over 3,500 iron production sites (jernvinneanlegg) are listed in the
Norwegian database for cultural heritage, Askeladden; similarly, the number
of such sites (blästbrukslämning) in the Swedish database for cultural heritage,
Fornsök, is well over 5,000 (Figure 6.1). These sites represent iron production
over a period of at least two millennia, from the last centuries bc to the late
eighteenth century ad. Based on the chronology of the iron production sites,
it is possible to sort the material, thus revealing certain patterns concerning use
of the landscape. In general, it is clear that during the sixth century ad produc-
tion was gradually moving away from the arable land and central settlements,
into more marginal areas.
The earliest iron production in Norway, currently known from a few sites
dated to the Pre-Roman Iron Age (500–1 bc), occurs in connection with
central farming settlements (Larsen 2009: 53–4; Larsen and Rundberget 2014).
Similar finds from Sweden indicate that the earliest iron production started in
central bronze-casting milieus in the later part of the Bronze Age (Hjärthner-
Holdar 1993: 38). In Denmark, iron production is known from approximately
Figure 6.1 All recorded iron production sites (Norw. jernvinneanlegg; Sw.
blästbrukslämning) ranging from the fourth century bc to the nineteenth
century ad in Norway and Sweden. As of September 2015 this includes
3,609 jernvinneanlegg and 5,466 blästbrukslämning.
Source: Data from the Norwegian database for cultural heritage, Askeladden, and the Swedish
database for cultural heritage, Fornsök.
Iron production in Norway 113
400–200 bc (Jouttijärvi and Voss 2013: 83). During the last centuries bc, the
activity increased, and several excavations have recorded extensive iron pro-
duction during the Roman Iron Age (ad 1–400) and most of the Migration
Period (ad 400–550). Shaft furnaces with a slag pit are the preferred technology
of the period, as in most of the Germanic areas (Pleiner 2000: 45). In Norway,
furnaces of this type are generally found at elevations approximately between
150 and 1,000 m a.s.l. In some areas, the iron production is concentrated at
historical shielings, frequently in outfield areas. Excavations and pollen analyses
have in some cases documented a correlation between these, indicating that
the iron production preceded the agricultural use of the land, perhaps even as
a means of clearing the land (Tveiten and Pettersson 2013: 52).
The sixth and seventh centuries ad witnessed major changes in material
culture, language and social structure (Gräslund and Price 2012). These soci-
etal changes are also reflected in the iron technology. During the seventh and
eighth centuries ad, the furnaces with slag pits were gradually replaced by
smaller furnaces with slag-tapping. The changes in Norwegian and Swedish
iron production in this period seem to be paralleled by similar changes in other
parts of North-Western Europe, where iron production moved away from
settlements into areas offering easier access to raw materials, wood and iron ore
(Nørbach 1999: 245; Larsen 2009: 95). In Norway, iron production moved
higher up in the woodland and low mountain areas than before, and spread
over larger areas.
From about 900 ad, the activity was further intensified, and by the end of
the twelfth century iron production using the slag-tapping furnace reached
its largest extent in Norway, with sites found up to the upper tree limit,
about 1,200 m a.s.l. (Bloch-Nakkerud and Lindblom 1994: 41–2; Larsen and
Rundberget 2009: 48). The intensity of iron production is apparent from the
thousands of production sites recorded. It has been estimated that in South-
East Norway alone as much as 130,000 tonnes of iron was produced in this
time period (Rundberget 2013: 253–4). While the earlier furnaces used wood
as fuel, separate pits used for charcoal production were introduced together
with the new type of slag-tapping furnace. These structures, easily recognis-
able as 1–5-m-deep circular or square pits dug into the ground, are frequently
found in the areas of iron production, and today well over 20,000 such pits are
recorded (Loftsgarden 2015).
Figure 6.1 shows the general distribution of iron production sites in
Sweden and Norway from the Early Iron Age (c. 200 bc) to the late eighteenth
century ad. The largest numbers of sites consist either of slag pit furnaces or
slag-tapping furnaces, but a general lack of comprehensive descriptions makes
a detailed division difficult. A way of highlighting the distribution of slag-
tapping furnaces is by analysing the distribution of charcoal pits. In Norway, as
in Sweden, these are closely related to iron production in the Viking Age and
Middle Ages (c. ad 800–1450), and are most often found in clusters of between
3 and 15 within a kilometre of the nearest iron production site. This material
gives an indication of the core areas of iron production during the Viking Age
114 Ole Tveiten and Kjetil Loftsgarden
Figure 6.2 Distribution of charcoal pits (20,462 pits), indicating iron production sites in
the Viking Age and Middle Ages, tenth to fourteenth century, in Norway.
Source: Data from the Norwegian database for cultural heritage, Askeladden.
and Middle Ages; in Norway these correspond mainly to the upper parts of the
valleys of South-East Norway (Figure 6.2).
On the other hand, remains from iron production in Denmark during the
Viking Age and Middle Ages are few and far between. Whether this indicates
large-scale iron import from Swedish and Norwegian areas, as suggested by
Jørgen Elsøe Jensen (2010), or whether it may partly be attributed to the fact
that the Danish slag-tapping furnace seems to leave almost no trace in an inten-
sively cultivated landscape (Lyngstrøm 2013: 131) is an interesting question,
but one that is beyond the scope of this chapter.
Figure 6.2 shows that the slag-tapping furnaces, to a larger degree than the
earlier sites, are concentrated in the upper parts of the main valleys in eastern
Norway, namely Setesdal, Telemark, Hallingdal and Valdres, and the middle
part of Østerdalen, towards the Swedish border (see Figure 6.1 for an over-
view). Equally interesting is the lack of iron production sites in the central and
more populated areas closer to the coast of South Norway or in Trøndelag,
which had at least some earlier iron production (Larsen 2009: 94–5). Regional
specialisation must have occurred, where areas that were marginal from an
agricultural perspective took on the role of iron producers, while other areas
may have specialised in other products (Narmo 2003; Tveiten 2012). Stable
networks with a functional market economy, trade routes and hubs must
obviously have been an important factor in making this specialisation possible
(Loftsgarden 2011).
Technological changes in iron production

For a long time, since the age of Thomsen and Montelius, evolutionism has
exerted a significant influence throughout the discipline of archaeology, and
this has been a central factor in explaining the variation in furnaces found dur-
ing excavations in Scandinavia, especially in the period before the radiocarbon
method of dating was available. Since archaeologists were dependent on date-
able objects to estimate the age of iron production, and since such finds were
generally rare at iron production sites, the process of estimating the age of the
furnaces was rather difficult. Still, a general agreement has existed that an evo-
lutionary approach should be adopted to understand the development, with
the assumption that it moved from primitive to more complex technology.
The furnaces were expected to have developed from small pits dug into the
ground to large furnaces built with stones during the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries (Hauge 1946: 134). All changes in the archaeological record could be
interpreted as improvements in the efficacy of the technology, which in turn
caused changes in society.
However, a paradox of pre-industrial iron production in Norway and
Scandinavia is that the technological changes seem to move in the opposite
direction, from large and complex sites to smaller and simpler sites. Some of
the largest sites documented in Norway are found in Trøndelag, dating mainly
to the period 200 bc–ad 500. On these sites between four and eight furnaces
occur, lined up on a ridge, usually close to a river or lake. As much as 100
tonnes of slag is documented at some of these sites, making them by far the
largest in Norway (Farbregd et al. 1985; Stenvik 1997). Large-scale iron pro-
duction sites from approximately 1–700 ad are also found at several other places
in South Norway (Johansen 1973; Indrelid 1988; Larsen 1991, 2003; Larsen
and Rundberget 2009). Compared with these production sites, those of the
Viking Age and Middle Ages are small. The largest sites, usually with two fur-
naces and between 20 and 45 tonnes of slag, occur in Østerdalen (Narmo 1997;
Rundberget 2007, 2013). Further west, most sites are substantially smaller,
rarely with more than two to five tonnes of slag (Larsen 2004: 152). Why do
these changes from large and complex to smaller and simpler sites occur?
Two aspects of the new technology are of interest here: the charcoal pits
and the new furnaces. Both elements were introduced during the latter part
of the Iron Age, prior to the massive rise in iron production in the Viking
Age and particularly the first part of the Middle Ages. While the earlier iron
production was based on pine, generally thought to have been charred in
the furnaces prior to smelting, the new charcoal pits facilitated the use of all
sorts of wood, pushing iron production further upwards to the tree limit,
1,100–1,200 m a.s.l. Also, the charred wood could be stored in the pits for a
long time after the charring process (Narmo 1996: 53–4). Since the furnace
was no longer used for the process of charring wood, its size could be reduced,
from a diameter of about 1.0 m to less than 0.5 m. The method of slag-tapping
also changed, from a pit dug under the furnace shaft in the earlier periods to
horizontal tapping of the slag from the shaft in the Viking Age and medieval
furnaces (Larsen 2004: 140–2).
One of the most important consequences of these technological changes
is that it made iron production more mobile. Instead of investing a lot of
resources on one site for a long time, possibly several generations, smaller
and simpler sites were used for a few seasons, before production was moved
to a new site, close to the resources – charcoal and ore. The technology
itself was probably not more effective than the earlier one, but the mobil-
ity made it less rigid, and thus more robust and adaptable to political and
economic changes.
Another important consequence is that iron production could more easily
be adjusted to varying patterns of supply and demand. Inhabitants of the
relatively marginal inner valleys and mountain regions of Norway would not
risk spending time and resources in producing large quantities of iron from
bog ore if they were not confident that they could exchange iron for goods
they needed or wanted. The smaller and thus more flexible furnaces from the
Viking Age and Middle Ages enabled iron production to become one of sev-
eral outfield resources to be exploited, depending on economic factors such
as demand, or the existence of stable social and economic networks, along
with marketplaces enabling trade.
The example of Gravf jellet

To provide an example of the technological changes outlined, and to illustrate
the massive iron production occurring particularly in the eleventh to thirteenth
century, we will present a recent survey of iron production sites in a local
context. Gravfjellet is an area in the valley district of Valdres, a region with con-
siderable remains of iron production. At Gravfjellet, Oppland County Council
has conducted extensive surveys, combined with testing of new methods and
technologies such as LIDAR (Light Detection And Ranging). This technology
is used to create detailed three-dimensional maps of the landscape, making it
possible to identify cultural heritage sites, particularly charcoal-burning and
hunting pits (Pilø et al. 2012, 2013; Pilø 2013).
Gravfjellet is located 0.5 to 7 km from the nearest Iron Age and medieval
settlements, and between 600 and 1,100 m a.s.l. The area is dominated by bog
and forest (spruce, birch and pine), with shielings scattered across the land-
scape. Iron production was known to have taken place in the area, making it
suitable as a test area for LIDAR technology. In 2011 the area was scanned, and
preliminary surveys were conducted. During the summer and autumn of 2012
more extensive surveys were conducted, covering about 10 km2 of Gravfjellet.
After these surveys, some 100 iron production sites and 450 charcoal pits were
documented in the area. However, the distribution of iron production sites is
Figure 6.3 Recorded Early Iron Age sites in the Gravfjellet area. The map also shows
the surveyed areas.
much wider than this area. Based on the LIDAR scanning, it is estimated that
the municipality of Øystre Slidre, where Gravfjellet is located, has some 700
iron production sites and 4,000 charcoal pits (Pilø et al. 2012; Tveiten and
Figure 6.4 Recorded medieval sites (eleventh to thirteenth century) and charcoal pits
in the same area.
Pettersson 2013). The survey at Gravfjellet demonstrates the magnitude of iron

production during the late Viking Age and Middle Ages, and indicates that it
must have constituted a vital economic factor during this period.
In the surveyed area, five of the approximately 100 iron production sites
were found to be shaft furnaces with slag pits. The rest of the sites were
shaft furnaces with slag-tapping. Radiocarbon dating of some of the sites in
Gravfjellet, as well as nearby excavated sites, indicates that the main period of
iron production was the early eleventh to mid-thirteenth century, with a rapid
decline in the latter half of the thirteenth century (Narmo 1996: 186; Mjærum
2007: 185; Tveiten and Pettersson 2013: 40). The area thus also illustrates the
major differences between the two main phases of iron production in Norway.
While the earlier sites (slag pit furnaces) are represented by a few relatively
large sites, the later type (slag-tapping furnaces) is represented by smaller sites,
found in vast numbers across the outfield landscape (see Figures 6.3 and 6.4).
Actors in the iron production

The number of sites and overall size and complexity of the iron production
are substantial, and must have involved a large number of actors with the right
skills and resources. In the early modern period, from the early sixteenth cen-
tury onwards, the Scandinavian kings were heavily involved in the growing
industry of iron production (Christophersen 1974: 33–5). The earlier period,
particularly from the eleventh to the fourteenth centuries, may be seen as a
period where the relatively newly established Norwegian kingdom gradually
gained power over larger areas of the country, and where laws and regulations
increasingly were affecting everyday life. The sources regarding these processes
are few, with the regional laws from the twelfth and early thirteenth century
(Gulatingslovi and Frostatingslova) and the national law (Magnus Lagabøters
Landslov) replacing the prior in the year 1274, constituting the main sources.
None of these laws give much information concerning iron production or
other outfield activities, other than stating that the conditions should be as
they traditionally have been. In Frostatingslova and Magnus Lagabøters Landslov,
forges in the outfield are mentioned – probably meaning iron production
sites – but only in connection with compensation for damages. Even if regional
and national laws hardly mention iron production, diplomas mainly from the
late thirteenth and fourteenth centuries – which often are more specific than
the general laws – indicate some tendencies of the king’s as well as the Church’s
view on iron production (see Table 6.1). The main point to take from this
limited material is that the Church as well as the king did not initiate or con-
trol the iron production. Instead, there seems to have been a gradual process
towards a regulated market for iron, mainly in the cities.
One of the main incomes of the Church in the Middle Ages was the tithe,
where the farmers had to offer a tenth of their harvest to the Church. From
the late fourteenth century, this tax also included outfield products, but for
iron only half a tithe – one in twenty – had to be paid in tax to the Church.
Even with this low tithe, the Church’s income in the form of iron must have
been substantial, but it seems that the different units of the clergy had unequal
incomes of iron. In the western part of the country, medieval iron production
Table 6.1 Documents from the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries concerning iron
Year Text Reference
1263 Iron producers must pay tithe to the Church. RN 1: 1009
1277 One out of 20 pounds of iron must be paid as RN 2: 181
tithe to the Church.
1308 Properties given to the bishop in Stavanger DN IV no. 77
may be paid out either in iron or butter.
1282 Price regulations on iron in Bergen. NgL III no. 2
1293 Guilds among smiths in Bergen are banned. NgL III no. 6
1338–40 The Bishop of Bergen is in need of iron DN VIII no. 102;
and asks the Bishop of Stavanger and DN IX no. 118;
Trondheim for help. DN VII no. 173
1358 The people of Østerdalen are given the right DN VI no. 238
to make iron in the outfield areas and sell it
at any market.
1377 Price regulations on forging in Trondheim. NgL III no. 110
1384 Price regulations on forging in Bergen. NgL III no. 120
Note: RN = Regesta Norvegica, DN = Diplomatarium Norvegicum, NgL = Norges Gamle Love.
appears to have been minimal, and the written sources indicate that the Bishop
of Bergen, in particular, seems to have lacked a steady supply of iron.
The king and Church could, of course, have owned farms or parts of farms
in the areas of great iron production, gaining access to the outfield resources
in this way. However, this does not seem to have been the case. When com-
paring the areas of large-scale medieval iron production with the structure of
ownership, we find that most of the iron production occurred in areas domi-
nated by private ownership, undertaken either by the farmer himself or by
other farmers in the area (Bjørkvik and Holmsen 1972: 71; Helle 1974: 158).
The role of iron in these inner valleys and mountain regions of South
Norway can be glimpsed through diplomas from the thirteenth and fourteenth
centuries; Valdres is especially prominent in this regard. In all, five different
smiths are mentioned here; iron is also mentioned in the sale of farms, being
used as payment on three separate occasions (Blom 1991: 82–3). The smiths
are often found as members of the jury in local trials, indicating that they were
prominent members of the community. Iron was used as payment together
with grain, cattle and butter, all of these being locally available commodities.
Conclusion
The massive increase in iron production in Norway and Sweden from the
ninth century onwards follows certain general trends, including a rise in popu-
lation, agrarian expansion and the establishment of towns. However, in this
chapter we have taken a regional viewpoint and from this perspective have
tried to point out some of the most important aspects and preconditions enabling
the increase in iron production.
The technology changed prior to the rise in iron production, from a few
large sites with large furnaces, to many smaller and more flexible sites. By
reducing the size of the furnaces and the investment in each site, and introduc-
ing a more flexible and mobile technology instead, bog ore and wood could
be exploited in areas hitherto left undisturbed. We further argue that the most
plausible interpretation of the many small iron production sites found in the
valleys and mountainous regions of South Norway is that iron production
was organised by specialised farmers. Iron production could be carried out in
parallel with animal husbandry, and the small iron production sites enabled
flexibility in response to trends and forces in the demand for iron or in society
as a whole. Consequently, stable social and economic networks, with smith-
ies or seasonal marketplaces as hubs, where the iron-producing farmers could
exchange the iron they had produced were a necessary precondition for the
massive rise in iron production on a regional as well as national level.
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7 Viking-period non-ferrous
metalworking and urban
commodity production
Unn Pedersen
Introduction
The production of metal jewellery flourished in Scandinavia in the early
Viking period, concurrent with the emergence of new centres for trade and
craft (Callmer 1995; Sindbæk 2007; Pedersen 2010, 2016a). In this chapter
I shall discuss the relationship between the production and the exchange of
metal dress accessories on the basis of the archaeological finds from the Viking-
period town of Kaupang in Vestfold (Skre 2007a) – the place in Norway that
currently offers the best picture of non-ferrous metalworking. Based on previ-
ous research, I will discuss more closely the variety and scope of non-ferrous
metalworking identified at Kaupang. I argue that the production, distribution
and use of jewellery and other items are closely related, and much more com-
plex than hitherto acknowledged. The manufacture of these products cannot
be seen in isolation from the social context of use and disposal, and the craft-
speople must have navigated through various types of exchange modes and
social spheres.
Urban commodity production?

A lead mould for wax models and 25 different lead models (Figure 7.1) show
that serial production of dress accessories was a characteristic feature of the
non-ferrous metalworking at Kaupang (Pedersen 2016a: 38–78). These tools
were used to make clay moulds, and they are both suited to the production
of a large number of virtually identical moulds which were subsequently used
to manufacture extended series of more or less indistinguishable products.
Stylistic datings and the context of the lead models reveal that this serial pro-
duction continued from the foundation of Kaupang, around the year 800, right
through the ninth century and into the tenth, possibly right up until the cessa-
tion of urban activity around the year 930 (Pedersen 2016a: 190).
Serial production has long been recognized as a typical feature of metal-
casting in the Viking-period towns (Brinch Madsen 1984: 93) and is also
reflected in the burial finds through an evident standardization of dress acces-
sories (Callmer 1984, 1995). According to Callmer (1995: 66), serial produc-
tion began during the eighth century and flourished in the ninth and tenth
Viking-period non-ferrous metalworking 125
Figure 7.1 A lead mould for wax models (upper row, centre) and lead models for
making equal-armed brooches and strap-ends.
Source:  Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo. Photo by Eirik Irgens Johnsen.
centuries. It differed from a preceding style of production to order, under

which individualistic items were more prominent, and Callmer (1995: 66)
claims that the serial production was directed at customers with whom the
producers had, at most, limited contact.
The largest group of lead models from Kaupang is for making equal-armed
brooches (Pedersen 2016a: 40–9), while amongst the few clay moulds in which
the impression can be identified there are several for oval brooches (Pedersen
2016a: 100–1). In both cases, the graves show that these were dress accessories
of copper alloy which were worn by large numbers of women and were popular
over large areas of Scandinavia (Jansson 1985; Callmer 1999). These two types
of brooch have also been highlighted by archaeologists who have discussed serial
production (Brinch Madsen 1984; Callmer 1984, 1995). The lead models of
equal-armed brooches from Kaupang are for different types, and stylistic dat-
ings indicate that several types of brooch were manufactured at the same time
(Pedersen 2016a: Fig. 4.28). In the same way, Claus Feveile (2002: 24–5) has
shown that various types of oval brooch and other items of jewellery were
being produced within a single workshop in Ribe. The evidence from the two
Viking-period towns thus indicates that, at any one time, residents and visitors
could choose between different types and variants of copper-alloy brooches.
The sequence of production suggests that the equal-armed brooches were
made in advance. The clay moulds could only be used once, and it takes time
126 Unn Pedersen
to manufacture a series of equal-armed brooches using a single lead model.
This is slow serial production, as each mould is shaped around the model
when the clay is wet, and the lead model has to remain in the clay mould
until the latter has dried, which can require 24 hours for each of the two
halves that make up the mould (Hedegaard 2005: 11). It would, therefore,
take at least 100 days to produce 50 equal-armed brooches using just one lead
model. It is, therefore, reasonable to suppose that the craftspeople cast greater
or smaller stocks of brooches with a view to eventually trading them. They
may alternatively have prepared stocks of moulds for eventual use (Dunér and
Vinberg 2006: 21).
At Kaupang, more regular mass production of items that were extremely
similar has also been demonstrated, along with serial production (Pedersen
2016a: 82–3). A mould of volcanic tuff provides an insight into the manu-
facture of simple cast pendants (Figure 7.2). A large number of pieces could
in this case be cast in the re-usable mould within a very short space of time,
and six lead pendants are local products from this style of mass production
(Figure 7.3). Similar and contemporary items of lead and tin jewellery are
known from Frankish and Frisian regions, where they are interpreted as
affordable jewellery (Wamers 1994: 197–8), and large quantities of lead from
Kaupang also show that this metal was considered cheap (Pedersen 2016a:
192). Once again, it is reasonable to suppose that the extensive production
was directed at customers with whom the craftspeople had limited contact,
and that the producers were able to sell the products of their craft.
The Viking-period towns brought large numbers of people together and
had relatively large populations – in the case of Kaupang up to 800 inhabitants
(Stylegar 2007: 87). The preconditions were thus laid for the craftspeople to
be able to produce series of equal-armed or oval brooches in the hope of sub-
sequently disposing of them. The finds from the towns emphasize that these
were places of buying and selling, with a system of exchange which made
it easy to dispose of trade goods. The weights and hacksilver from Kaupang
indicate that even products of minor value were bought and sold (Hårdh 2008;
Pedersen 2008). Thus, the towns were fora in which the artisans could sell pre-
manufactured dress accessories, including pieces of limited economic value.
They received a recognized currency in return. The hacksilver could be used
as a means of payment for the purchase of raw materials or other necessary
items, and also itself served as a raw material in non-ferrous metalworking.
The latter point is illustrated by the half-melted contents of a crucible found at
Kaupang (Blackburn 2008: Fig. 3.1). In this case the process of melting down
coins, a fragment of an armring and other hacksilver was interrupted.
I have earlier suggested (Pedersen 2015a) that the manufacture of pendants
as well as equal-armed and oval brooches therefore seems to offer a direct con-
nection with the concept of ‘urban commodity production’, the objective of
which was commercial disposal in the market (Christophersen 1982). The past
has been described as a foreign place (Lowenthal 1985), but the production of
large numbers of Type P37 oval brooches (Petersen 1928: Fig. 37) of consist-
ent and reliable quality does not appear so peculiar in an age in which we make
Figure 7.2 Mould for lead pendants.

pilgrimages to IKEA to furnish our homes with bookcases called Billy. We are
likewise not unfamiliar with the concept of a new design first being copied
by skilled copyists and then becoming the object of less careful mass produc-
tion, just as Signe Horn Fuglesang (1987) has demonstrated in the case of the
oval brooches. Does the non-ferrous metalworking actually provide us with an
insight into a field in which there were striking similarities to our own time?
Figure 7.3 Lead pendant.

128 Unn Pedersen
Serial production to order
Starting from Callmer’s position, serial production has been treated as identical
to production for an anonymous market, and as fundamentally different from
the production of individual (‘bespoke’) pieces to order (Skre 2007a: 450).
Callmer himself (1995: 65–9) insisted that the relations were more complex,
a point reinforced by the evidence found at Kaupang. The lead models show
that very different artefacts were produced serially. One of these implements
was used to produce cruciform pendants of gold or silver foil which were
decorated with filigree (Figure 7.4). An item of gold jewellery of this kind
is known from the hoard of Lackalänga in Skåne (Strömberg 1961: 62), and
the Hiddensee find on Rügen indicates that a number of items of pressed-foil
jewellery could be collected together in a valuable necklace (Paulsen 1936).
The lead model was thus used for the production of jewellery that is less likely
to have been made in the general hope that a purchaser would just turn up.
The valuable metal and the considerable investment of time in every single
pendant suggests that this was made to order, as was generally the case with
later medieval goldsmiths’ work in Norway (Kielland 1927: 35). As noted,
bespoke production of this kind has also been proposed as a characteristic of
both earlier and contemporary political centres (Callmer 1995: 64–5).
Detailed investigations of the archaeological record suggest that urban pro-
duction to order may have been of some size. Melted globules are the product
of metal having splashed or run down onto the ground during casting, and such
waste is often used to determine which metals the craftspeople were working.
From the fieldwork at Kaupang of 1998–2003 one minute drop of gold was
collected, very limited quantities of silver, and large quantities of globules of
both lead and copper alloy (Pedersen 2013: Fig. 3). At first it thus appeared as
if the artisans had been working almost entirely in alloys of lead and copper.
Archaeometallurgical analyses of the crucibles revealed that this was not the
case, however. They showed that silver had been melted as often as copper
alloys, and gold much more frequently than the one tiny drop would imply
(Jouttijärvi 2006; Pedersen 2016a: 121–5). The casting waste reflects how the
craftspeople treated different metals. Every tiny fragment of valuable gold was
taken care of, while lead was handled very liberally.
This observation also illustrates the limitations of the evidence retrieved
from Kaupang – and from other sites of non-ferrous metalworking. Production
may have been much more diverse than we can see. Against this background,
it is possible that the gold pendants referred to may provide a hint of an area
of production that cannot be traced in the archaeological evidence. Without
this one lead model, the serial production of pressed-foil jewellery would
have been unknown. From the Viking period we know of some pressed-foil
objects which must have been made in much lower numbers, such as the gold
spur from Værne in Østfold, Norway (Rygh 1885: Fig. 583). Individualistic
items of silver and gold were also made with the aid of wax models that were
destroyed in the process, and in moulds that cannot easily be identified. It
is difficult to determine if unique metal artefacts were or were not made at
Kaupang, but the demonstrable use of the materials shows that this was possible,
and this might suggest that serial production to order formed part of an even
more complex picture.
The lead mould for wax models referred to above (Figure 7.1) shows that the
craftspeople at Kaupang produced objects for the elite of Vestfold. This piece of
equipment was used to manufacture small mounts. A very similar gilt copper-
alloy mount has been found in the Gokstad ship-grave (Hougen 1934: Fig. 2),
and comparable mounts in the Borre ship-grave (Brøgger 1916: Figs 1 and 14)
and other graves belonging to the uppermost strata of society (e.g. Rydh 1936:
Figs 302–3). The Borre find reveals that a series of 44 mounts adorned a horse’s
head-piece, and this may explain why a lead mould was used. A large number
of equivalent mounts which were to be placed close together had to be cast,
and therefore it was probably desirable that they should be as similar as possible,
which the lead mould would help to ensure. It is also reasonable to imagine that
the craftspeople wanted to make all of the mounts in a short period of time –
which, again, the lead mould allows, unlike a lead model (Pedersen 2016a: 190).
In a lead mould, wax models can be cast quickly, and each wax model can then
immediately be baked inside a clay mould. When the moulds are dry, all the
wax models can be melted out at the same time, and a large number of mounts
can be cast, one immediately after the other. Once more, the substantial invest-
ment in each individual set implies production to order.
Serial production at Kaupang thus appears to have been complex. It was
carried out in various ways, was targeted at different social classes and resulted
in products of various values. The objective would appear to have been to
produce a large number of equivalent items, irrespective of how they subse-
quently changed hands. As a result, there appears to be no reason to equate
serial production with production for an anonymous market. Areas of serial
production were most probably directed towards (relatively) unknown con-
sumers; but in addition to this, sets of objects as well as individual items were
Figure 7.4 Lead model for making cruciform pendants.

Source:  Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo. Drawing by Bjørn-Håkon
Eketuft Rygh.
130 Unn Pedersen
serially produced to order. Serial production was first and foremost a technical
option adopted by the craftworkers. The artisans at Kaupang had a number of
techniques they could choose from when they intended to produce a series
of items, and one group of craftspeople could choose between various forms
of serial production (Pedersen 2016a: 189–93, Fig. 4.31). The choice of tech-
nique seems to have been governed by several different factors, such as which
material was best suited for presenting a particular motif, the extent to which
the jewellers were copying an existing artefact, the time available and whether
there was any likelihood of recommencing production at a later date.
More than trade goods

In any case, Viking-period jewellery represented more than just goods for
trade. Pieces of jewellery could be status symbols, requisites for rituals, gifts to
seal alliances, markers of identity and/or religious emblems (e.g. Glørstad 2010,
2012; Røstad 2012; Kershaw 2013). Two lead models show that armrings
were serially produced at Kaupang (Pedersen 2016a: 58–9), and armrings from
graves and hoards indicate that the models may have been used to manufac-
ture items of very different economic value. One of the lead models has close
parallels amongst armrings of copper alloy as well as gold, and there are similar
examples in silver (Petersen 1928: 153–8; Hårdh 1996: Fig. 29). Neither the
lead models nor their context provides information about which metals were
used in the making of armrings; by contrast, the archaeometallurgical analyses
of the crucibles referred to might provide some guidelines in that they show
that silver was frequently melted at Kaupang, as, to a certain extent, was gold
(Jouttijärvi 2006; Pedersen 2013: Fig. 3). It is therefore possible that armrings
of gold and silver were also cast at Kaupang, and such craft products were
undoubtedly of high economic value and strongly linked to the Viking-period
elite (Schramm 1955: 538–43). Urban production could, if this was the case,
have included significant political symbols with religious connotations, pre-
sented as gifts to establish hierarchies. Two lead models for the making of
penannular brooches may reinforce this view. Zanette Glørstad (2010, 2012)
has argued that such brooches were powerful political symbols, and that a cloak
with a cloak brooch of this kind formed a set given as alliance-forming gifts to
men in the circle of King Harald Finehair.
The complexity of Viking-period serial production is further underlined by
the four lead models just referred to, and it is immediately difficult to imagine
that the craftspeople were producing heavily value-laden artefacts for disposal
in an open market. It is more logical to consider items of jewellery such as
these as the result of bespoke production whereby items of jewellery were
made to order, or by command. An order need not be incompatible with
buying and selling, but Viking-period economy was complex (e.g. Samson
1991; Hedeager 1993; Skre 2013), and other forms of exchange appear more
relevant to bespoke products of this sort of significance. It is conceivable, for
instance, that those in power at Kaupang demanded specific products from
the craftspeople who wished to operate at the site, and they may in such cases
themselves have provided the raw material for craft production. The output
may have been reckoned a form of toll, in the same way as the merchants and
craftworkers in towns in the Frankish area had to pay in coin or in products
(Gaut 2015: 150 and refs. therein). Some of the artisans may have belonged
to the retinue of the local ruler, like the craftsmen in the retinue of the King
Alfred of Wessex at the end of the ninth century (Maddicott 1989: 4). The
craftspeople at Kaupang may have made presents of some brooch or another
to create social ties, but there is little to indicate that they themselves were the
donors of a significant number of alliance-forming items of jewellery having
considerable metal value.
The variation observed in the output of the non-ferrous metalworking
reflects the fact that Kaupang was much more than just a market site (Pedersen
2000: 14). The town was part of the central-place complex of Skiringssal,
where there was also a major burial ground, an aristocratic hall, a thing site and
possibly a sacred lake, too (Blindheim 1982; Brink 2007; Skre 2007b). The
Viking-period town represents something new in Scandinavian society, while
the Skiringssal complex has much in common with both earlier and contem-
porary political centres, like Tissø. Modes of exchange such as gift-exchange,
redistribution and the payment of fines, tolls and tribute were thus closely
associated with Kaupang. The specific context of production provides limited
information on the subsequent exchange of the finished items. The lead mod-
els for making penannular brooches were found in the modern plough-layer,
and their original context has been lost; however, the spatial distribution indi-
cates that they were made in an area of the town where oval and equal-armed
brooches were also manufactured (Pedersen 2016a: Fig. 4.26). One of the
lead models for making armrings was found in a layer of waste together with
a miscast lead pendant; in this case, then, it is possible that armrings and cheap
lead jewellery were produced in close proximity, possibly even in the same
workshop. Weights and silver have been identified in the same area (Pedersen
2008: Fig. 6.29), so it might be assumed that these objects were made for
buying and selling, although this is no reason to exclude other possible forms
of exchange, or the use of other means of payment. Several of the forms of
exchange referred to are much less easy to demonstrate in the archaeological
evidence than trade using silver as a currency.
The first non-ferrous metalworking at Kaupang took place around the year
800, immediately after a substantial area had been divided into plots and the
newly founded site brought into use. The single lead model from the first
phase shows that there was serial production of objects from the very start.
The fact that this is a lead model for making armrings might indicate that eve-
rything began in the mode of bespoke production, and it is not inconceivable
that the first craftspeople were invited to the site, or in some cases brought
to the site, by whoever was responsible for its foundation. However, stylistic
datings of other models indicate that the production of simple equal-armed
brooches of copper alloy began around the same time, and it is just as likely
132 Unn Pedersen
that a mixed production of items to order and for sale may have been a feature
of this production from the very beginning.
Same, but different

Glørstad (2010, 2012) emphasizes the difference between imported penannu-
lar brooches and locally produced types, but does not otherwise distinguish
between penannular brooches of different materials and/or quality of work-
manship. The size of the model for making penannular brooches implies that
its ultimate products at Kaupang would have been of copper alloy, like the oval
and equal-armed brooches. Noting that armrings of copper alloy and precious
metal have often been interpreted quite differently in social terms (e.g. Petersen
1928; Schramm 1955), one may question whether all penannular brooches
were gifts to establish hierarchical relationships. It is conceivable that it was pri-
marily the larger silver brooches known in hoards that functioned as gifts, while
the serially produced copper-alloy examples from Kaupang were trade goods,
like the oval and equal-armed brooches. It is, however, at least equally plau-
sible that the thorough analysis of the social role of the penannular brooches
has identified something that is relevant to other classes of brooch, too. The
traditional view, which attaches especial importance to costume, may be too
restricted in the case of the equal-armed and oval brooches as well. These types
are characterized by their variety, and Signe Horn Fuglesang (1987) has argued
that oval brooches can be divided into three quality groups, namely ‘outstand-
ing’, ‘good’ and ‘poor’ (see also Fuglesang 2013). This makes it possible that
items of copper-alloy jewellery were also produced for different reasons, and
may also have been exchanged in different ways by the craftspeople, even
within a Viking-period town. Future research, considering the various find
contexts of the finished items of jewellery, the active use of material culture in
social strategies, craft quality and the nature of the raw material, will be able to
contribute more subtle interpretations.
The Viking-period graves in the same area illustrate that the craftspeople
produced very similar copper-alloy artefacts of different value. The exception-
ally rich ship-grave at Borre contained a gilt harness mount cast in copper
alloy (Rygh 1885: Fig. 595), while in local terms a more typically furnished
Viking-period grave at Gulli, less than 10 km away, contained a very similar
harness mount cast in copper alloy but coated in the cheaper metal tin (Gjerpe
2005: Fig. 20). The finishing treatment very clearly demonstrates their different
social context and setting, and it is difficult to believe that the variation in qual-
ity went unnoticed at the time. At Gulli, the burial context provides further
thought-provoking information, as textile fragments and a cord indicate that
the harness mount was carefully packed in textile (Gjerpe 2005: 38). It thus
appears that the ‘cheaper’ of the two mounts was treated as an object of especial
value, possibly indeed as a gift. This observation reminds us that a gift becomes
a gift when it is given, irrespective of the materiality of the object (Mauss 1966).
The Borre find was not the result of a properly conducted excavation, so how
the harness mount there was treated is not known. It is, nevertheless, reasonable
to sketch out various possible scenarios for these two mounts, which are similar
yet also different. Both could be traded items, purchased by different people
with different economic capacities; both could have been ordered and given as
gifts by an individual who established or maintained a hierarchy in which each
of the two deceased was assigned their place; and indeed both could have been
bought or ordered by the man buried in the Borre grave, who subsequently
gave one as a gift that was adapted to demonstrate his superior position.
Altogether, this indicates that we should not equate the type of object
directly with the aim of production. Establishing a direct association that links
the modern market-oriented concepts of buying and selling to urban commod-
ity production is unfortunate, because it assumes that the objects were produced
as trade goods. This was not necessarily so. The complex economy of the
Viking period and the modular serial production imply that the relationships
were more complicated. We have very little opportunity to show how the
artisans exchanged their craft products, and we face major problems in assessing
whether the items of jewellery became trade goods during their production,
before this point or when they eventually came to be disposed of. That the
craftworkers produced items that first became trade goods when they were sold
is a likely scenario, and commodity production is therefore an ill-fitting term.
The significance of standardization

Various types of dress accessory and other costume-related objects such as keys
were also produced at Kaupang (Pedersen 2016a: Fig. 4.28). The craftspeople
could relatively easily have adjusted their moulds and wax models to make
items of jewellery which differed rather more from one another, but they did
not do so. The finishing work which must have been carried out on the great
majority of the objects equally appears not to have created any greater varia-
tion within each type or variant – apart from the metal coating noted. Viewed
in the light of a single workshop producing a range of variants and types, it
would, therefore, seem as if many of the women and men of the Viking period
wanted to possess the same piece of jewellery as their neighbours, and as people
over large areas of Scandinavia. In Viking-period towns such as Kaupang, and
at a range of sites with market activity (Pedersen 2016b), these wishes could
be met. The majority of the products were worn very visibly, and it is prob-
able that they were used to produce, emphasize and promote social position,
economic standing and political allegiance. In these circumstances, standard-
ized products are very effective: they can be directly compared, and deliver a
message that a very large number of people understand.
This standardization may, in part, have been initiated by the elite, as in
the case of the penannular brooches, and it may also in some respects have
had considerable chronological depth, as the armrings suggest (Werner 1980;
Hedeager 1992: 204); it may also partly have been driven by ‘most people’s’
wish to be like others, as the large numbers of equal-armed and oval brooches
134 Unn Pedersen
may show; it must also have been attractive for the craftspeople to produce
many objects more easily and quickly, and therefore more cheaply. The simple
cast copper-alloy examples of armrings and penannular brooches may have
been the bottom rung of a hierarchical scale of gifts, but their production could
also have been initiated or encouraged by the fact that ‘most people’ desired to
copy the elite and so bought copies of the status symbols of the rich and pow-
erful. This may indeed be precisely what is manifested through the copying of
oval brooches, on which the details of the decoration could often be neglected
while the brooch as a whole still looks roughly the same (Fuglesang 1987).
For the craftspeople at Kaupang, adaptation for the market could have been a
very simple matter: they could use an existing model and a cheaper material.
It is difficult to see that such initiatives faced any opposition from the elite,
who thus saw the impact of symbol-laden gifts reinforced. If the significance
of the object was already established, as in the case of the penannular brooches,
the elite may well have had nothing against someone paying for their own more
expensive penannular brooch and so for the ostensibly obligation-forming gift
which unambiguously signalled whom one had accepted as a lord. It is, then,
also conceivable that the craftspeople might have used one and the same model
for gifts made to order and trade goods for the market.
Conclusion: navigation in a new landscape

The buying and selling of dress accessories does, on the whole, appear to have
been a phenomenon that can be associated with the Viking-period towns, and
market forces did influence the output of non-ferrous metalworking. Despite
the fact that the craft products could be trade goods, it has proved less easy to
link market-oriented buying and selling to particular forms of production or
specific types of artefact. Considering the complex economy of the Viking
period, it is reasonable to conclude that the craftspeople at Kaupang could
dispose of a newly made piece of jewellery in a range of different ways besides
selling it to consumers with whom they had little or limited contact. It is con-
ceivable that a finished item may have been exchanged for some raw material,
one of life’s necessities or some other attractive item. The craftworkers may
also have paid toll, plot- or house-rent in finished items of jewellery. They
probably took some bigger and smaller orders from people with whom they
had different degrees of contact, and it is also conceivable that those in power
at Kaupang demanded products that the artisans were obliged to provide to
start or continue their work. In the case of the production of gold and silver
jewellery, the person ordering may have provided the raw material him- or
herself, and the jeweller may have kept a proportion of the metal as payment.
These are manifest differences from IKEA’s Billy, which is much easier to
identify as a trade item produced for sale at a fixed price. Our contemporary
economy is also complex, and we would hardly have to search far and wide
for stories of Billy bookcases having been given as gifts. Such a bookcase is
every bit as much a result of commodity production, and was manufactured as
a trade item meant to be sold. This was not necessarily the case with Viking-
period oval brooches of Type P37 or other non-ferrous metal products. The
production waste at Kaupang indicates that the craftspeople were responsible
for a modular and variable style of production comprising both trade goods
and non-commodities. The discussion shows that there is no reason to equate
forms of production with modes of exchange, or the types of jewellery with
the reasons why they were made. Several types of jewellery could be trade
goods that were disposed of through buying and selling, but they were not
necessarily produced to be such trade goods. Commodity production appears
to be a poorly suited concept, and the artisans were obliged, like everyone in
Viking society, to navigate carefully within an economic system with com-
plicated social rules of play, in a period when it was not only their metal that
might feel the heat of the fire.
The economic rationality was under negotiation, and the craftspeople them-
selves contributed to the moulding of a new economic landscape. Consequently,
there was more than the power of the market guiding the output of non-
ferrous metalworking, even in a Viking-period town. It seems highly likely that
this was the case in the more populous Viking-period towns, too, considering
the close connection between Birka and the royal manor of Adelsö (Clarke
and Ambrosiani 1995: 75–6) and the production of precious metal jewellery in
Hedeby (Armbruster 2004). The studies of the production waste and equip-
ment from non-ferrous metalworking reveal a degree of complexity in the
relationship between production and exchange, the depth of which we have
not hitherto grasped.
Translated by John Hines
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8 Soapstone vessels and
quernstones as commodities
in the Viking Age and
Middle Ages
Irene Baug
Introduction
From the early Viking Age until the late Middle Ages, a period spanning
roughly the ninth to fourteenth century, the use of different resources in out-
lying areas of Norway evidently became more intensive, and a change from
small-scale to large-scale exploitation can be seen. Various resources offered
possibilities of creating surpluses for larger markets, and special mineral out-
crops, for instance, were exploited on a near-industrial scale during this period.
The widespread use of various stone objects can be traced: these include vessels
of soapstone, also referred to as steatite, and quernstones made of other rock
types. The aim of this study is to look into the distribution of these products
and possible trade in them. They were everyday products and important tools
in the household, produced for ordinary people. Their dispersal suggests that
they were widely available; still, there are unresolved questions relating to the
way they were distributed and acquired.
Thus, a central question is whether the soapstone vessels and quernstones
represent traded commodities, or whether their distribution is the result of
other modes of transfer, such as migration of people. For a fuller understand-
ing of the circulation of steatite vessels and quernstones, along with possible
trade in these objects, investigation of the spatial and chronological distribution
of the products is necessary. In the first part of this chapter I will thus give a
brief presentation of the distribution patterns in Northern Europe of soapstone
vessels and quernstones from Norway. The distribution of these products and
transactions involving them seem to have been integrated into major economic
systems, involving large parts of Northern Europe. In the second part of the
paper the empirical data will be analysed and discussed in relation to shifting
societal conditions during the Viking Age and the Middle Ages.
Soapstone vessels in time and space

