Banks Borders and Bodies of Water

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Journal of Wetland Archaeology 8, 2008

ContentsResearch PapersCoastal Wetland Sites and Coastal Cave Sites: Archaeological and Environmental Investigations around Lake Nakaumi and Lake Shinji areas, West Japan Fumiaki Takehiro 1

Rapid Coastal Zone Survey and Beyond: Research and Management of the Essex Coast, UK E. M. Heppell and N. Brown 26

Banks, Borders and Bodies of Water in a Viking Age Mentality Julie Lund 53

Facing the Future, Touching the Past: an Exploration of Visitor Responses to Wetland Archaeological Sites Jess Collins 73

Palaeoenvironmental Reconstruction from Sediments at West Quay Road, SouthamptonMary Nicholls and Rob Scaife 91

Note 122

Book ReviewsPrehistoric Coastal Communities: the Mesolithic in Western Britainby Martin Bell, with contributions from 34 other authorsreviewed by Geoff Bailey 124

Iron Age and Roman Settlement in the Upper Thames Valley. Excavations at Claydon Pike and Other Places Within the Cotswold Water Parkby David Miles, Alex Smith and Grace Perpetua Jonesreviewed by Richard Hingley 127

Connected by the Sea: Proceedings of the 10th International Symposium on Boat and Ship Archaeology, Roskilde, 2003edited by Lucy Blue, Fred Hocker and Anton Englert, reviewed by Nigel Nayling 128

Desiccation of the Archaeological Landscape at Voorne-Puttenedited by R.M. van Heeringen and E.M. Theunissen, reviewed by Robert Van de Noort 130

Managing Editor: Bryony Coles, University of Exeter, UK

ii Contents

Environmental Archaeology in Irelandedited by Eileen M. Murphy and Nicki J. Whitehouse, reviewed by Alan K. Outram 131

Grauballe Man. An Iron Age Bog Body Revisitededited by Pauline Asingh and Niels Lynnerup, reviewed by J.B. Bourke 133

Dungeness and Romney Marsh: Barrier Dynamics and Marshland Evolutionedited by Antony J. Long, Martyn P. Waller and Andrew J. Platerreviewed by Stephen Rippon 134

Shell Middens in Atlantic Europeedited by Nicky Milner, Oliver E. Craig and Geoffrey N. Baileyreviewed by Peter Rowley-Conwy 136

Neolithic Archaeology in the Intertidal Zoneedited by Jane Sidell and Fiona Haughey, reviewed by Anthony Harding 137

Plants, People, and Places. Recent Studies in Phytolith Analysisedited by Marco Madella and Débora Zurro, reviewed by Jose Iriarte 138

Landscape, Community and Colonisation: the North Somerset Levels during the 1st to 2nd millennia ADby Stephen Rippon, reviewed by Johannes Ey 140

Siedlungsarchäologie im Alpenvorland IX: Hornstaad-Hörnle IA. Die Befunde einer jungneolithischen Pfahlbausiedlung am westlichen Bodensee. By Bodo Dieckmann, Arno Harwath and Jutta Hoffstadt. Dendroarchäologische Untersuchungen in den neolithischen Ufersiedlungen von Hornstaad-Hörnleby André Billamboz. With contributions from Niels Bleicher, Einhart Nickel, Wolfgang Ostendorp, Edith Schmidt, Klaus Veit and Richard Vogtreviewed by Anthony Harding 142

Sutton Common. The excavation of an Iron Age ‘marsh fort’edited by Robert Van de Noort, Henry Chapman and John Collisreviewed by Colin Haselgrove 144

The Archaeology of the Gravel Terraces of the Upper and Middle Thames. The early historical period: AD 1–1000. by Paul Booth, Anne Dodd, Mark Robinson and Alex Smith reviewed by Tony Brown and Robert Van de Noort 146

Trent Valley Landscapes: the Archaeology of 500,000 Years of Changeby David Knight and Andy J. Howard, with contributions by Lee Elliott, Howard Jones, Ruth Leary and Peter Marshall, reviewed by Tony Brown 150

Wood Use in Medieval Novgorodedited by Mark Brisbane and Jon Hather, reviewed by Nicola Trzaska-Nartowski 151

Mesolithic Settlement in the North Sea Basin – A Case Study from Howick, North-East Englandedited by Clive Waddington, reviewed by Robert Young 153