In north-west mainland Europe, soapstone outcrops are only found in certain
parts of Scandinavia: mainly in Norway, but also in south-western Sweden
(Risbøl 1994: 121). A variety of soapstone objects were produced, such as ves-
sels, spindle whorls, loom-weights, sinkers, moulds and tuyères. In this chapter,
140 Irene Baug
I focus mainly on the vessels, as the other artefact types to a large degree
represent secondary products made from broken vessels (cf. Resi 1979: 58,
72–3, 84–5; Forster 2004: 48, 162; Baug 2011: 334). At the transition to the
Viking Age, about ad 800, large-scale production of soapstone vessels started.
Production continued throughout the Viking Age and into the Middle Ages.
Approximately 200 soapstone quarries have been identified in Norway, and
about half of them seem to have been production sites for soapstone vessels
(Figure 8.1) (Baug 2011: 331).
In Norway, soapstone vessels were preferred to pottery in both the Viking
Age and the Middle Ages, and dominate as cooking and storage vessels. A rea-
son for this may be that vessels of soapstone were more durable than pottery.
The use of vessels is documented in both rural and urban contexts, and the
large-scale production and use seem to have increased in the Middle Ages
(cf. Randers 1982; Kaland 1987; Risbøl 1994: 133; Øye 2011: 231). The vessel
design changed from the Viking Age to the Middle Ages, but the vessels in
each period exhibit shared characteristics, with similarities in shape and size,
and with more or less standardised vessels types (Resi 1979; Vangstad 2003:
26–7; Baug 2011: 313–15). Standardisation may possibly point towards the use
of somewhat standard units of measurement of liquids and solids, but may also
indicate serial production, often directed towards a market where the producer
does not necessarily know the customer (Skre 2007: 450).
From the beginning of the ninth century, soapstone vessels were distributed
southwards to Denmark and westwards to the North Atlantic islands – Iceland,
Shetland and the Faroe Islands (Sindbæk 2005: 137, 149–50; Forster 2009:
58, 65). In Denmark, soapstone vessels seem to be found in most settlement
areas (Jensen 1990: 126; Risbøl 1994: 122; Sindbæk 2005: 137–42). Yet the
distribution shows a regional tendency, where the quantity of soapstone vessels
diminishes towards southern Denmark, and where the majority of these vessels
are found in northern and south-western parts of Jutland (Jensen 1990; Risbøl
1994: 127; Sindbæk 2005: 139, 161). The Viking-Age town of Hedeby marks
the southern limit of the distribution of soapstone products. The distribution
of soapstone objects in Denmark ends during the eleventh to twelfth century
(Risbøl 1994: 123; Sindbæk 2007: 137).
Compared to Denmark, soapstone vessels have far less commonly been
identified in Sweden. Here, the vessels are mainly found in the south-western
parts of the country. It has been suggested that the lack of soapstone vessels in
large parts of Sweden may have to do with the smaller number of settlement
excavations that have taken place compared to Denmark; however, the lack of
soapstone vessels in burials seems to confirm the general picture derived from
their overall distribution in settlement contexts (Risbøl 1994: 126, 130).
Quernstones in time and space

For more than 1,100 years, from the early Viking Age and into the Modern
period in Norway, approximately from the ninth to the twentieth century,
Figure 8.1 Map of the location of known soapstone quarries.
Source: Data from the Geological Survey of Norway mineral resource database, www.prospecting.
no. Map by Kjetil Loftsgarden.
Figure 8.2 Map showing the largest quernstone quarries in Norway.
Source: Baug (2015a: Fig. 1.3). Map by Kjetil Loftsgarden.
Soapstone vessels and quernstones 143
quernstones were largely produced of garnet mica schist. Several quarries of
this type are known in the country (Figure 8.2).
The oldest and one of the largest production sites for quernstones is located
at Hyllestad by the fjord Åfjorden in Sogn og Fjordane County. Production at
Hyllestad may go back to the early ninth century, but large-scale production and
distribution is documented from the latter half of the tenth century, with this
activity continuing and increasing into the Middle Ages. Archaeological inves-
tigations in the quarries indicate a peak in production from the eleventh to the
thirteenth century (Baug 2002, 2015a: 33–71). The distribution of quernstones
from Hyllestad dates back to the late Viking Age, beginning approximately in
the latter half of the tenth century, even though a couple of stones in Denmark
may date from the late ninth and early tenth century (Carelli and Kresten 1997:
120–2; Baug 2015a: 110–13). An increase in the distribution of quernstones can
be documented from the twelfth century. Quernstones from Hyllestad were
mainly distributed within Norway, the eastern parts of medieval Denmark,
north-eastern Jutland and the islands, including Scania and Bornholm. In some
areas, such as Århus in Denmark and Lund in Sweden, stones from Hyllestad
seem to have dominated the market, both in the Viking Age and the Middle
Figure 8.3 Distribution of quernstones from Hyllestad. In Norway, only finds from
the medieval towns are indicated.
Source: Baug (2015a: Fig. 7.8). Map by Kjetil Loftsgarden.
144 Irene Baug
Ages. In the same way as for the soapstone vessels, Hedeby seems to mark
the southern limit of the distribution of Norwegian quernstones (Carelli and
Kresten 1997; Baug 2015a: 111–14).
Quernstones from Hyllestad were also distributed to Iceland and the Faroe
Islands (Figure 8.3), although far less than to southern Scandinavia. Only a few
stones date from the Viking Age, and the majority of the material is from the
Middle Ages (Baug 2015a: 114–15).
Another important Norwegian quarry site dating from the Viking Age and
the Middle Ages is located in Saltdal in Nordland County. These quarries
have been dated to approximately the tenth to thirteenth century (Helberg
2010: 114, 2010/2011: 9). The activity seems to have started in the late Viking
Age, but became increasingly important during the Middle Ages. In Norway,
quernstones from Saltdal in Nordland are present both in medieval towns and
on rural sites, and in the medieval town of Oslo, for instance, they outnumber
the stones from Hyllestad (Baug 2015a: 108–9). However, outside of Norway,
quernstones from Hyllestad seem to have dominated the market, with stones
from the other Norwegian quarries occurring rarely.
Viking-Age trade?
It is, of course, difficult to assess the forms of transaction involving soapstone
products and quernstones from the archaeological material alone. The objects
found at different sites in Northern Europe reflect some form of contact, but
the spread of soapstone objects and quernstones cannot always be understood
in terms of trade. Various explanations of the distribution should be consid-
ered. Forms of distribution may have varied in time and space, and the spread
of the objects therefore needs to be analysed and discussed with regard to their
spatial, chronological and societal context.
Judging by the relatively few finds of soapstone vessels and quernstones
from Hyllestad in the North Atlantic region in the Viking Age, it is possible
that the objects were brought there by the inhabitants themselves, rather than
being exported as commodities on a larger scale. Objects of soapstone were
an important part of Norwegian material culture, and in the earliest phase
the Norse settlers seem to have played an important role in the distribution
of the vessels to the North Atlantic islands. For instance in Shetland, soap-
stone vessels from Norway are recovered from early Norse settlements, and
imported Norwegian soapstone vessels seem largely to belong to the settle-
ment phase corresponding approximately to the ninth to the tenth century.
From the tenth to the twelfth century, imported soapstone gave way to locally
produced vessels, and the use of Shetland steatite dominated in this period
(Forster 2009: 61, 65, 67). One should also bear in mind that, even though
migration of people seems to have been an important factor for the distri-
bution of Norwegian soapstone vessels to the North Atlantic region, some
imported Norwegian vessels may, of course, have been transmitted, perhaps
in the form of exchange, where the products went from hand to hand through
networks of personal contacts.
Norwegian quernstones have a more limited distribution on the North
Atlantic islands, and are, as stated above, only found in Iceland and the Faroe
Islands. It is, however, striking that, except for BergÞórsvoll, none of the
landnám farms in Iceland seem to have quernstones from Hyllestad (see, e.g.
Gestsson 1959: 71–2; Magnússon 1971: 68, 72–4). The numbers of vessels
and quernstones give no indication of organised and purely commercial trade
in these commodities within this area in the early period, and only a sporadic
distribution to the North Atlantic islands seems to have taken place.
The scale and range of distribution of quernstones from Hyllestad and soap-
stone vessels to nodes in southern Scandinavia reveals a somewhat different
picture. Already from the ninth century, eastern parts of medieval Denmark
appear as important areas for goods from Norway. The fact that the vessels
and quernstones are found at marketplaces and in towns in fairly large quanti-
ties makes it likely that they represent traded commodities. The vessels occur
within the same areas of Scandinavia as the quernstones, but are not contem-
poraneous. The vessels appear in southern Scandinavia shortly after ad 800
but disappear during the eleventh to twelfth century (Sindbæk 2007: 137).
The absence of soapstone in medieval Danish households has been explained
in terms of the introduction of a new pottery technology in the twelfth to
thirteenth century. Monks immigrating to Denmark introduced the pot-
ter’s wheel and pottery kilns, which made pottery production more efficient
(Risbøl 1994: 123), and during the early Middle Ages the soapstone vessels
seem to have been completely replaced by pottery. The export of soapstone to
Denmark ends approximately at the same time as the beginning of the large-
scale export of quernstones from Hyllestad, which has been dated to the late
Viking Age, about ad 950–1000 (Carelli and Kresten 1997: 121; Birkedahl
2000: 36; Birkedahl and Johansen 2000: 29; Baug 2015a: 147). The use of
quernstones from Hyllestad in southern Scandinavia continues throughout the
Viking Age and the Middle Ages.
Both merchants and merchandise needed to be protected, and an organi-
sation to secure and protect goods and trading routes as well as markets
was important. Such protection could be guaranteed by an institutionalised
political authority based on a strong military force, but this alone would
probably not suffice. Trade between strangers required commercial transac-
tions embedded in social and legal norms shared by people over a larger area
than the law region or the social networks. This could be achieved at central
places like trading sites (Gustin 2004: 243, 248, 264; Sindbæk 2005: 272–3;
Skre 2007: 451). Power to secure trade and protect the trading routes and
markets was thus important. At the same time, large-scale production and
distribution demanded contact networks and access to a larger number of
customers, which would have been easier if distribution was via market-
places and towns.
146 Irene Baug
Kaupang: a redistribution centre for soapstone goods?
In the Viking-Age town of Kaupang in Vestfold County, no quernstones from
Hyllestad or any other known quernstone quarries have been found. The
activity at Kaupang ended approximately ad 960–80 (Pilø 2007: 178); that is,
before the large-scale distribution of quernstones from Hyllestad started. On
the other hand, Kaupang has been seen as a redistribution centre for soapstone
products from Norway (Skjølsvold 1961: 117, 130; Christophersen 1991: 166).
Identifying the quarries from which the soapstone came may provide infor-
mation about probable trade routes and contact zones. As there are no soap-
stone outcrops in Vestfold, the soapstone objects must have been imported
from other regions. Geochemical analyses, using the technique of inductively
coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), have been undertaken on soap-
stone objects from Kaupang. According to the analyses, a single production
site, still unidentified, seems to have manufactured vessels for the town, while
some of the other artefact types of soapstone probably came from a range of
different production sites. It is possible that there was stricter control of the
production and distribution of vessels than of many of the other soapstone
objects – where the latter may, to a large degree, represent personal possessions
brought to Kaupang by travellers, not necessarily as commodities. However, to
suggest possible production sites and assess the associated transport routes, the
results from the ICP-MS analyses will have to be scrutinised in the light of an
expanded chemical database of Norwegian soapstone (Baug 2011: 329–31, 334).
Many of the soapstone artefacts recovered at Kaupang bear clear signs
of having been used (Baug 2011). The need for various soapstone objects,
both for household use and in certain craft activities, most likely explains the
occurrence of much of the material recovered in the town. Neither is there
any clear evidence in the assemblage that soapstone constituted an important
export article from Kaupang, even though this cannot be excluded (Baug
2011: 334–5). Kaupang had significant links with long-distance trade sys-
tems in the Viking period (Skre 2007: 453), and soapstone artefacts appear
in southern Scandinavia shortly after ad 800, which corresponds closely with
the establishment of Kaupang. There also seems to be a predominance of
soapstone in northern Jutland (Risbøl 1994: 127; Sindbæk 2005: 161), an
area having close contact with Kaupang, which is reflected in pottery finds
(Hougen 1969: 98; Pilø 2011: 296–300). However, the pottery assemblage
at Kaupang also reflects close contacts with the Rhineland (Hougen 1969:
98; Pilø 2011: 286–92, 295), where only a few soapstone artefacts have been
identified (Kars and Wevers 1983: 169).
This makes it difficult to evaluate Kaupang’s role in the trading of soap-
stone goods, but most evidence suggests that Kaupang played a modest role
in the long-distance distribution of these artefacts (Baug 2011: 327). Outside
of Norway, it was pottery that provided cooking utensils, and different tradi-
tions in the preparation of food may have been decisive for the distribution of
soapstone vessels – they were never able to compete with the pottery vessels in
a foreign market. There is also much to suggest that other Viking-Age towns,
such as Hedeby and Ribe, should be seen as recipients rather than centres of
redistribution for soapstone products. The distribution map of soapstone in
Denmark and northern Germany shows that the area around the Limfjord and
the coast of the Kattegat were the main areas receiving soapstone in southern
Scandinavia, while the areas surrounding Hedeby and Ribe have far fewer
finds. The soapstone artefacts around the Kattegat could have been brought
there as personal possessions or distributed by travelling people, and somewhat
sporadic exchange between farmers and fishermen instead of organised trade is
possible (Sindbæk 2005: 141–2, 160). However, the fact that soapstone objects
largely occur at marketplaces and in towns during the Viking Age makes it
perhaps more likely that the objects represent commodities within a more
organised and regular trade.
Different trade networks?

In the eleventh to twelfth century, when the trade in soapstone vessels starts
to decrease, quernstones are introduced as a new type of commodity from
Norway. Geological and contextual analyses of quernstones and millstones
from Danish sites show that nearly all quernstones of garnet mica schist origi-
nate from Hyllestad, even though a few quernstones from other quarries are
found. In some areas of north-eastern Denmark, Hyllestad seems to have been
a major supplier of quernstones for several hundred years (Baug 2015a: 111–13),
and I would argue that this, too, is in all likelihood the result of organised,
commercially based trade.
Some regional trends with regard to the types of quernstone used in south-
ern Scandinavia have earlier been pointed out by Carelli and Kresten (1997:
124–6). Thus, quernstones originate from four different areas: (1) garnet mica
schist from Hyllestad, (2) Mayen basalt from Rhineland in Germany, (3) schis-
tose sandstone from Malung in Sweden and (4) gneiss from Lugnås in Sweden
(Carelli and Kresten 1997: 124) (Figure 8.4). In the north-eastern parts of
Denmark and south-western parts of Sweden, Hyllestad stones were preferred
to others, while there are few stones of garnet mica schist in the western parts of
Denmark. Here, the distribution area of Hyllestad stones meets an area domi-
nated by basalt from the Rhine area, the western limit following a line through
Jutland from the outlet of the Limfjord in the west, along the eastern coast of
Jutland to Hedeby. To the east, the distribution of Hyllestad stones borders an
area dominated by schistose sandstone produced at Malung in Sweden (Carelli
and Kresten 1997: 123–5; Sindbæk 2005: 148–50).
This distribution map does not, however, give a completely accurate rep-
resentation. A few stones of garnet mica schist are recorded in addition to the
Hyllestad stones, and more quarries than the two mentioned are known in
Sweden, for instance at Sala in Västmanland (Zachrisson 2014; Baug 2015a:
149). Even so, the map indicates some regional trends. The different distribu-
tion patterns most likely testify to different contact and trading networks, which
148 Irene Baug
Figure 8.4 Quernstone regions in southern Scandinavia. (I) garnet mica schist from
Hyllestad, (II) Mayen basalt from Rhineland in Germany, (III) schistose
sandstone from Malung in Sweden and (IV) gneiss from Lugnås in
Sweden.
Source: Carelli and Kresten (1997: Fig. 18). Map by Kjetil Loftsgarden.
gave differential access to diverse types of quernstones. However, it should also

be mentioned that the four quernstone regions are not entirely contemporane-
ous. Quernstones of basalt were exported to Denmark from the eighth century
onwards, which is about 200 years before Hyllestad quernstones appear. Thus,
the northern limit of the distribution of basalt was not limited by competing
export areas in the early Viking Age, but rather represents a boundary between
the presence and absence of organised trade in quernstones (Sindbæk 2005:
149). Organised and regular trade in quernstones in the northern and eastern
parts of medieval Denmark first appeared in the latter part of the Viking Age
with the import of quernstones from Hyllestad. The fairly limited production
of good-quality quernstones in Scandinavia may have opened up the possibility
for actors at Hyllestad to become important suppliers within certain areas. The
eastern parts of medieval Denmark had no large-scale, organised production of
quernstones of their own, and Hyllestad stones more or less supplanted locally
produced quernstones. The distribution pattern of the stones was largely sus-
tained throughout the Viking Age and the Middle Ages.
As noted above, the area where stones from Hyllestad are found also
represents the main area for soapstone vessels from Norway in southern
Scandinavia. In northern and eastern parts of Denmark there seems to have
been strong contact and possibly trade with Norway from the ninth century
onwards, whereas this area largely turned its back on trade with the Rhine
area (Sindbæk 2007: 149–50). Thus, it is an area that had relatively close
contacts with Norway for centuries, and the contact zones and knowledge of
Norwegian resources preceded the distribution of quernstones.
The eastern limit of the distribution of Hyllestad stones largely coincides
with the border between the Danish and Swedish kingdoms in the Middle
Ages. Perhaps these two kingdoms also represented separate trading regions
within separate contact networks, as has been suggested by Carelli and Kresten
(1997: 126). This could possibly explain the absence of quernstones from
Hyllestad and the marginal export of soapstone vessels to large parts of Sweden.
The distribution of soapstone vessels and quernstones indicates an organised
and regular trade with long-lasting trade networks. There are no signs that
the limits of the spread southwards and eastwards were caused by any difficul-
ties or obstacles to further distribution, and the limits were not established
because of lack of contact between the different regions. Traditions, alliances
and conscious choices have, most likely, been of importance for distribution
and trade, and the networks within which soapstone and quernstones circulated
seem to have coincided with cultural and political regions. Several elements
represented along the south-western coast of Denmark, such as burial practice,
pottery types and building construction, indicate influence from the Frisian and
Frankish areas. The same influence is not evident in eastern Denmark (Sindbæk
2008: 70–1), indicating different contact networks and alliances. Thus, the dis-
tribution of quernstones and soapstone does not appear accidental, and it seems
the geographical pattern identified indicates export within specific networks.
Commodity export from Norway to southern Scandinavia is also evident
from finds of whetstones dating from the eighth century and into the Middle
Ages (cf. Resi 1990, 2011; Myrvoll 1991; Sindbæk 2005: 142–5), and raw
materials such as iron and antler. However, not all commodity types from
Norway are limited to north-eastern Denmark, in the way that the quernstones
are, and to a certain degree the soapstone vessels as well. It is suggested that
reception of imported goods may have been dependent on cultural identities
and social ties (Sindbæk 2005: 161). Perhaps this was of special importance
when it came to household artefacts like quernstones and soapstone vessels,
which are both connected with the preparing of food. Both food and the
150 Irene Baug
utensils used in food processing symbolise social and cultural affiliation; and
food as well as food processing constitute some of the most conservative aspects
of culture (Øye 2002: 405, 2008: 225; Baug 2015b). The making of food and
the utensils used may, thus, to a larger degree have been dependent on tradi-
tions, social ties and habitual practices, compared to other spheres of society,
which may explain the somewhat limited distribution of the quernstones and
soapstone vessels.
The nodes at the Carolingian-German border, Hedeby as well as Dorestad,
generally seem to mark the southern limit for traded commodities from the
Nordic countries, such as soapstone, quernstones, whetstones, iron and antler
(Steuer 1987: 187). At Hedeby, more than 3,000 vessel sherds have been iden-
tified (Resi 1979: 17). Provenance studies of the finds indicate that the vessels
were produced in Halden in Norway, or Halland or Bohuslän in Sweden
(Alfsen and Christie 1979: 182). Hedeby also represents the southernmost find-
spot of Hyllestad stones, and a site where quernstones of both Mayen basalt
and garnet mica schist from Hyllestad occur. However, while large amounts of
soapstone have been recovered in the town, only a small number of Hyllestad
stones found their way here. Only 1 per cent of the total number of quernstone
fragments (48 out of 5,875 pieces) are identified as coming from Hyllestad,
while one fragment may originate from Saltdal (Baug 2015a: 113). In medieval
Schleswig, 11 per cent (12 out of 88 pieces) are from Hyllestad (Schön 1995:
12, 22; Baug 2015a: 113–14). Most quernstones in Hedeby are of basalt. The
relatively small number of quernstones from Hyllestad in Hedeby and later in
medieval Schleswig does not indicate large-scale trade. It appears that Hyllestad
stones were only exceptionally distributed to this area.
During the Viking Age, distribution took place in a mainly rural and proto-
urban society, although the process of urbanisation started already in the Viking
Age in southern parts of Scandinavia. Little is known about the complex net-
works of nodes, towns and individuals that made the distribution and trade
in the objects possible, and various ways of organising the trade may have
existed. The distribution demonstrates a shared artefact type but not necessarily
a connection between the sites where they have been found. In the pre-urban
Viking Age in Norway, ships may have sailed more or less directly from the
quarries or areas nearby to markets in the North Atlantic region and southern
Scandinavia. Three knots is normally estimated as an average speed for rowing,
which means that a rowing ship would travel 36 nautical miles per day. Under
sail, a ship would be able to reach 72 nautical miles per day (Morcken 1964:
22, 38). At this speed, then, it would be possible to sail between the quarries
at Hyllestad and Hedeby within eleven days at a minimum, depending on the
weather conditions. Somewhat similar travel time should also be expected for
several of the soapstone quarries in Norway.
It has been suggested that Viking-Age trade was organised within networks
and routes between different nodes, where large cargoes could be loaded or
unloaded for further distribution (Sindbæk 2007). A similar distribution sys-
tem should also be considered for soapstone vessels and quernstones. Several
actors may have been involved at different levels, and regional marketplaces
and nodes may have been situated near the quarry sites (cf. Schou 2007, 2015).
Peripheral parts of the country may in this way have been connected to inter-
regional trading networks via local or regional middlemen, implying that there
was not necessarily direct contact between the quarries and all the centres or
marketplaces where the quernstones and steatite products are found.
For instance, Sebbersund on the Limfjord and Århus in eastern Jutland
seem to have been marketplaces which received commodities from Norway
that were reloaded for further export (Skov 1999: 603, 606; Birkedahl and
Johansen 2000: 29). These centres may have served as gateways for various
kinds of products from Norway. The contact between Hyllestad and some
of the marketplaces where the Hyllestad quernstones are found may there-
fore have been indirect, based on transhipment and redistribution. Similarly
organised distribution should probably be expected in the case of soapstone
objects.
It is also possible that the distribution of both soapstone goods and quern-
stones is the result of the stone products being transported as ballast. To stabilise
the ship and prevent capsize, ballast was needed, normally in the form of stones
or sand. Various stone products, such as quernstones, soapstone vessels and
whetstones, may have functioned as an economic form of ballast, or commodity
ballast that could be sold (Forster 2004: 344, 351, 360, 366, 2009: 61; Nymoen
2011: 67; Baug 2015a: 155). A similar situation has been suggested regarding the
distribution of building stones (cf. Buckland and Sadler 1990).
Trade in the Middle Ages

The distribution of products and transactions involving them were integrated
parts of larger economic systems, but of a different character, before the emer-
gence of towns in Scandinavia during the early and High Middle Ages. The
medieval trade in various products was largely channelled via the Norwegian
towns, which acted as redistribution centres; among these, Bergen, in particu-
lar, became a centre for further export. From the middle of the twelfth century
onwards, Bergen was known as the largest commercial centre in the country
(Helle 1982: 167, 2006: 83–6). The Urban Code of Bergen, from 1276, states
that quern- and millstones should be sold in a designated area of the town, at
Stranden on the western side of the Vågen Bay (Bl VI: 8). Quernstones from
rural areas in the counties of Hordaland and Sogn og Fjordane show a high
degree of concurrence with the types of quernstones found in Bergen (Baug
2015a: 109–10), indicating the town’s role in local and regional trade.
Soapstone vessels may also have been traded in Bergen; however, most of
the vessels found bear clear signs of use (Vangstad 2003: 76), indicating import
based on the needs of the town itself. Nevertheless, as Bergen represented the
most important medieval trading centre in Norway, it is likely that the town
also played a role in local and regional soapstone trade in the Middle Ages.
Long-distance distribution of the artefacts did, however, most likely not take
152 Irene Baug
place, as soapstone disappears from Denmark during the eleventh and twelfth
centuries (Sindbæk 2007: 137).
Quernstones from Hyllestad did not play an unrivalled role in medieval
Norway. Based on finds from urban contexts, the towns functioned as impor-
tant markets for two of the large production areas, Hyllestad and Saltdal. The
numbers of quernstones from Hyllestad and Saltdal indicate organised distri-
bution to Bergen in the Middle Ages, and the two quarry areas were most
likely competing in some of the same markets. The sailing distance by boat
from Hyllestad to Bergen is quite short: 62 nautical miles, normally with a
travel time of one day. From the quarries in Saltdal the distance is 560 nautical
miles, taking about eight days, depending on the wind and sailing conditions.
Consequently, bringing products from Saltdal would have needed more invest-
ment in transportation. It was more time-consuming and perhaps also involved
greater costs and risks (Baug 2015a: 150–1). Nevertheless, in medieval Norway,
the Saltdal quarries seem to have played an important role as suppliers of quern-
stones. That quernstones from Saltdal were widely distributed is indicated, for
instance, by the archaeological material from Oslo and Tønsberg.
The spread of quernstones from Saltdal should perhaps be seen in connec-
tion with the growing stockfish trade in the Middle Ages. Most likely, stock-
fish and quernstones were transported southwards on the same ships, which
opened up larger markets for the Saltdal stones. A plausible situation is that
the quernstones functioned as commodity ballast aboard the ships transport-
ing stockfish. One of the main areas involved in the stockfish trade, Lofoten,
is located about 140 km north-west of Saltdal. According to written sources,
commercial fishing of spawning cod was established here in the eleventh cen-
tury, and developed further in the twelfth century. The fishing village of Vågan
(Norse: Vágar) in Lofoten is mentioned in written sources in the early twelfth
century, and the site developed into a marketplace from the thirteenth century
onwards. Vågan received stockfish from both Hålogaland and Finnmark, and
according to a document from 1384, merchants from Bergen were directed to
travel to Vågan to buy stockfish (Nielssen 2014: 195–7). The relatively short
distance between Vågan and Saltdal may have made it convenient to use the
quernstones as temporary ballast before selling them together with the stockfish
in towns such as Trondheim and Bergen, which were of special importance
for stockfish export. From there, they may have been distributed further south,
but mainly within Norway.
In the medieval town of Oslo there are far more quernstones from Saltdal
compared to Hyllestad. Oslo does not seem, however, to have functioned as
a redistribution centre for quernstones in the same way as Bergen. Most of the
quernstones found in Oslo have traces of use, whereas in Bergen several of the
stones seem to be unused. Quernstones from the large quarry areas are only
exceptionally represented within the rural districts of eastern Norway, indicating
local small-scale production meant for local use (Baug 2015a: 108–10, 118–19).
Hyllestad clearly dominated at the largest commercial centre in Norway,
Bergen, and the stones also continued to dominate abroad, where the
pre-established contact networks and markets for the Hyllestad stones seem to
have been strong (Baug 2015a: 118–19). Hyllestad was the only Norwegian
quarry site to gain a foothold within a foreign market. Quernstones of garnet
mica schist from other Norwegian quarries are so far only exceptionally found
outside of Norway. The Saltdal quarries were further from the markets of
southern Scandinavia compared to Hyllestad, making it more complicated and
resource-demanding to establish the routes, networks and alliances necessary
for effective distribution. However, it is more likely that limited distribution
in the Viking Age was the result of the small scale of production, surpluses
being insufficient for interregional trade in this early period. In the Middle
Ages, well-established tradition and knowledge of how to organise transport
and exchange may have given Hyllestad an advantage over other quarry sites.
Long-lasting trade contacts were important for maintaining trust and security
(Gustin 2004: 176, 249, 264). Trade routes and networks were, thus, based not
merely on topography and distance but also on social structures; a route is not
only a geographical construct but a repetitive praxis, a routine (Sindbæk 2005:
30–3). This means that tradition and routines may have been important aspects
in the export of quernstones. Hyllestad operated within well-established trade
routes and markets, perhaps also networks, and the trading routes and foreign
markets established during the Viking Age were largely sustained, giving an
advantage to the Hyllestad quarries compared to others (Baug 2015a: 152–3).
The character of the distribution to the North Atlantic islands may have
changed during the Middle Ages, as the islands became more integrated into
medieval trade, perhaps because of their close contact with Bergen. People
from the North Atlantic islands had close political-administrative and eco-
nomic connections to Norway (see, e.g., Arge 1989; Crawford 2002; Øye
2008). From the thirteenth century, Bergen was a cultural, economic and
legal centre for the North Atlantic islands, which were subject to the fehird1 in
Bergen from the beginning of the fourteenth century, meaning that taxes were
paid to the Norwegian crown (Helle 1982: 173–4, 331). Medieval Bergen was
also the most important town and trading centre in Norway. From the twelfth
century onwards, people from the North Atlantic region travelled to Bergen to
buy and sell goods. In Bergen, a variety of objects were acquired and brought
back to the North Atlantic islands – most likely also soapstone vessels and
quernstones. Most trade was, however, conducted by Norwegian traders and
ecclesiastical institutions in Bergen, several ships being sent westwards every
year with Norwegian commodities (Helle 1982: 165, 360–4). Most likely,
quernstones and soapstone vessels, too, were brought westwards on these ships,
along with other commodities.
Actors in trade
People involved in producing and trading objects are difficult to identify in
the material record, and little is known about them. The manufacture of both
soapstone vessels and quernstones bears witness to large-scale production of a
154 Irene Baug
nearly industrial character, where the aim was trade and exchange. It has been
suggested that male burials of the Viking Age containing soapstone vessels
should be seen in connection with the distribution and exchange of the goods.
The vessels represent household utensils used by ordinary people, and there is
nothing to indicate that there was status connected with owning a soapstone
vessel. The use of the vessels in food processing was most likely carried out
by women. Yet, most vessels found in burials occur in male burials – and
the majority are from rich burials (Risbøl 1994: 133–4). Most likely, then,
the status connected with the vessels did not relate to owning the vessels but
more probably to the production of the artefacts and/or trade in them. It is, of
course, possible that status attached to soapstone vessels may also be connected
with the contents of the vessels, but as the vessels seem to represent an everyday
product relating to the household, this is perhaps less likely.
Male burials containing vessels are found in areas that seem to have been
involved in trade, and many of these burials also contained weights and bal-
ances. This makes it more likely that people buried in rich graves containing
vessels can somehow be linked to the production and exchange of such goods
(Risbøl 1994: 133–4, 136–40; Schou 2007, 2015). If this is the case, then those
who organised and administered the production and exchange of the vessels
may have been of high status. Vestfold is one of the regions in Norway with
the highest frequency of soapstone vessels from graves, and there is a predomi-
nance of graves containing vessels in the burials around Kaupang (Skjølsvold
1961: 117; Risbøl 1994: 136–8). It is likely that the quantity recovered is in
some way connected with the trading of soapstone. Kaupang may have acted
as a local or regional distribution centre for soapstone vessels, but involvement
in long-distance trade in these products cannot be excluded either.
In the case of Hyllestad, both the character of production and the scale of
distribution of the products indicate an intensive and well-organised activity.
I have earlier suggested that the landowners at Hyllestad, magnates and free-
holders in the Viking Age and ecclesiastical institutions in the Middle Ages,
controlled the production (Baug 2002, 2015a). The landowners need not have
been central agents in the trade, but they would most likely have ensured that
their surplus production was taken to market (Skre 2008: 353). During the
Middle Ages, it seems to have been common for landowners belonging to
the societal elite, both ecclesiastical and secular, to be involved in distributing
and trading goods received as land rent. The landowners had their land rent
products brought into the towns, where they were sold further on (Helle 1982:
330–7, 346, 354).
Both magnates and ecclesiastical institutions were to a certain degree directly
involved in foreign trade with their own ships and commodities (Helle 1982:
398, 402). It is also possible that tenants and others working in the quarries
were involved in the trade. Cooperation in the frame of a félag to provide a
ship and organise transportation may have made it easier for the workers to
transport their products to marketplaces and towns. Quite often, the ship, its
crew and independent traders were hired (Helle 1982: 370, 372; Sigurðsson
1999: 165). Consequently, various ways of organising the trade in soapstone
vessels and quernstones may have existed, and different actors – both individu-
als and institutions – from different levels of society may have taken part in
the trade.
Conclusions
The distribution of steatite goods and quernstones and exchange in these prod-
ucts took place in several different social contexts, which varied in time and
space, from a more random distribution and exchange in the North Atlantic
region, to a larger and more commercially based trade in the southern parts
of Scandinavia. Itinerant people may have been important regarding the dis-
persal to the North Atlantic region. Immigrants to the islands may have been
a decisive factor for the spread of soapstone, in particular in the Viking Age,
even though some kind of exchange may also have taken place. The export
to southern Scandinavia, on the other hand, most likely demanded a wider
network and regular practices of sailing long distances. Certainly, the presence
of the goods in urban settings and marketplaces in southern Scandinavia indi-
cates a more organised and commercially based trade at trading centres such
as Kaupang, Sebbersund on the Limfjord and the early town of Århus, and
to a certain degree also Hedeby and Ribe. The distribution of stone products
from Norway seems, therefore, to have been organised within defined contact
zones from the beginning of the Viking Age and was maintained throughout
the Middle Ages.
The current evidence indicates that that a dynamic trade in soapstone ves-
sels and quernstones took place during the Viking Age and the Middle Ages,
exhibiting both change and stability. The trading activities were part of politi-
cal, social and economic systems that created both possibilities and restrictions.
The actors involved in trade changed over time, and so did the nodes and cen-
tral places along the trading routes. After the establishment of medieval towns
in Norway in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, export was largely channelled
through these, which led to changes in sailing routes and redistribution cen-
tres compared to the preceding period. Still, within southern Scandinavia and
the North Atlantic region, the same areas as before stand out as recipients of
the Norwegian goods. However, while the distribution indicates long-lasting
and stable contact zones and trading networks, a change in the type of com-
modity over the centuries – from soapstone vessels to quernstones – becomes
evident. The networks and contact zones established in the early Viking Age
seem largely to have been sustained throughout the Middle Ages. Established
routines and traditions were most likely important for distribution and trade.
Despite changing societal relations, new actors and urbanisation, as well as new
types of commodities, the trading networks seem to have been stable and
predictable through the centuries.
156 Irene Baug
Note
1 In the Middle Ages the king’s income was paid in commodities and money to a
regional fehird. In the fourteenth century the fehirdsle in Bergen was the largest one
in the country – and also included the islands in the North Atlantic region (Helle
1982: 331).
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9 The Uplands
The deepest of forests and the highest
of mountains – resource exploitation
and landscape management in the
Viking Age and early Middle
Ages in southern Norway
Kathrine Stene and Vivian Wangen
Introduction
The emergence of trading sites (marketplaces and towns) and the increasing
economic specialisation of trade and craft production have a central position
in explanations for the social and political changes in European societies in the
period c. ad 800–1200. In this chapter, however, we will highlight the exten-
sive resource exploitation in the wooded and mountainous areas of southern
Norway and discuss what we believe may have been the prerequisites for these
changes. In these landscapes, a significant surplus production of raw materials
and products has been taking place in various times and spaces, which is impor-
tant for illuminating social, political and economic developments. Although
an increasing number of local studies have drawn attention to rural districts
and spheres of production, they have received strikingly little attention in
socio-economic analyses of the period (e.g. Brink and Price 2008; Bagge 2010;
Sindbæk and Poulsen 2011). In the scientific literature, these production areas
are generally described as ‘outfield’ or ‘the mountain land’. One can therefore
get the erroneous impression of such areas as homogenous and uniform, as
opposed to the more ‘central’ places and regions along the coast. This type of
simple dichotomisation has been debated, pointing out the biased perspective
that comes from taking the farm and the agricultural economy as a granted
point of departure in explaining how the use of the outfield resources has taken
place and what social context these can be related to (Holm et al. 2009). We
wish to argue in favour of more complex and varied resource exploitation,
with an importance going far beyond the rural production areas, where the
local inhabitants and their communities played an active part in the transforma-
tion of the general contemporary society.
A central question is how organised surplus production can be established
and operated in a landscape that has been used in various ways since the
early part of the Mesolithic (c. 9000–8000 bc). An increasingly more inten-
sive exploitation of resources in an area must have resulted in new forms of
The Uplands: exploitation and management 161
collaboration, labour differentiation and specialisation through time. In addi-
tion, the establishment of surplus production and possibilities for economic
gain may have led to conflicts of interests between different actors’ desire to
use the same resources in the same landscape, and between divergent wishes
for intensive utilisation of some resources over others. Would it, for example,
have been possible to operate large-scale trapping in areas with intensive iron
production or livestock grazing? In this connection it is therefore essential to
discuss what social and political arrangements were established to carry out sur-
plus production, and how the systems of operation and the regulation of land
use may have taken place. Resource exploitation in wooded and mountainous
regions must therefore be viewed in connection with both the local settlements
and the greater societal contexts.
The study takes three different landscape types in the interior of South
Norway as a starting point (Figure 9.1). These are areas that in many respects
appear furthest away from the central trading sites that emerged along the coast
of South Norway during the Viking Age (ad 800–1050) and early Middle Ages
(ad 1050–1150). In the first part of the chapter the three areas will be briefly
presented, outlining their geographical, environmental and archaeological fea-
tures, and describing recorded economic activities and resource exploitation.
Thereafter, the areas will be compared and evaluated to identify similarities
and differences in landscape use over time. To make this possible it is neces-
sary to emphasise a wider time span than only the periods of main interest.1
Factors that will be accentuated are changes in land use, the degree of intensity
of resource exploitation and variations in operational systems and technology.
In the second part of the chapter issues concerning who were the prime mov-
ers and who organised surplus production will be discussed by focusing on
local settlements and social institutions. Through this we aim at presenting
new, locally based perspectives on how wooded and mountainous landscapes
have been managed and exploited in the Viking Age and early Middle Ages in
southern Norway.
The Uplands
The three study areas lie in the inland region, which is usually referred to as ‘the
Uplands’ (Norw. Opplandene) in historical sources, including Historia Norwegie
(Zona mediterranea or Zona montana, translated as ‘the inland area’, ‘the mountain
region’ or ‘the Uplands’ in Ekrem and Boje Mortensen 2003: 52–9, 176–82. See
also Salvesen 1969: 19–21; Ekrem 1998). In written medieval sources ‘Upland’ is
usually a common name for the inland region of eastern Norway (Bagge 2008:
151). Today, the three study areas lie in the counties of Hedmark and Oppland,
relating to the two main valleys, Østerdalen and Gudbrandsdalen (Figure 9.1).
The regional name Oppland (translated as ‘Upland’) is thereby still in use, refer-
ring to one administrative county of southern Norway, which is considerably
smaller than the medieval Opplandene, the Uplands.
Figure 9.1 South Norway with the presented areas marked.
Source: Magne Samdal and Vivian Wangen, Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo
(approval number NE12000-150408SAS, The Norwegian Mapping Authority).
Extensive archaeological excavations and surveys have been carried out in
all three areas in recent years: in the wooded areas of Gråfjell and Rødsmoen
(area 1),2 in the mountain valley Grimsdalen (area 2)3 and on melting snow
patches in the high mountains of North Gudbrandsdal (area 3)4 (Figures 9.2–9.4,
respectively; see colour plate section). Although the background and scale of
the investigations are different, the results illustrate what source material and
source potential exists here. The areas represent three dissimilar resource bases,
whose total potential of resource exploitation seems to have been used in
different ways and with varying intensity through time.
Area 1: woodlands
The two adjacent wooded areas, the Gråfjell area and Rødsmoen, are situated
near the Swedish border in Østerdalen, about 220–1000 m above sea level.
This landscape is part of the vast boreal zone (taiga) starting about 35 km
south of Gråfjell/Rødsmoen and stretching across North Scandinavia and
Russia. Today, agricultural land and good pasture for livestock are spread out
in this landscape, and the large rivers are teeming with fish. Most archaeologi-
cal finds, ancient sites and remains in the two wooded areas can be associated
with hunting and trapping of elk (Alces alces), extraction of iron and summer
farming (Figure 9.5). Archaeological and palynological investigations show that
an agrarian style of life was established around the beginning of the Christian
era (Høeg 1996; Solem 2004; Stene 2014a). There are relatively few archaeo-
logical sites and remains from the latter part of the Early Iron Age (cf. note 1),
but trapping of elk has taken place in pitfall trap systems that were estab-
lished in the Bronze Age, and some small-scale iron production (shaft furnaces
with a slag pit) also occur in the Early Iron Age. During the Late Iron Age,
a marked change in the use of the wooded areas can be traced. The scale of
livestock grazing increased, and new pitfall trap systems were built. In the Early
and High Middle Ages large-scale iron production took place (slag-tapping
furnaces), and in the late Middle Ages a farm and the summer farming system
(shielings) was established (Bergstøl 1997, 2008; Narmo 1997, 2000; Risbøl
2005; Amundsen 2007; Rundberget 2007; Stene 2014a).
Area 2: mountain valley