IntroductionThe use and understanding of the landscape of South Scandinavia in the Viking Age was deeply entangled in the elements of cosmology, mentality and world-views that existed in the minds of people inhabiting the landscape. The cognitive landscape consisted of multiple layers of meaning, that were woven into the way the landscape was regarded, used and changed (Hedeager 2003, 147). This can be studied through the practices indicated by the archaeological material, place names and narratives connected to specific types of places in the landscape. In this paper, the acts of deposition of jewellery, weapons, tools and cauldrons in South Scandinavian wetlands and the

Journal of Wetland Archaeology 8, 2008, 53–72

Banks, Borders and Bodies of Water in a Viking Age Mentality

Julie Lund

Author’s address: Julie Lund Department of Archaeology, Conservation and History, University of Oslo, Postboks 1008, Blindern, N-0315 Oslo, Norway

AbstractIn this paper the meanings related to lakes in the Viking Age cognitive landscape are examined through a re-reading of a number of Old Norse sources with a focus on bodies of water and an analysis of depositions of jewellery, weapons, tools and cauldrons from a number of South Scandinavian lakes. It is argued that the finds are not lost accidentally or stored in order to be retrieved, but can be interpreted as the outcome of ritual acts. The relationship between categorisation of landscape and material culture is explored, focusing on metaphorical links between lakes and cauldrons.

Keywords: Viking Age; Depositions; Cauldrons; Lakes; Material Metaphors

54 Julie Lund

role of bodies of waters in the Old Norse written sources will be examined, in order to shed light on metaphorical links between the two types of sources. The similarities in the way lakes and cauldrons are described the Old Norse written sources will be a focus point. Landscape features and specific artefacts can be treated and categorised in concurrent ways (Jones 1998, 302), and an attempt will be made in this paper to grasp this type of concurrence.

In studies on deposits, the wetlands have been recognised as liminal zones or borders surrounding settlements and infields (Zachrisson 1998; Hedeager 1999; Wiker 2000). This observation is central to the arguments pursued in this paper, but it does leave us with a need to define what is being meant by liminality in this setting. In order to do that, the specific meanings related to these places in the cognitive landscape in the context of Viking Age South Scandinavia, from the late 8th to mid 11th century AD will be examined. The aim of this paper is to examine the meanings related to springs and lakes – bodies of water – in the South Scandinavian Viking Age. The chosen method is to study in parallel the deposited material from a number of wetland contexts and the role of bodies of water in the Old Norse texts, and to try to establish an interpretation based on these two very different types of sources.

The Old Norse sources used in this analysis are the poems Vọluspá, Grímnismál, Hávámál, Hymiskviða, Vọlundarkviða and Guðrunarkviða 3 from the Older Edda, also called the poetic Edda, the Skaldic poem Sigurðardrápa, Snorri Sturlason’s Edda including Gylfaginning and Skáldskaparmál, the Icelandic sagas Egils saga Skalla-Grímssonar, Kjalnesinga Saga, Húngrvaka and the Norwegian saga of Håkon the Good. The structure of the Eddic poems indicates that though they were written down in the 13th–14th century, they were constructed in pre-Christian times. Generally, the construction of poems like Vọluspá and Grímnismál are dated to the 9th century, but some scholars argue that fragments of the Eddic poems could be as old as from the 4th or 5th century (Kristjánsson 2007). Some of the poems, like Guðrunarkviða 3, are however considered to be rather late constructions (Simek and Pálsson 1987, 125). Sigurðardrápa is a poem from 1130 to the King Sigurður Jórsalafari (Simek and Pálsson 1987, 314). Snorres Edda is a vital source for understanding Old Norse mythology, but it is written in the beginning of the 13th century and under Christian influence (Steinsland 2005, 54). The Icelandic sagas were written down in the 13th and 14th century, but the events in the sagas took place in 9th to 11th century. The writers made these stories in accordance with the available knowledge of the past. Many of the writers did indeed have knowledge of pre-Christian religion and these narratives (Meulengracht Sørensen 1995, 18–25).