Grimsdalen is a mountain valley that lies between Dovrefjell in the north and
Rondane to the south, about 860–1170 m above sea level. The vegetation in
the upper part of Grimsdalen is characterised by Scandinavian montane birch
forest, which reaches up to about 1100 m above sea level. In the bottom of
the valley, on the large river plains, there is lush grass vegetation. The reindeer
migrated across the valley before the twentieth century, from winter pastures
in Rondane to summer pastures on Dovrefjell.5 The landscape of Grimsdalen
is today marked by centuries of summer farming. The majority of surveyed
Figure 9.5 Sites and monuments surveyed in the Gråfjell area and Rødsmoen (area 1).
The distribution of archaeological sites is based on information from the
Norwegian Cultural Heritage Database, Askeladden (the Norwegian
Directorate for Cultural Heritage).
Source: Magne Samdal, Kathrine Stene and Vivian Wangen, Museum of Cultural History,
University of Oslo (approval number NE12000-150408SAS, The Norwegian Mapping
Authority).
Figure 9.6 Sites and monuments surveyed in Grimsdalen (area 2). The distribution of
archaeological sites is based on information from the Norwegian Cultural
Heritage Database, Askeladden (the Norwegian Directorate for Cultural
Heritage).
Source: Magne Samdal, Kathrine Stene and Vivian Wangen, Museum of Cultural History,
University of Oslo (approval number NE12000-150408SAS, The Norwegian Mapping
Authority).
sites and remains relate to hunting and trapping of wild reindeer (Figure 9.6).
Through time there have been changes in the way hunting and trapping were
performed and organised, and also in scale; for instance, a pitfall trap system
was established at the transition to the Late Bronze Age (c. 1000 bc) and
was in use into the Roman Iron Age (up to c. ad 200), while large-scale
trapping in extensive and complex structures mainly took place in the Early
and High Middle Ages. Stray finds of iron arrowheads indicate hunting with
bow and arrow from around ad 400 and into the Middle Ages. Radiocarbon
dates of single pitfall traps and small pitfall trap systems suggest that these were
used c. ad 1300–1650. Pollen analysis shows traces of livestock grazing in the
pre-Roman Iron Age (500 bc–ad), and these traces become distinct from the
beginning of the Christian era. Several graves suggest that permanent settle-
ment may have been established in this mountain valley in the Viking Age.
During the fifteenth century the summer farming system (shielings) was estab-
lished here (Mikkelsen 1994; Barth 1996; Wangen 2006; Risbøl et al. 2011;
Stene 2014b; Stene et al. 2015).
Figure 9.7 Sites and monuments surveyed in the south-western part of North
Gudbrandsdal (area 3). The distribution of archaeological sites is based on
information from the Norwegian Cultural Heritage Database, Askeladden
(the Norwegian Directorate for Cultural Heritage), Finstad and Pilø 2010,
Jordhøy et al. 2011.
Source: Magne Samdal and Vivian Wangen, Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo
(approval number NE12000-150408SAS, The Norwegian Mapping Authority).
Area 3: high mountain areas
The high mountain areas in the south-western part of North Gudbrandsdal
(Jotunheimen, Breheimen and Reinheimen) represent by far the highest
massifs in South Norway, with several peaks more than 2000 m above sea
level. This high alpine landscape is characterised by a harsh mountain climate
with forest-free, low-growing and poorly productive vegetation dominated
by heather, moss and lichen (Moen et al. 1998: 64, 94). Above the tree line
(c. 1100 m above sea level) and at the transition to the low alpine vegetation
zone there are good pastures for livestock and possibilities for haymaking and
summer farming, but the majority of archaeological finds and ancient sites and
monuments are linked to hunting and trapping, particularly for wild reindeer
(Figure 9.7). Several stray finds of arrowheads, hunting blinds of stone, hunt-
ing sites on snow patches, several hundred pitfall traps, funnel-shaped mass
trapping systems, hunting huts and campsites show that the hunters have used
the entire landscape and exploited the possibilities that were available (Hofseth
1980; Mølmen 1988; Fossum 1996; Einbu 2005; Jordhøy et al. 2005; Jordhøy
2007; Finstad and Vedeler 2008; Finstad and Pilø 2010, 2011; Jordhøy et al.
2011; Solli and Wangen 2011; Nesje et al. 2012).
Continuity and variation in resource exploitation

Variation both in the diversity and types of resources that have been exploited
in the three selected landscape zones is, of course, a result of natural conditions.
In general it is possible to maintain that the higher above sea level, the fewer
forms of exploitation have taken place. Resource utilisation in the high moun-
tain areas of Gudbrandsdalen (area 3) is dominated by hunting and trapping of
wild reindeer, while in the woodlands in Østerdalen (area 1) several types of
activities have taken place, such as hunting and trapping of elk, iron produc-
tion, livestock grazing and summer farming. In the intervening landscape zone,
the mountain valley Grimsdalen (area 2), hunting and trapping of wild rein-
deer, livestock grazing and summer farming have been prominent. The nature
and quantity of resources combined with the possibilities of access determine
the potential and limitations of exploitation. In all the three landscape zones
there are resources that enable large yields, but this potential has not been used
continually (Figure 9.8).
At Rødsmoen, the use of pitfall trap systems seems to have occurred simul-
taneously with small-scale livestock grazing and some cultivation in the latter
part of the Early Iron Age. Here, use of the pitfall trap systems ceased c. ad
600, at the transition to the Late Iron Age, while such systems, on the other
hand, were constructed in the neighbouring Gråfjell area at this time (Høeg
1996; Bergstøl 1997, 2008; Solem 2004; Amundsen 2007; Stene 2014a). It
is interesting that the pitfall trap systems in the Gråfjell area went out of use
when the production of iron started, c. ad 1000. Some of the pits lying close
to iron production sites were reused for charcoal production. This indicates
Figure 9.8 Timetable presenting an overview of the different types of resource exploitation in the three areas of investigation. In a long-term
perspective it is possible to distinguish both differences in the degree of utilisation (shown by different shades of grey) and variation
in operational systems and technology.
Note: The periods are defined according to current Norwegian archaeology (Solberg 2000; Myhre and Øye 2002; Østmo and Hedeager 2005),6 and are
marked with abbreviations as follows: Early Bronze Age (1750–1100 bc); LBA = Late Bronze Age (1100–500 bc); P-RIA = Pre-Roman Iron Age (500–1 bc);
RIA = Roman Iron Age (ad 1–400); MigP = Migration Period (ad 400–570); MP = Merovingian Period (ad 570–800); VA = Viking Age (ad 800–1030);
EMA = Early Middle Ages (ad 1030/1050–1150); HMA = High Middle Ages (ad 1150–1350); LMA = Late Middle Ages (ad 1350–1537, Reformation);
Post-R. = Post-Reformation; Early Iron Age = Pre-Roman Iron Age–Migration Period; Late Iron Age = Merovingian Period and Viking Age.
that these wooded areas could no longer be used for elk trapping when the
extraction of iron started. Iron production was at its most intensive in the
second half of the twelfth and the first half of the thirteenth century; then
it decreased rapidly and came to an end c. ad 1300 (Rundberget 2007:
309–11, 21; 2012: 303). Calculated estimates indicate a total production of
about 950–1750 tonnes of iron, pointing to considerable surplus production,
where the product – iron – must have been intended for and distributed to
external markets. The organisation and scale of the operation show that sev-
eral actors must have been involved in production. When iron production
ceased, at the end of the thirteenth century, the pitfall systems were reused and
extended in the Gråfjell area.
Trapping was at its most intensive in the late Middle Ages, from c. ad
1400, and ended c. ad 1650. If the majority of all the six known pitfall trap
systems were in use simultaneously, then trapping must have resulted in the
obtainment of products far exceeding local demand. This implies that trapping
was most likely organised through collaboration between several farms (Stene
2014a: 66). Intensive trapping of elk and extensive iron production therefore
seem to be mutually exclusive in this area. The change in resource exploitation
c. ad 1000 may be the result of a deliberate choice made by the local inhabit-
ants, considering what types of resources they wanted to exploit from these
woods, or the change may have been requested or imposed by one or several
external actors or central members of the community (Stene 2014a: 137). If,
in fact, the actual work of producing iron – chopping of wood, digging of pits
and burning charcoal, digging and roasting bog ore, and extraction (Figure 9.9,
see colour plate section) – was performed by the local population, it may have
effected a collective change in their daily work, since iron production before
the transition to the Middle Ages had been on a very modest scale.
Concurrent with the re-establishment of the pitfall trap systems in the late
thirteenth/early fourteenth century, an intensification of agrarian activities took
place; a farm at Rødseter in the Gråfjell area was probably built c. ad 1300, and
shielings were established during the fourteenth century (Stene 2014a: 145–9).
The simultaneous occurrence of these events suggests that the same group of
people were behind the different forms of occupation. A combination of large-
scale trapping of elk as well as animal husbandry and grain cultivation may well
have been possible to carry out, as the activities took place at different times
of the year. The farm settlement and grain cultivation at Rødseter were most
extensive in the period ad 1400–1650. This subsequently ceased in the middle
of the seventeenth century, at the same time as elk trapping in the pitfall trap
system close to the farm went out of use. This suggests that the farm economy
largely depended on a stable yield from other resources in the wooded area,
and that agriculture did not provide a sufficient basis for running a farm of this
type. Farming was no longer viable when trapping could not be sustained. The
farm has therefore been interpreted as a type with a mixed economy – ‘mixed
farming’ (Martens 1992), where the agricultural activities and elk trapping
were integrated parts in the operation of the farm (Stene 2014a: 104).
170 Kathrine Stene and Vivian Wangen
In Grimsdalen, as at Rødsmoen, a pitfall trap system (for wild reindeer) was
established on the bottom of the valley during the Bronze Age, and the sys-
tem was in use into the third century ad, when trapping ended (Stene and
Gustafson 2011: 68–9, 196). As mentioned above, pollen analysis shows distinct
traces of livestock grazing from the beginning of the Christian era (Høeg 2011).
Radiocarbon dates also show intentional filling-in of pitfall traps in the latter
part of the Early Iron Age, something that might indicate the rise of livestock
grazing, as it prevented domestic animals from falling into the pits. This suggests
an altered use of the landscape, where an agricultural activity now prevailed.
Nonetheless, the many stray finds of arrowheads show that hunting with bow
and arrow was still important for the local population.
An assemblage of five burial mounds, most likely from the Late Iron Age,
and two, possibly three, grave finds from the Viking Age in the same part of
the valley (Hougen 1947; Mikkelsen 1994; Stene 2014b), may reveal a set-
tlement that was founded on a mixed economy involving animal husbandry
and hunting. Both the assemblage of graves and burials of men, women and
children may suggest a relatively sedentary family settlement. The numerous
arrowheads in the graves indicate that hunting played an important part in the
economy of the people who buried their deceased at these sites. The graves
and an intensification of livestock grazing towards the end of the Viking Age
may therefore indicate mountain farms, as previously suggested by Hougen
(1947) and Mikkelsen (1994), or a relatively sedentary settlement that would
not necessarily have been permanent.
It is interesting that this relatively sedentary settlement, which can be related
to both animal husbandry and hunting, was probably established at the same
time as the mass trapping of wild reindeer started at Einsethø, in the higher
western part of the river valley (c. 1100–1230 m above sea level, cf. Figure 9.6).
This large-scale trapping system was an extensive and complex funnel-shaped
structure consisting of several-kilometres-long entrapping fences, a collecting
pen and a smaller enclosure where the animals were killed (Mikkelsen 1994;
Barth 1996; Jordhøy et al. 2005). Based on available radiocarbon dates, the
system was used during the period c. ad 1000–1280. Close to the collecting
pen, at a place called Tøftom, the remains of a hunting station with several
buildings have been found. Radiocarbon and typological-chronological dates
show that the site has been in use from the fifth century ad, but that the first
buildings were established during the Merovingian Period (ad 600–800). The
most intensive phase at the site was around ad 1000–1300, simultaneous with
the use of the mass trapping system (Mikkelsen 1994: 55–61). The total data
indicates that trapping ceased abruptly a few decades before ad 1300.
The presence of a settlement based on livestock husbandry and hunting
together with mass trapping of reindeer at the end of the Late Iron Age and
in the early Middle Ages may suggest that there was, to some extent, more
room for various kinds of intensive resource exploitation in Grimsdalen (than
in Gråfjell/Rødsmoen). The conditions for a joint operation like this would
be that the mass trapping system and the animal husbandry were localised in
different parts of the valley; one in high mountain areas with sparse vegetation
and the other down on the more lushly overgrown valley bottom (Figures 9.3
and 9.10; see colour plate section). Another prerequisite must have been that
the animal husbandry was either modest in scale or organised in such a way as
not to disturb the migration of the reindeer through the area. This suggests that
‘regulations’ existed concerning where in the landscape the different types of
activity could take place and what the scale could be.
The various forms of hunting and trapping in the high alpine areas have
somewhat different times of operation. Both stray finds of arrowheads and
stone-built hunting blinds can be related to the archery tradition in the area
in general, from the Early Stone Age to the post-medieval period. The recent
discovery of several hunting sites at ice patches in Oppland County reveals
some new insights into the exploitation of the highest mountain massifs,
mostly because the finds are of organic material, excellent for radiocarbon
dating (cf. Callanan 2010; Finstad and Pilø 2010). Even though this work
is connected with an ongoing project (cf. note 2), some of the preliminary
results have been published (Finstad and Pilø 2010, 2011; Nesje et al. 2012).
Hunting/trapping on snow patches was seasonal, as the reindeer migrate to
the snow patches to avoid troublesome insects (warble and nose bot flies)
on hot summer days. Although the snow patches have revealed stray finds
of arrowheads dating back to the Late Stone Age and Early Bronze Age, the
most intensive hunting on the snow patches seems to have begun at the turn
of the fifth century ad, ending at the transition to the Middle Ages (Figure 9.8).
Strategically placed hunting blinds and rows of ‘scaring-sticks’ functioned as
proper trapping systems, and this organised hunting/trapping operated over
long time spans. Only a few 14C-dates exist from the surveyed pitfall traps
and mass trapping systems in the region (cf. Figure 9.10; see colour plate
section), but they are concurrent with knowledge of other mountain areas
around North Gudbrandsdal, where the majority of the existing dates make
it possible to claim that the activity was at its highest in the period from the
Late Iron Age to the middle part of the Middle Ages, c. ad 1250 (Weber et al.
2007: 53–4, 58–60; Stene et al. 2015: 64).
Technological adaptation and regional dynamics

Big-game hunting and the use of trapping systems in the three investigated
areas seem to undergo one common change in the period discussed here: it
seems as if the organised snow-patch hunting with the use of scaring-sticks
ends at the same time as the systems of pitfall traps and the mass trapping in
funnel-shaped systems are being operated most intensively. It therefore appears
as if the effort invested in organised hunting was transferred from the snow
patches to the large-scale trapping systems. For the mountain areas (areas 2 and 3)
two additional features should be emphasised. One is that the 14C-dates from
house remains and midden layers provide evidence of the existence of well-
established hunting stations going back to the seventh to ninth century ad,
long before the most intensive mass trapping. They must have functioned as
more or less permanent ‘site camps’, strategically placed in the hunting ground,
where the hunters could recurrently return. These were conveniently placed
in the landscape with regard to both the harsh mountain climate and efficient
hunting. A stable seasonal occupation should be seen as a form of adapta-
tion and organisation of hunting and trapping, and this shows that the areas
were particularly attractive, since people chose to invest time and resources in
constructing and maintaining the houses over several hundred years. The sec-
ond feature is the presence of graves, so-called ‘mountain graves’ (Skjølsvold
1980; Fossum 1996). The position of the graves in the landscape varies (see i.a.
Hougen 1947; Hofseth 1980; Skjølsvold 1980), but several lie close to trapping
systems, such as a male grave with weapons and arrowheads dated to the eighth
century close to the hunting station Tøftom in Grimsdalen (Wangen 2006).
The review of the three areas also shows that varying technology and skills
have been used in the exploitation of the same type of resource. The varia-
tion appears to be widest in the hunting and trapping of wild reindeer, and
has changed over time. Although we have suggested that some types of trap-
ping replaced others, it is important to emphasise that instead of a successive
development from hunting with bow and arrow, pitfall traps and snow-patch
trapping to funnel-shaped systems, it is obvious that the different technolo-
gies existed side by side after they had been put into practice. One common
feature of trapping in the three areas is that it was established gradually and has
persisted over a relatively long period of time. This may suggest that hunting
and trapping took place within the scope of well-established and long-lasting
social institutions.
In a broader context, it seems as if resource exploitation in wooded and
mountainous landscapes was becoming part of regional dynamics. When the
pitfall trap systems in the Gråfjell/Rødsmoen area went out of use and the area
was ‘re-aligned’ to intensive iron production, the mass trapping in the high
mountains appears to be intensified. When mass trapping in the high moun-
tains and intensive iron production in the Gråfjell/Rødsmoen area ceased in
the latter half of the thirteenth century, elk trapping in the Gråfjell areas was
taken up again, in addition to small-scale trapping/hunting in the other areas.
Specialist knowledge of the use of the resources has obviously been present
over a very long period of time, and the entire landscape – even the deepest
forests and highest mountains – have been taken into possession. This indicates
that exploitation must have been an incorporated part of socio-economic sys-
tems on both a local and a supra-regional level, and furthermore that this has at
certain times largely been exercised as surplus production with consequences
for the distribution, circulation and trade of goods.
Surplus production in a local perspective

It is not possible to draw any clear line between self-sufficiency and surplus
production. Extensive and organised surplus production, however, requires
a coordinated and substantial labour capacity seen in relation to the available
local population, in regard to the production itself, the processing of the prod-
ucts, their distribution and exchange (cf. Martens 1988: 123). Regardless of
the volume of surplus production, the premise is that there existed an external
demand for such non-agricultural products and that the exchange and trade of
the products relied on networks that stretched beyond the local societies and
production areas. Nonetheless, it is important at the same time to take into
account that the local communities could, on their own initiative, have been in
charge of production exceeding their own consumption, both on a small scale
to obtain products/goods they could not produce themselves and on a large
scale for more regular trading. Even surplus production on a small scale could
make a big difference in such a context. As with the ‘peasants’ iron bloomery’,
an example of iron extraction known from Ole Evenstad’s book of 1782 (1960
[1790]), modest annual production could also imply a surplus for sale (Larsen
2009: 190).
Eva Svensson (2007: 189) considers that a prevailing view of the rural popu-
lation or the ‘ordinary’ peasant in the Middle Ages is to a large degree marked
by an image produced by historians based on written sources, where the rural
population is seen as an historical factor of less importance than the clergy,
nobility and the crown. The notion of the ‘self-sufficient’ farmer, where the
underlying premise is that the rural society basically did not have any special
need to exchange products or engage in trade on a large scale, enhances this
impression (Martens 1992: 2). Generally, local surplus production is not consid-
ered to have been an aim in itself but a result of feudalistic demands and urban
needs, not originating from local initiatives (Svensson 2007: 194). By studying
so-called ‘marginal’ regions like wooded and mountainous areas it may, how-
ever, be possible to nuance this understanding of local communities, and point
to the inhabitants’ initiatives and active participation in the surplus production
of raw materials and products of the wooded and mountainous landscapes.
The local communities must have played a significant role in surplus pro-
duction in the three areas. First, the diverse forms of exploitation show that
there existed specialised knowledge about where in the landscape the resources
could be located: where the bog ore could be found, and to which places in
the landscape the big game migrated. The proximity to the landscape that this
requires can only be met by a local population. This specialised knowledge
can be seen in the continual use of the areas, independent of different resource
utilisation or the technology used. Second, it is reflected in the organisation
and labour effort that must form the basis of the different forms of resource
exploitation. One factor that should be noted is that both the iron production
in the Gråfjell/Rødsmoen area and the large-scale trapping of wild reindeer
in the high mountains may be described as proto-industrial or industrial (cf.
Rundberget 2012: 30; Indrelid 2013). The scale of the operation presupposes
an ability and willingness to engage in organised collaboration, and must have
demanded a lot of local working capacity when these activities took place. This
implies both labour differentiation and specialisation.
Even though the larger trapping systems may have been operated by a rela-
tively small number of users and gradually extended over time, the construc-
tion of the systems – particularly maintenance and trapping itself – requires
a great deal of work effort. Thus, the large-scale trapping required organised
driving of animals into and through the kilometres-long systems, then the pre-
pared killing, butchering and carving of the animals, and appropriate handling
of the pieces of meat. Meat, skins and antlers had to be transported down from
the mountain (cf. Fossum 1996: 35), preserved and finally transported out of
the local areas and distributed. The large-scale iron production in the Gråfjell
area required similar organisation and work effort. The intensive and well-
organised production indicates that the intention was to obtain a higher yield
than what the local community itself needed, and that there existed opportu-
nities to exchange and trade such a surplus. This suggests established forms of
collaboration and stable settlements at the production sites or in neighbouring
areas already from the Bronze Age, and that such a demanding operation must
have been integrated into well-functioning social and economic networks.
New perspectives on settlement and farming in the Uplands

To understand the use of the wooded and the mountainous areas, it is neces-
sary to see the organisation in connection with the settlement in the nearby
but lower-lying areas that today constitute more central agricultural areas (cf.
Martens 1997: 9). Previously, it has been assumed that the establishment of
permanent farm settlements (the landnám/inner colonisation) took place rela-
tively late in the Iron Age (fourth to fifth century ad) in the middle parts of
Østerdalen and in Gudbrandsdalen (Hougen 1932; Brøgger 1942; Hougen
1947; Hofseth 1980; Mikkelsen 1994). This prevailing view is mainly based on
grave finds, of which only very few can be dated to the Early Iron Age. Due
to the paucity of archaeological investigation in these parts of the country as
well as the lack of more recent synthesising analyses (cf. Jacobsen and Larsen
2005), this concept of settlement history in the main valleys has not been
problematised to any considerable extent. New investigations, however, show
that there is a major potential for new source material that can shed light on
early agrarian activities and settlements in these valleys, as shown for the mid-
dle part of Østerdalen (Gråfjell/Rødsmoen), where an agrarian way of life and
thereby a more permanent farm settlement was established at the transition to
the Roman Iron Age.
In connection with the development of a new highway (E6) along
Gudbrandsdalen, thorough investigations in the middle parts of the valley were
carried out in 2011 and 2012. The excavations unearthed traces of settlements
in the form of buildings dated to the Roman Iron Age, the Migration Period
and also the Merovingian Period. The discovery of layers with clear indica-
tions of extensive farming, both pasture and cereal cultivation, dating back to
the Early and Late Bronze Age, respectively, points to an established agrarian
settlement in the valley at this time (Gundersen 2016). Such early settlement
has also been demonstrated in a vegetation-historical study based on analyses
of pollen from a selection of bogs in North Gudbrandsdal. The pollen analysis
indicates that a settlement based on agriculture, both livestock and grain culti-
vation, can be traced as far back as c. 1250 bc. Farming seems to be established
during the pre-Roman Iron Age, and agricultural activity intensified around
ad 200 (Gunnarsdóttir 1999: 139–40).
Together with the increasing numbers of new dateable finds and sites in
mountain areas from the Early Iron Age and also the Bronze Age, this gives
a quite different impression of the settlement in the valley. What we have
underlined above as an important condition for both the organisation of the
extensive trapping in the mountainous areas and the establishment of live-
stock grazing in Grimsdalen, namely a relatively permanent settlement in the
nearby areas, is confirmed by the results from the E6 project. In this perspec-
tive it is therefore possible to assume that it is only a question of time before
corresponding settlements further north in the valley are uncovered. Putting
together the new excavations along the highway E6, the pollen analyses and
the results from investigations in the mountain areas (areas 2 and 3), we obtain
a more multifaceted picture of the general features of the settlement history of
North Gudbrandsdal.
Irmelin Martens (e.g. 1988, 1992) has several times emphasised the signifi-
cance of the specialised way of life in the inner valley communities of South
Norway in the Iron Age. She finds it likely that a sedentary population inhab-
ited the majority of South Norway’s valley districts and mountains, with a form
of economy that comprised hunting, fishing and livestock husbandry and also
some grain cultivation in the Bronze and Early Iron Age (Martens 1988). This
is confirmed in the above review of the Uplands, which shows an established
settlement based on some farming (animal husbandry and cereal cultivation)
together with organised trapping in the form of larger pitfall trap systems from
the Bronze Age onwards, and later iron production on a large scale. This
implies that those who participated in establishing permanent settlement in
the valleys were well acquainted with varied exploitation of the mountain and
woodland resources in addition to farm work (Martens 1988: 116), and ‘that
settlement depends upon the total resources available for exploitation, and not
only on the conditions for farming’ (Martens 1992: 2).
In studies of rural areas, it is necessary to distinguish between permanent
settlement and its economic basis. The traditional concept of the farm implies
an economy based on agriculture, and this is what in the majority of cases is
regarded as the prerequisite for permanent settlement (landnám). As we have
attempted to emphasise above, intensive big-game trapping and iron produc-
tion also presuppose a nearby permanent settlement. It is therefore possible
to maintain that permanent Iron Age settlement in the inner and upper parts
of the Uplands seems to have had its economic basis in the woodland and
mountain resources, where agriculture can rather be regarded as a supplement.
In a long-term perspective, farm = agriculture is therefore not necessarily the
foremost prerequisite for permanent settlement in the inner valley districts.
This might be how the settlements in Gråfjell/Rødsmoen, Grimsdalen and
the valleys connected with the mountainous areas in the south-western part
of North Gudbrandsdal should be understood. From the time when agricul-
ture was established, changes took place over time, in terms of the intensity
of utilisation as well as ownership rights and farm structures. Factors relating
to seasonal settlements, mixed farming and agriculturally based farmsteads, in
addition to studies of resource exploitation in the outlying areas, could thus
nuance the settlement history of the Uplands.
Who governed the surplus production?

The review of the three areas suggests several circumstances that show how
land use and surplus production may have been organised. Within both his-
torical and archaeological research, the interpretations are traditionally based
on the idea that chieftains, the king and the aristocracy, as well as the emerging
ecclesiastical administration, were the prime movers for social development
in the Viking Age and early Middle Ages. The intensive and at times almost
industrial surplus production in wooded and mountainous areas has thus been
explained as a direct consequence of the requirements of chieftains and the
royal administration, and later also the ecclesiastical administration, and of the
demand in central areas. It has been claimed that it was possible to appropriate
and maintain regional power over large areas of land through personal associa-
tions between small and large chieftain families, and thus control the exploita-
tion of the outfield resources (e.g. Skre 1998; Myhre 2002: 170, 185, 212–13;
Øye 2002, 2005). The surplus production was consequently an important
economic base for the elite. Within such a framework, operations in the
resource areas seem to be intensified on the initiative of the royal power, or
as a form of entrepreneurship controlled by the crown, in the Viking Age and
the Middle Ages (Mikkelsen 1994; Stene 2011; Rundberget 2012; Baug 2013;
Indrelid 2013; Stene 2014a).
As regards the mass trapping at Einsethø in Grimsdalen, Egil Mikkelsen
(1994) has suggested that the system was initiated by the crown, by farmers
with large holdings or by collaboration between these two actors well before
ad 1000. Both the king and the landowning farmers are impliedly the only
ones able to establish such large-scale trapping, almost as a necessity connected
with the concurrent establishment of trading places and towns along the coast.
Later, the clergy, represented by the Archbishop of Trondheim and the Bishop
of Hamar, is assumed to have obtained a share in the relevant farms that organ-
ised mass trapping. The actual trapping itself is presumed to have been carried
out and organised by farmers from the sizeable freehold farms in the district
(Mikkelsen 1994: 137–8, 173). Corresponding interpretations have been put
forward for the iron production in the Gråfjell area. Bernt Rundberget (2012)
considers the activity to have been subject to political control, at first probably
by chieftains and later by the crown. These actors encouraged groups to clear
land and start iron extraction in the same areas, and thus there is a connection
between the landnám in the Late Iron Age and the development of iron pro-
duction in Østerdalen. It is presumed that royal control was established across
all of Østerdalen from around ad 1050, thus indirectly controlling iron pro-
duction (Rundberget 2012: 291, 306; see also Stene 2011, 2014a).
Production was not carried out under duress or direct control, neither by
chieftains nor the royal power in the Middle Ages, but through the provision
of ‘encouragements’ in the form of privileges and benefits. In the Middle
Ages, the distribution and turnover of goods were controlled by the royal
administration, where chieftains or magnates functioned as intermediaries
between the iron producers and the crown (Rundberget 2012: 311–15). This
interpretation and the models that have been put forward are interesting, and
refer to relational dynamics between local communities in rural areas, and a
central administration and distribution network in the last part of the Viking
Age and early Middle Ages. Nevertheless, how this comprehensive local col-
laboration was actually organised, and how the resources were managed, is still
an open question.
Questions have also been raised concerning the real significance of royal
power, what areas of civic life could be governed by the central authorities and
what other social factors were active at all times (Ekrem and Boje Mortensen
2003; Orning 2008; Bagge 2010; Glørstad 2012; Rundberget 2012). Viewed
in this light, it has been claimed that a ‘general perspective suggests that pro-
duction and trade grow out of natural conditions, social relationships, cultural
norms and an economic agency – all of which lay well beyond the range of
control of the earliest kings’ (Skre 2008: 340). It is therefore possible to assert
an understanding of pre-state societies as more complex and dynamic than the
impression given by more one-dimensional economic models. Several aspects
of social life have to be considered as heterogeneous social arenas. As regards
the outfield ‘industries’, questions have been raised as to whether they were
controlled and managed by a central authority (Svensson 2007). A relatively
modest research effort has, however, been directed towards the local arenas
and how these functioned in their age. When trade in outfield products is
continually emphasised as central to the development of distribution networks,
increasing specialisation, growing urbanisation and social development at large,
more attention should also be given to the question of what went on in the
rural areas of that time.
Surplus production, both on a large and a small scale, must have been of central
importance to the local economy. The yield may have been of great value for
the provision of attractive gifts and payment of tax duties. Outfield products
have also been a prerequisite for obtaining goods the rural communities them-
selves could not produce – goods necessary for the sustenance of life as well as
goods that marked cultural affiliation to the larger community (Martens 1989).
To produce non-agrarian goods for trade and sale may also have been part of a
social strategy to strengthen local identity. By building up an economic surplus
to keep up with socially acceptable consumption, they were able to participate
in the wider society while at the same time maintaining their local affiliation
a
Figure 9.11 Grave finds from mountainous areas.

(a) Grave goods from a male grave, Grimsdalen (area 2), dated to the second
half of the tenth century, the Late Viking Age (sword length: 92.5 cm).
(b) An oval brooch, probably from a female grave, found in Grimsdalen.
The brooch is dated to c. ad 900, the Viking Age (dimensions: 11.5 × 7 cm).
The find-spot is situated close to an unmarked grave, a cremation of an adult
and a child. The grave included, among other things, a sword, an axe and 11
arrowheads. The grave is dated to the same period as the brooch.
(c) Grave goods from a male grave from Læshøe (in area 3), dated to the tenth
century (sword length: 88.5 cm).
Source:  Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo.
(Svensson 2007: 197). Maybe this, in part, is how the graves in the mountains
in the Late Iron Age can be understood (Figure 9.11). Both the grave goods
and burial customs fit the variation of type and form as those found in the nearest
agricultural districts and in a large part of Scandinavia.
It is, among other things, interesting to see that the presumed symbolic and
identity-bearing jewellery from the Viking Age is also found in female graves
high up in the mountains (Hofseth 1980; Mikkelsen 1994; Fossum 1996). This
corresponds to finds of weaponry in the male graves. The surplus seems to have
been invested in prestige objects, and these objects show that the population in
rural areas used the same cultural symbols and social markers as society at large
(Martens 1989; Magnus 2005; Martens 2009; Røstad 2012). Thus, the local
surplus can be regarded as both economic and cultural capital, because symbols
used like this can also be related to formalised personal and political alliance
networks, and also to gift-giving practices and economic systems that may be
connected with super-regional social structures (cf. Sigurðsson 2008; Glørstad
2010: 254–79; Sindbæk 2011).
Outline of local landscape management

The resource exploitation and surplus production, as described for the three
above-mentioned areas, suggest that a form of agreement existed concerning
what resources and how much of these resources could be used from these land-
scapes. Intensification of a specific type of resource exploitation or a change
in land use must either have been based on someone’s claimed rights to cer-
tain resources or parts of the landscape, or on a common consensus or social
acceptance of the changes. This must particularly have been the case where one
operational system excluded another. But periods of joint operation have been
demonstrated, as has the use of different forms of technology for concurrent
exploitation of the same resources. The presence of different systems of operation
in the same areas of land may suggest that there was a common understanding of
rights to the wooded and mountainous areas, and how they were to be managed.
Furthermore, the diverse and long-standing use of the woodlands and
mountains indicates well-established social practices within the local popula-
tion. At the same time, it is likely that the possibilities of building up a surplus
may have resulted in conflicts of interests between various groups’ and actors’
desire to make use of these landscapes. The work effort and knowledge that
demonstrably have been invested in the various forms of operation must in
addition have generated a form of ownership of permanent structures. The
demonstrated changes in resource exploitation may be indications of both a
common understanding of rights and management, and a result of conflicts, but
these conditions are precisely the ones that make it possible to discuss whether
changed operational systems in an area also entailed the establishment of new
social structures, and whether different actors used the resources in different
ways and with differing intensity.
This means that production and resource exploitation in the woodlands
and the mountains were at all times part of a multifaceted interaction between
a number of different social relations and institutions on several levels. In the
Viking Age and early Middle Ages, there are two possible arenas for disen-
tangling conflicts and clarifying rights. One is the local thing/assembly site
(Bagge 2008; Sanmark et al. 2013); the other is the institution of commons
(Solem 2002; Lindholm et al. 2013). In this context, the latter institution is
of specific interest. In local communities, the institutions of commons have
been of greater importance for the regulation of the exploitation of land, for
clarifying users’ rights to landscape areas and for the division of the yield. The
commons (Norw. allmenning, translated as ‘common land’) are delimited areas
outside the defined farm territories, which have not been included in the right
of ownership (Stenseth 2005). But the commons are not only areas of land
and resources; they are also operative institutions for collective action (Ostrom
1990). Within the institutions of commons, established rules and procedures
regulate land use and cooperation within the common land.
We would also like to claim that commons are one of the most significant
institutions in the Viking Age, forming a stable, local basis for social inter-
action in rural communities and thereby also in the (re)formation of wider
social networks (Wangen in prep.). In the wooded and mountainous areas of
the Uplands there are three circumstances in particular that may reveal well-
organised institutions of commons. First, extensive, organised collaboration
within areas of land outside what can be defined as farm territory with property
rights. All three areas presented above lie within large, coherent stretches of
commons in present-day South Norway, which are remains of former, much
larger areas of common land (Sevatdal 1985: 12). Second, there is a seden-
tary population with established knowledge and experience of the landscape,
which creates the framework for the defining of specific areas for a certain use.
This means that local communities have a common practice, and that social
acceptance of how the areas ought to and can be used has been established.
Third, there is a purely rational principle, based on the acknowledgement that
joint effort can generate a larger or more secure yield than is possible for single
individuals (Ostrom 1990: 39).
In all three landscape zones, there are resources that make a large yield possi-
ble, but this potential is not used at all times, and moreover is used with varying
intensity. This is most likely due to changes in society on both a local and a
super-regional level, and we suggest that local, well-established social institu-
tions can form the basis for how resource exploitation has been structured. In
cases where intensive and organised surplus production was carried out, and
where it is possible to assume that external, individual actors or stronger groups
were claiming special privileges, the existing social structure was probably sub-
ject to negotiation or overturned. The regional dynamics and the changes in
management that are seen within these specific areas can therefore be the result
of such flexible local institutions. Varied use of technology and management
forms, changes in management towards regular surplus production as well as
changes in types of resource exploitation may all be based on local adaptations
and local initiatives. This means that the inner wooded and mountain areas
were being managed both on the basis of local conditions and through interac-
tion with super-regional institutions and structures.
Conclusion
The Uplands consist of several different landscape zones and contain a number
of varied cultural remains and sites, which shows that the Uplands is not a uni-
form entity. Different forms of resource exploitation, management forms and
institutions characterise the use of the landscape at all times, and must therefore
be seen in connection with the practices that existed in local districts. This
practice has been embodied in the landscape, in the archaeological sources.
In the above, we have sought to emphasise that even ‘the deepest of forests
and the highest of mountains’ probably were regulated and subjected to local
management, but that this did not exclusively work on the local level, as sur-
plus production necessarily requires interaction beyond the local community.
We have also suggested that management of the resources and organisation
of the work may have taken place within the framework of local regulation
of the available areas of land. The establishment of a new kind of institutional
regulation on the basis of royal as well as ecclesiastical power entails pursued
adaptations and changes in the management of the landscapes. Circumstances
both in the local community and on the socio-political level have in this way
formed the conditions of opportunities for resource exploitation in the Viking
Age and early Middle Ages.
The results from the presented areas show that surplus production is a muta-
ble ‘dimension’. The degree of production varied, both within each district and
on the regional level. There is a coherent dynamic between the use of differ-
ent local areas and the kinds of resources and commodities which were made
available for distribution and trade through organised surplus production. It has
been our aim, by adopting a local perspective, to emphasise the variation and
diversity that exists. The rural population does not necessarily represent merely
‘the ordinary farmer’ in an agrarian economic sense. The varied and at times
intensive exploitation of resources in the wooded and mountainous areas in
the Uplands indicates permanent settlement which based its economy on non-
agrarian products. This implies that local communities were not only capable
of organising production, but also developed forms of collaboration that may
have contributed to the establishment and maintenance of stable barter and
trade networks. Organised management of the outfield resources, regulated
division of the yield and arranged circulation and distribution of the surplus
were perhaps what made it possible to maintain sedentary settlements in these
areas. By emphasising resource exploitation as a locally based and specialised
enterprise, it is possible to nuance the agrarian economic models. The rural dis-
tricts constituted, through organised surplus production and local management,
an integrated part of the economic system of the time.
Notes
1 Please note that both the terminology and the delimitation of archaeological periods
used in Scandinavia may differ from the practice on the Continent and the British
Isles. See Figure 9.8 for clarification of terms and datings.
2 The Museum of Cultural History has carried out archaeological investigations over
several years in connection with the establishment of training areas and a firing range
for the Norwegian Armed Forces in the years 1993–7 (Rødsmoprosjektet) and 2003–9
(Gråfjellprosjektet) in Hedmark County (Bergstøl 1997; Boaz 1997; Narmo 1997;
Amundsen 2007; Rundberget 2007; Stene 2010, 2014a).
3 As part of the research project ‘DYLAN – How to manage dynamic landscapes?’
supported by the Norwegian Research Council, interdisciplinary investigations were
carried out in Grimsdalen, Oppland County, including archaeological excavation and
pollen analysis (Risbøl et al. 2011; Stene et al. 2015).
4 Climate changes have resulted in a rapid melting of glaciers and snow patches in the
high mountains, and since 2009 comprehensive registration and systematic collection
of objects from find-bearing snow patches have been carried out in Oppland County.
This work has been organised within the ongoing project ‘Glacier Archaeology
Program in Oppland’, which is a collaboration between the Oppland County
Municipality and the Museum of Cultural History (Finstad and Pilø 2010).
5 The construction of the railway and highway (E6) over the Dovre massif north
of Grimsdalen during the twentieth century has led to fragmentation of the wild
reindeer’s habitat.
6 The dates in the table are based on the widespread use of 14C-dates of archaeo-
logical structures in wooded and highland areas. The discrepancy between these and
the archaeological periods points out the challenges connected with comparability
between the typological-chronological dating systems and the use of radiocarbon
dates. The historical use of the landscapes illustrated in the table is in any case made
visible in this manner, and shows that changes in resource exploitation or in technol-
ogy do not always fit with the traditional periods and vice versa, and that utilisation
of the landscape extends over longer or varied time spans.
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a
Figure 9.2 Landscape photos from the Gråfjell area and Rødsmoen (area 1).
a) Aerial photograph of the shieling Deset Nordseter, ca. 815–845 masl., situated in
the north-western part of the Gråfjell area.
b) “Road through the forest”, the road runs from the river Rena and Rødsmoen to
Osen, just south of the Gråfjell area.
Photo:  Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo/Gråfjellprosjektet.
a
Figure 9.3 Landscape photos from the mountain valley Grimsdalen (area 2).
a) The eastern part of Grimsdalen. The river Grimsa meanders in the bottom of the
valley.
b) The shieling Tollevshaugen situated ca. 1000 masl. The mountain area Rondane
can be seen in the background.
Photo:  Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo/Kathrine Stene.
a
Figure 9.4 The high mountain area on the south-western side of Gudbrandsdalen
(area 3). The highest peaks are ca. 2400 masl. (a), but there are also alpine
plateaus with lakes and streams were there are good pastures for reindeers
(b). Notice the settlement and fields in the bottom of the river valley
Ottadalen c. 400 masl. (the village of Bismo to the left), and the Ice-patch
Åndfonne in the foreground c. 1800-2000 masl.
Photo:  Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo/Vivian Wange.
a
Figure 9.9 All production of iron in prehistoric and medieval Norway is based on bog
ore. The method is generally termed the direct process of iron making: the
iron was extracted from ore directly in a malleable state. Ore was heated
in a furnace fuelled with wood or charcoal. The photos show important
structures related to iron production in the Viking Period and Middle
Ages, from the Gråfjell area.
a) A furnace.
b) A charcoal pit.
Photo:  Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo/Gråfjellprosjekte.
a
Figure 9.10 Large-scale trapping systems and pitfall trap systems.

a) A stone built collecting pen (a total length of 19 m, a width of 3 m and a height
of 1.1–1.8 m) at Gravhø, Grimsdalen. The collecting pen is part of a large-scale
trapping system for wild reindeer.
b) A pitfall trap for wild reindeer in (Haverdalen) Grimsdalen. It is an earth-dug pit
with an oval embankment around it.
Photo:  Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo/Kathrine Stene.
a
Figure 10.4 a–b A selection of weights, coin and silver fragments, and imported beads
found with the Langeid burials.
Photo:  Museum of Cultural History, Oslo/Ellen C. Holte.
Figure 10.5 One side of the restored, lavishly ornate hilt of the sword found in
grave 8.
Photo:  Museum of Cultural History, Oslo/Ellen C. Holte.
Figure 10.6 Overview across Langeid, towards the Otra river.
Photo:  Museum of Cultural History, Oslo/Camilla C. Wenn.
Figure 12.4 Hallingskeid, Ulvik in Hardanger.

Photo:  Kjetil Loftsgarden.
Part III
Sites of trade
10 A view from the valley
Langeid in Setesdal, South Norway – a
Viking-Age trade station along
a mercantile highway
Zanette T. Glørstad and
Camilla Cecilie Wenn
Introduction
In the transitional phase between the Viking Age and Middle Ages, a radical
reorganisation of the economy took place, with an increase in the extraction of
raw material and bulk goods directed towards long-distance trade, leading to
stronger economic integration between remote rural areas and central markets.
The importance of including commodity exchange and bulk goods to gain a
more comprehensive understanding of the Viking and medieval economy has
been increasingly emphasised (Skre 2007). Studies of the intensified extrac-
tion of resources like fish and grain have presented new perspectives on how
North Atlantic communities reorganised their economic activity towards long-
range market trade, with new economic relationships between ‘peripheries’
and ‘cores’ emerging during the eleventh century (Barrett 1997; Barrett et al.
2000; Simpson et al. 2005). An orientation towards large-scale trade systems
with utilitarian products can also be discerned in Norway, where archaeo-
logical investigations indicate that the latter half of the Viking Age saw an
explosive increase in extensive trapping systems (Mikkelsen 1994), large-scale
iron production sites (Martens 1987, 1988; Larsen 1991, 2009; Narmo 1997;
Loftsgarden 2007; Rundberget 2007) and comprehensive extraction of raw
materials like soapstone for vessels and schist for whetstones (Resi 1987; Risbøl
1994; Baug 2015).
Still, it has proven difficult to grasp the nuances of the correspondence
between inland resource extraction, emerging trade routes and budding
urbanism (Sindbæk 2007; Ashby et al. 2015). Methodologically, there are
challenges in combining archaeological material derived from traditional
excavations with more recent statistical approaches directed towards the scope
of resource utilisation (Larsen and Rundberget 2009). In Norway, there have
also been difficulties in localising inland trading or production sites, although
in the past few years indications of such sites have been discovered (Maixner
2014; Loftsgarden et al. this vol.).
Recent perspectives have emphasised the dynamic and fluctuating aspects
of exchange networks, with varying integration and connectivity with local
192 Zanette T. Glørstad and Camilla Cecilie Wenn
as well as international networks, depending on geographical conditions as
well as local entrepreneurs (Sindæk 2007). In this chapter, a recently exca-
vated site pointing to the correspondence between the growth of regional
trade routes and local resource extraction in the tenth to twelfth century will
be presented. During the summer of 2011, the Museum of Cultural History in
Oslo excavated a Viking-Age cemetery at Langeid, located far up the narrow
Setesdal Valley in southern Norway (Loftsgarden and Wenn 2012; Wenn et al.
2016). In addition to a large array of weapons, jewellery and tools, the buri-
als surprisingly contained a large number of trade-related objects, in particular
weights and coin fragments. The site presents one of the largest concentra-
tions of such objects in Norway, next to the markets of Heimdalsjordet and
Kaupang in Vestfold (Skre 2007; Bill and Rødsrud this vol.), prompting ques-
tions of whether Langeid represented a junction in a transactional network,
and if so, the scale and type of transactions. In the first part of the chapter, an
overview of the Langeid site and its finds will be presented, before the broader
topographical context of the Langeid finds is considered, comparing the finds
with Iron Age finds from other upper-valley regions and mountain areas in
eastern Norway. The extensive new finds provide, in our view, a window into
the general development of inland networks and trade routes in the tenth and
eleventh centuries, and illustrate the research potential being opened up by
current surveys and excavations.
The Langeid cemetery in the Setesdal Valley

The Setesdal Valley is located in south-central Norway, starting at the moun-
tain plateaux around Hovden in the north and stretching more than 145 km
south to the farming community at Evje. It is a narrow and mostly U-shaped
valley, with steep mountain sides leading up to the highlands of Setesdalsheiene,
and with the Otra River flowing along the valley floor (Figure 10.6, see colour
plate section, and Figure 10.1). At the time of the earliest census of the area,
in 1769, there were approximately 3,450 registered inhabitants in the entire
valley, and population density is still low. Most people live on small farms in
the valley’s agricultural pockets, often separated by large distances. The valley
is thus often considered isolated and inaccessible, and has until recently been
subjected to few archaeological investigations. The present-day community of
Langeid occupies a series of terraces in one of the larger agricultural zones in
the mid to lower part of the valley.
The Viking-Age cemetery stretched along the edge of a river terrace, with
the floodplain and the Otra River just below. Altogether 18 graves had been
dug into the sandy subsoil right at the edge of the terrace (Figure 10.2).
In addition, three smaller, near-empty pits may possibly constitute a further
three graves, as they were aligned with the other graves, and the fill was
similar. A circular foot ditch was also uncovered on the terrace, as well as
a second foot ditch on a terrace further south. The foot ditches originally
encircled grave mounds of considerable size, which have later been removed.
A view from the valley 193
Figure 10.1 Map of the Setesdal Valley. Places referred to in the text are shown on
the map.
The layout of the Viking-Age cemetery was probably planned in relation to

the older grave mound. The entire cemetery was excavated, and none of the
Figure 10.2 Layout of the Langeid cemetery.

Source:  Museum of Cultural History, Oslo/C. C. Wenn.
graves were visible before removal of the topsoil. Their close proximity to
each other makes it unlikely that they were originally covered by a mound
or cairn, as are many Viking-Age graves. It is, however, plausible that at least
some originally had a marker on the surface, as all the graves apparently relate
to each other. The graves showed a variety of internal and external con-
struction features, including large stones or stone slabs, placed either as stone
linings or in the upper layers, possibly having stood upright or formed part
of a cover. Others had considerable amounts of small stones in their top fill,
seemingly forming a type of cobbled structure which may have been visible
on the surface (Table 10.1).
The 18 graves consisted of rectangular pits, measuring about 175–265 cm in
length and about 60–150 cm in width (for a full presentation, see Wenn et al.
2016; Wenn in prep.). The depth varied greatly, from 4 cm to 75 cm. The var-
iation was partly caused by erosion; nevertheless, it is obvious that some graves
were originally fairly shallow. Only three graves contained human bones, all
of them from cremations, and two of these are most likely secondary burials.
Otherwise there were no preserved skeletal remains, and the rest of the burials
are presumed to have been inhumations. A number of graves had remains of
thin organic layers. In some cases these presented a rectangular or trapezoidal
shape, occasionally with wood fibres, and thus seem to represent a base or plat-
form on which the deceased had been placed, without any indications of walls.
However, in at least three graves (nos. 8, 23 and 30) the dead had been placed
in a coffin. In a number of other graves the fill strongly indicated some kind
of physical demarcation, perhaps of wood, or even cloth or furs for swaddling.
The gender of the deceased and the number of burials in each grave have
been cautiously inferred from the grave goods (Table 10.1). Many of the buri-
als were richly furnished and/or contained high-quality items, while others
contained relatively few objects of a more ordinary, everyday character. Knives
were frequent, as were flints and/or fire strikers and axes. Seven swords were
recovered, though only two complete ones. The swords included three of
Petersen type Q, one of type Y and one richly decorated variant of type Æ.
The Petersen (1919) type K axe was the most common, but axes of types
E/F, I and M were also found. Only two spearheads were found, and the
eight arrowheads all came from one grave. Two graves contained pairs of oval
brooches, one of which also had four glass and amber beads; a third grave
contained a circular silver brooch with a triquetra, and a necklace with 47 glass
and amber beads. Small nails from combs were found in eight graves, needle
boxes in two graves and scissors in three. Sets of two spindle whorls appeared
in three graves, one of which also had a weaving sword and two wool combs.
Seven or eight sickles were found, and seven whetstones, two of which were
very large (50–60 cm).
Signs of trade and exchange at Langeid

The most notable aspect of the Langeid burials, however, is the clear evidence
of trade-related activities, with five of the 18 burials containing fragments of
coins, weights, hacksilver and a set of scales, making it one of the largest con-
centrations of objects of this type at a single site in Norway, outside of Kaupang
and Heimdalsjordet in Vestfold County.
Four graves (nos. 6, 8, 15 and 20) held a total of 21 separate fragments of
coins. Grave 6 contained eight fragments, probably from six coins, together
with small pieces of hacksilver and silver wire. Three of the fragments turned
Table 10.1 The Langeid burials. The table also includes the three small pits, tentatively interpreted as graves, nos. 7, 24 and 25. In addition to
the finds listed, most of the graves contained unidentified iron fragments
Grave Pit size (L × W) Construction Coffin/ Male/ Objects in grave Date
no. elements Platform Female/Child
6 238 × 102 Stone lining, small M+F Set of scales, 6 coins, silver fragments, t.p.q. ad 983
‘cairn’ 5 weights, 2 sickles, 2 whetstones,
2 flints/fire strikers, 2 beads,
wooden box, lock, keys, needle box,
tweezers, knife, axe
7 102 × 40 C? Sherd of soapstone vessel Late Iron Age?
8 237 × 120 4 post holes C M Sword, axe, 2 coins t.p.q. ad 975/ ad
1010–30
9 233 × 98 2 slabs on top, 2 M Sword, knife, flint/fire striker, comb 10th–early 11th cent.
post holes
10 190 × 97 P? M? Knife, sickle, flint/fire striker, comb 10th–early 11th cent.
11 240 × 126 C/P? M Sword, axe, nails ad 850–1000
12 183 × 70 ? F Weaving sword (?), 2 spindle whorls, Iron Age
part of wool comb
13 181 × 106 F 2 spindle whorls, bead Iron Age
14 223 × 108 C/P? M Sword, axe, knife, flint/fire striker, nails 10th–early 11th cent.
15 244 × 110 Stone lining (?) C/P? M Axe, knife, 6 coins, silver wire, comb, t.p.q. ad 975
nails, flint
16 232 × 100 2 post holes F? Part of wool comb, flint Iron Age
18 223 × 122 Possible lining, C/P? M+F 2 oval brooches, sword, axe, 3 weights, ad 985–1015
large stones in scissors, knife, sickle, whetstone, fire
centre striker/2 flints
19 174 × 61 ? ? Iron fragments ad 1065–1210
20 218 × 85 ? M 5 coins, silver wire, 2 weights, t.p.q. ad 991
whetstone, knife, fire striker
23 250 × 120 Large white stone C F? Axe, sickle, knife, needle box, tweezers, 10th cent.
on top chain, iron fittings
24 118 × 82 C? Knife Iron Age
25 90 × 50 C? - Iron Age
27 220 × 106 Large stones, small ? 2 beads, comb, flint, nails Iron Age
‘cairn’, slab
lining
28 225 × 134 Slab lining and ? M Sword, spearhead, axe, 8 arrowheads, 10th–early 11th cent.
bottom knife, fire striker/2 flints, comb, iron
fittings, 2 beads
29 246 × 125 Stone lining P F+M 2 oval brooches, bronze pin, weaving Late 10th cent.
sword, 2 wool combs, 2 spindle
whorls, 4 beads, scissors, sword,
2 axes, 2 sickles, 5 knives, 2 flints/
fire-strikers, comb, 2 whetstones
30 266 × 150 Stone lining, C F + M? Circular silver brooch, 47 beads, silver c. 950–70
‘cairn’, slabs fragments, spearhead, 2 knives,
on top 3 flints, scissors, sickle, comb, nails
Source: Adapted from Wenn et al. (2016).
out to belong to one originally complete coin (Figure 10.4a, see colour plate
section). This is a pfennig minted under Otto III in Dortmund, Germany,
dated to ad 983–96 (see Hellan 2014 in Wenn et al. 2016 for full report). The
fact that the three fragments had not been separated suggests that the coin was
cut up a short time before the burial, indicating that non-fragmented coins also
circulated and reached the inner parts of the valley. The remaining fragments
are from Abbasid dirhams, minted c. 800–50. The coins were found together
with silver fragments and five weights of different sizes in an area consist-
ing of highly organic material, probably the remains of a purse. Grave 6 also
contained a set of foldable copper-alloy scales of type R.476. The scales had
been placed in a wooden case with a cover made of birch bark. Although the
wooden case was badly preserved, it was possible to recognise the contours of
an interlacing circle décor (Figure 10.3), perhaps imitating the circular design
known from other scales and cases (Vegard Vike pers. comm.). The grave also
contained an axe (type unknown), two whetstones, two sets of flints/fire strik-
ers and two sickles, two glass beads, as well as the likely remains of a box, a lock
and keys that may have belonged to the box, a needle box and tweezers. It is
interpreted as a double male/female burial.
Grave 20 was in some respects very similar to grave 6. The grave held five
coin fragments, among them two dirhams as well as a coin possibly minted
under Otto-Adelheid, dated to c. 991–1035. The coins were found with
two weights and fragments of silver wire. As in grave 6, these items were all
Figure 10.3 Illustration showing the case for the set of scales from grave 6.
Source:  Museum of Cultural History, Oslo. Illustration by Vegard Vike.
recovered from a bundle of organic material in the middle of the grave, indi-
cating a purse. In addition, a large whetstone, a knife and a fire striker were
found. Grave 8 contained an English penny minted under Ethelred II, dated to
978–1016, and a probable German coin from the same period (Hellan 2014).
In grave 15, a type K axe and a knife were recovered, together with fragments
of at least six coins and small fragments of silver wire. The coins included three
dirhams, one half-bracteate of the late tenth century, possibly from Denmark/
Skåne, and another possibly of Otto-Adelheid. Graves 8, 15 and 20 are all
interpreted as male burials. Three of the graves thus contained similar com-
binations of fragmented coins, giving a glimpse into the stock of circulating
coins: graves 6, 15 and 20 held ninth-century Abbasid or Samanid dirhams, as
well as late tenth to early eleventh-century Northern European coins (Hellan
2014). The same three burials also contained other silver fragments of various
types, found close to the coins and/or weights. The coins as well as the other
silver fragments should probably be interpreted as hacksilver.
Altogether ten weights were found in three graves, with five separate
weights from grave 6, three from grave 18 and two from grave 20 (Figure
10.4a, see colour plate section). Grave 18, the only grave with weights but no
coins, is interpreted as a double burial – a male inhumation with a secondary,
presumably female, cremation. A type Y sword, a small whetstone and a flint
with a fire striker are associated with the male burial, as are the three weights
found in the middle of the grave in a cluster of organic remains, again possibly
a small leather purse. The female burial is indicated by a collection of cremated
bones west of the inhumation burial. Placed on top of the burnt bones were
two oval brooches wrapped in bark as well as in fur and textiles. A bear’s claw
was found among the burnt human bones, possibly indicating that the person
had been cremated together with a bearskin. An uncommonly small type K
axe, a pair of scissors, a sickle and a knife may belong to either burial.
The ten weights vary greatly, from 0.9 g to 26.19 g, and indicate that the
burials may have held carefully composed sets of weights. The five weights in
grave 6 vary from 1.48 g to 26.19 g, while the three weights from grave 18
are 3.4, 13.5 and 21.9 g, respectively. Grave 20 holds two of the smallest ones
at Langeid, weighing only 0.9 and 1.4 g. The calculation of weight standards
from Viking period weights has been widely applied and discussed (for a thor-
ough review, see Pedersen 2008: 138–48). A.W. Brøgger’s (1921) work on
weight standards is still highly influential, although later studies have criticised
Brøgger’s work and revised details (e.g. Steinnes 1927; Sperber 2004). Several
studies have demonstrated the existence of different weight standards and sys-
tems, although it is possible that these were calibrated in relation to each other
(Pedersen 2008: 140–2). Due to their general state of preservations, the precise
mass of the Langeid weights and their calibration to known weight standards
are, however, not possible to determine accurately.
Although no typical imported objects of the era, such as Continental or
Insular metalwork, were recovered, other objects testify to the way Langeid
was interconnected with large-scale networks. The 47 beads from a beautiful
necklace in grave 30 consist mostly of transparent single- and double-segmented
blue beads (Figure 10.4b, see colour plate section). There are also a large num-
ber of silver- and gold-foiled single-segmented beads, as well as occasional
mauve single-segmented beads.
The segmented beads originate in the Islamic Caliphate, or possibly the
Eastern Mediterranean, and seem to belong to the second import wave of seg-
mented beads, dated to the mid-tenth century, the first wave occurring around
ad 800 (see e.g. Callmer 1977: Tab. 1; Ambrosiani 1995; Wiker 2013). The
same necklace also contained a triangular amber bead. Another amber bead was
found in grave 29, both most likely made from Baltic material.
While the weapons and utensils could largely be characterised as being of
standard quality, the weapons from grave 8 should be mentioned, as they stand
out as being of exquisite workmanship. The upper haft of the type M battleaxe
had been fitted with a thin brass sheet. A few finds with similar fittings have
been recovered in London and in Birka (Vegard Vike pers. comm.). The grip
of the late type Æ sword was covered with twisted silver wire. Most striking
is, however, the richly decorated pommel and lower guard. The surfaces are
coated in flat-hammered silver wire with decorative elements in flat-hammered
gold, bordered by thin copper-alloy wire. The decorations include letter-like
figures, crosses and spirals, and on the pommel, quite surprisingly, a right hand
holding a cross (Figure 10.5, see colour plate section). The same type of spiral
occurs on the richly decorated hilt of a type Z sword from Sollerö, Sweden
(Androshchuk 2014: Dr. 12, plate 134). The closest parallel to the particu-
lar décor on the Langeid sword might be an eleventh-century sword from
Kvelperud, Buskerud (C36640) which features spiral designs as well as a similar
shape of the hilt. The Langeid sword was most likely produced in a foreign
workshop by highly specialised craftsmen, and indicates the range of networks
and resources available for what might be considered a particularly wealthy or
well-travelled member of the Langeid community.
All in all, 11 burials can be dated to the tenth to eleventh century, and at
least eight of the graves are later than ad 975 (Table 10.1). The remaining
graves can only be given a general dating to the Iron Age/Viking Age. The
graves dated on the basis of swords and/or axes tend to fall into the period ad
900–1050, according to Petersen’s (1919) chronology, with one exception of
ad 850–1000. Two graves (18 and 29), with a combination of oval brooches
(type R.652/654) and late swords (types Y and Q), can be dated to the late
tenth century on typological grounds. In the case of grave 18, this corresponds
well with the radiocarbon date of the cremation, ad 985–1015 (1 sigma cal.).
Four graves have a terminus post quem established from coins, coinciding with
the dates of other objects in the graves. Graves 8 and 15 were constructed later
than ad 975, grave 6 later than ad 983 and grave 20 later than ad 991. Grave
8 has an additional radiocarbon dating from a post hole: ad 1010–30. The
Petersen type Æ sword is a late variant and should be placed in the first half of
the eleventh century. Grave 30 has the narrowest time span. The secondary
burial at the top was radiocarbon dated to ad 885–960 (1 sigma cal.). However,
some of the beads in the primary burial are unlikely to have appeared before
c. ad 950 (Wiker 2013). Both burials thus seem to have taken place just after
the mid-tenth century.
Beyond Langeid: a regional perspective

But what form of economic activity do the deceased at Langeid and their
objects represent, and how did the activity at Langeid, a small and seemingly
isolated valley community, relate to similar environments in the region? To
bridge the apparent gap between the lack of discovered trading/production
sites and the evident growth in inland resource utilisation during the Viking
Age, the distribution of scales and weights, coins and hacksilver, as well as
objects acquired through long-distance networks is often highlighted as indica-
tive of a more intensified and formalised exchange economy (cf. Pedersen
2008). Still, scales and weights outside of the trading sites at Kaupang and
Heimdalsjordet all come from burials or uncertain contexts. Their find con-
texts do not, then, indicate their primary use context, and one cannot rule out
the possibility that the placement of weighing equipment, exchange curren-
cies and likewise hacksilver in graves had metaphorical aspects. The fact that
at Langeid these objects were placed in the graves as sets strongly suggests that
their primary use and context was known, and that this pattern reflects their
actual use in trade and exchange.
There seems to be no doubt that these are graves of members of a com-
munity actively engaged in regional exchange networks, connected to larger
networks of exchange and embracing impulses and items that drew on foreign
contact and inspiration. The suggestion of trade routes and commercial activity
in Viking-Age Setesdal was first made by Jan Henning Larsen, based mainly
on finds from Valle, some 25 km north of Langeid (cf. Figure 10.1; Larsen
1980, 1984: 143–6, 2000). Here, a large number of coins and weights have
been found in at least four burial contexts, mainly dated to the early eleventh
century. A number of Celtic and Anglo-Saxon objects are known from other
funerary monuments in the area. Similarly, the only five Frankish spearheads
in Aust-Agder County have been found in Setesdal, and at least three of them
come from Valle (Larsen 2000: 45). Furthermore, before the Langeid excava-
tions, Valle had the only finds of imported beads of glass and amber in Setesdal
(Larsen 1980).
Larsen points out that a large network of old trails and roads crossing the
highlands and mountains is known in and around Valle, some of which may
well date back to the Viking Age. From the twelfth century, furs and hides
passed through the area as tax payments to the bishop in Stavanger (Larsen
1980), giving the name to one of the known old trails in the area, the ‘Hide
Road’ (Norw. Skinnvegen). The ‘Hide Road’ starts at Fyresdal in Telemark
County and passes through Valle towards Lysefjord in Rogaland on the west
coast of Norway (cf. Figure. 10.7). Archaeological finds from rock shelters
along the road, for instance, suggest that the route has been used considerably
longer, as it forms a natural access route through the mountains to the west
coast (Rolfsen 1977; Mikkelsen 1980). Another well-known passage is the
‘Bishop’s Road’ (Norw. Bispevegen), which runs along the now desolated
Finndalen from Fyresdal to Valle. It is assumed that the road dates back at least
to the thirteenth century, although this route might also be considerably older
(Langstrøm et al. 1984).
Valle is regarded as a likely candidate for a transshipment centre for the
distribution of raw materials, particularly iron, but products like furs and hides
could also have been common. Investigations at Hovden in the northern part of
the Setesdal Valley attest to large-scale iron production from the late tenth cen-
tury, gradually increasing and reaching industrial proportions in the thirteenth
century (Larsen 2009: 163–8). It has been suggested that production averaged
more than 8 tonnes of iron annually, although this estimate is most likely too
low (Larsen 2009: 147). A large number of iron extraction-related sites are
also known from the highlands above the valley further south, although not
indicating production on such a large scale as at Hovden (Larsen 2009: 168).
A transshipment centre with local, perhaps seasonal, fairs in Valle would make
sense, given its proximity to communication routes leading towards other
inland networks, which headed further into the wealthy agricultural lowlands
of eastern Norway and to the rich agricultural communities on the west coast
facing the North Sea. But could Langeid be a second such site with similar
functions? The wide valley floor does give room for assembling people, but
as far as the evidence goes today, there are no other distinct factors supporting
the idea of a trading site at Langeid, though the distance to the ‘Hide Road’ is
actually no further from Langeid than from central Valle. However, the new
evidence from Langeid suggests as strong a connection to trade in the lower
part of the valley as in the upper part.
Another striking concentration of artefacts associated with exchange is
found in Fjære in the municipality of Grimstad, situated by the coast about
95 km south-east of Langeid. Grimstad has produced four of the six known
Viking-Age sets of scales in the county, as well as showing a marked con-
centration of weights, some with mounted Anglo-Saxon coins. A number of
Insular and Continental objects have been found in graves in the area (Larsen
1986). Several hoards with gold and silver objects have been discovered along
the coastline in the same region. In Fjære, other factors also come into play,
such as a sheltered coastline offering a relatively short and convenient passage
to the Continent across the sea, and roads going along the coast and heading
inland. The area is characterised by fertile agricultural conditions, but even
more important were probably the many soapstone quarries accessible from
Fjære, which seem to have been exploited extensively from the tenth century
(Risbøl 1994: 130–1). Soapstone vessels may have been regularly exported
to Denmark and to markets along the Norwegian coast, such as Kaupang
(Skjølsvold 1961: 120; Larsen 2000: 42; Schou 2007). The coins, weights and
imported finds seem to be concentrated to the main agricultural areas, where
many of the historically known farms were the homesteads for clerical and royal
representatives in the Middle Ages, and where there are large burial grounds,
some dating back to the Early Iron Age, the third to fourth century ad (Larsen
2000: 41). Together, these aspects indicate an area with strong economic activity
and substantial resources – political, financial and communicative – possibly
including a regional emporium in the Grimstad area with sailing routes to
Kaupang and/or Heimdalsjordet in Vestfold (Larsen 1986).
A word of caution should, however, be issued concerning the scale of
distribution of trade-related objects in Langeid, Valle and Fjære/Grimstad,
respectively. Apart from one previously collected weight, all the finds in the
Langeid area are concentrated in the fairly restricted area of the cemetery,
whereas the Valle finds come from graves in a much larger area, from different
farms at different locations, and the same applies to the overall picture of finds
in the Grimstad region. Finds of scales, weights and coins could thus represent
different types of activity and varying temporal intensity. The graves in the
Fjære/Grimstad area with trade-related material are hardly later than the tenth
century, while the finds from the Setesdal Valley represent a later phase, mostly
belonging to the tenth or early eleventh century. This could be explained by
the influence of the Christianisation process on the coastal regions of southern
Norway from the late tenth century, with pagan burial rites apparently fading
out during the middle of the tenth century. Only one exception is found: a
rich and apparently pagan early eleventh-century male burial from Bringsvær/
Fjære with a set of scales and six weights (Rolfsen 1981). This allows the for-
mulation of several questions concerning the relationship between the two
apparent economic centres of Fjære and Valle. Do they signify a shift in how
and where trade was performed? Does the Bringsvær grave point to the con-
tinuation of the marketplace or node in an economic network in Fjære, of
which we have evidence from the tenth century, or does it indicate a change
in the organisation of regional exchange and trade routes?
Stationary and mobile entrepreneurs

One clue to the trade-related activities at Langeid might lie in the notice-
able constraints presented by the natural topography, which largely dictates the
location of feasible communication routes and meeting places. According to
descriptions from the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, land-based
travel down and out of the valley was confined to trails and paths before the
main road was built in the 1840s. These trails, like the ‘Hide Road’ and the
‘Bishop’s Road’, connected Setesdal to Lysefjord and Rogaland in the west,
and with the Telemark valleys and the coastal areas in the east via Fyresdal
(Bull 1928: 46; Midttun 1928: 134; Kaland 1972: 169). The steep hillsides
and narrow roads meant that any transportation of goods had to be by pack
animal, which limited the amount of goods that could be transported (Skar
1909: 151). It is therefore no wonder that the two large lakes Byglandsfjorden
and Åraksfjorden, linked by the Otra River, were also used as a vital transport
route in the early nineteenth century. Traffic from Byglandsfjorden up to the
next inland fjord, Åraksfjorden, and to its end at Ose was possible in the mid-
dle of summer, when currents were manageable. It is possible to travel up
from Ose to Langeid by boat; during the summer the river here is wide and
flows fairly smoothly, and in the early twentieth century a ferry stop existed
directly across the river from Langeid (Helland 1904: 117; Rysstad 1928: 11).
Continued river transport was impossible northwards from Langeid, as the
river becomes considerably narrower at this point, with a series of small rapids.
There are, however, areas further north, notably at Rysstad, along Lake Flåni,
and at Valle, where the river grows wider and calmer, and boating is easy. In
between, it would have been necessary to use other forms of transport.
The topographical situation at Langeid presents it as a suitable place for trans-
shipment and transactions. According to the archaeologist Oluf Rygh (1905:
84, 197), who compiled the still widely applied lexicon of Norwegian place
names and their meanings, Langeid simply means ‘the long isthmus’ and alludes
to how the river was no longer passable, and the boats had to be pulled over
land for a while from this point. Langeid represents the northern extreme of
feasible continuous boat transport on the inland lakes in summer, thus serving
much of southern Setesdal. A plausible suggestion is, thus, that Langeid consti-
tuted a natural last stop for the transshipment of goods coming along the lakes
from the south, as well as for goods from the surrounding farms and mountains
awaiting shipment southward across the lakes. It would have provided a good
opportunity for producers, local landlords and traders to meet for gossiping,
bargaining and negotiating the distribution of bulk goods. The occurrence of
imported beads and luxury weapons indicates that the economic activity was
not limited to the transshipment and exchange of raw materials and bulk com-
modities. The establishment of a fairly predictable transport route could have
made possible other types of trade, for example for travelling salesmen moving
their goods, such as minor household items and affordable exotic goods into
some of the small valley communities. Similar scenarios are probably reflected
in the smaller rural communities on the Continent from the eighth and ninth
centuries, where it has been suggested that travelling merchants, ‘chapmen’ or
‘peddlers’ undertook the distribution and exchange of goods from emporia to
the rural population further inland (Loveluck 2013: 209–10).
Setesdal Valley and the inland expansion

In addition to the Viking-Age cemetery, the Langeid excavations also revealed
settlement activity, with a large number of post holes, cooking pits and waste
pits, remains of iron production as well as agricultural activities, with dates
ranging from the Mesolithic to the medieval period, but with a strong preva-
lence of activities in the Roman Iron Age. A similar chronological situation,
pointing to the intensive long-term use of the limited agricultural resources
and suitable settlement sites in the valley, is reflected in other recent excava-
tions in Setesdal Valley, not far from Langeid (Moi, approximately 7.5 km
south-west of Langeid, cf. Reitan 2011; Sandnes in Valle, about 20 km north
of Langeid, cf. Wenn et al. 2015). These locations all paint a similar picture of
how small farming communities with iron production as an important addi-
tional activity were established during the Roman Iron Age in the agricultural
enclaves in the valley, their activity and population probably expanding in
the Viking Age. This interpretation is supported by a marked increase in stray
finds from the Viking period compared with the Roman Age and Migration
Period (Låg 1999; Larsen 2000), and the gradual growth of iron production in
the highlands and mountain areas towards massive production in the eleventh
to twelfth century.
This situation is not, however, unique to Setesdal. Assuming that settlement
intensity, at least to a certain extent, is indicated by the frequency of finds,
surveys of graves and stray finds point towards a strong increase in settlement
in the central upper valleys in East Norway during the Viking Age. Although
a number of new finds have been acquired since these surveys were compiled,
the proportional relationship between the periods remains largely unchanged
(Table 10.2; see also Figure 10.7). The data suggest that a major settlement
expansion took place in the upper valleys and mountainous areas in the west-
ern part of Scandinavia during the late Viking Age, in the period from the late
Table 10.2 The number of burials and stray finds from the Iron Age in some of
the largest valley regions in East Norway, with data for specific parts of
Telemark County
Roman– Merovingian Period Viking Age
Migration Period (late 6th–late 8th (late 8th–mid 11th
(1st–late 6th cent.ad) cent. ad) cent. ad)
Burials Stray finds Burials Stray finds Burials Stray finds
Central valleys in Eastern Norway:
Glåmdalen 3 16 9 11 86 65
Gudbrandsdalen 11 34 20 6 115 139
Valdres 53 67 47 27 106 139
Hallingdal 6 20 8 3 36 63
Sigdal-Eggedal 4 1 2 - 13 1
Numedal 9 3 4 5 34 22
Valleys in Telemark County:
Kviteseid 3 4 1 2 48 6
Fyresdal 2 3 1 - 22 5
Lårdal 6 - 2 1 27 3
Seljord 9 4 2 56 50
Vinje 2 - - 2 18 18
Rauland - 7 2 12 33
Tinn 5 8 3 8 36 66
Source: Data extracted from Hougen (1947: 108, 117, 125, 141, 150); Munch (1965: 161);
Kaland (1972: 180–215).
Figure 10.7 The main valley in East Norway, and main valley regions in Telemark
County, referred to in Table 10.2.
ninth to early eleventh century. The upper valleys in Telemark County are
particularly interesting in this regard, as they are connected with Setesdal by
numerous paths and small roads across the mountains, and these, in turn, pro-
vide access towards the more fertile agricultural communities along the coastal
zone. A closer look at the chronology of the Viking-Age finds in the Telemark
valleys shows that, although there is a significant increase in finds from the
ninth century, the major boom occurs in the tenth century (Kaland 1972: 175),
coinciding with the assumed regional intensification of resource exploitation.
The Langeid graves show a noteworthy variety in burial customs associated
with pagan praxis, at a remarkably late stage. This is not unique in Setesdal,
where at least 16 other non-Christian graves can be dated to the eleventh
century (Larsen 1984). Although relatively few, compared to the considerable
number of graves from the previous centuries, they indicate a notable preserva-
tion of pagan practices to a far greater extent than what seems to be the case in
the coastal districts, where pagan burials largely disappear from c. 950 (Larsen
1984). As in Setesdal, the upper regions of the valleys in Telemark have a
number of late pagan burials dating from the late tenth and eleventh century.
Among these is a male burial from Tinn containing a set of scales, two weights
and a type Z sword, as well as other objects (Kaland 1972: 133). Still, the find
from Tinn is an exception to the rule concerning grave contents: while the
burials in Valle and Langeid display numerous finds of weighing equipment
and imported objects, these hardly occur at all in the Telemark valleys, even
though several fine-quality swords, some of them probably made abroad, have
been found.
Apart from the burial in Tinn, weights and a set of scales only occur in one
other place: a small concentration of weighing equipment found in two late
tenth/early eleventh-century burials in Fyresdal (Kaland 1972: 133). One of
these weights is very similar to the ones found in Valle, and might be indica-
tive of how the two communities participated in regular trade, possibly even
along the same trade routes. The late dating of the three burials with weigh-
ing equipment, together with the noticeable number of late pagan burials in
upper Telemark in general, mirrors to some extent the situation in Setesdal.
This underlines the impression of a significant economic upsurge from the
late tenth century onwards in the region, as well as of a common ideological
stronghold in these areas. The strong emphasis on pagan burial rituals may pos-
sibly be interpreted as reflecting an increased need to underline a local identity
or as a common denominator of upper-valley identities during a period of
more intensive contacts with other regions. The apparent close connection
between communities in Setesdal and Telemark suggests that at this point a
regular and well-developed route existed between different expanding inland
communities, which made further economic expansion possible and allowed it
to be effectively implemented.
Conclusion
The excavation at Langeid underlines how little information we have from
Setesdal – and most likely also from other parts of Norway – and exemplifies
the potential that many areas still hold. The excavation at Langeid provides a
new perspective on trade in the area, as it suggests that communication was
not confined to trails across the moorland and mountains, but that in the tenth
century a vital and structured route existed, or was established, along the valley
and the inland fjords. This should most likely be seen as part of a general pro-
cess towards a more dynamic inland transport system, caused by a considerable
economic upsurge in the region through the increasing utilisation of hinterland
resources, for example a growth in the extraction of iron from the latter half of
the tenth century in large parts of East Norway, which rapidly increased at the
transition to the Middle Ages. The datings of burials from Valle and Langeid
coincide, strongly indicating that the two areas were interconnected in the
same regional network. Further contours of fine webs of contacts towards sim-
ilar inland communities can also be discerned, for instance in the neighbouring
Fyresdal in Telemark County.
The development, coordination and at least temporary consolidation of
these routes was most likely dependent on local entrepreneurs functioning as
key intermediaries on a local scale, who seized the opportunity and potential
within their area at a given time. The development of these routes should,
however, not necessarily be seen as solely an effect of increased hinterland
exploitation and growth in raw-material extraction. There is no direct causal
link between the sharp increase in the use of resources from uncultivated land
and the development of transport routes and transshipment sites. The gradual
development of more stable networks linking different regions may itself have
acted as an incentive to further production and investment in outlying areas.
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11 Heimdalsjordet
Trade, production and communication
Jan Bill and Christian Løchsen Rødsrud
Introduction
Only 500 m south of the famous Gokstad mound outside the town of
Sandefjord in Vestfold, in a field called Heimdalsjordet, a new trade and pro-
duction site from the Viking Age was partly excavated in 2012 and 2013. It is
situated in a valley at what was in the Viking Age a well-hidden natural harbour,
located by a small strait that connected the inner reaches of the two fjords
Mefjorden and Sandefjord behind the island of Vesterøya (Figures 11.1, 11.2).
This newly discovered site is bound to have a substantial impact on our under-
standing of Viking-Age trade in south-eastern Norway and beyond, in par-
ticular because it demonstrates that the renowned international marketplace
at Kaupang in Larvik municipality, only 15 km to the south of Gokstad, was
not as dominating as previously thought (Skre 2007, 2008a, 2011). The goal
of this chapter is to provide a first preliminary report and discussion of the site
for an international readership (see Bill and Rødsrud 2013 for a presentation in
Norwegian). It will include presentations of structures and find groups, as well
as deliberations about the dating and function of the site, as far as is possible at
a time when many analyses remain to be done.
The excavations at Heimdalsjordet were conducted within the framework
of the research project ‘Gokstad Revitalised’ (GOREV), which is a collabora-
tion between the Museum of Cultural History in Oslo, the Section of Cultural
Heritage Management at Vestfold County Council and Vestfold Museums
(an inter-communal company). The project aims to contextualise the extraor-
dinary but under-researched Gokstad ship burial, dated to the years around
ad 900, through a varied series of investigations (Bill 2013). One important
focus area is the economy and structure of the settlement landscape in which
the monumental burial mound was placed, and how this landscape developed
in the decades and centuries before and after the construction of the mound.
The excavations at Heimdalsjordet are a key component in this study, since
they have documented the presence of significant economic activities both
before and after the construction of the Gokstad mound. The site has yielded
material remains of trade in the shape of hacksilver and large amounts of cut-up
coins, in combination with exotic items such as imported weights and beads.
Abundant production waste and fragments from fine metalworking as well as
Heimdalsjordet 213
Figure 11.1 LIDAR image of the area surrounding the Gokstad mound and
Heimdalsjordet. The approximate sea level at around ad 900 is
indicated in dark grey.
slag from ironworking and waste from whetstone-making and amber-working

indicate significant craft production on the site, probably intended for trade.
Heimdalsjordet was not, archaeologically speaking, virgin ground before
excavation started in 2012. The area had attracted archaeological attention on
several earlier occasions. In 1943 the archaeologist Erik Hinsch (1945) and his
214 Jan Bill and Christian Løchsen Rødsrud
Figure 11.2 Panoramic view of the Gokstad-Heimdalsjordet site.
team excavated a rather big but plundered boat grave that could be dated no
more precisely than to the Viking Age. In the 1980s several other mounds were
detected in aerial survey from the differential growth of vegetation. In connec-
tion with plans for road construction in 1995, the site was again surveyed with
four test trenches and metal detector surveys. During this campaign a consider-
able number of archaeological features and finds from handicraft activities were
discovered (Gansum and Garpestad 1995).
The structures
The area of Heimdalsjordet was therefore given high priority when the geo-
physical campaigns of the GOREV project were carried out in 2011 and
2012. More than 60 ha in the surroundings of the Gokstad mound were
surveyed using magnetometry and high-resolution georadar (Bill et al. 2013).
The surveys were conducted by the LBI (Ludwig Boltzman Institute for
Archaeological Prospection and Virtual Archaeology at the University of
Vienna) and NIKU (Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research),
and resulted in the finding of several new burial mounds and possible house
constructions, as well as providing a good understanding of the palaeolandscape.
By far the most promising results, however, came from a 26,000 m2 plot of
arable land on Heimdalsjordet (Figure 11.3).
Here the surveys resulted in the discovery of a substantial system of ditches
enclosing rounded rectangular plots that were located on either side of
an apparent road or walkway oriented east–west. The western end of the
2-m-wide roadway, now disappearing under a modern house and garden,
seemingly connected the investigated area with the higher ground on the
western side of the valley. The eastern end of the road is not precisely defined,
but it seems to terminate on a slightly raised sand and gravel spit in the centre
of the valley, just next to the mouth of a small creek that enters the natural
harbour. On the northern, landward site of the street the plots were mostly
placed orthogonally to it, sometimes with several plots, one behind the other,
while on the southern, seaward side they were in some cases arranged parallel
Heimdalsjordet 215
Figure 11.3 Graphic presentation of the GPR data from Heimdalsjordet, with
preliminary interpretations.
to it. Along the long sides, each plot had its own ditch, which was not shared
with the neighbouring plot. To the east, excavation has demonstrated that
there are similar ditches also in areas in which the geophysical survey revealed
no such structures, but it is still possible that part of the raised area on the sand
spit was not divided up by ditches.
The excavations in 2012 and 2013 showed that there were significant
differences in the ditches found in the western, more clayey parts of the site,
and those found further to the east, on the higher, better-drained ground. To
the west the ditches had been dug deep – sometimes up to 80 cm – and often
had remains of wood near the bottom. They were also interconnected across
the street, and it can be suggested that they functioned as drainage ditches,
conducting water away from the plots of land in between. This interpretation
is supported by the observation that to the east, where the soil is naturally
well drained, the ditches were in general shallower and narrower. Here it
could also be clearly observed that the ditch system consisted of several phases,
something which was not obvious further west.
The pattern can be interpreted as reflecting a division of the site into workshop
plots, the parcel boundaries being located between the drainage ditches of neigh-
bouring plots. This seems to be a variation of the system found on other Viking-
Age trading posts in Northern Europe (Jankuhn 1986; Ambrosiani and Erikson
1991; Clarke and Ambrosiani 1991; Feveile 2006; Skre 2007; Kalmring 2011).
Rather than using ditches as boundaries, as for instance at Ribe (Feveile and
Jensen 2000; Feveile 2006, 2010) or Sigtuna (Roslund 2007; Ros 2009), some
other type of border marker must have been in place, and the drainage ditches
were strictly related to the activities on the individual plots. It has to be noted
that very few traces of structures have been discovered on or between the parcels,
probably since the site has been seriously disturbed by modern agriculture. With
the exception of a few patches in the east, all the excavated areas have revealed
modern plough-marks in the surface of the sterile subsoil. This does not preclude
the existence of hearths or buildings on the parcels, or fences between them. The
finds of wood chips in the bottoms of the ditches shows that wooden construc-
tions were erected on the plots at the same time as the ditches were dug, but it is
not possible to estimate the extent or character of this activity. More substantial,
post-based structures must have been rare or non-existent, but it is possible to
understand the drainage ditches as necessary to create dry ground for the building
of corner-timbered structures, as well as for tents.
North-east of the parcelled area, the vestiges of several burial mounds have
been identified in the geophysical prospection, most of them identical to those
known from Hinsch’s 1943 excavation and the later aerial photos. However,
the initial interpretation of the geophysical data did not reveal all the burials in
this area. In 2012 a find of a sword hilt during a metal detector survey led to the
excavation of a previously unknown boat grave on the eastern outskirts of the
burial site; a ditch surrounding the grave demonstrated that in this case, too,
there had originally been a mound. The only datable artefact was a sword of
Petersen’s (1919) type H, a type that was in use during the period ad 800–950,
albeit only rarely towards the end of the period (Hjardar and Vike 2011: 167–9;
Androshchuk 2014). The find demonstrates that there may well exist more
graves in the area than those observed until now. It also suggests the possibility
that the burial ground on Heimdalsjordet was predominantly for boat graves, a
hypothesis supported by the observation of a boat-shaped discolouration of the
subsoil in one of the 1995 trenches (Gansum and Garpestad 1995).
Several other burial grounds are known from the area surrounding
Heimdalsjordet, including one located on the southern tip of Vesterøya
(Figure 11.2). This resembles the situation at Kaupang, where separate, spe-
cialised cemeteries were placed at the outskirts of the settlement area, includ-
ing one on the island of Lamøya (Stylegar 2007). The numbers of graves
on the various burial sites at Kaupang are, however, much larger than at
Heimdalsjordet.
The artefactual material