Using these sources to study Viking Age South Scandinavia provides us with a large number of source-critical problems, as these texts were written down after the Viking Age by Christians, but in many cases refer to a pre-Christian world-view and a Viking Age mentality (Price 2002; Steinsland 2005, 43). One way of dealing with these problems could be to approach the Viking Age as a prehistoric period, basing analyses exclusively on the material culture. Yet, the Old Norse sources hold the potential to examine Viking Age mentalities, mythology and world-views that should not be ignored. Iconography from the 5th to 7th century, appearing on gold bracteates and Gotlandic picture stones, clearly indicates that some of the myths presented in the poems were known in Scandinavia before the Viking Age (see for instance Hauck 1981; Andrén

55Banks, Borders and Bodies of Water in a Viking Age Mentality

1989; Staecker 2004). Similarly, inscriptions and iconography on the rune stones from the Viking Age demonstrate that people in Scandinavia knew the narratives of the Old Norse sources as well as the metric forms from the poems in this time span. For instance the legend of Sigurd appears on 11th century rune stones (Blindheim 1973; Fuglesang 2005). As specific landscape features appear in these texts as important parts of the description of the cosmology, the texts can be used in analysis of cognitive landscapes. An interpretation that encapsulates both material culture and written sources can provide us with a deeper understanding of the spatial aspects of Viking Age world-views. This type of innovative, highly text-dependent archaeological research is developing in several places in Scandinavia (Price 2005, 378). The potential of this approach is most clearly demonstrated in the analyses of the connections and merging of written (though in the terms of the poetry: originally oral) and material metaphors in the Late Iron Age and Viking Age, as demonstrated by Anders Andrén (2000), Frands Herschend (2001) and Maria Domeij-Lundborg (Domeij 2004; Domeij-Lundborg 2006). In their ways of using material culture and written source in a combined interpretation, these quite different studies have opened up new ways of studying minds and mentalities in this period, which can also be used in a study of the cognitive landscape.

Depositions as Ritual ActionsAs a way of approaching the layers of meaning entwined in the landscape, the acts of deposition will be examined with a focus on their topographical contexts. The interpretation of acts of deposition has changed markedly over time (Bradley 1990, 23–24; Notelid 1990; Karsten 1994, 24). However, a clear-cut distinction and division into profane and sacred depositions is maintained in most research (e.g. Bårdseth 1998, 12; Needham 2001, 278).

This does, however, vary depending on the period under study. For example, wetland depositions from prehistoric periods are most often regarded as ritual as with the late prehistoric weapons assemblages deposited from the middle of the 4th century BC – the 5th century AD, which are generally interpreted as sacrifices of booty (Jørgensen et al. 2003). In contrast, the Viking Age hoards are still generally considered as profane depositions. The depositions from the Viking Age, especially the silver hoards, have generally been perceived as treasures hidden in times of unrest, with the intention of regaining them in more peaceful times (Hårdh 1976, 176–177; Thunmark-Nylén 1989, 149ff). Functionalistic interpretations have been suggested for wetland depositions (Phillips et al. 2002), but there are several reasons why these explanations do not fit with the Viking Age material. If the hoards were meant to be reclaimed, the number of hoards which were not regained is surprisingly large (Needham 2001, 279; Spangen 2005, 27). The dates of the individual silver hoards of the Viking Age are scattered over the entire period. If these hoards were treasures hidden in times of unrest, these riots would have been going on through several hundred years (Karsten 1994, 30). That a large number of the hoards are found in wetlands further undermines the idea of the hoards representing hidden treasures. For example, the exact locations of lake or bog depositions are difficult to mark and, consequently, valuable objects thus deposited are difficult to find again, should someone want to reclaim them. In the case of the

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Scandinavian wetland finds from the Viking Age it is more probable that the people who deposited the objects in wetlands did not intend to regain these artefacts (Geißlinger 1967; Zachrisson 1998; Hedeager 1999; Lund 2004; Ryste 2005).

It was not only coins and jewellery of precious metal that were deposited during the Viking Age; weapons, tools, keys and whetstones have all been found in wetland contexts, deposited singly or in larger groups (Andrén 2002; Lund 2004; Pedersen 2004). Thus, objects of precious metals only constitute a part of the total of Viking Age depositions, and I would argue that these depositions must be studied as a whole. Focusing exclusively on the silver hoards as an economic value, as treasure to be regained from the lakes at a later time, does not take account of finds that do not fit this frame of interpretation. It would, for instance, make it difficult to account for the deposition of whetstones in wetlands. Additionally, it must be presumed that people in the Viking Age were aware of the fact that iron objects would rust and disintegrate if kept in a lake over time. This made wetlands a very poor place for storing iron artefacts. Consequently, the deposition of iron objects, such as weapons or tools, could hardly have taken place in wetlands with the intention of retrieval. Instead it is advantageous to search for a frame of interpretation that can include all of the depositions from the same time period and the same type of find contexts. Taking such an approach, I will explore the extent to which depositions can be seen as indications of ritual acts.

In Southern Scandinavia the range of artefact types used for Viking Age deposition is restricted to specific types of objects: weapons, tools, whetstones, keys, jewellery and coins. The locations of the acts of depositions show a rather high degree of regularity, as approximately half of the silver hoards and the vast majority of the depositions of weapons, tools, whetstones and keys are found in wetland contexts, i.e. in rivers and lakes, clustering around river mouths, bridges and fords, and the banks of lakes (Geißlinger 1967; Zachrisson 1998; Hedeager 1999; Lund 2004; Pedersen 2004; Lund 2005; 2006). The depositions are often found in the ground beside the water, i.e. the bank of lakes. At Tissø, Zealand the artefacts are found in a fan-shaped pattern, and they seem to have been thrown from the shore of the lake rather than for instance being dumped from a boat (Behrend 1970, 939; Jørgensen 2002). The fact that the finds from several other lakes are recovered in the close vicinity of the bank or at the same distance from the bank as the finds from the lake Tissø indicate that even these artefacts can have been deposited by throwing them into the water. In this sense, the acts of deposition seem to have included physical movements in a somewhat patterned framework. This means that they can to some degree be characterised as performances. Thus, the depositions were formalised actions with a constant core, in the sense that even though the type of deposited objects varied, these were all valuable objects similar to those found in well-equipped graves, where these artefacts are often perceived as the personal belongings of the deceased. These elements – the formalised actions, the element of performance, and the invariable core – are the very features which, according to Roy A. Rappaport, characterise a ritual (Rappaport 1999, 32–46; for a further discussion on the study of rituals from archaeological material, see Berggren 2006; Stutz 2006; Berggren and Stutz in press).

As Catherine Bell (1992) has pointed out in her work on ritualisation, the location is a very important element in rituals. She also emphasizes that rituals are actions


(Bell 1992, 89), for which context is important (Habbe 2005, 30). This means that the landscape is not reduced to merely a scene for human actions. On the contrary, the landscape comprises a series of places that are integrated in the ritual acts (Gosden and Lock 1998, 4). Thereby, ritualisation is a key concept to understanding the way the cultural landscape is interwoven with the ritual actions, which can be traced materially through the depositions. More than anything, depositions are concrete ways of handling and dealing with material culture that relate to attitudes towards specific objects in a historical context. They further correlate to a world-view incorporated into the way the landscape was seen and used. As will be discussed, lakes and springs seem to have had a central role in this cognitive landscape.

Lakes and Springs in an Old Norse Cognitive LandscapeA method for grasping the acts of deposition is to examine the Eddic and Skaldic poetry, and Snorri Sturlason’s Edda with special emphasis on the parts referring to bodies of water. The Eddic poems Vọluspá and Grímnismál are particularly interesting in this context, as they contain descriptions of the pagan cosmogony and cosmology put in the words of respectively a seeress and the god Oðinn. Gylfaginning from Snorri Sturlason’s Edda also include a description of the pagan cosmology. In contrast to the two former, Gylfaginning has however been much more influenced by Christianity. By studying the Old Norse texts, some of the layers of meaning related to water may become apparent, which in turn can shed light on the relationship between cosmology and perception of landscape in Old Norse paganism. One notion of a body of water, brunnr, appears in several different contexts in the sources. Brunnr has most frequently been translated as ‘a well’ and only rarely as ‘a spring’. However, the translation into ‘a well’ in its narrowest sense, meaning a built structure for supplying water, is hardly relevant here. Brunnr can also be translated as a spring, stream, water stream or a watering place, and the term brunns-munni actually means the bank of a pond (Vigfusson 1991[1871]). According to Vọluspá (st 19–20) the brunnr Urð is termed both brunnr and sæ, meaning lake. The second brunnr in the Old Norse sources is Mimisbrunnr, appearing in Vọluspá (st 28) and Snorri’s Edda (Gylfaginning). The place-name Mimirs Lake occurs at several locations in Scandinavia (Simek 1993, 216f). This supports the idea that the brunnr of the Old Norse sources could signify a lake. A third brunnr, Hvergelmir, is described in Grímnismál (st 26) as the river head of all rivers. According to the Eddic poems the world-tree Yggdrasill has its roots in Urð and Mimisbrunnr and according to Snorri’s Gylfaginning the third root is in Hvergelmir. Thus, it seems possible to translate the concept brunnr as referring to a body of water – a lake, a wetland, a pond – and not only to a water source (i.e. a well) constructed by human actions. This provides us with a better understanding of what types of landscapes the poems are actually describing.