About 2,000 artefacts were found during the excavation of approximately
1,300 m2, by the use of metal detectors on the entire site and by systematic
sieving of topsoil samples from most of the parcelled area but not the burial
ground. The artefacts are fairly typical of what can be expected at a market and
production site, and will be discussed below. It should be noted, however, that
Heimdalsjordet 217
the find material is biased. Due to extensive use of metal detectors, in contrast
to a rather limited degree of excavation (c. 5 per cent of the site), sieving (less
than 1 per cent of the site) and field survey (not completed), fine metal finds
are strongly over-represented compared to finds of organic materials, ceramics,
glass and stone. Also, iron objects will tend to be under-represented, since the
metal detectors were generally set to discriminate against iron because of the
large amounts of modern metal waste in the topsoil.
Imports, trade and artisan crafts: coins, weights, fine metals,

beads, amber and ceramics
A total of 173 coin fragments have been unearthed at Heimdal, only three of
which are almost complete. The majority of the remaining coins are highly
fragmented, with weights ranging from 0.03 g to 2.66 g. Most fragments rep-
resent 1/8 of the coin or less, and the fragmentation appears to be intentional.
The coins are evenly distributed within the allotment area and spread further
out in the eastern part (Figure 11.3). Only some 40 coins have so far been
identified and dated more precisely, and these results are preliminary. Still,
it is clear that dirhams dominate overwhelmingly. The identified coins show
that the minting dates are predominantly from the eighth and ninth centuries,
up to the mid-800s. The oldest identified coin is an Umayyad dirham minted
in ad 710/11 under Caliph Walid Al-N (668–715) in Wasit (Iraq), while the
youngest dirhams so far appear to be from around ad 910. The coins came
from areas in today’s Afghanistan, Armenia, Uzbekistan, Iran, Iraq and possibly
Syria. Apparently, only three of the coins in the whole assemblage have been
minted in Western Europe. One has been identified, with some uncertainty,
as a denier of Louis the Pious, minted during the period ad 820–40, while the
other two are currently undetermined.
Hacksilver and ingots of various materials follow more or less the same pat-
tern as the coins. There are examples of fragments of various types of jewellery
as well as bullion. Both coins and hacksilver can be cut up as payment in com-
mercial transactions, but we assume that some of the silver may have been cut
up to be melted down and converted into local products by craftsmen on the
site. This is indicated by abundant finds of crucibles and other production waste
from fine metalworking of lead, copper alloys, silver and gold.
Several pieces of metalwork also have a foreign origin, and it is evident that
the Heimdalsjordet site received materials from both the British Isles and the
Frankish/Carolingian areas in addition to the Caliphate. At least two mounts
of copper alloy have insular motifs, while two strap ends and two strap slides
are Carolingian types. The latter four all have parallels in the Kaupang material,
and are dated by Egon Wamers (2011: 71–4, 91, Tab. 4.1, Fig. 4.23) to the
period ad 820–80. Also of Continental origin are a linen-smoother of black-
blue glass and three sherds of Badorf pottery. Other pottery sherds might be of
Jutlandic origin; they are thought to be imported, because previous research
indicates that pottery was not being produced in Norwegian areas during the
Viking Age (Hougen 1993). However, the pottery needs to be studied more
carefully before conclusions are drawn.
A total of 147 weights have been found, representing a variety of shapes
and materials. Seventy-six are made of lead and come in cylindrical, segmen-
tal, conical, biconical and square, flat forms. In addition, there are 44 copper
alloy cubo-octahedral weights (shaped like dice with truncated corners, having
14 sides) and 27 oblate-spheroid weights that consist of an iron core with a
thin coat of copper alloy (spherical with a flat top and bottom). The latter are
assumed to originate in the Islamic world, but were subsequently produced
in Scandinavia (Kruse 1992: 80–1; Sperber 1996; Steuer 1997: 460; Gustin
2004: 251). Also interesting is the decoration of three of the spheroid weights
with so-called pseudo-Arabic inscriptions, i.e. imitations of Arabic script.
These weights indicate a fascination for the East and perhaps a connection
to the weighing of Arabic coins, as Unn Pedersen (2008: 170) has proposed.
Christoph Kilger (2008: 309) suggests that these inscriptions imitate or relate
to the Arabic word bakh – good quality – found on some dirhams and thereby
playing on the authenticity of the Arab silver. These inscribed weights could
thus be associated with notions of quality and reliability in the weighing of
metal. Weighing equipment has often been considered a definite indicator of
trading activities, but research has shown that it was a practical tool that could
also be used in connection with other types of transactions, like measuring out
fines or gift exchange. It could, furthermore, be a useful tool in metal cast-
ing, in composing alloys and in the production of standardised units of weight
(Pedersen 2001; Gustin 2004; Pedersen 2008: 167–8, 178).
The corpus of beads is much smaller than at Kaupang, but the little col-
lection of 59 beads from Heimdalsjordet nevertheless illustrates far-reaching
contacts. Segmented beads and tubular glass beads originate in the Byzantine
areas; an eye bead is from the Mediterranean; and two black beads are prob-
ably made of jet or jet-like materials from the British Isles. There are also a
few examples of Western European and Scandinavian products, but no signs
of large-scale glass bead production on the site. However, a few of the glass
beads of Scandinavian origin may have been produced on the site. Some of
the undecorated white beads are of low quality. On these pieces the glass that
has been wound around a steel wire or mandrel has not completely fused into
one solid piece; fragments of glass thread can be torn apart in layers. These
beads were found in a plot division ditch and might have been thrown away
as waste material.
A selection of the beads points towards connections to the Far East and the
Caliphate. Beads of cornelian were imported to Scandinavia from areas in the
Caucasus, Iran and India (Resi 2011a: 145). Rock crystal occurs naturally over
a wider area, including Scandinavia. Although some beads are believed to be
locally produced, most rock crystal beads have been shaped into the same
forms as the cornelian beads and should thus be regarded as imports from more
or less the same areas (Resi 2011a: 52–3, 143–5). The most interesting aspect
of the occurrence of these beads is, however, that they constitute such a high
Heimdalsjordet 219
proportion of the collection. At Kaupang, it is estimated that beads of mate-
rials other than glass or amber make up less than 2 per cent of the total col-
lection of beads at the site (Wiker 2007: 137). At Heimdalsjordet, however,
14 beads, or 24 per cent, are of cornelian and rock crystal. The high propor-
tion of exotic beads can be explained in terms of chronological differences.
The beads of cornelian and rock crystal become more common in the period
ad 860–950 and even later (Callmer 1977: 77, 91). This may point to the
production and trade at Heimdalsjordet having its peak somewhat later than
Kaupang, or simply that most of the bead trade there took place when the
exotic beads were widely available. It may also indicate that the beads were
not necessarily meant for necklaces but may be understood as liquid assets with
fixed value for transactions, in conjunction with the Arab coin fragments and
hacksilver (Kleingärtner and Williams 2014: 53–4).
In addition to the imported products, there is massive evidence that
imported raw materials like lead, copper alloys and amber were worked on the
site. These include raw material waste as well as numerous remains of crucibles,
which indicate another possible import to the site, namely kaolin clay used for
crucibles. This clay has special refractory properties, allowing the crucibles to
withstand the heat from repeated forging (Pedersen 2010). Kaolin is not found
in the Oslofjord area and is rare in Norway. However, it can be found at sev-
eral places on the Continent, in the British Isles, in Scania and elsewhere in the
world. Kaolin clay is comparatively similar in most places, so the exact origin
was not traceable for the Kaupang material (Pedersen 2010).
Probably also related to fine metalworking are large amounts of intensely
heated animal bone fragments, found in the sieved samples over most of the
sampled area but particularly along the east–west-oriented street. The bone
material may have been used as fuel but may also represent the production of
bone ash to be used as a reactant in fine-metal processing, where it can fulfil
a number of functions (see, e.g. Karageorghis and Kassianidou 1999: 180–3).
Local production: iron, whetstones, textiles and food

Traces of production based on local resources are not dominant on the site,
but they are present. Most important are perhaps the concentrations of slag and
sintered clay in the north-western part of the site, which seem to indicate iron-
working. These traces of production go together with finds of a few important
iron objects, including a crescent-shaped piece of iron or bloom from the
topsoil. Such pieces of raw material are usually found only in conjunction
with central iron production areas but might in this case be associated with
further processing or trade. Irmelin Martens (Martens and Rosenqvist 1988)
has previously listed 18 pieces from the neighbouring Telemark County, and
if it can be demonstrated that this specimen belongs to the Viking Age, it will
be interesting to attempt to determine its provenance (Larsen et al. 2011).
When it comes to slate and whetstone/hone production, there are exam-
ples of light-grey slate from southern Norway (probably Eidsborg stone from
Telemark) as well as a dark type that has been determined at Kaupang as
muscovite-quartz schist originating in western Norway (Resi 2011b). Whole
whetstones, large blanks and small fragments suggest that whetstones were
manufactured on the site.
Wool and perhaps also vegetable fibres are another group of raw materials
worked at Heimdalsjordet. This is demonstrated by 19 spindle whorls and a
significant number of loom weight fragments made of burnt clay. There are as
many as 18 spindle whorls made of lead and one made of steatite. Some frag-
ments of burnt clay may be parts of spindle whorls, but they are too fragmented
for secure identification. Compared with the nearby Kaupang material, the lead
spindle whorls may be over-represented due to the focus on metal detecting
rather than fieldwalking as the surveying method. At Kaupang, 34 per cent of
the spindle whorls were made of burnt clay, 34 per cent of stone, 30 per cent of
lead and 2 per cent of bone (Øye 2011: 343). The linen-smoother mentioned
above also belongs to the textile-working equipment from the site.
Finally, foodstuffs form an important part of the material excavated on
Heimdalsjordet. Small amounts of unburned or only lightly burned bones and
teeth were found through sieving across the site. More important, however, is
the discovery of large amounts of food waste in parcel ditches in the eastern,
higher-lying part of the site. These mainly consisted of charred grain – as much
as a small fistful from every 10 litres of soil – but also included significant num-
bers of fish bones. In the eastern part of the parcelled area elevated phosphate
values were observed, possibly also indicating the processing or consumption
of foodstuffs in the area. It should also be mentioned that a few trades that
could have been expected to be present at Heimdalsjordet are suspiciously
absent, since both preservation conditions and excavation methodology should
have ensured the recovery of their waste products, had they been present.
These include the working of soapstone, as well as of bone and antler, activi-
ties that seemingly were not carried out at all, or only to a very small extent,
at Heimdalsjordet.
Dating of the site

The chronology of the site is not yet settled, but a preliminary overview of
the dating evidence is presented in Figure 11.4. It clearly demonstrates that
the site was in use throughout the ninth and tenth centuries ad, but there are
indications of use during a longer time span and of changes in use over time.
More detailed examination of the various datable find groups can elucidate this
further, not the least through comparison with the material from the nearby
Kaupang site.
Weights
The lead weights, which are the most common on Heimdalsjordet, have a
relatively wide dating frame. Such weights are found in Norway already in
Figure 11.4 Preliminary overview of datings from the Heimdalsjordet site, with dating intervals sorted according to terminus post quem. The
upper section shows dating intervals for individual datable beads; the coin sections give the minting dates for individual coins;
the weight sections give the number and dating intervals of two datable weight types from the site; and the ‘Swords, strap slides’
section gives dating intervals for individual metal finds. The radiocarbon datings provided in the last section are the dates of
individual samples of charred grain and hazelnut shells. One sigma probability intervals for the 14C datings are marked in black;
two sigma is marked in grey. The bead chronology (Callmer 1977) does not include bead use after ad 1000, but it may be
assumed that several of the bead types present were also in use in the eleventh century.
Table 11.1 Frequencies of different weight types at Heimdalsjordet and Kaupang
Weights (shape, metal) Heimdalsjordet Kaupang settlement and

(N = 147) graves (N = 410)
Various, lead 52% 81%
Oblate/spheroid, copper alloy and iron 30% 5%
Cubo-octahedral, copper alloy 18% 11%
Others, copper alloy 0% 3%
100% 100%
Source: Kaupang data: Pedersen (2008).
the Early Iron Age and continue in use in the Middle Ages (Pedersen 2008:
131–2). Other weights offer closer dating opportunities. The cubo-octahedrals
occur for the first time in Scandinavia at about ad 860/70, while the oblate-
spheroid weights with flat poles occur in Scandinavian contexts about ten years
later (Steuer 1997: 320; Gustin 2004: 314). The cubo-octahedrals go out of use
in the early twelfth century ad, while some subtypes of the oblate-spheroid
weights are used into the thirteenth century ad (Steuer 1997: 320). The relative
frequencies of lead weights compared to cubo-octahedrals and oblate-spheroid
weights at Heimdalsjordet differ markedly from the corresponding distribution
at Kaupang (see Table 11.1). This may indicate that, compared to Kaupang, a
higher proportion of the activity at Heimdalsjordet took place in the late ninth
century and later.
Beads
The bead material points to a dating frame that extends from the second half
of the ninth and through the tenth century ad, despite the fact that there are
individual beads that could be from the late eighth century. The reason for sug-
gesting this relatively late dating is the composition of the material. The num-
ber of tubular beads of blue glass is relatively modest (N = 3), although these
are generally very numerous in finds from the period ad 810/20–40 (Callmer
1977). From approximately ad 860/75, just as the white/pale turquoise ring-
shaped beads disappear (also only represented by one bead at Heimdalsjordet),
cornelian and rock crystal beads become common (Callmer 1977: 77, 91).
These occupy a central place in the inventory of graves in the first half of the
tenth century ad. The relatively high proportions of cornelian and rock crystal
beads (cornelian: N = 6, rock crystal: N = 8) are significant and can point to
the time from ad 860 to 950, but also later. The four silver-foil beads possibly
indicate a date closer to the mid-tenth century ad, like the three colourless
tubular glass beads and a blue polyhedral bead, which is dated by burial material
to the mid-tenth century ad (Callmer 1977: 77, 88–90).
Heimdalsjordet 223
Figure 11.5 A comparison in percentages of the minting dates for 42 identified

dirhams from Heimdalsjordet and 75 identified dirhams from Kaupang,
following the date contribution method described in Blackburn (2008).
Coins
The 43 preliminarily identified coins (42 dirhams and one West European
coin) provide further dating evidence, not the least when compared with the
Kaupang material (Figure 11.5 and Blackburn 2008: Fig. 3.21). Considering the
small number of coins involved, the correspondence between the two chrono-
logical distribution patterns is striking. The decline in use of money that has
been suggested for Kaupang between 890 and 920 (Blackburn 2008: 52–3)
also seems to have taken place at Heimdalsjordet, even if there are indications
that several of the unidentified coins are Samanid, and thus may produce fur-
ther tenth-century dates. What is clear, however, is that the group of pre-740
dirhams in the Heimdalsjordet assemblage constitutes a significant difference to
Kaupang. In the case of Kaupang it has been suggested that all the dirhams were
deposited at the site after ad 840 (Blackburn 2008: 52–3); if this is true, it might
be suggested that deposition at Heimdalsjordet started some decades earlier, as
pre-740 dirhams made up a larger proportion of the circulating coinage than
they did from 840 onwards. For Uppåkra, a similar explanation for the pres-
ence of early dirhams has been suggested (Blackburn 2008: 54–6). As illustrated
by the Loftahammar Hoard in Småland, Sweden (Blackburn 2008: 52–3), such
an assumption should, however, be treated with care – among the 623 identi-
fied dirhams in this hoard more than 11 per cent are pre-750 dirhams, and its
approximate terminus post quem date is ad 865. It thus demonstrates the signifi-
cant inflow of early dirhams to Scandinavia even at this late date.
An alternative interpretation could be that Kaupang and Heimdalsjordet
were supplied by slightly different bullion sources, where one of those provid-
ing silver for Heimdalsjordet consisted to a higher degree of older coins. That
this could be the case is perhaps indicated by the apparent lack or scarcity of
African dirhams on the site – none have been identified so far, while at Kaupang
six of the 76 identified dirhams have been recognised as Tunisian or Moroccan
(Rispling et al. 2008: Cat. nos. 26–9, 31, 102A). Also, the sparse representa-
tion of West European coins at Heimdalsjordet, compared to Kaupang, may
indicate a different pattern of silver acquisition at the Heimdalsjordet site. This
difference could either reflect true differences in the orientation of the trade
networks of the two sites, a chronological difference between them or both.
Mark Blackburn (2008: 57–8) has suggested that the West European coins at
Kaupang represent the bullion influx before the arrival of dirhams from around
ad 840. In that case the scarceness of such coins at Heimdalsjordet could be
an indication of a later starting point for the use of bullion there. This would
not, however, explain the apparent absence of African dirhams. An explanatory
model suggesting that Heimdalsjordet was based on a more easterly oriented
and perhaps complementary trading network, compared to that of Kaupang,
could explain the observed differences without indicating a later starting point
for the use of bullion at Heimdalsjordet.
Metalwork
Most of the metalwork from Heimdalsjordet has not been analysed yet, and
cannot at present contribute to the chronological analyses. However, two
sword pommels of Petersen’s types H and X were found in 2013. Type
H – to which the sword found in the boat grave excavated in 2012 also
belongs – can be dated to the period from ad 800 to 950, while type X was in
use in the period ad 900–1000 (Petersen 1919: 65, 89–101). The Carolingian
strap ends and strap slides mentioned above have parallels in the Kaupang
material, where they are dated to between ad 820 and ad 880 (Wamers 2011:
71–4, 91, Tab. 4.1, Fig. 4.23). A gold pendant from Heimdalsjordet has its
closest parallel in the Hoen Hoard, dated to the last quarter of the ninth century
(Wilson 2006: 16).
Radiocarbon dates
Hazelnut shells and grains from various stratigraphically secure contexts across
the site have been 14C-dated. So far, 18 datings in total have been carried
out, and even if the characteristics of the radiocarbon calibration curve for the
Viking Age preclude very precise interpretation, it is clear that the main phases
of activity on the site fall within the ninth and tenth centuries ad. However,
three datings indicate activities on the site as early as the eighth century ad, and
two or three others that it was still in use in the late tenth or early eleventh cen-
tury. A date from the late seventh century and one eleventh/twelfth-century
Heimdalsjordet 225
dating can probably be considered outliers. However, further radiocarbon
measurements are planned to elucidate the early and late phases of the site.
Preliminary conclusion on the dating of the site

In sum, the dating evidence from the site points to a prolonged period of prob-
ably varied use. Activities seem to have started already in the eighth century
but apparently were of a character not leading to the loss of beads, and not nec-
essarily including the use of bullion. It is unclear whether the ditches were dug
already at that time, or whether old materials were re-deposited in the ditches
at a later date. The coin evidence seems to point to trading activities at the site
at the latest from the middle of the ninth century onwards, but probably some-
what earlier. Beads, coins and metalwork all demonstrate activity on the site
throughout the ninth century, and from an isolated point of view this might
be considered its heyday. From the early tenth century onwards – shortly after
the Gokstad ship burial – the coins apparently show a decline in silver use,
while beads and possibly also weights demonstrate continued activity. Only
around ad 1000 does the site seem to fall completely out of use, which is
somewhat later than the date for the destruction of the Gokstad ship burial, and
also the one at Oseberg – between ad 953 and ad 975 (Bill and Daly 2012).
Discussion
Although incomplete and preliminary, the above presentation may serve as
basis for a first discussion of what type of locality Heimdalsjordet represents.
That the manufacture of iron and fine metal products was of major importance
is well attested, and so is trade, although the selections of beads, dirhams and
weights indicating trade oriented particularly towards the Baltic and beyond.
But was the site permanently or only temporarily occupied – was it a town or
a market? The evidence is not conclusive, and hopefully ongoing analyses of
the deposits in the ditches will help to elucidate the question. As for now, evi-
dence points in both directions. The drainage ditches, so obviously intended
to protect structures on the plots rather than to define their boundaries, seem
to us to be indicative of some kind of permanent buildings; the same is also
indicated by the fact that many ditches have been re-dug on several occasions
and thus demonstrate a high degree of permanency. The findings of fish bone
and large quantities of charred grain on the drier, eastern part of the parcelled
area may also indicate a more permanent settlement.
On the other hand, the low-lying parts of the site were prone to flooding
as late as the nineteenth century (Nicolaysen 1882: 1), which was certainly
the case in the Viking Age as well – and thus not an obvious choice for a
permanent settlement. Another observation may also speak against permanent
occupation. Although there are several burial grounds in the close vicinity of
the site, the number of identified or reported burials (from old reports, stray
finds, excavations and aerial and geophysical prospection) can be counted in
tens rather than hundreds. Further excavation would certainly increase their
numbers, but it seems unlikely that hundreds of graves would be found – as
could be expected, had Heimdalsjordet housed a round-the-year population
for any significant period. Scandinavian Viking-Age emporia with presumed
permanent settlements have produced vast cemeteries; at Kaupang, the current
estimate is 1,000 graves, at Birka 2,300–3,400 and at Hedeby 7,000–12,000
(Stylegar 2007: 75–8 and refs. therein). Was Heimdalsjordet perhaps perma-
nently built-up, but only seasonally populated?
The discussion of Heimdalsjordet also has to take into consideration its
location close to and its concurrency with Kaupang, as well as the fact that dur-
ing its lifetime an undoubtedly royal monument, the Gokstad ship burial, was
constructed only 500 m away from the site. It is clear that many of the activi-
ties that took place and many of the goods that could be acquired at Kaupang
could also be found at Heimdalsjordet. Is the major difference between the two
sites simply one of scale, with Heimdalsjordet as a satellite or a less successful
competitor to Kaupang? The indication from the dirham identifications made
so far is that Heimdalsjordet was at least not entirely supplied from Kaupang –
the coins reaching the site were not a subset of types found on Kaupang but
had a more easterly provenance. Also, other eastern imports – cornelian and
rock crystal beads, as well as cubo-octahedral and spheroid weights – are much
more frequent at Heimdalsjordet than at Kaupang. In contrast, find groups
like glass beads, imported ceramics and soapstone objects are extremely under-
represented when the two sites are compared. The overall impression is that
Heimdalsjordet’s trade network was more focused on the easternmost trade
routes than that of Kaupang, and that iron and fine metalworking made up a
larger part of its production, while other handicrafts were less important. The
two sites clearly differed not just in scale, but in other ways, too.
The fact that the Gokstad mound was erected so that it was well visible
from Heimdalsjordet indicates that the visitors there probably constituted
an important audience for its message, and the existence of the two sites is
undoubtedly interconnected. This does not mean, however, that the burial
owes its construction necessarily or solely to the presence of the market site. A
third component of the complex may not have been detected archaeologically
yet. Cadastral sources shows that in the Middle Ages the Gokstad farm was by
far the largest in the parish (Nicolaysen 1882: 2), and a look at the landscape
shows that it was placed at a marked topographical bottleneck where land
transport could be easily controlled. Here the only convenient passage is found
through a rock outcrop cutting across the large end-moraine deposits that
provide Outer Vestfold with good conditions for agriculture and land trans-
port (see Skre 2007, Fig. 1.1). It would not be surprising if the Gokstad farm’s
impressive size in the Middle Ages turned out to be a reflection of former
grandeur – namely, that a power centre of some scale had earlier been situated
here, benefitting from the control of landward communications in a rich agri-
cultural landscape. In that case we may see Heimdalsjordet as a manifestation
of a trade network established by the possessors, perhaps primarily to secure
Heimdalsjordet 227
the supply of luxury goods and bullion necessary for its own maintenance.
How would such an interpretation comply with present ideas about Viking-
Age trade in Scandinavia and in South-East Norway in particular?
A current suggestion for the classification of Viking-Age trading sites, based
on Richard Hodges’s (1982: 50–2) division of emporia into seasonal and resi-
dent sites, has been presented by Dagfinn Skre (2008b: 337–8). He divides the
trading sites into four categories, each with its own set of characteristics:
1 central-place markets, which are seasonal, perform inter- and intraregional

trade, and are located at and administered by central places;
2 local markets, which are seasonal, perform intraregional trade, and may be
independent;
3 nodal markets, which are seasonal, perform long-distance and inter-/
intraregional trade, are possibly located in border areas, and possibly stand
under royal protection;
4 towns, which are permanent, perform long-distance and inter-/intraregional
trade, and are located (under royal protection) in border areas.
On the basis of the discussion above, it is not evident how the Heimdalsjordet
site should be classified within this system. If it is accepted that the import finds
from Heimdalsjordet to a large degree arrived through a different long-distance
trading network than those from Kaupang, then the site should be placed in
category 3 or, if regarded as permanent, in 4 (see also Sindbæk 2005: 97; Skre
2008b: 340–1). The presence of plot divisions also supports such an interpreta-
tion. However, the proximity to Kaupang makes Heimdalsjordet a puzzling
case: how could Heimdalsjordet continue to exist in competition with the
much larger Kaupang? The answer is obviously that competition was not fierce
enough, and one reason for this could be that the two sites were separated by
a political power. Before Heimdalsjordet was known, Skre suggested, in his
analysis of the political situation in Vestfold in the ninth and tenth centuries,
the presence of a political border between Kaupang and more northerly areas.
Following his analyses, Kaupang could have been Danish up to around ad 900,
while Heimdalsjordet could have been under the control of the Norwegian
Yngling kings (Skre 2007: 463–8).
It could also be, however, that the two sites served different functions.
Kaupang was clearly closely connected with the Continental and western
trade network, a network populated with traders of many different origins,
only some of them being Scandinavians. The eastern network, towards which
Heimdalsjordet seems to have been more oriented, probably consisted to a
higher degree of Scandinavians, many of whom undoubtedly had various
bonds of loyalty and kinship back to their homelands. The social position of the
traders at Heimdalsjordet and at Kaupang may thus have been quite different;
especially if, as suggested above, Gokstad represents a seat of power of sorts.
If the people visiting Heimdalsjordet were not (only) traders and craftsmen
who were free to go where they wanted, but (also) dependents of the power
resting at Gokstad, we may understand Heimdalsjordet as the terminal of a trade
network reaching out from Gokstad and designed to provide it with metals
and other imports, at the same time as it housed the craftsmen who could
convert the imports into the weapons, jewellery and other items needed to
maintain Gokstad’s position. In such a scenario one could see Heimdalsjordet
not as a town or a nodal market in the sense described above, but perhaps as
a modernised central-place market, shaped to fulfil the needs of the elite at a
time when international trade was becoming increasingly important, also for
the uppermost strata in society. Such an interpretation will also contribute to
a discussion of the difference between an exchange site of South Scandinavian
origin, as suggested for Kaupang, and a more locally based counterpart.
At present, any interpretation of Heimdalsjordet and the finds made there
will, of course, be extremely tentative and liable to be proven wrong in the
light of the more thorough analyses still to be carried out. Nevertheless, the
process of formulating and discussing such preliminary ideas is of paramount
importance for future work, since it can help to identify research potentials
and needs which may otherwise remain undetected. It also helps to identify
with more precision similarities and differences in the composition of finds
from Heimdalsjordet and Kaupang. The current discussion has highlighted the
importance of comparing not only find frequencies, but also excavation meth-
ods and volumes. Also pivotal in illuminating Heimdalsjordet’s relationship to
Kaupang and the Gokstad burial will be attempts to trace evidence of connec-
tions. A particularly promising perspective in this direction is the study of metal
supply and techniques used by the fine-metal craftsmen of the site, compared
to those of Kaupang (Pedersen 2010) and those represented in the Gokstad
burial equipment. Other core activities will be: to complete the analyses of
the numismatic and other datable find material, to complete the radiocarbon-
dating programme for the site and to understand in more detail its chronology.
These steps will – hopefully – allow us in the future to understand more of
what was happening when trade and handicrafts blossomed and Norway’s largest
ship burial was erected at a beach in Vestfold some 1,100 years ago.
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12 The skeid and other assemblies
in the Norwegian
‘Mountain Land’
Kjetil Loftsgarden, Morten Ramstad and
Frans-Arne Stylegar
Introduction
The mountainous regions and valleys of southern Norway are sparsely popu-
lated, with relatively few villages or urban centres. This must have been even
more so in the Viking Age and Middle Ages. In this chapter we argue that
seasonal meeting places were therefore of great importance. From histori-
cal times a number of such places are known. Place names, written sources
and oral tradition indicate the prevalence of assembly sites during a time span
stretching from the Late Iron Age up to the nineteenth century. They go by
different names, such as skeid, stevne, ting or marked, which evidently pertain to
a fairly broad spectrum of seasonal meetings with somewhat different focuses.
However, they share a number of common features, serving as an arena for
social interaction, competitive games (leik) and feasting as well as exchange of
commodities.
We argue that the seasonal meeting places in the outfield and moun-
tain regions must be viewed in both a social and economic perspective.
Furthermore, we regard the evolution of such sites as an important field of
research. A challenge posed by this point of departure is the scant attention
these sites have received in archaeological and historical research. The sites are
often located in remote areas of mountainous regions, and as the assemblies
only lasted for a limited period of time each year, the accumulated archaeo-
logical material will be correspondingly limited, with few or no remaining
structures. Consequently, this has led to an under-communication of inter-
action between inland and coastal regions in the Viking Age and medieval
period, and thus the significance of this contact has been underestimated.
This is not to say that no research has been conducted on seasonal assem-
bly sites (e.g. Brendalsmo et al. 2009). However, in general the focus has to
a large degree been on sites pertaining to international or interregional trade,
such as Kaupang, Birka or Ribe, or on the medieval towns. In a political sense
the attention has been on thing sites and administrative control (cf. Iversen et
al. 2013). To the extent that the seasonal sites of the Norwegian inland have
been examined, the focus has been on the exotic elements of the assemblies,
especially the ritualistic and competitive aspects (Solheim 1956, 1961; Vallevik
The skeid and other assemblies 233
1961; Stylegar 2006). We acknowledge this as an important feature of these
assemblies; however, it is just one of several.
With this chapter we aim to give a brief introduction to the multifaceted
small-scale seasonal meeting places; places where goods could be exchanged,
alliances and friendships established, and scores settled or physical prowess dis-
played through competitions. Variations of such assemblies have been in use
up until recent times, and how these were organised and perceived in the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries will constitute the backdrop for this text.
Based on the archaeological data from a few selected sites, we will also discuss
the dating of such assemblies. Subsequently, we will give an in-depth example
from the Viking site of Bjørkum in Sogn. Our intention in combining sites as
diverse in time and space as these is to indicate the lasting importance of such
places, and we contend that this approach can give a broader perspective on the
multi-functional gathering places of the past.
The sites discussed in this chapter all lie within the ‘Mountain Land’
(Figure 12.1), as described in the Historia Norvegiae (Ekrem and Mortensen
2006). Written during the latter half of the twelfth century, this work divides
Norway into three geographical areas: the Coastal Land (Zona itaque maritime),
the Central or Mountain Land (Mediterranea zona/De montanis Norwegie) and
the land of the Sami people (De Finnis). In the area outlined as the Mountain
Land a number of excavations and research projects have shown extensive
exploitation of outfield resources in the Viking Age and Middle Ages, such
as iron production from bog ore, and hunting and trapping (Indrelid 2009;
Larsen 2009). This exploitation seems to a large extent to have surpassed local
demand, which indicates that these resources constituted exchange commo
dities. To a certain degree the utilisation of outfield resources must have been
at the expense of the cultivation of land and animal husbandry. Yet the short
summers and long winters of the ‘Mountain Land’ provided little room for
risky initiatives in sustenance strategies. We therefore postulate that stable and
lasting social and economic networks were a prerequisite for the increase in
specialised resource utilisation that takes place throughout the Viking period
and up until c. ad 1300. This also implies increased interaction between different
local communities in different regions, which in turn led to extended integra-
tion between people from inland and coastal areas. In other words, seasonal
assemblies seem to have been instrumental in making possible regional spe-
cialisation in resources as well as increased social interaction between regions.
Assemblies as inland tradition

Coming from the west, the people from Hallingdal had roamed to
Raudalsknatten, and the people from Valdres had come from the east. In
the early part of the day, they had exchanged horses, and some had been
racing. The fastest horse this year came from Svenkerud in Hallingdal, and
this was a credit to the person who owned it.
(Fønhus 1924: 18–19)
234 Loftsgarden, Ramstad and Stylegar
Figure 12.1 Map showing the ‘Coastal Land’ and the ‘Mountain Land’, as described
in Historia Norvegiae c. ad 1150–75 (Storm 1880; Iversen this volume).
Source: Background map by Kartverket (Norwegian Mapping Authority).
This is how the novelist Mikkjel Fønhus describes Raudalsdansen (the

‘Raudal Dance’), one of the many traditional yearly gatherings in the mountain
and fjord areas on both sides of the Langfjella mountain range, as well as the
Dovre mountain plateau. There were several different aspects to these assem-
blies, which played a vital role in the culture of the Uplands. Written accounts
show that gatherings like Raudalsdansen were widespread in the eighteenth
century, and some of them are even mentioned as early as the sixteenth, but
we know little about when they came into being (Øverland 1891; Øverland
1898; Solheim 1952). Raudalsdansen on Norefjell was, as the name implies, a
dance, but not just that. In Fønhus’s fictional description, racing, fighting and –
not least – trading are also part of the picture, offering a number of arenas for
displaying oneself, acquiring status and prestige. The same applies to the major-
ity of other traditional assembly places. They brought together people from
different rural districts, and were important arenas for young people seeking
spouses and for kinship alliances.
A large number of similar assemblies are known from the mountain regions
in southern Norway, where inlanders from districts like Gudbrandsdalen,
Valdres, Hallingdal and Numedal gathered, in addition to which they met
people from the coastal and fjord areas of western Norway. The richest tradi-
tion is probably found in Valdres, where several assembly sites of this kind are
known (Solheim 1956).
In accounts of the seventeenth to the nineteenth century we find a form of
assembly site called a skeid (skeið, n.), which can be characterised as a seasonal
meeting place with a particular focus on competitions, such as horse-fighting
or horse-racing (Skar 1909; Solheim 1952, 1956, 1961; Stylegar 2006, 2014).
Although the skeid in historical times are mostly known in the districts of
Telemark and Setesdal, place names, sagas and medieval law texts indicate
that they were common both in Norway and Iceland in the Viking Age and
Middle Ages.
One of the most prominent skeid in Setesdalen and Telemark was the one
in Valle. This was described in the 1770s by the vicar Reier Gjellebøl (1800:
55–8). His account of the skeid consists of two main elements: horse-fights and
Figure 12.2 An artist’s rendition of a skeid.

Source:  Centre for Educational Texts, University College of Southeast-Norway.
Figure 12.3 Overview map of southern Norway.

Source: Background map by Kartverket (Norwegian Mapping Authority).
horse-racing. On a fixed day in August, a crowd of people gathered together

with their horses on the skeid field in the immediate neighbourhood of the
vicarage. There, stallions were brought to an excited state and encouraged to
fight each other, in pairs. It was a great honour to own the horse that remained
standing in the arena, the skeid colt. Later, people gathered to watch horse-
racing on another field. Gjellebøl highlights several characteristics of the skeid
that he obviously found exotic and strange. The race took place without the
use of a saddle, and at full gallop, in a rough manner. Both horses and people
often suffered injuries.
Aspects of the exchange of goods at the assemblies
There are two particular aspects of the skeid and other assemblies in the
‘Mountain Land’ that stand out and are often brought up. One is the almost
carnivalesque element that Gjellebøl emphasises; the other is the competitive-
ness expressed by phenomena like horse-racing and horse-fights. Both aspects
are undoubtedly important, and the competitive aspect has certainly played an
important part in the inland culture. In accordance with social anthropologist
Jan-Petter Blom’s (1969) treatment of the theme, the traditional mountain
farmer population stands out in that it has developed certain cultural traits
or ways of living. While the coastal and lowland population had a stable life,
bound to the farm, the mountain farmers were always on the move, and this
meant exploitation of extensive areas. The mountain farmer was a hunter, a
cowboy and a horse-trader. As a result, Blom writes, the mountain farmer is
often attributed a certain type of character: he is a gambler, an artist and a ruf-
fian, in contrast to the easy-going coastal farmer. The more the people living in
the mountains became involved in competition and social intercourse with the
coastal population, the more their style and way of living came to diverge from
that of people living in other tactical positions. Through this specialisation,
distinctive regional cultures emerge. Blom paints a picture of a very competitive
inland culture.
It is understandable that many scholarly observers have noticed the more
exotic aspects of the annual social gatherings, while the more ordinary exchange
of goods that took place in connection with them has rarely been the focus of
attention. But the fact remains that the exchange of various products seems to
have been an integral part of the majority of these gatherings. This applies not
least to the large assemblies in the mountains. The Norwegian folklorist Svale
Solheim, who carried out extensive studies on assemblies of this type, repeats
the words of an informant about a gathering in Valdres, who said it was ‘more
or less (like) a market’:
On the outskirts of the assembly place, a lively small-scale trade took place.
Scythes, sickles, billhooks and ordinary knives were traded. The people
from Hallingdal in particular had scythes and other sharp-edged tools made
of iron to sell. Some sold frieze and other types of clothing, mittens, socks
and other knitted things. Some traded or exchanged horses. Peddlers were
present with other types of women’s adornments, which they were selling.
(Solheim 1952: 559–60)
There is a rich oral tradition referring to this pattern of mobile trade and
gatherings. There were horse-traders from the fjord areas of western Norway
who brought horses, hops and other merchandise that they either exchanged
or sold, while they bought skins to bring back home.
There is a partial overlap between the skeid of the Setesdal tradition and
the mountain markets. The exchange of goods took place at the skeid, and
horse-fights and racing at the mountain markets. The question is: what are we
actually dealing with – an exchange of goods centred around rituals or a ritu-
alisation of the exchange of goods?
The Uplands as a transportation zone

The inland districts of South Norway, the Uplands (Upplond) of the sagas,
have always played an important part in the traffic between the different parts
of the country. The mountains certainly do divide Norway into a number of
natural regions. The Langfjella mountain range divides eastern Norway from
western Norway, and eastern Norway itself consists of several extensive smaller
valleys, in addition to the flat countryside communities along the Oslo Fjord
and around larger inland lakes. Western Norway is divided into distinct fjord
districts through the natural conditions. Further north, Dovre divides eastern
Norway from Trøndelag, while the latter, in its turn, is delimited from the
historical Hålogaland by Helgelandsfjella. Overland traffic between these parts
of the country has followed natural corridors, and this has made the Uplands
particularly important in a transport context. Historian Sverre Steen writes:
The inland districts of Norway played a role in the old communication

that we nowadays have a tendency to overlook, because their products no
longer play the same role in the community economy as they did in the
Middle Ages.
(Steen 1929: 68–9)
In accordance with the way Steen and others interpret the sagas of the
Norwegian kings, there were four main routes over the Norwegian mainland.
The most important one was the road that ran between Oslo and Nidaros
(present-day Trondheim). The three other routes connected eastern and
western Norway: the Filefjellsveg between Valdres and Sogn, the ancient trails
across Hardangervidda known as Nordmannsslepene, and the trail that goes via
Røldal (Figure 12.3). These trails over the mountain plateaux were of great
importance. Goods were transported by packhorse, and the visible traces of
this traffic are to all appearances very old (Roland 2001: 5).
The significance of this east–west traffic should not be underestimated. In
many of the inland districts of southern and south-western Norway, the traffic
across the valleys and over the low mountains would have been on a much
larger scale than the traffic along the valleys going northwards and southwards,
where the road connections were poor. This was certainly the case for Setesdal
and large parts of Telemark. The traffic arteries to the east and west thus con-
nected Telemark to the inland districts further east.
Quite how far back in time the extensive contact between the different parts
of the country goes is uncertain. A hypothesis is that the increasingly regular
use of the above-mentioned main traffic arteries is connected with an increased
division of labour between the regions, where each produced ‘what paid off
best’, to quote the agrarian historian Stein Tveite (1959: 31). This is where the
assemblies and the other gathering places enter the picture.
The dating and archaeology of the assemblies

As mentioned, the horse-fights and horse-races are described in the sagas
(see Viga-Glums saga, Njåls-saga, Arons saga Hjǫrleifssonar or Þorsteins þáttr stan-
garhoggs), as well as in the Frostathing Law and subsequently the rural law of
Magnus the Lawmender. The similarities between how they are described
in the seventeenth to nineteenth century and how they are described in the
Middle Ages are remarkable and seem to indicate a long continuity in rules
of conduct.
The dating of skeid and other assemblies in the Norwegian inland is difficult.
From the aforementioned skeid in Valle there are no known archaeological
structures. However, in Fyresdal in Telemark there are four standing stones
which are mentioned in the eighteenth century in regard to the skeid that were
held there. A priest, Hans Jacob Wille, gives the following description in 1786:
At Molandsmoen, a couple of kilometres from the vicarage, there is a level

plain, where four pointed stones have been standing in a upright position,
and formed a square for a fighting ground for fighters in the old days.
Nowadays, however, a small horse market is held there on 14 August,
when one rides in order to test one’s horse and finally releases them to
fight over a mare that is held by a man protecting it with a long rod in the
middle of the square, until one of them has gained power over them all.
One of the remaining stones has a runic inscription.
(Wille et al. 1881: 27–8)
The runic inscription has been interpreted as follows: þórolfr reit. Sá skal ráða
rú(nar), er lér stigreips. This translates as ‘Torolv wrote. He that comprehends
(these) runes lends a pair of stirrups (to another one)’. The runes are thought
to be from the tenth or eleventh century (Olsen 1951: 234). This may indicate
that the skeid in Fyresdal dates back at least to the Middle Ages.
Providing a further testament to the prevalence of such gatherings are the
many place names containing skeid. Of particular interest in this context is the
place name Hallingskeid. There are four known places with the name Hallingskeid
in Norway, all located in the mountains of western Norway. The term Halling
points to people from Hallingdal, east of Langfjella. Thus, Hallingskeid signifies
‘the skeid of the Halling’, or rather ‘with the Halling’, and is an indication of
who met at the skeid. One Hallingskeid is in Ulvik at approximately 1000 m
above sea level in the mountain region between Hardanger and Sogn. As is the
case with the other places with this name, there exists an oral tradition regard-
ing the assembly, but the skeid is not mentioned in any text, either from the
medieval period or from historical times. Hallingskeid is situated at a crossing
point between Hardanger and Sogn, with routes going east and west.
The exact location of the skeid is not known; however, one place clearly
stands out in the surrounding landscape, namely a flat island, free from stone,
surrounded by a river, with a waterfall as a backdrop to the south and moun-
tains on both sides (Figure 12.4, see colour plate section). In this mountainous
region it is hard to find a place more suited as a venue for horse-racing or
a meeting place. There is also archaeological data which may suggest this.
Several cooking pits have been found here, two of which are dated to the
Roman period (Gustafson 2005a: 208). In August 2015 seven additional
cooking pits where excavated as part of an archaeological field course organ-
ised by the University of Bergen. The area has also been surveyed using
a metal detector. These surveys resulted in finds of five horseshoes, several
horseshoe nails and two knives. Although difficult to date, the horseshoes and
knives seem to be from the later Middle Ages. These findings may indicate
a meeting place, as there are no shielings in the immediate vicinity, and the
shielings that do exist in the area were established in the eighteenth century
(Ohnstad et al. 1991: 37).
Before moving on, we wish to return to Valle in Setesdalen and briefly
refer to the archaeological finds from the late Viking Age in the area. As men-
tioned, there are no structures indicating a skeid in Valle; however, relatively
numerous objects have been found relating to trade, such as weights, coins
and imported goods. These finds stand out in the Norwegian inland and have
provided the basis for the argument that there was a marketplace in Valle in
the Viking Age (Larsen 1980, 1981; Stylegar 2009). The recent excavations at
Langeid in Setesdal seem to confirm that trading was commonly practised at
Setesdal in the Viking Age (Loftsgarden and Wenn 2012; Glørstad and Wenn
this volume).
Archaeological investigations at Bjørkum in Lærdal

By comparing historical sources, traditional material and the few archaeological
investigations that have been carried out, we are well on the way to under-
standing the different assemblies in the ‘Mountain Land’ and their role in the
community in other respects. To extend these perspectives to the possible
function and character of these sites in the Viking Age and early Middle Ages,
we will here draw attention to Bjørkum, a multi-functional site dating to the
period from the eighth to tenth century, excavated by the University Museum
of Bergen in 2009 (Ramstad 2011; Ramstad et al. 2011).
Bjørkum lies at an altitude of 130 m above sea level in Tønjum Parish,
about 20 km upstream from the village in Lærdal. The site is situated in a bor-
der area between inland valley systems, mountains and fjord landscapes. The
geographical position of Bjørkum places it in close spatial relationship with
a number of historical paths leading east, west, north and south, supporting
complex networks of communication linking inland regions and coastal areas.
Moreover, the generally fast-flowing Lærdal river runs quietly past Bjørkum,
and one of few natural fords in the Lærdal valley is found here.
The historical settlement at Bjørkum consists of marginal farms. There
were no records of prehistoric remains or grave monuments from the locality
prior to the excavations, and it seems likely that there was no central farm at
Bjørkum during prehistoric times. Botanical analyses testify that the area was
cleared as early as the transition between the late Neolithic and the Bronze
Age, and cultivated up to the Roman period. There is little or no evidence
of cultivation during the Late Iron Age. However, it is first during this period
that archaeological features appear in the area. It is thus interesting to note
that cereal remains have been found in several of the Late Iron Age structures,
suggesting that grain was brought to the site from outside. In the same period,
there is a relative decrease in grazing indicators and fungal spores indicative of
manure, concurrent with macrofossil samples containing sclerotia (oogonia,
oospores) as well as other spores that testify to a good oxygen supply in the
deposits, which can be associated with a lot of trampling and other disturbance
of the soil. Furthermore, the sediments from the Late Iron Age have very high
values of charcoal dust, taken as indicating a considerable amount of activity
around open fires on the site (Halvorsen 2012).
During the excavation a relatively confined central area of about 1,500 m2
was discovered, with a greasy cultural layer containing bone, or black earth.
The favourable preservation conditions at Bjørkum are puzzling. In general,
the preservation of bone is extremely poor at Norwegian Late Iron Age sites.
For instance in the Lærdal valley itself, over the last 30 years there have been
several large-scale surveys and excavations of sites dating from late Neolithic
times and onwards, where, with the exception of a few fragments of burnt
bone, there have been no finds of organic material. However, at Bjørkum the
preservation conditions for skeletal material were extremely good. A likely
explanation is that relatively extensive activities have taken place during a fairly
short period, so that the organic components have not had time to decompose
and a more basic soil has formed.
Apart from the fact that all the architectural features are located within a
small area along the riverbank, it is not possible to recognise any strict overall
plan or spatial organisation of buildings and activity areas. Altogether, nine
definite post-built houses have been documented along the riverbank. Some
smaller post-built structures could represent sheds or other types of lighter
constructions (Figure 12.5). There was no evidence for division into smaller
rooms or activity areas within any of the buildings. Neither is there any defi-
nite building for animals, indicated by traces of stables or cowsheds. There are
structural similarities to contemporaneous houses from the Late Iron Age. At
the same time, the buildings at Bjørkum seem to be smaller, lighter and more
temporary. This is underpinned by the fact that the post holes are in most cases
very shallow, with very little or no stone lining, and there are few indications
of replacement.
Perhaps more surprising was the identification of at least 13 pit houses in
addition to imprints of six lighter house structures, possibly tent-like. Even
though the number of pit houses is not impressive compared to many localities
Figure 12.5 A visualisation of the Bjørkum site in approximately ad 750.

Source: Produced by Arkikon.
in South Scandinavia (i.e. Birkedahl and Johansen 2000; Nørgård Jørgensen

et al. 2010: 103–8), this is in fact the largest concentration of pit houses known
from western Norway (see also Øye 2006: 445–56). In earlier research, pit
houses have been interpreted as handicraft and production units (Mortensen
1997; Øye 2006; Nørgård Jørgensen et al. 2010; Milek 2012). The majority
of the pit houses in western Norway (like those at Osen in Gaular, Henjum
in Leikanger, and Kvåle and Stedje in Sogndal) seem to represent permanent
and solid post-built structures with many similarities to the ones found on the
typical Late Iron Age farms in South Scandinavia. The pit houses at Bjørkum
appear to be lighter and less permanent structures (Ramstad 2011). In the out-
door areas between the houses, large hearths and some 40 cooking pits were
documented.
The 60 radiocarbon dates that have been obtained from Bjørkum all fall
within the eighth to tenth century, and appear to be grouped in two phases:
a small set fall within the period ad 850–1030, and may possibly be linked to
the reuse of old buildings. The establishment of the Bjørkum site and the main
phase lie within the time interval ad 700–850, thus corresponding to a period
of about 150 years.
The total number of finds within the area investigated is fewer than 1,200
objects. The material consists of everyday objects, personal belongings like
fragments of dress ornaments and beads, and whetstones. Dominant among the
metal tools are relatively small and probably multi-functional knives (Wahlborg
2012). Some of the raw materials would have been available locally, while
the acquisition of other raw materials may be linked geographically to more
comprehensive distribution networks. Spindle whorls and loom weights can
be related to the outfield and shieling activities in the mountain regions, and
can be taken as reflecting the increased importance of secondary products and
woollen fabrics during the Viking Age. Some of the textiles that have been
produced on the sites seem to have been of very high quality (Cartwright
2012). A find of an unfinished rock crystal bead also testifies to the practising
of more specialised crafts and may be linked to the mountainous areas around
Lærdal, as these have rich deposits of rock crystal.
At Bjørkum, a number of objects made from bone and antler, like needles
and game pieces, were found. Of particular importance are cut reindeer
antlers, as well as other small chips and fragments of antler that may have
been linked to the manufacture of articles for daily use and comb-making.
Altogether, the material probably contains traces of up to ten combs in a
typical Viking-Age style. Neither ordinary workshops nor specific produc-
tion areas were found. In the surrounding mountain regions, trapping systems
and bowmen’s hides bear witness to the significance of reindeer hunting in
the Viking Age and early medieval period. It is worth noting that bones of
reindeer are lacking in the osteological material. An obvious explanation for
this phenomenon is that the antlers were transported to the location as raw
material, as opposed to more comprehensive exploitation of wild reindeer by
humans on the site.
Bjørkum: a Viking-Age multi-functional meeting place

The remains from handicraft production as well as the existence of a large
number of cooking pits and pit houses make Bjørkum stand out as an excep-
tional site in Norwegian Viking-Age archaeology. The inland location of the
site, surrounded by mountains, also distinguishes Bjørkum from other localities
of this type. Approximately 20 km into the mountains south of Bjørkum one
reaches a place called Hallingskeid, separate from the one previously men-
tioned. Without going too far in the direction of connecting the site directly
with assembly places that are so far known only through written sources and
oral traditions from the Middle Ages and later, it should be permissible to take
into consideration that Bjørkum exhibits several of the characteristics which
one would, at the outset, expect to find on this type of site.
In relation to this it is worth mentioning a more recent study linked to
pit houses, seasonal gathering places and communication centres in South
Scandinavia in the Late Iron Age, where parallels are drawn to the North
Scandinavian ‘church villages’ (Nørgård Jørgensen et al. 2010). These repre-
sent gathering places connected with religious holidays and market activities, as
well as with political and legal institutions. The visiting families had their own
cabins or huts where they spent the nights for as long as the gatherings lasted.
Secondary activities included different types of handicraft and production. In
that sense, the shift from ‘church villages’ to well-known seasonal marketplaces
in the far north, like the Skibotn market in Troms, seems to have been gradual
(Hage 1985). A corresponding scenario seems to fit better with the pit houses
and the other small and lighter housing structures at Bjørkum, rather than
viewing them as remains of more permanent handicraft activity and settlement
(Ramstad 2011: 47). The seasonal character of the Bjørkum site also brings up
associations with localities interpreted as thing sites and other types of multi-
functional gathering places (cf. Sanmark 2009).
It is also interesting to note the presence of many cooking pits, a phenom-
enon otherwise primarily connected with farm settlements of the Early Iron
Age (Gustafson 2005b: 105). During the transition to the Late Iron Age, they
become much rarer, and assemblages of cooking pits seem to be limited to more
‘special’ contexts, for instance courtyard sites (Olsen 2005: 338). It seems rea-
sonable to link the large exterior hearths and cooking pits at Bjørkum to social
gatherings with feasts and sharing of food to sustain and strengthen social bonds.
A third of the structures contained unburnt bones and/or objects of bone. In a
small pit, all bones except the head and the lower limbs of a decapitated lamb
were found. The seemingly intentional deposition of unburned bones in cook-
ing pits and in outdoor hearth features may indicate sacrifices, as well as com-
plex ritual actions linked to the disposal of animal bones.
It may prove difficult to form a true picture of the functions Bjørkum had
in the Late Iron Age. It does not seem to have been an ordinary farming
settlement; to recognise any clear organisational principle behind the place-
ment of the buildings is problematic, and obvious activity areas are lacking.
Furthermore, both the range of production activities and their scale appear to
have been relatively limited, and there are none of the traces one would expect
of the handling of precious metals, such as are found at Viking-Age trading
places. Finds of, among other things, a lead weight may, however, indicate
some use of standardised weight units and barter. Maybe the answer is that
Bjørkum had a number of different and overlapping functions. The problem of
interpretation is therefore of a rather analytical nature. We lack clear concepts
and models to describe a place like Bjørkum, and its relation to other places in
the social, political and economic landscape of the Viking Age (Ramstad 2011;
Ramstad et al. 2011).
Inner Sogn together with Lærdal represents a border area between the
coast and the inland, a central ‘crossroads’ where communication routes over
the mountains have always been seen as important (cf. Hougen 1944). In the
archaeological material, this connection can be traced at least as far back as the
Roman Iron Age. In historical times and in the medieval period there were
several seasonal markets in Inner Sogn, the best known being the Lusakaupang
and later on the Lærdalsmarknad. These markets attracted large crowds of peo-
ple from inland communities in eastern Norway as well as from the agrarian
settlements along the Sognefjord (Espe 1983). As we have tried to convey,
less light has been shed on the smaller-scale meeting places, the skeid and
other seasonal gathering places, where people from the east and the west met.
We believe that such assemblies may be just as appropriate as models for the
interpretation of the locality at Bjørkum as the better-known marketplaces
down by the fjord.
Regionalisation and markets in the Viking Age

During the Viking Age and early medieval period there is an increase in the
utilisation of outfield resources (Mikkelsen 1994; Baug this volume; Tveiten and
Loftsgarden this volume). This indicates intensified resource specialisation and
must in turn have entailed new forms of cooperation and exchange. We argue
that stable political, economic and social networks were a prerequisite for this
development, in that they made outfield resources a viable subsistence alterna-
tive for settlements in a marginal agricultural area. The seasonal assemblies or
markets can be viewed as an embodiment of these networks. If one looks at iron
production in isolation, we see limited production in the Late Iron Age, which
develops into a production that far surpasses local demand in the early Middle
Ages (Larsen 2009; Rundberget 2012). However, this extensive iron produc-
tion took place almost exclusively in eastern parts of South Norway, the iron
production in western Norway being modest at best (Tveiten and Loftsgarden
this volume). Thus, the iron that was needed in western Norway most likely had
to be imported from the east, from the ‘Mountain Land’. Similarly, it is likely
that at least from the twelfth century Denmark was dependent on iron from the
Norwegian inland as well as from southern Sweden (Elsøe Jensen 2010).
The increased significance and value of products from the ‘Mountain Land’
may have created new opportunities for a number of different actors. We
therefore have to envisage a situation in which the mountain plateaux func-
tioned as an arena where different local communities from east and west were
to a greater degree oriented towards exploiting the same geographic areas and
resources. In addition, recent research indicates a more complex picture, in
which the mountainous areas were apparently also being exploited by more
mobile communities based on hunting and fishing, linked to people with a
Finno-Ugric tradition and Sami identity (Bergstøl 2008; Gjerde 2010). While
this naturally created new economic and socio-political opportunities, the
intensified interaction between people from different landscapes and traditions
also involved the potential for increased social tension and stress.
In communities with few or no urban centres, the most likely opportunity
for extensive communication would have been assemblies where large groups
of people met at regular intervals. Assemblies such as skeid would have been
essential for extensive social interaction, making efficient distribution of inno-
vations and ideas possible. Because assemblies of this kind gathered people
from a wide array of regions together at one and the same time, they should be
regarded as potentially decisive in connection with the development of cultural
norms, including norms for material culture. Likewise, they may be regarded as
an essential mechanism for regionalisation and the development of a common
culture and identity in the Viking Age and the medieval period.
So, what about Bjørkum? The establishment of the locality coincides with a
transitional period where the societies experienced profound structural changes.
A good 200 years later, the end of the main phase coincides with a period when
the West-Norwegian societies were involved in new and complex networks
with the surrounding world, when raids and migrations westwards started and,
somewhat later, the first processes connected with the emergence of super-
regional government and the formation of a kingdom began.
The suggested parallels between Bjørkum and the assemblies known from
later tradition shed an interesting light on the site and seem to open up a
broader spectrum of interpretations than those founded on more abstract and
formalised socio-political models. They bring forth some of the complexity
one faces when trying to characterise or define different forms of gathering
places and corresponding multi-functional sites – places and situations where
there were not necessarily any strict divisions between ritual activities, alliance
building, feasting and consumption, production and trade, games and com
petitions, or entertainment and recreation.
When we put all the pieces together, it is not hard to imagine that Bjørkum
may have played a vital role in a social and economic landscape that not only
included Lærdal and parts of Inner Sogn, but may also have had lines of commu-
nication to the mountain regions and further eastwards. Hypothetically, one could
envisage Bjørkum as part of a larger network of similar places that were established
during the transitional period leading to the Viking Age. In a landscape with scat-
tered settlements, like Sogn and inland areas in South Norway, such places may
have functioned as centres of communication or multi-functional meeting places:
important institutions for maintaining and strengthening social relations.
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13 The urban hinterland
Interaction and law-areas in Viking
and medieval Norway
Frode Iversen
Introduction
While previous research on urbanisation in Scandinavia has focused upon the
role of the king and the Church as founders and developers of towns, less
attention has been directed towards the economic and legal preconditions and
ramifications of this development, in particular the way trade in the rural hin-
terlands of towns developed and was regulated in relation to an urban market.
The legal assembly through which administrative and economic changes were
channelled – the thing – was a particularly strong institution in Scandinavian
societies compared to Central Europe (Taranger 1898; Imsen 1990; Iversen
2013). This may have played a crucial role in the economic development of
urban hinterlands and control over inland markets, in particular regarding the
surplus production of important commodities such as hunting produce and
iron from the ‘Mountain Land’ (Holm et al. 2005; Rundberget 2012). What
effect did urbanisation and emerging market power have on inland regions and
law administration in the Viking Age and Middle Ages?
During the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries most of the Norwegian rural
lawthings were relocated to coastal towns. Both urban and rural lawthings were
administered by a lawman who, although situated in the town, nevertheless
also actively participated in important things and legal meetings in the rural hin-
terland. Hence, legal matters drew people to certain towns. Previous research
on Norse legal organisation has mainly addressed the internal administrative
organisation of the medieval towns (Helle 2006: 114–18), to a lesser degree
discussing the towns as legal centres for a greater hinterland. Here, I will inves-
tigate the impact relocating lawthings from rural to urban locations had on the
organisation of rural jurisdictions and urban hinterlands. Were the jurisdictions
adapted to the towns’ need for greater hinterlands, and what was the role of
the thing in these processes?
Before Christianity, in the Norse world the thing was the most important
societal meeting place, both locally and regionally. The thing was the Archi
medean point in Norse cosmology as well as the human world. Everything
revolved around it. The Norse gods resolved their disputes at the thing (Løkka
2010). In the human world, delegates travelled great distances to annual
The urban hinterland 251
meetings at lawthings (lagting). These had judicial and legislative authority over
vast regions – the so-called provincial law-areas, of which there were about 20
in Scandinavia prior to the mid-thirteenth century (Iversen 2015).
The pre-Christian thing, however, was not purely a legal body, as it is in
modern times. It also held political, economic and cultic authority. Separate
trade laws, Bjarkøyretter, developed at the latest from around ad 1000 (Hagland
and Sandnes 1997). Towns became, or were from the start, separated from the
rural jurisdiction and obtained their own laws and courts (mót). Beyond the
town boundary (takmark), rural law (heraðs rett) applied. In medieval Norway,
the urban bailiff (gjaldker) was the head royal official in the town and also held
the rights of prosecution. He led or took part in legal meetings at the town
assembly (mót), and no doubt collected fines, taxes and tributes on behalf of the
king. He was equivalent to the rural bailiff (sýslumaðr/fogd).
Compared to Europe, the degree of urbanisation in Scandinavia was low,
particularly in Norway (Holt 2009). In 1135 the English chronicler Ordericus
Vitales knew only six civitas in the Kingdom of Norway: Konghelle, Borg,
Oslo, Tønsberg, Bergen and Nidaros. By the end of the Middle Ages
there were only 16 towns in Norway, compared to more than a hundred
in Denmark and 40–50 in Sweden (Jensen 1990; Helle 2006). In Norway
most medieval towns were royal foundations (Brendalsmo and Molaug 2014).
According to written sources of the thirteenth century, Nidaros was founded
by Olaf Tryggvasson (995–1000), Bergen by Olaf Kyrre (1066–93), Borg by
Olaf Haraldsson (1015–28) and Oslo by Harald Hardrada (1046–66). There
has been much discussion on the time of foundation, comparing written and
archaeological evidence (Molaug 2007), but recent research tends to highlight
consistency between the sources, in particular for Nidaros (Christophersen
and Nordeide 1994) and Oslo (Schia 1991: 122–32). This is not quite so clear
for Bergen (Hansen 2005). The saga phrase setja kaupstad may indicate when
an existing market or ‘embryo town’ became a judicial entity and achieved
formal trading rights (Christophersen 1998). It has, for instance, been argued
that Harald Bluetooth established Oslo, while Harald Hardrada empowered it
with certain judicial rights (Schia 1991).
Only one Norwegian town, Skien, seems to have been founded on aris-
tocratic initiative, while Stavanger and Hamar developed and grew when
bishops’ seats were established there in the twelfth century (Brendalsmo and
Molaug 2014). Concerning Tønsberg, the sagas give no foundation history,
but recently the archaeologists Jan Brendalsmo and Petter Molaug (2014) have
concluded that here, too, the king played a major role in the initial phase.
The Norwegian kings seem to have had a relatively stronger grip on trade
and towns compared to their European counterparts. There were few towns,
and most of them were subordinated to the king. The initiative behind the
archeologically known trading sites predating the medieval towns of Norway
is debated. Dagfinn Skre (2007) has suggested that the Danish king Gorm
founded Kaupang in Vestfold in the early ninth century, while this is more
252 Frode Iversen
uncertain for the newly discovered, contemporary trading site of Heimdal,
near Gokstad in Vestfold.
Legal assemblies must have been a propelling factor for processes of
territorialisation. At the thing attendees from different communities met. Both
the royal and ecclesiastical administrative landscape echoed the hierarchy of
the thing institution, with local, supra-local and regional meetings. My point
of departure is thus to (a) reconstruct the rural jurisdictions of Norway in
the Viking Age and early Middle Ages (ad 800–1150), and (b) investigate
how they changed in the High and late Middle Ages (ad 1150–1537), when
the majority of Norwegian towns reached their peak. The hypothesis is that
these areas were also the main inland trading areas for the medieval towns.
The precise state of the juridical division and organisation in the twelfth
and thirteenth centuries is still to some extent unresolved and has been the
subject of debate. By reconstructing the judicial areas I hope to shed light
on the changing hinterland of the towns. Obviously, towns became jurisdic-
tions in their own right, but what was their impact on the organisation of
provincial law territories? This will lay the foundation for subsequent discus-
sion of changes in how people interacted within the emerging Kingdom of
Norway. I will focus on South Norway, as this area had more towns in the
Middle Ages, and the changes in administrative organisation were profound.
I will also concentrate on the interaction between coastal areas with towns,
and the interior valleys without urban centres.
Background: law-areas and trade regulations

According to Historia Norwegie (1150–75), Norway was divided into three
main geographic areas: The Coastal Land (Zona itaque maritime), the Central or
Mountain Land (Mediterranea zona/De montains Norwegie) and the land of the
Sami people (De Finnis), a division I shall retain in this context (Ekrem and
Mortensen 2003: 54–64) (Figure 13.1). There were four provincial law-areas
(patriae) in the Coastal Land, and four in the Mountain Land. These were fur-
ther subdivided into provinces, 30 in the Coastal Land and 12 in the Mountain
Land. These 42 regions in eight law-areas were the fundamental regions of
human interaction, judicially speaking, in Norway in the twelfth century.
These were further divided into about 550 local thing districts. The main law-
areas and their divisions are listed in Table 13.1. These differ considerably
from the territorial organisation that emerges during the period 1250–1350,
as first pointed out by historian Gustav Storm (1880) and discussed by Gustav
Indrebø (1937: 41–3), Asgaut Steinnes (1946) and Eyvind Fjeld Halvorsen
(1995), among others. The question is how towns influenced the administra-
tive ‘legal landscape’.
Regarding South Norway, my hypothesis is that the axes of human inter-
action prior to urban development followed the topographic, economic and
climatic zones, which had similar legal requirements. Coastal areas connected
with other coastal areas, and mountain and upland communities with each
Figure 13.1 The major divisions of Norway, according to Historia Norwegie

(c. 1150–75).
other. There was less interaction between the coast and the interior, which
may have changed with the rise of towns and trading centres during the Viking
Age and Middle Ages. Coastal towns stimulated increased trade with inland
254 Frode Iversen
areas, and thus had a ‘civilising’ impact. This evolved along vertical axes of
identity and economy, perpendicular to older law territories and topography.
In the High Middle Ages, the law-parish system was redefined, which expresses
the underlying socio-economic development, where inland resources were
increasingly drawn into the market economy of the coastal towns.
In Historia Norwegie, the maritime zone is described as a Decapolis, an area
with ten towns. Gustav Storm (1880: 76) identified these as Nidaros, Bergen,
Oslo, Borg, Tønsberg and Konghelle, together with Stavanger, Veøy, Skien
and Kaupanger in Sogn (Figure 13.5). However, the precise number may
have been somewhat unimportant for the anonymous author. He alludes to
the ‘learned’ concept of the ten cities of the Decapolis. Two of the gospels
mention the Decapolis; it was the core area of Christianity (Matt. 4: 25;
2 Macc. 5: 20). Furthermore, the Decapolis is mentioned by the Roman
historian Pliny the Elder (ad 23–79) in Naturalis Historia (N.H. 5.16.74). The
towns of the Decapolis have traditionally been seen as bridgeheads for both
Greek and Roman culture in the Semitic areas of Judea and Syria, and these
towns also represented strongholds on the Roman Empire’s eastern border.
The author of Historia Norwegie may have associated the Decapolis with a
form of Christian ‘civilising’ power, radiating from the coastal towns. In ref-
erence to the interpretation of the prose Edda Gylfaginning, which explains
the creation and destruction of the Norse gods’ world, both archaeologist
Frans-Arne Stylegar (2004) and religious historian Gro Steinsland (1991: 24)
have pointed out differences in cosmological concepts regarding the coast
and the inlands in Norse mythology. Therefore, it is tempting to ask: did the
coastal towns have a ‘civilising’ force? Was the ‘wild’ inland territory – the
Mountain Land with its rich resources – amalgamated into the Norwegian
realm as a result of urbanisation?
In 1384 the child-king Olav IV Håkonsson of Norway and Denmark, under
the guardianship of his mother, Queen Margrete Valdemarsdotter, declared
that all trade within certain areas north of Bergen should take place in old
towns with jurisdiction, takmark (NgL III: 121; RN VII: 1191). Competition
from the Hanseatic towns, such as Lübeck, Hamburg and Bremen, increased
in the Holy Roman Empire, and stock fish from northern Norway and timber
from eastern Norway were important commodities on the European market.
In this competitive situation, the kings of Norway tried to reinforce Norwegian
towns by granting them a trade monopoly within certain areas. This may only
have represented confirmation and enforcement of existing customary rights,
but clearly the intension was to secure royal rights and income from trade on
the home market (Blom 1967).
The trading territories listed in 1384 coincided with customary rural juris-
dictions, namely law-parishes and counties. All trade within Finnmark and
Helgeland (= Hålogaland law-parish) was to take place in the town of Vågan.
Trondheim received similar rights with respect to Namdalen, Nordmøre and
Trøndelag, which is equivalent to the Frostathing area, apart from the south-
ernmost county, Romsdal, where the old royal villa, trading and assembly
site of Veøy had a monopoly. The same applied to Borgund in the case of
Sunnmøre – the northernmost county in the law-area of the Gulathing. Trade
elsewhere, in fjords and fishing villages, was declared illegal (NgL III: 121; RN
VII: 1191).
We lack direct information on the trade monopoly and the rural hinter-
lands of towns in South-East Norway before the fifteenth century. Trade in
timber increased from the thirteenth century, and many ‘loading sites’ for tim-
ber purchase evolved along the coast, such as Son and Drøbak in the district
of Follo; Koppervik, Bragernes and Strømsø by the estuary of the Drammen
river; Sandefjord, Snekkestad and Melsomvik in Vestfold; and Langesund at
Skien. The historian Knut Helle claims the trade contravened the monopolies
of the old towns (Helle 2006: 129). In 1299 a royal ban was imposed on all
traders against the sale of goods outside the towns, while farmers were still
allowed to trade with each other (NgL III: 42; RN II: 1011). Later, in 1302,
this ban was explicitly directed against foreign traders (Bagge et al. 1973: 218).
The earlier town privileges, for example that of Oslo from 1358 (RN VI: 469),
do not specify the primary hinterland, while in 1358 Skien renewed its rights
to trade ‘hard stone’ (hone stones), grain and other commodities in the area of
Skienssyssel (RN VI: 489). During the fifteenth century several towns obtained
formalised exclusive trading rights: Stavanger received exclusive rights within
Stavanger Diocese (1425), Marstrand in Båhuslen (1442), Oslo in Oslo Diocese
(1445) and Skien in the county of Telemark and interior areas (1473).
The origin and organisation of lawthings

It is attested that Norwegian kings moved rural lawthings, for example the
Eidsivathing and Gulathing, from one location to another, and established new
ones, such as the Borgarthing (Taranger 1898). However, it is unlikely that
royal power dealt directly with the geographical organisation of jurisdictions in
the early phases. The development towards larger law-areas cannot be under-
stood purely from a power perspective, with the king as the sole instigator.
I regard this as a process where both bottom-up and top-down forces worked
together. The population had its legal needs. Local communities and societies
could benefit from being part of a larger law-area. The emergence of larger
regions could, for example, increase mobility and trade. On the other hand,
royal power required an institution that could legitimise the king’s power and
negotiate on behalf of the people.
It is often claimed that there was just one lawthing per law-area in Norway
in the Middle Ages: the Eidsivathing, Gulathing, Frostathing and Borgarthing.
However, in 1223 there were two lawmen and two lawthings in each of the
major law-areas in Norway (Table 13.2; Figures 13.2 and 13.3). The exception
was the Frostathing area, where there were three lawthings, including one in
Jämtland (Seip 1934; Indrebø 1936).
The German legal historian Kondrad Maurer (1907: 8) proposed that the
law-parish system (lagsogn) appeared in the late Middle Ages. A law-parish is a
256 Frode Iversen
Figure 13.2 The law-parishes of Norway in 1223, according to the Saga of Håkon
Håkonsson.
subdivision of a law-area. However, Maurer did not include the evidence of

Håkon Håkonsson’s Saga, which specifies nine lawmen in Norway in 1223
and the law-parishes for most of them. The historians Jens Arup Seip (1934)
and Gustav Indrebø (1936) were the first to discuss the law-parish system in
detail. Indrebø suggested that it was established in the twelfth century, when
lawmen became royal officials. On the other hand, Seip was not convinced
that all the lawmen from the eastern provinces participated in the hofdingiafundr
in Bjørgvin in 1223, a political meeting where the leading men of the kingdom
met. He believed there were even more lawmen in earlier periods, as indicated
by the administrative geography stated in Historia Norwegie (Seip 1934: 12).
I contend that the law-parish system may have an earlier origin. There are
several arguments for this. First, this appears to have been the situation in both
Denmark and Sweden. There were four or five lawthings (landsting) in each
of the three Danish provincial law-areas in the thirteenth century (Jørgensen
1940; Lerdam 2001; Vogt and Tamm 2009; Andersen 2010). Similarly, in
Sweden there were multiple lawthings within the same law-area. Snorri
Sturluson’s description of the Kingdom of Svitjod is illustrative (Hkr, King
Olav Haraldsson’s Saga: 77). Here, we gain insight into a formation process
where several autonomous territories amalgamated into a ‘legal cooperative’.
Many of the regions had their own laws and legislative things. The cooperative
had decided that, when two laws were in conflict, one law should override
the other as lex superior – the Uppsala Law. The lawman from the ‘weightiest’
area, Tiundaland (‘Land with Ten Hundreds’), outranked the other lawmen
from less weighty areas, such as Attundaland (‘Land with Eight Hundreds’) and
Fjärdrundaland (‘Land with Four Hundreds’) (Iversen 2013). A market was
held in Uppsala for a week in connection with the annual assembly (Hkr, King
Olav Haraldsson’s Saga: 77).
To summarise: I do not envisage the situation in Norway in 1223 as some-
thing new or associated with royal organisation, as Indrebø has suggested.
On the contrary, I find it plausible that, for instance, Ranrike (Båhuslen)
in present-day Sweden had its own lawthing prior to its integration into the
Borgarthing area in the eleventh century. I see the law-parish division of 1223
as a remnant of this. The question is how these law-parishes changed as urban
influence increased.
Methods and materials: the scheme of the study

The first stage of investigating this hypothesis is to identify and reconstruct the
‘legal landscape’ in Norway during the Viking Age and Middle Ages (800–1537).
Four main sources are available for this purpose: Historia Norwegie, c. 1150–75,
Håkon Håkonsson’s Saga for the year 1223, a mid-sixteenth-century legal
manuscript (AM: 94 4°) and Christian IV’s law of 1604. The latter two provide
lists of the Norwegian lawthings of the time. Together with charter evidence
from c. 1250–1550, this enables a discussion of the changes in the ‘legal land-
scape’ of Norway before and after c. 1250–1300.
The dating and purpose of Historia Norwegie is much debated. Recently, Lars
Boje Mortensen (Ekrem and Mortensen 2003) has convincingly argued that
Inger Ekrem’s (1998) classic hypothesis must be reconsidered. She claimed that
Historia Norwegie was written prior to the foundation of the Norwegian Church
Province (1152/3). The aim was to convince the Pope and the cardinals that
258 Frode Iversen
Norway was well organised, mature and deserved the status of an independent
church province, seceding from the Danish Church Province (Prouincia danorum),
with its centre at Lund (Nyberg 1991). However, as Mortensen has pointed
out, this is not very likely. According to Historia Norwegie, Iceland paid tribute
to Norway, which did not occur before 1264 in secular terms. Therefore,
the passage probably refers to the tithes the bishops of Iceland paid to the
archbishop in Nidaros. This suggests that Historia Norwegie was written after
1152/53, when the Nidaros Church Province was established. Furthermore,
since Jämtland is not mentioned as part of the Kingdom of Norway, which it
was from 1177, Mortensen dates the saga to c. 1150–75.
The identification of the regions in Historia Norwegie is relatively unproblem-
atic, and is discussed at length by Gustav Storm (1880). In more recent times, this
has been studied by, among others, Frans-Arne Stylegar (2004). Historia Norwegie
states that there were 30 prouinciae in the Coastal Land. P.A. Munch believed the
number 30 (‘XXX’) was incorrect and considered Hålogaland as a single shire
(fylke) (Munch 1850: 30). Munch’s authority overruled the actual statement in
the source; surprisingly, Storm followed his lead and corrected 30 to 22 in his
source-critical edition (Storm 1880: 76), something which has been repeated in
later translations. Even the newest source-critical edition, from 2003, gives this
figure (Ekrem 1998: 33, note 113; Ekrem and Mortensen 2003: 179, note 105).
In my opinion, such an error is unlikely. The coastline from Hålogaland to
Karlsøy stretches for over 600 km. From Vennesund to Vegestav it must have
been over 1500 km, and a further subdivision of this large area seems probable
(Iversen 2015). Twenty-one provinces are specified for the remaining Coastal
Land. If there are indeed 30 provinces in total, Hålogaland must, therefore, have
had nine provinces. This seems to equate with the known historical divisions of
‘half-shires’ and counties or syssel (sýsla) in Hålogaland, extending northward up to
Troms (Indrebø 1935). I have, therefore, chosen to follow the primary source, and
propose nine provinces in Hålogaland, as shown in Table 13.1.
The historian Eyvind Fjeld Halvorsen (1995) has pointed out how little
Snorri and other thirteenth-century saga writers knew about people and the
former administrative organisation of Upplǫnd. In the Kings’ Sagas Upplǫnd
almost always refers to the Eidsivathing area, but the Icelandic authors knew little
about events here in the eleventh and tenth centuries (Halvorsen 1995: 51, 54).
This is one of the reasons why Historia Norwegie is an especially important
source for this particular area (Robberstad 1951). In regard to the Mountain
Land, my interpretations differ somewhat from Storm’s (1880: 81) suggestions.
I believe Land, Hadeland and Tverrdalene were the neighbouring provinces to
Ringerike, and Toten to Gudbrandsdalen. Toten was connected to the lawth-
ing at Hamar in 1337, and therefore probably part of the northern law-parish
in 1223 (DN III: 191). This law-parish may have comprised patriae 3 and 4 in
the Mountain Land, according to the division in Historia Norwegie (see below).
This area probably coincided with the land held by the ‘rebel leader’ Sigurd
Erlingsson Ribbung in the early 1220s. He established a seat on the little island
of Frognøy, central to the area, and close to the bishop’s residence at Storøya
and the royal villa of Stein. According to Håkon Håkonsson’s Saga, most
people from Telemark to Vardal submitted to Sigurd (HH: 75).
I do not consider Råbyggelag as part of Telemark, as Storm believed and
Stylegar also suggests (Stylegar 2004). The description remotis ruribus, ‘remote or
far-flung rural areas’, fits well with the elongated valley of Numedal. There are
further arguments for this, such as that Numedal was subject to the Skien lawth-
ing in the late Middle Ages (Taranger 1915). In the Landnåmabok (Hauksbok),
a ‘Telemark-thing’ is mentioned (ch. 314). This was allegedly located near a
mountain pass, close to Tinz dal, which is probably identifiable as present-day
Tinn. A ‘Telemark-thing’ at Tinn would only have been central to the prov-
ince if it included Numedal. Furthermore, Råbyggelag was neither part of the
Skien lawthing nor of the Diocese of Hamar, but was subject to the Gulathing
from 1274 at the latest. The suffix -lag (ON lög) in the name Råbyggelag means
law, which indicates that Råbyggelag was originally an independent law-area.
If Råbyggelag was, however, part of the Mountain Land, I would expect it to
have been labelled a province, or preferably a patria, which is not the case. In
other respects, I follow Storm and share his viewpoint that the four patriae in
the Mountain Land were separate legislative districts (Storm 1880: XXVII).
Håkon Håkonsson’s Saga is the main source for the law-parishes in the early
thirteenth century. As previously mentioned, this saga records that nine lawmen
met at the hofdingiafundr in Bjørgvin in 1223 (HH: 85–95; Helle 1972: 248).
The subject of this important political meeting was the right to the Norwegian
throne. The lawmen’s opinion was given considerable importance in the conflict
between Håkon Håkonsson and Earl Skule.
In addition to charters, I have used two other sources concerning lawthings
from 1300–50. Evidence is drawn from Christian IV’s 1604 law, which provides
a detailed overview of the lawthings in Norway, in addition to a mid-sixteenth-
century manuscript which also lists the country’s lawthings (AM94 4°; Ngl III:
4–6; Hallanger and Brandt 1855: 7, note 1; Indrebø 1935: 74). It is a copy of a
manuscript from c. 1320 of the 1274 rural law of Magnus the Lawmender (AM:
322fol; NgL IV: 502). However, the list itself is a postscript, probably added by
Peder Claussøn Friis (1545–1614), according to Anna Catharina Horn at the
University of Oslo (correspondence via email 1 March 2012). These sources
have to be used retrospectively and compared to the older charter evidence.
The two later sources show 12 or 13 lawthings in Norway, not the nine
mentioned in 1223. There was a new rural lawthing at Agdesiden and two new
town lawthings. In addition, several rural lawthings were relocated to towns.
The source AM: 94 4° indicates three lawthings within the Frostathing area:
Steigen, Trondheim and Jämtland. There were three in the Gulathing area,
namely Bergen, Stavanger and Agdesiden, and four in the Eidsivathing area –
Oslo, Skien with Telemark, Tønsberg and Hedmark with Oppland. Finally,
there were also two lawthings in the Viken area: Fredrikstad and Båhus. It
is worth noting that Foss lawthing is not mentioned, despite the fact there
were assemblies at Foss in 1450, 1558 and 1604 (see below). Another curios-
ity is that the town lawthings in Skien, Tønsberg and Oslo are listed under the
260 Frode Iversen
Eidsivathing area, and not the Borgarthing area, as their locations would
suggest. However, it is clear that parts of the earlier Eidsivathing district
were now under the jurisdiction of lawmen in these very towns: thus, Upper
Telemark and Numedal were subject to Skien, Tverrdalene to Tønsberg, and
Ringerike and Romerike to Oslo, an issue I will return to later.
The charters issued by lawmen have previously been catalogued by Eivind
Vågslid (1930). Indrebø’s (1936) article on the Norwegian lawmen and his cri-
tique of Seip’s (1934) interpretation of the law-parish system have been useful.
These two works diverge on some points, and my conclusions also differ some-
what from these, something that will be explained as we proceed. A review
of the Swedish charters indicates that Aslak Petersson, the lawman in Viken,
issued a charter from Foss, Båhuslen on a Wednesday after 23 June 1450 (SDHK:
26289). The letter was not published in Diplomatarium Norvegicum. Another char-
ter dated 25 June 1444 was issued at Foss by the same lawman, in Laghmanz stadh,
the lawmans-place (DN XI: 178). According to the law of 1604, one of the two
fixed lawthings at Foss was to be held on the first working day after St Hans’s Day
(St John’s Eve), namely 24 June, which fits well with both letters. Foss is centrally
located in Båhuslen, and it is reasonable to assume it was both the seat of the
lawman and location of the lawthing. This was an old assembly site. There is men-
tion of a thing by Foss Church in the Sverris Saga (SS: 167) for the year c. 1200,
concerning a battle between King Sverre and his rivals during the civil wars.
Only archaeological excavation could help date the Foss lawthing more precisely.
There is no written evidence to say Tjølling was a lawthing. Both the name,
ON þjóðalyng or ‘People’s Heath’, and the archaeological discoveries in 2010
indicate that Tjølling was an important thing site, as previous research has
also suggested. I consider it the likely lawthing for Vingulsmark, Vestfold and
Grenland, a subject I will return to later.
I have reconstructed the law-areas with a GIS application, using land regis-
ters and tax records to reconstruct the exact areas. I assume that the Mountain
Land was identical to the Eidsivathing and the Diocese of Hamar, with the
exception of Valdres and Hallingdal, which were under the Gulathing and also
the Diocese of Stavanger. Neither was Solør part of Hamar Diocese (DN XXI:
130). Jørgen H. Marthinsen’s map of the law-parishes c. 1320 in Norsk historisk
leksikon (Imsen and Winge 2004) has been useful for seeing concurrences with
Seip’s and Indrebø’s results.
Results
The Coastal Land was composed of four patriae: Viken in the east (Sinius
orientalis), the south and west coast (Gulacia), Trøndelag in Middle Norway
(Trondheimia) and Hålogåland, north of Trøndelag (Halogia). This matches
the areas of the Borgarthinglag, Gulathingslag and Frostathingslag, includ-
ing Hålogaland, respectively. The Gulathing area was subdivided into six
provinces, while in Trøndelag there were eight provinces surrounding the
Trondheim Fjord and three along the open seacoast.
The Mountain Land also consisted of four patriae, with 12 provinces in total,
corresponding to the area of the Eidsivathing. Their identification is somewhat
vague, as previously discussed. Toten is, as mentioned, assigned to the fourth
patria (see Table 13.1).
How does this fit with the well-informed Saga of Håkon Håkonsson? At the
Bjørgvin meeting in 1223, three lawmen from the Frostathing area attended,
while the Gulathing, Viken and ‘Upland’ areas were each represented by two.
The lawmen from Frostathing represented the areas Trøndelag, Hålogaland
and Jämtland. Both the þingasaga and the Frostathing Law consider Hålogaland
as part of the Frostathing law-area (F X: 3; F XVI: 2; Storm 1877: 15; Indrebø
1935: 75).
Dagfinn Bonde was a lawman of Gulathing, and Amunde Remba repre-
sented Ryfylke. There were also two lawmen from Eidsivathing (the Uplands)
at the meeting in 1223. Tore Lagmann (Gudmundsson) was the lawman for
the southern ‘Uplands’ (Seip 1934: 12). Sakse of Haug was the lawman for
Hedmark, and the lawthing was located in the vicinity of Hamar. Moving
on, Tord Skolle was the lawman for the area east of the Svinesund, namely
Båhuslen. It appears his father and forefathers had previously also been lawmen
here. It is reasonable to associate them with the lawthing at Foss or Baholm near
Konghelle. Øystein Roesson was probably the lawman for the remainder of
the Borgarthing law-area, more specifically the law-parishes of Vingulsmark,
Vestfold and Grenland (Indrebø 1936: 492). Tjølling is central to this area,
which makes it a likely candidate for the location of the lawthing. Around 1200,
a man called Simon at the Tomb in Råde is mentioned as a lawman (DN I 3;
Indrebø 1936: 492), potentially for this law-parish.
When this picture is compared to younger sources, interesting patterns
appear. King Christian IV’s law of 1604 gives detailed information on the
lawthings in Norway, including the meeting dates (see Table 13.3). In total, 13
lawthings are mentioned, including the town lawthings at Tønsberg and in Oslo.
Båhuslen had been divided into two law-parishes, with lawthings at both Båhus
and Foss. There appears also to have been a lawthing at Agdesiden, which was
‘held on rotation’ between four counties (syssel). The urban lawthings in Oslo,
Fredrikstad, Tønsberg and Skien met four to five times a year. The frequency
of meetings was somewhat less for the other lawthings, down to once or twice
a year. The king’s bailiff (fogd) had an obligation to attend the lawthing. The
attendees of the lawthings were appointed by the bailiffs at the local things (syssel)
on Laetare Sunday (the fourth Sunday in Lent) (C IV: ch. 1).
Discussion: towns and things