Several actions take place on the bank of Urð: The Þulr (the cult speaker) has according to Hávámál (st 111) his speaker’s chair placed at Urðar brunni. The Norns who are in charge of fate live at or in Urð, as stated in Vọluspá (st 19–20). In the Skaldic poem Sigurðardrápa (st 4) it is said that one of the Norns came out of the brunnr (Jónsson 1967, 69). According to Snorri (Gylfaginning), the gods’ place for judgement is at Urð. This means that the bank of the brunnr was central in the Old Norse cosmology. As

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long as the brunnr was translated as a well, it was not possible to see the link between the wetlands of the physical landscapes and the central roles of lakes and springs in the Old Norse sources.

The idea that springs and lakes were central parts of the cognitive landscape is further indicated in a skolie (i.e. a marginal note) in Adam of Bremen’s chronicle Gesta Hammaburgensis Ecclesiae Pontificum (Deeds of Bishops of the Hamburg Church) completed in 1075/1076. In the description of the Pagan sacrifices in Uppsala, it says that ”Ibi etiam est fons, ubi sacrificia paganorum solent exerceri” (skolie 138), meaning “there is also a fons in which pagan sacrifices are made”. The word

fons is most often translated as ’a well’, presumably to relate it to Urðr and Mimis brunnr. However, fons could just as accurately be translated as ‘a spring’ (Jensen and Goldschmidt 1942, 272). In this sense the skolie states that in Old Norse paganism sacrifices were performed in springs. Clearly, bodies of water had an important role in the Old Norse cognitive landscape, giving water to the world-tree, being the home of the Norns, the place of judgement and the site where the cult speaker, the Þulr, had his speaker’s chair.

Viking Age Artefacts from South Scandinavian LakesIf we turn to the archaeological material, one of the types of place where large groups of weapons, tools and jewellery appear is indeed the lakes, clustering close to and at the banks (Jørgensen 2002; Lund 2004). The number of Viking Age finds from the lakes in the north-eastern part of Scania is significantly larger than what is typical for South Scandinavian wetlands, but has not previously been the subject of an analysis of depositions. The topographical context of the finds, clustering around the banks of the lakes, encapsulates the typical pattern of wetland depositions from this period. North-eastern Scania form a plain bordered by highlands and the sea. The lakes of Oppmanna Sjö and Råbelöv Sjö form the northern border of the plains, while south-west of Råbelöv is the lake of Hammar Sjö (Figures 1 and 2). Whereas the postglacial rebounds have not affected the South Scandinavian wetlands since the Early Iron Age, the landscape has changed profoundly by the heavy draining of wetlands in South Scandinavia, minimizing the formerly dominating fens, bogs and lakes. For instance Hammar Sjö has been vastly drained, but its former extent can be estimated based on

Figure 1. Denmark and Scania with Tissø and north-east Scania.


the map ‘Skånska Rekognosveringskartan’ made in 1812–1820. Excavations of settlement from Northeast Scania clearly show that the plain was densely inhabited throughout the period, but none of the settlements show any signs of being central places in the Viking Age. At the coast, Åhus served as a seasonal site for trade, production and reloading of goods until around 850 AD (Sindbæk 2007). Seven grave fields from the Viking Age were found on the plain. The largest was from Fjälkinge, northeast of Hammar Sjö and south of Råbelöv Sjö. This grave yard contained an unusually large number of child graves and has been the subject of several studies (Helgesson 1992, 1997, Svanberg 2003). The surroundings of Råbelöv Sjö are particular remarkable. On the western bank of the lake, the 90 m high hill Balsberget is situated, rising steeply from the bank of the lake. Next to Balsberget, north of the lake, lies a second hill, Karsholm, also 90 m high.

From Oppmanna Sjö, the finds include a sword with rich decoration deposited 2 km east of Österslöv (LUHM 24929, Strömberg 1961, 72; Klæsøe 1999, 133). It is of JP type D, thus datable to the first quarter of the 9th century AD (Petersen 1919). As is typical for this type of sword, the hilt was decorated symmetrically in relief and the véttrim (ferrule) around the handle was adorned with human faces or masks en face, presumably showing male faces as the decoration seems to include moustaches (Figure 3). Approximately one-hundred years later a silver hoard was lowered into the same lake, only a few meters from the bank. Thirtyfour Arabic coins were found alongside silver threads from several rings and a round piece of jewellery in silver with

Råbelöv Sjö

Hammar Sjö

Nosaby

Österslöv

Oppmanna Sjö

Ivö Sjö

5 km0 2,5

Figure 2. The location of the lakes Råbelöv, Hammar and Oppmanna Sjö in north-east

Scania.

60 Julie Lund

decorations in filigree work. The hoard has been dated t.p.q. AD 927 based on the coins (SHM 2429, Hårdh 1976, nr. 108). In the dried-up part of Hammar Sjö a sword of JP type H was discovered, a type which, based on Norwegian grave material, can be dated to AD 830/840 – 950 (LUHM 12358, Nørgård Jørgensen 1999, 75pp).

Around the third lake, Råbelöv, over time no less than 13 adzes, 15 axes and five spearheads, all iron, several iron tools including half a pair of scissors of a Viking Age type, a glass pearl and an Arabic coin have been discovered in the lake (see Appendix 1 for details). The majority was found near the eastern bank of the lake. Most of the finds are dated to the Viking Age, mainly the Late Viking Age while some, however, can be dated more generally to the period from the Late Germanic Iron Age (550–750) to the Viking Age. The number of finds from these three lakes is larger than what is typical for the Viking Age depositions, which in many cases consist of only one-three finds in each lake, river or bog (Lund 2004). Yet, the overall picture – weapons, tools and jewellery deposited in a lake near the bank – fits perfectly into the general pattern.

In view of the re-reading of the Old Norse poetry, I would suggest that the artefacts

deposited in lakes, exemplified in the finds from Oppmanna, Hammar, and Råbelöv, were part of pagan practices with references to the sacred brunnr. This idea is further strengthened by a later Icelandic source. In Húngrvaka, one of the sagas in Biskupa Sögur, we hear the story of the bishop Bjarnvarðr, who was in Iceland for 20 winters. During this time he blessed several types of places, including brunni and votn, meaning springs and waters (Húngrvaka III, 6). The saga takes place from AD 1056 to 1176 and was presumably written shortly after AD 1200 (Simek and Pálsson 1987, 184). The saga is much younger than the acts of deposition in South Scandinavian lakes, and the story takes place in Iceland. Water of course even had Christian connotations in relation to baptism, and in medieval Icelandic hagiographies holy water is used by a bishop for healing (Anderson 2007, 12). Yet, it is striking that the locations blessed by the bishop in the late 11th century Iceland, the springs and lakes, are the same types of landscape, where the depositions clustered in South Scandinavia. If the depositions do indeed represent ritual actions that took place at the lakes, this could explain why a bishop would felt the need to bless waters in Early Christian times.

The find complex from Råbelöv has a certain parallel in the material from Tissø on

Figure 3. The sword hilt of the sword found in the Lake Oppmanna Sjö, Photo:

Julie Lund.


Zealand (Figure 1), where more than 50 pieces of Viking Age weaponry and jewellery have been found. Yet, differences between Råbelöv and Tissø are also evident. On the western bank of the lake Tissø a large settlement structure from the Viking Age has been documented (Jørgensen 2002). Tissø is characterised by traces of extensive craft and production activities, a very large hall building, and a small building interpreted as a cult house – all in all an extraordinary place (Jørgensen 2002). On the eastern bank of Råbelöv Sjö a Viking Age settlement has been documented at present day Österslöv (Nordell 1991; Hvid 2005). In contrast to Tissø, the excavations from Österslöv at Råbelöv point towards a more ordinary settlement. An analysis of the distribution of deposited artefacts in Lake Tissø shows that on this site the weapons and jewellery were thrown into the water from the bank (Jørgensen 2002). The find material from the lakes around north-east Scania is typical for the southern Scandinavian Viking Age in the sense that weapons and tools have been found on the banks or have been thrown from the banks of the lake. As lakes, and especially those actions taking place on the banks of lakes, were emphasized in the Old Norse sources, it seems possible that the acts of deposition could be rituals relating to the role brunnr had in the Old Norse cosmology. On the basis of finds of graves of executed individuals, Tissø has been interpreted as a place for judicial acts (Jørgensen 2002). This corresponds very directly to the actions at the bank of Urð, the gods’ place for judgement (Snorri, Gylfaginning). Lakes like Oppmanna, Råbelöv, Hammar and Tissø may all have been perceived as brunnr. The physical landscape, of course, gave limitations to the way cosmological concepts could be played out in the landscape. In north-east Scania, the presence of the three adjacent lakes, Oppmanna, Råbelöv and Hammar, made it possible to use the concept of the three brunnr – Urð, Mimir, and Hvergelmir – actively.