I will now discuss the changing administrative division of legal matters in Norway,
in relation to towns and trading areas. Which areas changed, and were these
changes due to increased urban impact on the organisation of rural law-areas?
The Eidsivathing law-area was reorganised after the civil wars (c. 1130–1240),
when its outer parts (Øvre Telemark, Numedal, Tverrdalene and Ringerike)
Table 13.1 Proposed subdivision of districts and provinces in Norway in Historia Norwegie, c. 1150–75
Main area District (patria) Municipality (province) Identification
Zona itaque Sinius orientalis 4 provinces from the border Ranrike, Vingulsmark, Vestfold, Grenland
maritime Borgarthing (Viken) with Denmark to Rygjabit 4 provinces
The Coastal Land Gulacia 6 provinces. Møre was most Agder, Rogland, Hordland, Sogn, Firda,
10 towns Gulathing (south and remote (= northerly). Sunnmøre
(Decapolis) west coast to the Valdres and Hallingdal were 6 provinces
•• 4 patriae island of Mien) subject to the Gulathing
•• 22 or 30 Trondhemia 11 provinces Orkdalen, Gauldalen, Strinda, Stjørdalen, Skaun,
provinces Frostathingslag (8 by the fjord and 3 beyond) Verdalen, Sparbuen, Innerøya, Romsdalen,
(Trøndelag) Nordmøre, Namdalen
11 provinces
Halogia 30 provinces in total, and Herøy half-shire (Alstadhaug syssel), Rødøy half-
Frostathingslag therefore nine provinces in shire, Bodø syssel, Steigar syssel, Lofoten syssel,
(Hålogland, north to Hålogaland Ulvøy syssel (Vesterålen), Andenes syssel, Senja,
Vegestav, bordering Troms
Bjarmeland) 9 provinces
Mediterranea Patria 1 Romerike and Ringerike plus Romerike, Ringerike, Neighbour 1 (Land),
zona/De unnamed neighbouring Neighbour 2 (Hadeland), Neighbour 3 (Sigdal,
montains provinces (plural) Modum, Krødsherad)
Norwegie 5 provinces
(Eidsivathing/the Patria 2 Telemark and unnamed Upper Telemark and Numedal.
Uplands) remote rural areas (remotis Telemark without Grenland and parts that were
The Mountain ruribus) under Oslo Diocese (DN IX: 186). Brunkeberg
Land was under Hamar Diocese in 1357 (DN III: 291).
•• 4 patriae 1 province
•• 12 provinces Patria 3 Hedmark with Elvdalene Hedmark and Østerdalen with Solør/Vinger
2 provinces
Borders Götaland
Patria 4 Gudbrandsdalen with Gudbrandsdalen
in Sweden and
Loar and unnamed Lom (Loar)
stretches north
neighbouring provinces Neighbour 1 (Lesja)
to Trondheim.
(plural). The Dovre range Neighbour 2 (Toten) (see DN III: 191)
marks the boundary. 4 provinces
Table 13.2 A suggestion for the law-parish divisions in Norway in 1223
Provincial Lawman in Law-parish Lawthing Provinces in Historia
law-area 1223 Norwegie (HN)
Frostathing Gunnar Trøndelag Frosta 11 provinces
Grjonbak (see Table 13.1)
Bonde
Bjarne Hålogaland Steigen 9 provinces
Mårdsson (see Table 13.1)
Torstein Jämtland Jamtamót Not part of Norway
Åsmundsson when HN was
written
Gulathing Dagfinn Bonde Gula Gulathing Hordaland, Sogn,
Firda, Sunnmøre
Åmunde Ryfylke Avaldsnes Rogaland, Agder
Remba (+ Valdres, Hallingdal)
Borgarthing Øystein Borgarthing (Tjølling?) Vingulsmark,
Roesson Vestfold, Grenland
Tord Skolle Viken, east of Foss Vika (= Ranrike/
Svinesund Båhuslen)
Eidsivathing Tore Lagmann Søndre (Stein?) Patriae 3 and 4
Opplanda (see Table 13.1)
Sakse of Haug Hedmark Åker Patriae 1 and 2
(see Table 13.1)
Source: Håkon Håkonsson’s Saga.
Table 13.3 Lawthing and meeting dates according to Christian IV’s law of 1604
Region Location in Time as of 1604 Date
1604
Båhuslen Båhus 1) the Monday before St 17 June (St Bottolf)
lawthing Bottolf ’s/ Botwulf of
(town) Thorney’s Day
2) the Monday after the Sunday before Ash
Fastelaven Sunday Wednesday
Viken Foss 1) the first working day 25 January (St Paul’s
lawthing after the Feast of the Day)
Conversion of St Paul
2) the first working day 24 June (St John’s Day)
after St John’s Eve
(St Hans’s Day)
Borgarthing Fredrikstad 1) the first day after 6 January
(town) Twelfth Night the Monday after the
2) the Monday after fourth Sunday in
Laetare Sunday Lent
3) the second Tuesday after the second Tuesday
Easter (Tokketirsdag) after Easter
4) the day after St Vitus 15 June (St Vitus’s
and Modesti Day)
5) the first Sunday after 14 October
Winter Night
(continued)
Table 13.3 (continued)
Region Location in Time as of 1604 Date

1604
Oslo lawthing Oslo 1) three days before and 25 January (St Paul’s
(town) after St Paul’s Day Day)
2) three days before and three days before and
after Laetare Sunday after the fourth
3) three days after Sunday in Lent
Tokketirsdag three days after the
4) three days before and second Tuesday
after St John’s Eve after Easter
5) Three days before and 24 June
after Winter Night 14 October
Eidsvoll Eidsvoll 1) St. Bottolf ’s Day 17 June
lawthing
Tønsberg Tønsberg 1) the first Monday after 6 January
lawthing Twelfth Night the Monday after the
(town) 2) the Monday after fourth Sunday in Lent
Laetare Sunday the second Tuesday
3) Tokketirsdag after Easter
4) three days after St three days after 17 June
Bottolf ’s Day (St Bottolf’s Day)
5) Autumn Feast of the Cross 14 September
lawthing in Not named 1) Tokketirsdag the second Tuesday
Oppland (Hamar/ 2) Martinmas after Easter
Åker?) 11 November
Skiens Skien 1) three days before and the fourth Sunday in
lawthing after Laetare Sunday Lent
(town) 2) three days before and 17 June (St Bottolf’s
after St Bottolf ’s Day Day)
3) three days before and 11 November
after Martinmas the second Tuesday
4) Tokketirsdag after Easter
lawthing in Mandal 1) the Monday after the second Monday
Agdesiden Lista Trinity Sunday after Pentecost
Nødnes 2) Nativity of Mary Feast 8 September
Råbyggelag Day 30 September
3) the next working day 25 June
after Michaelmas
4) the next working day
after St John’s Eve
Stavanger Stavanger 1) St Bottolf ’s Day 17 June (St Bottolf’s
lawthing 2) Autumn Feast of the Day)
(town) Cross 14 September
Bergen Bergen 1) St Bottolf ’s Day 17 June (St Bottolf’s
lawthing Day)
(town)
Trondheim Trondheim 1) St Bottolf ’s Day 17 June (St Bottolf’s
lawthing Jemtland 2) 14 days before St John’s Day)
(town) Eve 10 June
Steigen Steigen 1) St Bottolf ’s Day 17 June (St Bottolf’s
lawthing The fishing 2) every third year Day)
villages in
Finnmark
came under the jurisdiction of the Borgarthing. Stronger links were established
with the royally controlled coastal towns of Skien, Tønsberg and Oslo. The
reorganisation of the Mountain Land may be seen in the context of the civil
wars. The last ‘rebel leader’ of the ‘Mountain Land’, Sigurd Erlingsson Ribbung,
died in 1226, and when the powerful Duke Skule Bårdsson from Trøndelag
was killed in 1240, internal resistance was weakened. King Håkon Håkonsson
strengthened his position and kingdom.
I distinguish nine probable law-parishes in Norway in 1223, in four law-areas:
the Borgarthing area, consisting of two law-parishes (Figure 13.2) – (1) Viken/
Ranrike (Båhuslen) and (2) Vingulsmark, Vestfold and Grenland; the Gulathing
area, with another two – (3) the southern (Ryfylke) and (4) the northern
law-parish; three in the Frostathing area – (5) Hålogaland, (6) Trøndelag and
(7) Jämtland; and two in the Eidsivathing area – (8) the southern and (9) the
northern law-parish (cf. Table 13.2). These divisions coincide with Indrebø’s
(1936: 491–3) interpretation. I shall review the known and possible lawthings,
and compare these to the urban lawthing assemblies and the areas of jurisdiction
of the town lawmen. I will follow the law-parish divisions specified above,
and discuss each in turn. In Table 13.2 and Figures 13.2 and 13.3, I suggest
the connection between law-parish, lawmen and lawthing, and the provinces
of Historia Norwegie.
Charters, place names and archaeological evidence indicate the following
lawthings in the Borgarthing area: (1) the Foss thing (1450, SDHK: 26289;
1558, DN XII: 493) and the Båholm thing (1396, DN IV: 670), indicating
that lawthings were held at both urban and rural locations in Båhuslen/Vika
law-parish; (2) Tjølling, as mentioned previously, may have been the lawthing
site for the northern law-parish. At Lunde in Tjølling, a site consisting of over
1,000 cooking pits has been discovered. These sites have been interpreted as
testifying to large, seasonal gatherings, possibly in connection with legal/cultic
assemblies. Radiocarbon dates from 30 of these pits indicate activity from the
Pre-Roman Iron Age to the Merovingian Period (Iversen and Ødegaard in
prep). This may point to an early assembly site at Tjølling, which also has
the largest stone-built medieval church in Vestfold, dating from the twelfth
century (Brendalsmo 2003). There is no evidence that Tjølling Church held a
particularly high position in the Church hierarchy. The construction of such a
spacious building here is perhaps best explained in the context of the lawthing,
which, of course, occasioned large gatherings. In 1557 a ‘half-shire’ assembly
was arranged at Tjølling for the Brunla county (syssel), corresponding to the
southern half of the shire of Vestfold (DN I: 1118). This is rare evidence for
the continuity of the thing location. However, the lawthing at Tjølling seems
to have been reduced to a county-thing, possibly when the lawthings and law-
men in Tønsberg and Skien took over the highest level of law enforcement
in rural districts.
Only a fragment of the secular Borgarthing Law is preserved (Halvorsen and
Rindal 2008). The fragment concerns the thing organisation in the law-area.
It states that cases could be moved from so-called third- or half-shire-things
266 Frode Iversen
(tredingting/halvfylkesting) to a shire-thing (fylkesting) or to a thing with final
authority (ályktaþing), as well as from shire-things to a three-shire-thing (NgL
II: 523). Seip interpreted ályktaþing as meaning the highest thing (Seip 1934: 14).
The Gulathing Law has a similar provision, describing the procedures for
moving non-consensus cases to courts of higher rank (G: 35). I would suggest
that the three shire-things in the law refer to the lawthing for the western law-
parish, including the three shires of Vingulsmark, Vestfold and Grenland, and
that the ályktaþing refers to the lawthing of the eastern law-parish (Båhuslen).
The Borgarthing at Borg, close to the border between the two law-parishes,
had the highest rank in the law-area.
Lawmen are mentioned in Tønsberg and Oslo in 1266. Together with
the lawman from Romerike, they would pass judgement in cases in the rural
district of Frogn (Indrebø 1936: 494). This shows that, even in this early
phase, ‘urban’ lawmen acted beyond their urban areas. The lawmen from
Skien and Tønsberg are also mentioned in a document from 1294 (Vågslid
1930: 13, 58, 65). In my opinion, this can be interpreted as indicating that
Tjølling had ceased to function as the lawthing for Vingulsmark, Vestfold and
Grenland, and that the lawmen from Tønsberg and Skien had taken over
legal matters in the hinterlands.
There were two lawmen from the Gulathing area in 1223, one of whom
represented Ryfylke. This fits well with the rural lawthing territories here: (3) At
Avaldsnes on 24 June 1322 (DN I: 168; RN IV: 169), Ryfylke law-parish
comprised Agder and Rogaland, and more tentatively, Valdres and Hallingdal.
Already prior to 1150–75, Valdres and Hallingdal were under the Gulathing
Law. In the late Middle Ages they were part of the Diocese of Stavanger, indi-
cating an association with the southern law-parish. The lawthing was moved
to the town of Stavanger before 1351 (DN III: 275). Then there is (4) the
Gulathing itself. According to Egil’s Saga, a thing was held at Gulen in spring
c. 930 (Egs: 56; Helle 2001: 25–7). The case concerned a dispute between
parties in the shires of Hordaland and Firda. A law court (lagrett) of 36 men
reached a verdict in the case. This has been interpreted as indicating 12 men
from each of the shires of Firda, Sogn and Hordaland, and further, that the
Gulathing law-area originally comprised only these three shires (Helle 2001: 26).
However, we should keep in mind that the thirteenth-century Egil’s Saga is
not very reliable, and also uses the anachronistic term lendmaðr in this particular
case. Furthermore, this interpretation does not consider the possibility that the
subdivisions and law-parishes could be of great age.
The Gulathing was moved to Bergen around 1300 (DN I: 147) and was
amalgamated with the town lawthing. The last known date when two lawmen,
one urban and one rural, were simultaneously serving in Bergen was in 1348
(DN II: 295). In 1366 a lawman with the title of ‘Gulathing and Bergen law-
man’ appears (DN II: 387; Seip 1934: 20, note 1).
In the Frostathing area there were important assemblies both at Frosta and
Øyra (5). The relationship between them has been extensively discussed. The
Frostathing Law, from c. 1260, describes an annual thing at Øyra, half a month
Figure 13.3 The lawthings of Norway, 1223.
before St John’s Eve. From the eight provinces, all farmers with labourers had
a duty to attend the Øyrathing (F: 1, 4; NgL I: 122, 128). It has been suggested
that the Øyrathing was the lawthing for the eight provinces by the Trondheim
Fjord before the law-area was expanded to include the three coastal provinces
to the west (Indrebø 1935). However, it may be significant that the Øyrathing
was not a representative thing, such as all the other lawthings we know. In the
1260s the Øyrathing had two main functions: to endorse laws and to choose
the king. A royal charter from 1260 unequivocally states that the king was to
268 Frode Iversen
be chosen at the Øyrathing in Nidaros (RN I: 1974). According to the Sverris
Saga, only kings received by the Øyrathing were the rightful, rett tekin, kings of
Norway (Sverris Saga: ch. 12). On this basis, Jørn Sandnes (1967) claimed the
Øyrathing was established by royal decree when Nidaros was founded (Sandnes
1967: 1–19). I concur, and see the Øyrathing as the younger thing, connected
with the founding of the town, and the Frostathing as the prime lawthing of
the law-area.
Eilif, lawman of Nidaros, is mentioned in 1297, and Indrebø believes his
functions applied to both the town and the rural hinterland (Indrebø 1936:
496–7). If this is the case, it is only an interlude, because in 1346 the urban
and rural lawmen had separate roles in Trondheim (DN V: 186). However,
by 1422, the lawmen were being referred to by the title ‘Frostathing and town
lawman’ (DN III: 66).
Steigen lawthing for the Hålogaland law-parish (6) is mentioned on 23 June
1404 (DN II: 580; Falkanger 2007: 20). The relationship between the lawthing
at Steigen and a thing at Vågan has been discussed. Narve Bjørgo (1982: 50)
surmises that the Vågan thing at Brudberget was a town thing, and does not
regard Steigen as a younger, superseding lawthing, as Seip considers it to be, an
opinion I share.
Jamtamót (7) was the main thing assembly for Jämtland, and was located at
Frösön in Storsjön (near Östersund). It was held at Sproteid in the late Middle
Ages. Jamtamót was held the week after St Gregory’s Feast Day, 12 March,
while the date of the thing in 1604 was 14 days before St John’s Eve. This
perhaps had its origins in the trade and cultic activities around Frösön (Scand.
Frøys Øy, ‘Frey’s Island’).
The original extent of the Eidsivathing law-area is unclear. Most likely,
it coincided with the Diocese of Hamar and much of the Mountain Land
(Figure 13.4). The border between the dioceses of Hamar and Oslo fell
between Brunkeberg (Hamar) and Kvitseid (Oslo) (DN IX: 186; DN III:
291). In all likelihood, this mirrors the border between the Eidsivathing
and Borgarthing areas. It was divided into four patriae in 1150–75 and two
law-parishes in 1223. Two surviving fourteenth-century manuscripts of the
Eidsivathing Christian law from the eleventh century mention lawmen in
the plural, indicating an older division into several law-parishes (E: 30, 44;
Halvorsen and Rindal 2008: 49, 90; Storm 1880: XXVII). To resolve this
problem, I would simply suggest that two and two patriae shared a lawman.
According to this logic, the southern law-parish includes (a) Upper Telemark
with remote settlements in Numedal, and (b) Ringerike, Romerike and sur-
rounding provinces, while the northern law-parish consisted of (a) Hedmark
with Østerdalen and (b) Gudbrandsdalen and neighbouring provinces.
We do not know where the lawthing for the southern law-parish (8) took
place. In around 1240, a lawman lived at the farm Hov, a day’s ride from
Eidsvoll (HH: 235, 238; Indrebø 1936: 494). The Bishops of Hamar had two
residences within the diocese, at Hamar in the north and at Storøya in Hole,
Ringerike, in the south. This was for the purpose of administering the two
Figure 13.4 The provinces of the Mountain Land. This area may have corresponded
to the Eidsivathing law-area before the latter was reorganised during the
reign of Håkon Håkonsson (1217–63).
parts of the diocese (Hommedal 1999). The lawthing for the northern law-
parish was at Hamar and therefore near the bishop’s palace. If we assume a
parallel ecclesiastical and secular organisation, then a lawthing for the southern
law-parish may be sought near Storøya.
Archaeological evidence suggests the bishop’s palace on Storøya existed in
the thirteenth century but may go back to the foundation of the diocese in the
270 Frode Iversen
mid-twelfth century (Hommedal 1999: 13). A verdict (domsbrev) from 1389
shows clearly that the bishop executed his power of prosecution from Storøya
(DN IV: 561). Storøya borders the royal manor at Stein, where Halfdan the
Black was reputedly buried in around 850. The archaeologists Perry Rolfsen
and Jan Henning Larsen conclude, after a thorough review of historical and
archaeological sources regarding the phenomena of ‘Halfdan’s burial mounds’
Figure 13.5 New regions emerging c. 1250–1350: the relocation of the rural
lawthings to urban centres laid the foundation for the new cooperative
law-regions of Norway, and gradually the inland was included in the
‘urban economy’ of the kingdom.
in eastern Norway, that the great mound at Stein is the best candidate for
Halfdan’s burial site (Rolfsen and Larsen 2005: 124). Halfdan the Black is in
later tradition regarded as a lawmaker, and Snorri Sturluson accredits him in
the early thirteenth century with setting fixed fines for offences, which were
proportional to a man’s lineage and standing (Hkr, Halfdan the Black’s Saga:
ch. 7). If Snorri is recounting a genuine tradition, it is tempting to seek a lawth-
ing for the southern law-parish in the vicinity of Stein/Storøya. This, however,
remains uncertain.
The northern law-parish in the Eidsivathing area (9) may have encompassed
(a) Hedmark with Østerdalen, and (b) Gudbrandsdalen and the provinces. The
‘people’ of Gudbrandsdalen, Hedmark and Østerdalen supported the inaugura-
tion of King Christian I in Oslo in 1450 (DN III: 812). This area appears to
coincide with the northern law-parish of 1223, where Sakse was the lawman.
Skien’s lawthing was established in the mid-thirteenth century, and its juris-
diction comprised the fringe parts of both the law-areas of Borgarthing and
Eidsivathing; that is, Grenland from Borgarthing, and Upper Telemark and
Numedal from Eidsivathing.
A combined urban and rural Oslo lawman is known from the 1260s onwards
and served the areas of the southern law-parish that were not under the new
law-parishes of Skien and Tønsberg. As late as 1604, the Oslo lawman went
annually to the Eidsivathing. He was also the lawman for Oslo county (syssel),
which together suggests that the northern part of the shire of Vingulsmark
had been transferred from ‘Tjølling law-parish’ to the new Oslo jurisdiction.
Indrebø (1936: 498) considers that the whole of Vingulsmark was under the
Oslo lawman, but this is difficult to substantiate. Later, the southern part of
Vingulsmark lay under the jurisdiction of the lawman in Tønsberg. Therefore,
it seems most reasonable that Vingulsmark was divided in two, and that only
the northern part came under the lawman in Oslo (together with Marker).
Conclusion: the urban impact and the alteration of

the legal landscape
We can see a clear development, where co-dependent regions were signifi-
cantly altered around 1250–1300, especially in South Norway (Figure 13.5).
During King Håkon Håkonsson’s reign (1217–63) the ‘Mountain Land’ was
reorganised in accordance with strategic economic interests, namely exploita-
tion of inland resources. The Kingdom of Norway gained a common law
for the whole kingdom in 1274 during the reign of his son, Magnus the
Lawmender, and this was a major step towards a unified kingdom.
The first town, Kaupang in Tjølling, lay centrally in a law-parish that
included Vingulsmark, Vestfold and Grenland. This was perhaps the primary
hinterland for Kaupang. The thing at Tjølling also attracted people to the
area. The next generation of towns in the Borgarthing area were deliberately
adapted to the established provinces: Skien in Grenland, Tønsberg in Vestfold,
272 Frode Iversen
Oslo in Vingulsmark and Konghelle in Vika. A town in each province, all cen-
trally located, with the exception of Konghelle, which bordered Sweden and
Denmark. The establishment of Borg early in the eleventh century breaks this
pattern. It is feasible that Borg was created primarily to support the political and
legal integration of Ranrike under Olaf Haraldsson’s rule.
There were great changes to the boundary between the Borgarthing and
Eidsivathing law-areas. Prior to c. 1250, Grenland was under Borgarthing,
and Upper Telemark under Eidsivathing. Skien’s hinterland was amalgamated
under a new jurisdiction, and the lawthing located within the town. This
change encouraged greater interaction across the older law-regions, which was
formative for the modern Telemark County (except Numedal). The lawman
of Tønsberg was active in the countryside from at least the 1260s. In the later
Middle Ages the law-parish also included Tverrdalene, which had originally
been under the Eidsivathing area, as well as part of Borgar syssel on the far shore
of the Oslo Fjord. Consequently, Tønsberg and Borg may have competed as
chief legal centres. The lawman in Tønsberg received a relatively large law-
parish and part of the Mountain Land.
Regardless, ultimately the winner was Oslo. The town gained a large share
of the southern law-parish of the Eidsivathing area, specifically Romerike,
Ringerike, in addition to Marker and half of Vingulsmark. In c. 1350 Valdres
and Hallingdal were added to this list. This must have had great significance
for the development of Oslo as one of the foremost towns in Norway in
the fourteenth century. In reality, the former law-parishes connected with the
lawthings at Tjølling and Ringerike (location unidentified) were subsequently
split between Skien, Tønsberg and Oslo, each receiving their share. These
new jurisdictions changed the axes of human interaction from ‘horizontal’ to
‘vertical’ interchange, as each town gained a part of both the Coastal Land
and the Mountain Land. In the towns of Stavanger and Hamar, each with a
bishop’s see, the changes were less marked, and they remained central to their
respective law-parish. In secular affairs, Stavanger lost the Mountain Land of
Valdres and Hallingdal to Oslo, while Hamar lost the southern law-parish of
Eidsivathing to the three coastal towns. This, though, was a compromise. The
areas remained connected to their original diocese. This dual connection is
also seen in Jämtland, which in secular terms was under Frostathing and in
ecclesiastical terms under Uppsala. This special category, in terms of cultural
geography, is worthy of a study in its own right.
Significant changes occurred after 1223. Rural lawthings were relocated
to the towns, and the lawmen’s roles in the town and countryside became
fused together (Seip 1934: 16–24). Gulen and Avaldsnes (Gulathingslag) were
absorbed by Bergen and Stavanger in the fourteenth century. Two ancient
law-parishes were divided between Skien, Tønsberg and Oslo. The Frostathing
moved to Trondheim. In this process the Borgarthing lost its overall function
as a thing, since the western law-parish was broken up. While there were at
least nine rural lawthing sites in 1223, only Foss, Steigen and Eidsvoll remained
in rural areas in 1604. Konghelle was a border town that was too impractically
located to be the central lawthing for Båhuslen. Foss was more central, and per-
haps remained the location of the lawthing for this reason. In scantily urbanised
Hålogaland, Steigen remained the thing site, and Vågan did not have the grav-
ity as a town to attract the lawthing. Altogether, seven or eight coastal towns
in Norway partly or wholly attracted the functions of the rural lawthing. This
applies to Konghelle (Bahus) (partly), Borg, Oslo, Tønsberg, Skien, Stavanger,
Bergen and Trondheim, as well as Hamar in the Mountain Land. The changes
on the western shore of the Oslo Fjord and the southern Mountain Land
were the most extensive, as jurisdictions were altered to meet the needs of the
coastal towns.
Despite the fact that all the towns were not equally successful as legal
centres, the Decapolis metaphor in Historia Norwegie did contain a prophetic
element. Even though the Decapolis did not have the direct ‘civilising influ-
ence’ that the concept alludes to, the coastal towns did influence the regional
network of Norway. The changes were due to political developments and
the power of the market.
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Index
Note: the following abbreviations have been used – f = figure; n = note; t = table
Adelsö (Sweden) 135 Åraksfjorden (lake) 203–4