That lakes were important elements in the cognitive landscape is further indicated by a number of sacred place names. The former name of Råbelöv Sjö is presumed to have been *Ball from Old Norse ballr, meaning dangerous, damaging, or the one, which gives fear (Kousgård Sørensen 1968, 114). Hammar Sjö was originally called Helge Sjö, meaning the holy lake. However, as the river running through the lake is called Helge Å, it is uncertain whether the lake gave its name to the river or the other way around. If Hammar Sjö was identified as a holy lake, it would reinforce the argument that the three lakes were perceived as the three brunnr. The name Tissø means the lake of the god Þýrr (Jørgensen and Sørensen 1995; Jørgensen 2002). From the island of Gotland, in the Baltic, Gudingsåkrarna means the holy fields of the gods. In this Gotlandic fen several hundred weapons, mainly spearheads, were deposited during the Viking Age (Müller-Wille 1984). The concurrence of lakes with sacred names and lakes containing deposited artefacts strengthens the interpretation of the depositions as acts related to the pagan cosmology. Not all the lakes with depositions have however sacred place names and some lakes with sacred place names have not been identified as places where acts of depositions took place. Yet, the existence of names like Thorsø, meaning the lake of the god Þórr, in Jutland or Odensjö, meaning the lake of the god Óðinn, in Scania clearly indicate that specific lakes could be perceived as sacred places in pre-Christian times.

Not only weapons and jewellery, but other types of objects have been deposited at Scanian lakes. Prior to the draining of Hammar Sjö, the bank of the lake lay at the present day village of Nosaby. Here, a hoard of 60 iron objects was deposited in the 10th

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century AD (Strömberg 1961, 69; Lund 2006, 323–334). The deposited material differs from the other late Viking Age tool hoards as the hoard from Nosaby did not contain proper crafting tools such as hammers, tongs or anvils. Yet, it contained a cauldron, chain links, agricultural tools and wheel hub mounts – the very types of artefacts which are typical for the tool hoards (Lund 2006). In this sense, the composition of objects in the Nosaby hoard is very similar to the tool hoards. It was even deposited within the same time span as these, and it should thus be seen as part of this group of deposits. The location – the bank of a lake – which is typical for the late Viking Age tool hoards, is striking, as it corresponds with the liminal location of the smithies in the Old Norse legends and myths, separated from the settlement and located on banks of rivers and lakes. The hoards are not deposited at places where real, physical smithies have been identified by excavations. Rather the locations of the hoards mark the idea of where the smith and the smithy belonged in the cognitive landscape (Lund 2006).

One specific type of artefact from the tool hoards, the cauldron, requires closer examination. Cauldrons or cauldron handles appear in the tool hoards from Mästermyr, Tjele, Veksø and in Nosaby, all from South Scandinavia. Two iron rings from the tool deposit from Smiss, Gotland are also most probably part of a cauldron, namely the handles (Boye 1858; Zachrisson 1962; Arwidsson and Berg 1983; Leth-Larsen 1984; Munksgaard 1984; Lund 2006). The question is why the cauldrons were deposited with the tools of the smith and carpenter. The two bronze or copper cauldrons with iron handles both had a thick layer of soot on the outside, and one of them was rusty and contained what could presumably be food scraps on the inside (Arwidsson and Berg 1983, 10). It is possible that the cauldrons from the tool hoards were simply cooking vessels. This interpretation does not, however, explain why they were deposited along with the tools.