aDNA 9, 71 Archaeological Prospection and Virtual
Africa: coinage 224 Archaeology, Ludwig Boltzman Institute
Agder 16 for (LBI) (University of Vienna) 214
Agdesiden (Norway) 261, 264t archaeological sites and regions: map 7
agency: economic/social 2, 3, 16–19, 36 Århus (Denmark) 12, 143, 151, 155
agricultural economy 6, 17, 18, 147; aristocracy 6, 176; control over production
Coastal Land 237; Denmark; exchange 16–19
systems 46, 51, 52, 53–4; iron and iron armrings 130, 131, 132, 133, 134
production 113, 120, 121, 205, 208, Arnamagnæanske håndskriftsamling
245; Mountain Land 237, 241, 244, 245; (manuscript) 257, 259
Norway 163, 165, 169, 173, 174–6; arrowheads 170, 171, 172
summer farming system (shielings) artisanal production 3, 5–6, 13, 18–19, 21,
163–4, 165, 167, 169, 240, 243; Sweden 87; excavation finds 217–19
6; tariffs 96, 99, 101–2, 106; tithes 119; Ashby, S. et al. 22
trade stations 192, 202–3, 204; see also Askvik, H. 75
animal husbandry; grain cultivation; rural Aslak Petersson 260
economy Aslanian, S.D. 35
Åhus (Sweden) 13 assemblies of people see skeid; thing and
amber 15, 18, 195, 200–1; production sites thingmen
213, 217, 219 Attundaland (‘Land with Eight Hundreds’)
amulets see armrings (Sweden) 257
Amunde Remba (lawman) 261 aura (weight unit of silver) 52
Anglo-Saxon lands 3; grave-goods 201 axes 195, 198, 199, 200
animals: bone 199, 241, 243, 244;
ornament 4; sacrifice 244 Båhuslen (Norway/Sweden) 261, 263t,
animal husbandry 241; coinage and 96–7, 265, 273
98, 99, 100; iron production and 120, bailiffs 96, 251, 261
121; livestock grazing 163, 165, 167, 169, bakestones 73t, 76–7, 82t, 84, 86
170–1, 175; see also agricultural economy; Baltic Sea 79, 80, 80t, 81, 86, 200
grain cultivation; rural economy barrows see burial mounds
antler production 3, 4, 5, 9, 10, 11, 21; Baug, I. 12, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18
comb production 70–1; everyday objects beach markets 13
243; procurement of raw materials 82t, beads 18, 46, 200, 201, 204, 212; dating
149, 174; see also hunting and trapping 221f, 222, 225, 242; see also jewellery
Arabic (Islamic): coinage 198, 199, 217, Belgium 80, 80t, 81, 85, 86
223f, 226; jewellery 200, 218, 219; silver Bergen (Norway) 10, 12, 106, 156n1;
13, 52, 55n4; trade and trading systems 3 bakestones 84; ceramics 84, 85–6;
278 Index
comb production 71, 72; consumption bullion 42, 217, 224, 225
of domestic products 74, 76, 78, 79, burial mounds 18, 129; lawthings 270, 271;
80t; consumption of iron 68–9, 120; trade and production sites 212, 214, 216,
lawthings 251, 254, 264t, 266, 272, 273; 225, 226
production of domestic products 63, burials 101, 54, 208, 225–6; boats 18, 129,
63t, 64, 83; reconstruction of central 212, 214, 216; cairns 44, 194, 196t,
settlement areas 65f, 66; trade and 197t; chamber graves; Christian 70, 203;
trading systems 151–2, 153 customs 44, 47t, 51, 203; Denmark;
bespoke production 4, 5, 128, 130, 131 double 198, 199; Iron Age 205t; male 46,
Birka (Sweden) 6, 135, 226; silver 42, 44, 51, 53, 154, 203, 207; mountain graves
46, 50, 51 172, 178f, 179, 195, 200, 207; pagan
‘Bishop’s Road’ (Bispevegen) 202, 203 203, 207; ships 18, 129, 224, 225, 226;
Bjørgo, N. 268 see also cemeteries; grave goods; hoards
Bjørkum (Lærdal, Norway) 14, 240–1, burnt mark silver 96, 97, 106, 107
242f, 243–5 butter 6
black earth 241 Bygland (Norway) 17
Black ware cooking pots 79, 80t, 80–1, 85 Byglandsfjorden (lake) (Norway) 203–3
Blackburn, M. 224 Byzantium 218
blinds (hunting) 171
Blom, J.-P. 237 cairns 44, 194, 196t, 197t; see also burial
boats see ships and boats mounds
bog ore see iron and iron production Caledonian hones 74, 75, 76, 83, 86
Bohuslän (Sweden) 10, 99, 107n1 Caliphate see Arabic
bóndafé (payment from farmers) 96, 99 Callmer, J. 2, 124, 125, 128
bone (animal) 199, 241, 243, 244 Carelli, P. 147, 149
bone ash 219 Carolingian Empire 150, 217, 224;
Borg (Norway) 64, 251, 254, 272, 273 coinage 95
Borgarthing (Norway): coinage 95, 96, 99; Celestine III, Pope 106–7
law-parishes 263t, 265–6, 268, 271–2; Celtic grave-goods 201
lawthings 255, 257, 259 cemeteries 18; grave-goods 196t, 197t;
Borgund (Norway) 255; domestic and signs of trade and exchange 194f, 195,
exotic materials 63, 64, 71, 78, 198f, 199–201; see also burials, grave-
80t, 85 goods, hoards
Borgundkaupangen (Norway) 14 Central Land see Mountain Land
Borre ship-burial (Norway) 129, 132–3 central-place markets 227, 228
bow and arrow hunting 170, 172, 243 Central-Place Theory 34–5
bracteates (coins) 99–100, 107, 199 ceramics and pottery 13, 15, 149;
Brendalsmo, J. 251 consumption 18, 84–6; procurement
bridge building 201 63, 79, 80, 80t, 81–2, 82t, 217–18;
Britain: domestic and exotic materials 15, soapstone 140, 145, 146–7
79, 80, 80t, 84; excavation finds 217, chamber graves see burial mounds; cairns
218, 219 charcoal pits 115–16, 117, 167, 169, 241;
Broberg, B. 59, 86 maps: distribution in Norway (Viking
Brøgger, A.W. 199 Age and Middle Ages) 114; recorded
bronze castings 49, 111 medieval sites/charcoal pits in Gravfjellet
brooches 135, 178f, 185, 199, 200; (Norway) 118; see also iron and iron
equal-armed 125f, 126, 127, 131, 132; production
penannular 46, 130, 131, 132, 133–4; charters 259, 260, 265, 267–8
silver 44, 49 chieftains and chiefdom 18, 34, 36, 53; gift
Bücher, K. 32 exchange economy 257; redistributive
building and construction materials 151, economy 36; surplus production 176–7
215, 216; procurement 81, 82t; rural Christaller, W. 34–5
economy 241, 242f, 243, 244; urbanism Christian I (king of Norway) 271
and urbanisation 60, 63–4, 65f, 66; see Christian IV (king of Norway) 96, 257,
also domestic and exotic materials 261, 263t
Index 279
Christianity: blending with Norse beliefs consumption patterns 18; domestic and
254; burials 70, 203; conversion to 2, 3, exotic materials 63–4, 66, 68–72, 74–9,
268; Sweden 2 80t, 81, 82–3, 87
chronology 4, 8, 9, 10, 11, 60, 111; Continental grave-goods 199, 202
trade and trading systems 200, 206, 220, Cook, S. 32
221f, 228 cooking pits 240, 242, 243, 244, 265
churches 20, 34, 62, 64, 265; ‘church copper alloy 49f, 198, 217, 218; jewellery
villages’ 243–4; sites 14, 265; map: 125, 128, 129, 130, 131–2, 134; urbanism
agrarian settlements and parish churches and urbanisation 69, 70–1, 81–2, 86
(c12/13th) 45; see also ecclesiastical cornelian 218–19, 222, 226
administration counterfeiting (coins) 106
‘circulation society’: polycentric model 35 Coutu, A.N. see Ashby, S. et al.
clay moulds 125–6 craft industries see fine-metalworking;
Cnut (king of Denmark and England) jewellery; shoe production; weaponry;
Coastal Land 5, 12, 13, 17, 19, 237; weaving
Christianisation of 203; compensation crafts-people: housing 134; pit houses 241,
schemes 98–9; economy 19, 20–1; law- 242f, 243, 244
parishes 262t, 265, 272; lawthings 250, cremation 44, 47t, 195, 199, 200
252, 253–4, 258, 260; trade and trading Cultural Heritage Research, Norwegian
systems 202, 206, 255 Institute for (NIKU) 214
coinage 69; African 224; Anglo- Curtin, P. 35
Scandinavian 201, 202; animal cut-up silver 19–20, 52
husbandry and 96–7, 98, 99, 100; Arabic
(Islamic) 198, 199, 217, 223f, 226; Daae, L. see Wille, H.J. et al.
Carolingian Empire 95; compensation Dagfinn Bonde (lawman) 261
schemes 95, 99–100, 107; dating 223f, Dalton, G. 1
224, 225; ecclesiastical law and money dark schist see whetstone
106–7; excavation finds 217; expenses De Finnis see Sami people
and travel routes 95–6, 97t, 98t, 99; De montanis Norwegie see Mountain Land
grave-goods 198, 199; hoards 14, 17, de-evolution of technology: iron 115–16
19, 20, 195, 212; royal families control decapolis 254, 273
of minting 101–2, 106, 107; silver Denmark 4, 10, 12, 15, 96, 199;
3, 13, 19–20, 42, 44, 52; thing and agricultural economy; burials 140,
thingmen 95, 100–2, 105–6; maps: travel 149, 199; ceramics 86; fortifications 8;
compensation/geographical zones in lawthings (landsting) 257, 262t, 272; long-
Gulathing/Frostathing law-areas 103, 104 distance trade 15, 245; metalworking
colonization 174 111–12, 114, 245, 254; quernstones 140,
comb production 58–9, 10, 11, 195, 143, 145, 148–9; settlement patterns 12,
243; consumption 66, 67t, 70–1, 74; 251; shoe production 87; soapstone 10,
procurement 81, 82t, 87 140, 145, 147–9, 152, 202; trade and
commission production 4, 5 trading systems 224, 225
commodity production: local/regional/ destroyed graves 44
interregional trade and 4–6, 8, 16, dirhams 198, 199, 217, 218, 223f, 226
20, 21–2; long-distance trade 8–12; as distribution maps 37
payment method 42 domestic and exotic materials 59–60, 63;
common land 180 ceramics 79, 80t, 81–2; production 63t,
communication centres see seasonal 81, 82t, 83–7; small-scale crafts 66t, 67t,
markets; skeid; trading routes 68–72, 73t, 74, 81; map: non-agrarian
compensation schemes 95, 99–100, 107; activities and urbanisation 61; see also
maps, travel compensation/geographical building and construction materials;
zones in Gulathing/Frostathing law-areas hones; quernstones; whetstones
103, 104 double burial 198, 199
complex societies 1, 16, 18; pre/early-state ‘DYLAN – How to manage dynamic
31, 32, 33, 34, 38 landscapes’ (Norwegian Research
‘consumer towns’ 5, 21, 120 Council) 182n3
280 Index
Earl Skule 259 Færden, G. 11
Early Viking Age (700–950) 3, 15, 18, fairs 52, 202
19, 21; commodity production 6, Far East 218
9–10; non-ferrous metalworking 54, farm settlements see agricultural economy;
124; soapstone 139, 140, 148, 155; animal husbandry; grain cultivation; rural
urbanisation 12, 13 economy
ecclesiastical administration 6, 8, 21, 181, Faroe Islanders’ Saga 105
258; iron and iron production 119, 120t; Faroe Islands 95, 140, 144, 145
law and money 102, 106–7; lawthings fehird 153, 156n1
and 260, 268, 269–70, 272; power and félag 154
181, 270; silver 60, 64; trade and trading female burials/graves 46, 55n2
systems 154; see also churches fencing systems 12
economy 1–4, 22, 32; Coast Land 20–1; festivals see fairs
commodity production for local/ Feveile, C. 125
regional/interregional trade and 4–6, 8; fieldwalking 220
commodity production for long-distance Filefjellsveg (trading route) 238
trade 8–12; evolutionary model 2, 115; final authority thing (ályktaþing) 266
redistributive 35, 36, 38; subsistence- fine-metalworking 213, 217, 219, 228
oriented/status-driven 32–3; subsistence/ Finley, M.I. 1, 32, 34
commission production 4; trade routes fishing and fishermen 13, 147, 152, 191,
and monetisation 14–20; urbanisation 225, 245
and seasonal markets 12–14 Fjære (Norway) 13–14, 202, 203
Eddas 254 Fjärdrundaland (‘Land with Four
Edict of Pitres (AD 864) 95 Hundreds’) (Sweden) 257
Egil’s Saga 105, 266 Flodin, L. 11
Eidsborg (Norway) 14, 220; production/ Fønhus, M. 233, 234–5
procurement 74, 75, 76, 83, 86 foodstuffs 6–7,149–50, 154, 220, 224, 225;
Eidsivathing (Norway); coinage 95, 96, coinage and 96–7, 98, 99
98t, 99; law-parish divisions 263t, 265, foresty see Uplands (Norway)
268, 271, 272; lawthings 255, 258, 259, formalism 32, 33, 34, 36, 38
260, 261 Forsa (Hälsingland, Sweden) 52
Eidsvoll (Norway) 264t, 272 fortifications 8
Ekrem, I. 257 Foss lawthing (Norway) 259, 260, 265,
elites 38, 53, 134, 176; tribute 36, 37, 131, 272, 273
154, 251 France 80, 80t, 85
elk hunting/trapping 163, 167, 169 Frankish trade 3, 126, 149, 201, 217
embroidery/sewing threads 72, 81, 82t, Fredrikstad (Norway) 261
86, 87 Frisia 5, 9, 15–16, 126, 149
equestrian equipment see horses Frösön (formerly Kråksta) (Jämtland,
Erling Skakke 106 Norway/Sweden) 52
Europe: historical time designations ixt Frostathing Law 52, 239, 266
Evenstad, O. 173 Frostathing (Norway): coinage 95, 96,
everyday products 4, 19, 154, 195, 217; 97, 99, 105; law-parishes 263t, 265,
skeid 242, 243; small-scale crafts 66t, 67t, 266–7, 272; lawthings 255, 259, 261;
68–72, 73t, 74 maps 103, 104
evolutionary model of economy 2, 115 Frostatingslova 119
exchange systems 5, 6, 173, 201; Fuglesang, S.H. 127, 132
agricultural economy 46, 51, 52, funeral and burial customs 44, 47t, 51, 203
53–4; coinage 100–1; non-ferrous funnel-shaped trapping systems 170–2
metalworking 126, 131, 134; pre-state/ fur and hide 4, 5, 6, 71, 243; procurement
early state 31, 35, 37, 38; silver 42, 53, 82t, 174, 201
54; skeid (assembly of people) 237–8; furnaces 11, 113, 114–15, 119, 121, 163
soapstone 145, 153 Fyn (Denmark) 15
exotic materials see domestic and exotic Fyresdal (Norway) 207, 208, 239
materials Fyrkat fortress (Jylland) 8
Index 281
gathering places see seasonal markets; skeid hacksilver 126, 195, 199; coinage 42–3, 44,
geographical nodes 37–8 49, 53, 55n4; excavation finds 212, 217,
geophysics 14 219; see also silver
Germany 34, 113, 147; domestic and Håkon Håkonsson (king of Norway) 257,
exotic materials 80t, 81, 85, 86; 259, 261, 265, 269, 271; map: law-
maps, quernstone regions in southern parishes of Norway according to saga
Scandinavia 148 (1223) 256
gift exchange economy 1, 35, 177, half-shire-thing (tredingting/halvfylkesting)
179, 218; chieftains 177; hierarchical 265–6
relationships 130, 131, 132, 133, 134 Halfdan the Black 270, 271
Gjellebøl, R. 235, 236, 237 Halland (Sweden) 10
glass-bead makers 5 Hällesjö (Jämtland, Norway/Sweden) 55n4
Glørstad, Z. 130, 132 Hallingdal (Norway) 266, 272
‘Gokstad Revitalised’ (GOREV) 212, 214 Hallingskeid (Norway) 239, 243
Gokstad ship burial (Norway) 18, 129, 212, Hålogaland (Norway) 95, 261, 268, 273
214, 225, 226–8 Halvorsen, E.F. 252, 258
gold and goldsmiths 128, 130, 134, 202, 217 Hamar (Norway) 62, 64, 251, 261, 273;
Gorm (King of Denmark) 251 Bishops of 176, 268, 269, 272
government see kings; royal families and Handelstorget (excavation) 78
administration; skied, ecclesiastical handicrafts 195, 220, 243
administration Hansen, I.L. 1
Gråfjell area (Norway) 163, 172, 173, 174; Harald Bluetooth (king of Denmark) 251
maps, archaeological sites 164; resource Haraldr Finehair (king of Norway) 130
exploitation 167, 168t, 169 Haraldr Hardrada (king of Norway) 251
grain cultivation 53, 169, 175, 191, 241; Härjedalen (Norway/Sweden) 51t
trade/production sites 220, 224, 225; Hasebroek, J. 32
see also agricultural economy; animal Hasselmo, M. 59, 86
husbandry; rural economy Hedeby (Denmark) 6, 19, 44, 135, 150,
grave-goods 9, 17, 18, 20; jewellery 155; burials 226; quernstones 12, 15,
178f,195, 200; mountain areas 170, 144; soapstone 10, 11, 13, 140, 147;
178f, 179, 195, 200, 207; Norway 178; whetstone 9
in ship burials 18, 29, 212, 225, 226; Hedmark (Norway) 271
silver weighs/balances 44, 46, 47t, 48f, Hedmarken (Norway) 17–18, 20
49f; trade-related 194f, 195, 196t, 197t, Heimdal (Norway) 252
198f, 199–201, 203; weaponry 18, 53, Heimdalsjordet (seasonal market)
204, 216, 224, 228; see also burials; (Norway) 12, 13, 14, 20, 225–8;
cemeteries; hoards artefactual material 216–20; dating of
Gravfjellet (Norway) 111, 116, 117, 118, the site 220, 221f, 222t, 223f, 224–5;
119; maps: recorded early Iron Age sites excavation of 212, 213f, 214f; site
in Gravfjellet (Norway) 117; recorded structures 214, 215f, 216
medieval sites/charcoal pits 118 Helle, K. 255
Greco-Romano economy 32–3 ‘Hide Road’ (Skinnvegen) 201–2, 203
Grenland (Norway) 271, 272 high-resolution georadar 214
Grimsdalen (Norway) 163–4, 168t, 170, Hinsch, E. 213, 214, 216
175, 182n5; map: archaeological sites 165 hinterland 35, 63, 69, 82, 208, 250–2;
Grimstad region (Norway) 202, 203 impact of alteration of legal landscape
group-level identity markers 38 271–3; law-areas (patriae) and
Gudbrandsdalen (Norway) 174, 268, 271 trade regulations 252, 253–5; legal
Gulathing (Norway) 95, 96, 97t, 99, 100; administrative divisions 261, 262–4t,
lawthings 255, 259, 261, 263t, 265, 266; 265–6, 267–8, 269–70, 271; origin and
monetarisation 105, 106; map 103, 104 organisation of lawthings 255, 256–61;
Gulatingslovi 119 seasonal markets 12–13, 14, 15, 16;
Gulli (Norway) 132 maps: law-parishes (lagsogn) of
Gustin, I. 1 Norway (1223) 256; lawthings of
Gylfaginning (Edda) 254 Norway (1223) 267; major divisions of
282 Index
Norway (Historia Norwegie) 253; new Ireland 15
regions emerging (c.1250–1350) 270; Iron Age viii, ix, 2; agricultural economy
provinces of Mountain Land 269; see also 6, 241, 242, 243, 244; burials 200, 203,
urbanism and urbanisation 204, 205t; hunting 163, 165, 167, 168t,
Historia Norwegie (Norvegiae) 20, 54, 161, 170; iron and iron production 4, 111,
233; lawthings 252, 254, 257–8, 262t, 113, 115–16, 163, 245; settlement 174,
263t, 265, 273; map: major divisions of 175, 177, 179; trade and trading systems
Norway 253 15, 222, 232, 265; map: recorded sites
hoards 14, 17, 19, 20, 132, 202; silver in Gravfjellet area (Norway) 117
42–3, 52, 53, 55n4, 102; see also burials; iron and iron production 3, 4, 5, 13, 16, 17;
cemeteries; grave goods; weaponry agricultural economy 113, 120, 121, 205,
Hodges, R. 227 208, 245; de-evolution of technology
hofdingiafundr (political meeting) 257, 259 115–16; long-distance trade 8, 9, 10,
Höggärde (Jämtland, Norway/Sweden) 202, 250; political control of 176–7;
48f, 50f, 53 procurement of raw materials 82t, 149;
Holm, O. 17 producers 119, 120t; production sites
hones 73t, 74–6, 82t, 83, 86, 219–20; 21, 111, 163, 213, 219, 226; small-scale
see also domestic and exotic materials; production/smelting 66t, 67–8, 69, 81;
quernstones; soapstone; whetstones technological innovation/changes 11,
Horn, A.C. 259 115–16, 117, 118, 119, 121; trade stations
horses 6, 53; racing/fighting 235, 236, 237, 202, 204; Uplands 167–8, 169, 172, 173,
238, 239, 240 174, 175; weights 49f; maps: all recorded
Hougen, B. 170 iron production sites (Norway/Sweden)
housing 6, 21, 171, 172, 214, 241; crafts- (C4th bc– ad C19th) 112; recorded early
people 134; organic growth 54, 177; Iron Age sites in Gravfjellet (Norway)
pit houses 241, 242f, 243, 244; see also 117; see also charcoal pits; non-ferrous
urbanism and urbanisation metalworking; production
Hovden (Norway) 202 isotope analysis 9
hunting and trapping 21, 175, 245, 250;
large-scale hunting 170–2, 176, 191; Jamtamót (Norway/Sweden) 268
resource exploitation 163, 165, 167, 169; Jämtland (Norway/Sweden) 17, 18, 42–3,
technological adaptation 171–2, 173, 52–4, 99, 107n1; lawthings 255, 258,
174, 182n5; see also antler production 261, 268, 272; silver and payment
Hyllestad (Norway) 11, 12, 15, 21, 74, 83; transactions 49, 50f, 51t; silver weights/
quernstones/soapstone 144, 145, 147, balances as grave goods 44, 46, 47t, 48f,
148, 149, 150; trade and trading systems 49f, 55n3; maps: distribution of finds
151, 152–3, 154; map: distribution of of weights/balances 45; position on the
quernstones from Hyllestad 143 Scandinavian Peninsula 43
Jensen, J.E. 114
Iceland 140, 144, 145, 258 jewellery 178f, 217, 224, 228; Arabic
imports 15, 17, 114, 132, 144, 202; (Islamic) 200, 218, 219; grave-goods
domestic and exotic materials 79, 178f, 195, 200; silver 46, 49; urban
80t, 81, 82t; foreign traders 255; rural commodity production 125f, 127f,
economy 217–9, 226, 228; see also long- 130–2 133; see also beads
distance trade Jormön (Frostviken) (Jämtland, Norway/
in casu metal-casters 5 Sweden) 53
Indrebø, G. 252, 256, 260, 265, 268, 271 jurisprudence see lawthings
inductively coupled plasma mass Jutland peninsula (Jylland) 8, 13, 15;
spectrometry (ICP-MS) 146 soapstone 140, 143, 146, 147
inhumation graves 47t, 49, 50, 52, 195, 199
inland transport: the homelands 201, 202, kaolin clay 70, 71, 82t, 86, 87, 219
204, 207–8 Kattegat 11, 13
Inner Sogn (Norway) 244, 246 Kaupang (Norway) 5, 6, 251, 271; beads
Insular grave-goods 199, 202 219; ceramics 86; coinage 19, 223,
interior economy 20–1 224; commodity production 124,
Index 283
125f, 126, 127f, 155; comparison with LBI see Ludwig Boltzman Institute for
Heimdalsjordet (seasonal market) Archaeological Prospection and Virtual
(Norway) 212, 216, 220, 223–4, 226, Archaeology (LBI) (University of Vienna)
227–8; jewellery 130–2, 133; long- lead 69, 217, 218, 220, 244; models for
distance trade 9, 10, 11; seasonal markets jewellery 124, 125f, 126, 127f, 128,
12, 13; serial production 128, 129f, 130; 129f, 131
silver 42; soapstone 146–7, 154, 202; leather see fur and hide
standardization and 132–4; trade and legal institutions see lawthings
trading systems 15–16, 18, 19 levy-fleet fund (leiðang) 106
Kaupanger (Norway) 254; domestic and LIDAR see Light Detection and Ranging
exotic materials 63, 64, 68, 70, 80t, 85 Light Detection And Ranging (LIDAR) 116
Kilger, C. 218 liūðrēttr (law of the people) 52
kings 130, 239, 268; coinage 95, 96, 100, livestock grazing 163, 165, 167, 169,
106; lawthings and 251, 254, 257, 260, 170–1, 175
261, 263t; sagas 267; 257, 259, 261, 265, local/regional/interregional trade and 4–6,
269, 271; map: law-parishes of Norway 8, 227
according to Håkon Håkonsson (king Löddeköpinge (seasonal market) (Øresund,
of Norway) (1223) 256; see also royal Sweden) 12, 13
families and administration Lödöse (Sweden) 86
Konghelle (Norway/Sweden) Lofoten (Norway) 18
see Kungahälla Loftahammar Hoard (Småland, Sweden) 223
koupstad (small trading place) 60 Long Eighth Century: Production, Distribution
Kresten, P. 147, 149 and Demand (Hansen and Wickham) 1
Kungahälla (Norway/Sweden) 62, 64, 68, long-distance trade 23, 4–5, 6, 17, 72,
70, 71, 76; ceramics 78–9, 80t, 81, 254, 83–4; commodity production 8–12, 191,
272–3 201; soapstone 8–9, 10, 11, 15, 21, 154;
see also imports
labour 12, 16, 161, 173, 238 longhouses see housing
Lærdal (Norway) 244, 246 longphorts see Ireland
Lærdalsmarknad (seasonal market) longships see ships and boats
(Norway) 244 loom weights 139, 243
Lagabøter, M. 68 Ludwig Boltzman Institute for Archaeological
Lamøya (island) 216 Prospection and Virtual Archaeology (LBI)
land and landowners 154, 176, 180 (University of Vienna) 214
Landnåmabok (Hauksbok) 259 Lund (Sweden) 11, 12
landscape management 179–81 Lusakaupang (seasonal market)
Langeid (Norway): cemetery 194f, 195, (Norway) 14, 244
196t, 197t, 198f, 199–201; inland Lusakaupangen see Lusakaupang (seasonal
expansion of trade 204, 205t, 206, 207; market)
regional trade exchange networks 201–3; luxury items 18–19, 204, 227; embroidery
stationary and mobile trade entrepreneurs 72, 81, 82t, 86–7
203–4, 208; map: Setesdal Valley 193
Larsen, J.H. 201 magnetometry 214
Larson, L.M. 100–1 Magnus Lagabøters Landslov 119
Late Viking Age (950–1100) 5–6, 10–11, Magnus the Lawmender (king of Norway)
12, 14, 19; grave-goods 46, 50, 51 95, 96, 100, 239, 259, 271
lawmen 250–1, 263t, 266, 271, 272–3 male burials/graves 46, 51, 53, 154, 203, 207
lawthings 255, 256–61; law-areas (patriae) Malinowski, B. 35
and trade regulations 252, 253–5; Mann, M. 38
law-parish divisions 263t, 265, 267–71; mannebøter (wergild) 100, 101
meeting dates 263–4t, 266, 267; proposed manufacturing see production
subdivision of districts and provinces manuscripts 257, 259, 268
262t; maps: law-parishes (lagsogn) of marginalised production 17, 53, 149, 173,
Norway (1223) 256; lawthings of Norway 241, 245; iron and iron production 111,
(1223) 267; see also thing and thingmen 114, 116
284 Index
markets see seasonal markets multi-functional meeting places 14, 240–1,
Markets in Early Medieval Europe (Pestell and 242f, 243–5, 246
Ulmschneider) 1 Munch, P.A. 258
Marstrand (Norway/Sweden) 255 Museum of Cultural History (Oslo)
Martens, I. 175, 219 182n2:4, 192, 212
mass production 1, 8, 126, 127 Myrvoll, S. 72, 75
materiality 31, 37 mythology 254
Maurer, K. 255, 256
Mauss, M. 35 nation states see state power and formation
Mediterranea zona see Mountain Land navigation see trade routes; transportation
Mediterranean 80, 80t, 86–7, 218 neo-evolutionism 33, 34, 36
Mellan gåva och marknad (‘Between gift and networks 35, 37–8, 51, 173, 199–200,
market’) (Gustin) 1 226–7; procurement 72, 79, 82t, 83, 84,
merchants 145, 152, 204; early state 85, 86–7; regional exchange networks
societies 35, 36, 37, 131 201–3; soapstone/quernstones 147,
metal-detection 14, 44, 216, 217, 220, 240 148–51, 153, 155; see also trade and
metalworking see copper alloy; gold; iron trading systems
and iron production; lead; non-ferrous new institutional economics 36–7, 38
metalworking; silver Nidaros (Norway) 251, 254, 258, 268
Meyer, E. 32 NIKU see Norwegian Institute for Cultural
Middle Viking Age (875–1573) 46, 50, 51, Heritage Research
52, 54 nodal markets 13, 83, 86–7, 150–1,
Mikkelsen, E. 170 155, 227
Mill stone project 74 non-agrarian activities 60, 181; map 61
mills 34 non-ferrous metalworking 5, 18, 49, 135;
Mindets Tomt (excavation) 69 commodity production and urbanism/
mints and minting 101–2, 106, 107 urbanisation 124, 125f, 126, 127f;
‘mixed farming’ 169, 175, 176 consumption 66, 67t, 69–70, 86, 87;
mobile communities 233, 245, 252 fine-metalworking 213, 217, 219, 228;
Molaug, P. 69, 251 jewellery 130–2; procurement of raw
monasteries 64 materials 82t; production sites 224, 225,
monetisation 3; ecclesiastical law and 226; serial production 124, 125, 128,
106–7; power and 95, 102; silver and 129f, 130, 133; standardised production
payment transactions 49, 50f, 51t; thing 132–4; see also iron and iron production
and thingmen 102, 105–6; trade routes Nordmannsslepene (trading route) 238
and 14–20 Norrland (Sweden)
monumental building activities 60, 61, 64, Norse; burials 195, 196t, 216;
68, 81 cosmology 250
Mortensen, L.B. 257, 258 North Atlantic islands 153, 155
mounds see burial mounds North, D.C. 36
mountain graves 172, 178f, 179, 195, North Gudbrandsdal (Norway) 163, 167,
200, 207 168t, 171, 175, 176; map: archaeological
Mountain Land; agricultural economy 241, sites 166
244, 245; dating and archaeology of skeid Norway 20, 21, 54, 59, 62, 107n1;
239–40; exchange systems 237–8; law- Christianisation 2, 3, 70, 203, 254, 268;
parish divisions 261, 262t, 265, 268, 271, colonization by 174; major divisions
272, 273; lawthings 250, 252, 253, 258, 252; map: non-agrarian activities
259; multi-functional meeting places 14, and urbanization 61; major divisions
240–1, 242f, 243–5; regionalisation and (Historia Norwegie) 253; South
markets 245–6; skein as inland tradition Norway 162
233, 234, 235f, 236; transportation zones Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage
238–9; maps: as described in Historia Research (NIKU) 214
Norvegiae 234; provinces of Mountain Norwegian Law (1604) 96
Land 269 Norwegian Research Council 182n3
mountains see Uplands (Norway) Numedal (Norway) 259, 268
Index 285
Ohthere (Norse merchant) 20 and 130–1, 134, 135, 176; royal 176,
Olaf/Olav Haraldsson (king of Norway) 177, 255; trade and trading systems
251, 257, 272, 275 145, 250, 273
Olaf Tryggvasson (king of Norway) 251 Prästbordet (Sweden) 48f
Olav IV Håkonsson (king of Norway and Pre-Christian burials see burials;
Denmark) 254 grave-goods
Olav Kyrre (king of Norway) 95, 96, 251 pre-state societies 32–3, 38
Olav the Saint (king of Norway) 100, 106 pre-urbanisation 75, 150
Oppland see Uplands primitivism see substantivism
Oppland County Council/Municipality procurement of resources 8; antler
(Norway) 116, 182n4 production 82t, 149, 174; continuity/
Ordericus Vitales (English chronicler) 251 variation in exploitation (Uplands) 167,
Oseberg ship burial (Norway) 225 168t, 169–71, 182n6; domestic and
Oslo (Norway): bakestones 77–8, 84; exotic materials 59–60, 63, 82t, 83–5,
ceramics 80t, 84; domestic and exotic 85–6, 87; from hinterland 245, 250;
materials 63, 64, 65f, 68–9, 70, 71–2; trade monopolies 254, 255, 265
iron and iron production 83; law- ‘producer towns’ 6, 21
parishes 264t, 265, 266, 268, 271, 272; production 2, 3, 11, 19, 21; archaeological
lawthings 251, 254, 255, 261, 273; sites 8, 10; domestic and exotic materials
quernstones 74, 152; skeid 238; soapstone 63, 63t, 64, 81, 82t, 83–7; peasant and
78, 79; whetstones/hones 74–6, 83 freeholder agency 16–19; power and
Oslofjord (Norway) 130–1, 134, 135, 176; technological
Oslogate 6 (excavation) (Norway) 10 innovation 11–12; see also iron and iron
Østerdalen valley (Uplands (inner eastern production
Norway)) 11–12, 115, 174, 177, 268, 271 proto-urban production centres 150, 173
Østfold (Norway) 16, 21
outfield resources see Uplands quarries and quarrying 8, 12, 16–17, 21;
oxen: as payment 52 domestic products 66, 74, 75, 78; largest
Øyra (Norway) 266, 267–8 quernstone quarries (Norway) 142; trade
Øystein, Archbishop 106 and trading systems 150, 151, 153, 154,
Øystein Roesson (lawman) 261 202; map: location of known soapstone
quarries (Norway) 141
packhorses 238 quernstones 3, 6, 8, 10, 11, 19; centres
pagan practices 203, 207 of procurement 82t; as a commodity
Peder Claussøn Friis 259 140, 143, 144; consumption 73t, 74;
Pedersen, U. 218 long-distance trade 15, 83; patterns of
pendants 46, 126, 127f, 128, 129f, 131, 224 distribution 11–12; producers 153–5;
penninger (coin) 100, 107 quarries and quarrying 14–15, 21;
Pestell, T. 1 shipping; trade and trading systems
Petersen, J. 200, 216, 224 144–7, 148–53; maps: distribution
Pirenne, H. 32 of quernstones from Hyllestad 143;
pit houses 241, 242f, 243, 244 largest quernstone quarries (Norway)
pitfall trap systems 163, 165, 167, 169, 170; 142; quernstone regions in southern
technological adaptions 171, 172, 175 Scandinavia 148; see also domestic and
place names 204, 232, 235, 239, 265 exotic materials; hones; soapstone;
Poetic Edda whetstone
Polanyi, K. 1, 2, 17; pre-state/early state
trade 31, 32, 34, 35–6 Råbyggelag (Norway) 259
political power 31, 35, 38, 227–8 radiocarbon dating 224–5, 242, 265
polycentricism 35 Ranrike (Båhuslen, Norway/Sweden)
‘port-of-trade’ model 34, 83 257, 272
pottery see ceramics and pottery Raudalsdansen (‘Raudal Dance’) 233, 234–5
power 17, 53, 119, 226, 254; ecclesiastical reciprocity 35, 36, 38
181, 270; monetarisation and 95, 102; recoinage (renovatio monetae) 95, 102, 107
political 31, 35, 38, 227–8; production redistributive economy 35, 36, 38
286 Index
reindeer see antler production; hunting and saga literature 239; lawthings 251, 257, 258,
trapping 261, 266, 268; map: law-parishes of
Renfrew, C. 37 Norway (1223) 256
resource procurement see procurement of Sakse of Haug (lawman) 261
resources Saltdal (Norway) 15, 144, 150, 152, 153
Ribe (Jylland) 6, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 216; Sami people 233, 245, 252
trade and trading systems 147, 155 Sandnes, J. 268
rich graves 154 Sandvik, G. 100–1
Ringerike (Norway) 268, 272 scales see weighing equipment
river transportation 203–4 schist see whetstone
roads and road building 201–2, 203, Schleswig (Germany) 150
214, 238 Schultzén, J. 55n3
rock crystal 218–19, 222, 226, 243 sea trade routes 14–16
Rødsmoen (Norway) 163, 167, 168t, 172, seasonal markets 3, 5, 20, 34, 121, 240;
173, 174; map: archaeological sites 164 characteristics 227, 228; ‘church villages’
Rolfsen, P. 270, 271 243–4; urbanism and urbanisation
Romerike (Norway) 16, 268, 272 12–14; see also skeid; trade stations
Romsdal (Norway) 254 Sebbersund (seasonal market) (Limfjord,
rope 4 Denmark) 12, 13, 151, 155
Roskilde (Denmark) 12 Section of Cultural Heritage Management
Rostovtzeff, M. 32 (Vestfold County Council) 212
royal families and administration 52, 202–3, Seip, J.A. 256–7, 260
267–8; control of coin minting, 101–2, Seland, E.H. 2
106, 107; impact on rural economy self-sufficiency 173
101–2, 176–8, 179, 255; impact on serial production 124, 125, 126, 130, 133
urbanism 6, 8, 21, 62–3, 227, 251; iron Setesdal (South-Norway) 17, 18, 20, 235;
and iron production 119, 120, 176, 177, cemeteries 194f, 195, 196t, 197t, 198f,
181; lawthings 265, 267–8; power and 199–201; inland expansion of trade 204,
176, 177, 255; tax revenue 251; trade 205t, 206, 207; regional trade exchange
monopolies 254, 255, 265; tribute 251; networks 201–3, 238, 240; stationary
see also kings and mobile trade entrepreneurs 203–4;
royal stewards (ármaðr) 105 map: Setesdal Valley 193
royal/rural bailiff (sýslumaðr/fogd) 251, 261 settlement hierarchies 34–5
Rundberget, B. 11–12, 176–7 settlement patterns 6, 251; Norway 170,
runic inscriptions 52 174–6, 180, 204, 205t, 206–7
rural economy 6, 9, 10, 13, 14, 15–16; sheep herding 100, 101
commodity production 16, 20, 21–2, Shetland 140, 144
191, 208; domestic and exotic materials shielings see summer farming system
63, 81; royal families and administration ships and boats: burials 18, 129, 212, 225, 226;
101–2, 176–8, 179, 255; self-sufficiency coinage and 100, 101; trade and trading
and 172–4, 181; silver as payment 17, systems 150, 151, 152, 153, 154–5, 203
19–20, 42–3, 52–3; see also agricultural shire-thing (fylkesting) 266
economy; animal husbandry; grain shoe production 5, 66, 67t, 71–2;
cultivation procurement and consumption 81, 82t,
rural law (heraðs rett) 251 86, 87
Rural Law of Magnus the Lawmender Sigtuna (Sweden) 44, 50, 51
(1274) 95, 96, 97t, 98t; maps: travel Sigurd Erlingsson Ribbung 258–9, 265
compensation/geographical zones in silver 17, 69, 202; Arabic 13, 52, 55n4;
Gulathing/Frostathing law-areas 103, 104 coinage 3, 13, 19–20, 102, 105, 107;
rural production see rural economy jewellery 126, 128, 130, 131, 134;
Ruter og rutinisering (‘Routes and payment transactions 49, 50f, 51t;
routinising’) (Sindbæk) 1 procurement 217, 224, 225; tariffs 96,
rye 8 97t, 98t, 99–100; weights/balances as
Rygh, O. 204 grave goods 44, 46, 47t, 48f, 49f, 55n3,
Index 287
195; map: distribution of finds of southern Scandinavia (Denmark) 45–6, 9,
weights/balances in Jämtland (Norway/ 10, 15; domestic and exotic materials 80t,
Sweden) 45; see also hacksilver 85–6; trade and trading systems 149, 155
silversmiths 42 special objects commissioned see bespoke
Simon at the Tomb in Råde (lawman) 261 production
Sindbæk, S.N. 1, 15, 86, 87; see also Ashby, spindle whorls 195, 220, 243
S. et al. Stalsberg, A. 55n2
Sjælland (Denmark) 15 standardised production 124, 132–4, 140
Skagerrak (Norway) 15 standing stones 239
Skåne (Denmark) 15 state power and formation 3, 32, 33, 34, 38
skeid 232–3; dating and archaeology of Stavanger (Norway) 201; domestic and
239–40; exchange systems 237–8; as exotic materials 63, 64, 71, 74, 80t,
inland tradition 233, 234, 235f, 236; 81; law-parishes 264t, 266, 272, 273;
multi-functional meeting places 14, lawthings 251, 254, 255
240–1, 242f, 243–5; regionalisation and steatite see soapstone
markets 245–6; transportation zones Steen, S. 238
238–9; see also seasonal markets; Steigen (Norway) 264t, 268, 272, 273
trade stations Stein 270, 271
Skibotn (seasonal market) (Troms, Steinnes, A. 252
Norway) 243 Steinsland, G. 254
Skien (Norway): bakestones 84; ceramics stone products see bakestones; building
80t; domestic and exotic materials 63, and construction; hones; quernstones;
64, 68, 70, 71, 72; iron 83; law-parishes soapstone; whetstones
264t, 265, 266, 271, 272, 273; lawthings stone settings 44
251, 254, 255, 259, 261; soapstone 78, Storm, G. 252, 254, 258, 259
79; tariffs 96, 98t, 99; whetstones/hones Storøya (Norway) 268, 269–70
75, 76, 83 strap-ends/slides 125f, 217, 221f, 224
Skiringssal (Norway) 131 stray finds: burials 205t
Skre, D. 42–3, 54, 227, 251 Stylegar, F.-A. 254, 258, 259
Skule Bårdsson, Duke 265 subsistence production 4, 5, 32, 245
slag-tapping 113, 116, 119, 163 substantivism 1, 32, 33, 34, 36, 38
slave trade 101 summer farming system (shielings) 163–4,
small market sites 14 165, 167, 169, 240, 243
small-scale crafts 66t, 67t, 68–72, 73t, 74, surplus production 172–4, 176–7, 178f,
81–2 179, 180–1
‘small-world’ networks 38 Svensson, E. 173
smiths 5, 67, 68, 69, 120, 121 Sverre Sigurdsson (king of Norway) 106,
Snorri Sturluson 257, 258, 271 260, 268
snow-patch hunting systems 171, 172 Sweden 10, 54, 200; agricultural economy 6;
soapstone 36, 13, 16–17, 18, 21; as a burials 47t; ceramics 85, 86; Christianisation
commodity 139–40; consumption 73t, 2; coinage 19; iron and iron production
78, 86; long-distance trade 8, 9, 10, 11, 111, 113, 120, 245; lawthings 257; non-
11, 15, 84; monument-building 64–5; ferrous metalworking 135, 226; quernstones
procurement of raw materials 82t, 83, 10, 147, 149, 150; settlements 251; shoe
191; producers 153–5; trade and trading production 86–7; silver 42, 43, 44, 46,
systems 144–7, 148–53, 202; map: 50, 51; soapstone 16, 139, 140, 143, 147;
location of known soapstone quarries urbanism and urbanisation 60, 251; weights
(Norway) 141; see also domestic and 46; maps: all recorded iron production
exotic materials; hones; quernstone; sites (C4th bc– ad C19th) 112; quernstone
whetstone regions in southern Scandinavia 148
social complexity see complex societies swords 53, 216, 224; mountain graves 178f,
social networks 37–8, 179–80 179, 195, 200, 207
Solheim, S. 237 symbolism: foodstuff 150; jewellery 134,
South Norway see Uplands 179; utensils 150
288 Index
tald mark (coin) 106 valley (East Norway)/main valley regions
tannery sites 72 (Telemark County) 206; Setesdal Valley
tar products 4 193; see also seasonal markets; skeid
tariffs 95, 96, 99, 101–2, 106; travel trade and trading systems 221, 31–3, 173,
compensation 97–8t 181; ‘administered trade’ patterns 17, 18;
tax revenue/taxation 107, 119, 153, 156n1, analytical models of 33–4; characteristics
177, 201 227; commodity production 4–6, 8–12;
technological innovations 10, 11–12; Denmark 140, 149; exclusive trading
hunting and trapping 171–2; iron and iron rights 255; interaction models 34–6;
production 11, 115–16, 117, 118, 119, 121 long-distance trade 2, 3, 8–12; new
Telemark County (Norway) 219, 220; institutional economics 36–7; power and
lawthings 268, 272; things and thingmen 145, 250, 273; soapstone/quernstones
235, 238, 239, 259; trading and trading 144–7, 148–53, 150, 153, 155; travel
systems 205t, 207, 208, 255; map: main expenses 95–6, 97t, 98t, 99; maps:
valley regions 206 travel compensation/geographical zones
Telemarkvassdraget (river system) 75 in Gulathing/Frostathing law-areas 103,
textiles 195, 220, 243 104; see also networks
thing and thingmen 20, 96, 180, 244, 250–1; trading routes 14–16, 87, 114, 238–9; rural
coinage 101–2, 105–6; compensation economy 201–2, 203–4, 207–8; see also
schemes 95, 99–100; ecclesiastical law transportation
and money 106–7; expenses and travel Transaction Cost Theory 36
routes 95–6, 97t, 98t, 99; map: travel transit trade 9, 14
compensation/geographical zones in transportation 6, 15, 53–4, 204, 238–9; costs
Gulathing/Frostathing law-areas 103, of 35, 36; inland in homelands 203–4,
104; see also lawthings 208; soapstone/quernstones 150, 151,
timber 63–4, 66, 82t, 255 152, 153, 154–5; see also trading routes
tin 126 transshipment centres 202, 204
tingfareøret (economic compensation for tribal societies 34
attending thing) 95 tribute 258; to elites 36, 37, 131, 154, 251;
Tinn (Norway) 207, 259 to royal families 251
tithes 119, 120t, 258 Trøndelag (Norway) 52, 69, 114, 115, 261
Tiundaland (‘Land with Ten Hundreds’) Trondheim, Archbishop of 176
(Sweden) 257 Trondheim (Norway) 10, 11, 12;
Tjølling (Norway) 260, 265, 266, 271, 272 bakestones 84; ceramics 80t, 85, 86;
Tøftom (Dovre, Norway) 12 domestic and exotic materials 63, 64,
Tønsberg (Norway); bakestones 84; ceramics 65f, 66, 68, 71, 72; iron production 81;
80t; lawthings 251, 254, 261, 264t, 265, lawthings 254, 264, 268, 273; stockfish
266, 271, 272, 273; quernstones 152; 152; whetstones/hones 75
silver 69, 70 Tune (Østfold, Norway) 14
tools of trade 194f, 195, 196t, 197t, 198f, Tveite, S. 238–9
199–201, 203
Tord Skolle (lawman) 261 ubotamål (outlawry) 106
Tore Lagmann (Gudmundsson) (lawman) 261 Ulmschneider, K. 1
town assembly (mót) 251 Ulriksen, E. 78
towns see urbanism and urbanization unica production 3, 5
‘trade diaspora’ 35 University of Bergen 240
trade laws (Bjarkøyretter) 251 University Museum of Bergen 240
trade monopolies 83–4, 254, 255 University of Oslo 259
trade stations 191–2, 208; inland expansion University of Vienna 214
204, 205t, 206, 207; regional exchange Uplands (Norway) 11–12, 15–16, 234,
networks 201–3; signs of trade and 261, 264t; continuity/variation in
exchange in cemeteries 194f, 195, 196t, resource exploitation 167, 168t, 169–71,
197t, 198f, 199–201; stationary and 182n6; geographical and archaeological
mobile entrepreneurs 203–4; maps: main background 163, 165, 167, 182n2–4;
Index 289
local landscape management 179–81; Vestfold County Council 212
settlement and agricultural economy Vestfold Museums 212
174–6; surplus production and local Vike, V. 198
population 160–1, 172–4, 176–7, 178f, Viken (Norway) 261, 263t
179, 180–1; technological adaptation and Viking Age see Early Viking Age (700–950);
regional dynamics 171–2; transportation Late Viking Age (950–1100); Middle
zones 238–9; maps: distribution of Viking Age (1050–1573)
archaeological sites (Gråfjell area/ Vingulsmark (Norway) 271, 272
Rødsmoen) 164; distribution of ViS Group vii, viii
archaeological sites (Grimsdalen) 165;
distribution of archaeological sites (North Wallis, J.J. 36
Gudbrandsdal) 166; South Norway 162, walrus-ivory products 4
236; see also rural economy Wamers, E. 217
Uppåkra (Sweden) 223 ware types: ceramics 79–81, 85
Uppland (Sweden) 258 wax models/moulds 124, 125f, 128–9, 133
Uppsala Law (Sweden) 257, 272 weaponry 18, 53, 204, 216, 224, 228;
urban bailiff (gjaldker) 251 mountain graves 178f, 179, 195, 200, 207
Urban Code of Bergen (1276) 151 weaving 139, 195, 196t, 197t, 220, 243
urbanism and urbanisation 6, 10, 21–2, 227; weighing equipment 13, 17, 18, 19, 20,
commodity production 124, 125f, 126, 198f; dating 220, 221f, 222t; excavation
127f, 153–5; construction of buildings/ finds 212, 218, 244; jewellery 126, 131;
infrastructure in Norway 60, 63–4, 65f, male burials/graves 154, 207; silver 44,
66, 81, 82; consumption patterns 63–4, 46, 47t, 48f, 49f, 55n3; trade-related
66, 68–72, 74–9, 80t, 81, 82, 87; royal grave-goods 194f, 195, 196t, 197t, 198f,
families and administration 6, 8, 21, 62–3, 199–201, 203; map: distribution of finds
227, 251; seasonal markets 3, 5, 12–14; in Jämtland (Norway/Sweden) 45
Sweden 251; trade and trading systems Weingast, B. 36
17–18, 151–3; map: non-agrarian Western Europe 217, 218, 224
activities 61; see also hinterland; housing Western Scandinavia 8, 9, 10, 12, 13,
utensils 4, 19, 83, 200; soapstone 146, 14; commodity production 4, 18, 19;
150, 154 hoards 20; seasonal markets 20; trade and
trading systems 15, 17
Vågan (Norway) 14, 62, 64, 152, 254, 268, whetstones 3, 6, 9–11, 13–15, 19, 21; as a
273 commodity 149, 191, 195; consumption
Vågar see Vågan 74–6; grave-goods 198, 199; Mountain
Vågslid, E. 260 Land 242; production sites 213, 219–20;
Valdres (Norway) 235, 237, 238, 266, 272 see also domestic and exotic materials;
Valle (Norway) 17, 235, 236, 239, 240; trade hones; quernstone; soapstone
and trading systems 201–2, 203, 207, 208 Wickham, C. 1
Veblen, T. 31 Wille, H.J. et al. 239
Veøy (Norway) 60, 62, 64, 66, 254, 255 wood see timber
Veøykaupangen (Romsdal, Norway) 14, wool 6, 220
68, 70 workshops 18, 106, 200, 215, 243; non-
verdict (domsbrev) 270 ferrous 125, 131, 133
vessel glass 18
Vesterøya (Norway) 216 zinc 69
Vestfold (Norway) 15–16, 21, 129, 146, zona itaque maritime see Coastal Land
154, 271; trade and trading systems 226, Zona Montana (Mountainous Land/
227, 228, 255 Uplands) (Norway) 20, 21

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Viking-Age Transformations

The Viking Age was a period of profound change in Scandinavia. As kingdoms

Zanette T. Glørstad is Associate Professor in the Department of Archaeology,

Kjetil Loftsgarden is a research fellow in the Department of Archaeology,

Edited by Zanette T. Glørstad

ISBN: 978-1-4724-7077-5 (hbk)

Preface and acknowledgements vii

1 Viking-Age economic transformations:

2 Approaching trade in pre-state and early state societies 31

3 The use of silver as a medium of exchange in

4 Domestic and exotic materials in early medieval

5 The price of justice and administration of coinage 95

6 The extensive iron production in Norway in the tenth

7 Viking-period non-ferrous metalworking and urban

8 Soapstone vessels and quernstones as commodities

9 The Uplands: the deepest of forests and the highest

10 A view from the valley: Langeid in Setesdal,

11 Heimdalsjordet: trade, production and communication 212

12 The skeid and other assemblies in the Norwegian

13 The urban hinterland: interaction and law-areas

The centuries between ad 700 and 1100 are characterised by profound

ad Continent & UK Norway and Sweden Archaeological

Section at the Department of Archaeology, Conservation and History (IAKH),

Oslo, 30 May 2016

C  King Christian IV’s Norwegian law code of 1604. Hallanger,

Irene Baug Postdoctoral Fellow – Department of Archaeology, History,

The economic turn

Viking-Age economic transformations

•• Production of marketable goods: While artisanal unica production was pre-

Subsistence, commission, and commodity production

Commodity production for local, regional, and

Commodity production for long-distance trade

The early period (c. ad 700–950)

The later period (c. ad 950–1100)

Urbanisation and seasonal markets

Trade routes and monetisation

Ancient sea routes

Production, trade, and consumption: free agents or aristocratic control?

The use of silver as payment in rural regions and towns

The coast and the interior

Trade and traders

The great divide

Models and the study of the past

New institutional economics

Explaining trade as networks

Figure 3.1 The position of Jämtland on the Scandinavian Peninsula.

Weights and balances found in graves in Jämtland

JLM 24336 crem.;

JLM 25410 crem.;

JLM 902 crem.;

JLM 20774 Präst­ crem.;

JLM 26 Sota, crem.;

JLM 23347 crem.;

JLM 1001 Rösta, inhum.;

SHM 12426 M IV, inhum.;

JLM 29826 crem.;

JLM 9036 Hög­ inhum.;

SHM 12426 M I, inhum.;

SHM 12426 M III, inhum.;

C King Christian IV’s Norwegian law code of 1604. Hallanger,

JLM 20774 Präst crem.;

JLM 9036 Hög inhum.;

Table 4.2 Summary of the small-scale urban production involving domestic and

Tables 5.1–5.4 Travel compensation and geographical zones stipulated in the Rural