Iron cauldrons frequently appear in Norwegian Viking Age male graves along with other types of kitchen and smithing tools (Petersen 1951, 369–380). A Danish grave find from Bjerringhøj at Mammen, Jutland, might give us better insight into the role of the cauldrons in the Viking Age. The man buried in this extremely well-equipped grave from AD 970/971 was placed in a wooden coffin inside a wooden chamber in a mound. A copper cauldron, produced in 6th–7th century, stood in the north-western corner of the grave chamber along with two wooden buckets (Iversen 1991, 38; Iversen and Näsman 1991, 59). In appearance, this was a rather simple and antiquated cauldron, but it must have served as more than a simple vessel for food production. It must have possessed particular connotations, since it was worth keeping for more than 400 years. The find underlines that, besides being used for cooking, some cauldrons were placed in very special contexts in the Viking Age – among them the cauldrons from the tool hoards. It is clear that special types of artefacts – like the cauldrons – as well as special features in the landscape – like the lakes and particularly their banks – are accentuated by the specific ways these materials and places are dealt with.

The Cauldron in the Old Norse SourcesThe cauldron is described as a container for mead in the Old Norse sources (for instance Hymiskviða). The skolie in Adam of Bremen’s chronicle on sacrifices in springs also


describes human sacrifice in the fons (well or spring). Having this in mind it is interesting to note that death by drowning is a common theme in the Old Norse sources (Warmind 2004, 139). Here, important men drown in huge cauldrons with mead. In the mythology the mead is made from the creature Kvasir, who was killed and his blood gathered in the vessels, Bóðn and Són, and the cauldron Oðrærir (Skáldskaparmál; Hávámál 107, 140). The cauldron, the body and the mead have merging meanings. It becomes even more complex as there seem to be a certain coincidence between brunnr and cauldrons: Mimir drinks the mead from his brunnr and the third brunnr Hvergelmir, means the bubbling cauldron.

The consumption of mead was a central element in the feast and in the ritual toast of ‘year and peace’ (Steinsland 2005, 277–280). If we recall the arrangement of the grave chamber in Bjerringhøj with the copper cauldron and the two wooden buckets in the north-western corner of the chamber, this composition of artefacts could be understood as an active use of the concept of Oðrærir, Bóðn and Són. This would explain why the cauldron was kept for several hundred years. If the composition of the grave was indeed the concept of Oðrærir played out in the funerary ritual, then the cauldron could possibly have been a mead or beer container.

As this container was preserved over generations, it had the potential of becoming the container and maintainer of the collective memory. The social memory of a society can be inscribed in the material culture – not just in prominent buildings and monuments, but also in smaller objects that circulated long after the time of their production. These objects could contain profound elements of the world-view (Bradley 2002, 13). As artefacts have the ability to evoke memories (Seremetakis 1994, 10–11), placing the cauldron in the grave could have brought to mind the prior occasions on which this special container had been used. When the cauldron and the two buckets were placed in the grave, the myth of Kvasir was acted out, and at the same time the ancient cauldron was taken out of circulation. This was hardly a coincidence, as the time of the burial, the late 10th century was a time of far-reaching changes in society. A new religion, Christianity, and a new structure of power were emerging, and this would involve a change in the use of ritual consumption of mead. New customs called for new material culture.

If the cauldrons in the tool hoards should be interpreted as containers for mead, their relation to the smiths’ tools becomes more abstract. A direct link between smith and mead does not exist in the Old Norse mythology. However, it does have a counterpart in the somewhat older pre-Christian Irish mythology: the Irish god Goibniu was the god of both forging and beer brewing. He was the leader of the feasts in the Otherworld and the beer from his cauldron protected against sickness and death (Green 1998, 78). This correlation between the Irish and Scandinavian mindsets in terms of the cauldron and the smith is interesting, especially because this is not the only common element in the Irish and Scandinavian material. In Ireland, weapons of Irish and Scandinavian types are deposited in a pattern very similar to the Scandinavian custom – in rivers, at bridges and fords and in lakes. A large part of the depositions, however, are conducted at the crannogs, a specifically Irish-Scottish type of structure, unknown in Scandinavia (Fredengren 2002, 259; Peirce 2002, 63; Kilfeather 2003, 46–47; Lund forthcoming).

Cauldrons also seem to have contained the meat at the blot (the sacrificial meal in Old Norse paganism) indicated in the Saga of Håkon the Good (chapters 14–17)

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and Kjalnesinga Saga, where a large copper cauldron is used for gathering the blood sacrificed to the god Þórr, whereas sacrificed humans were thrown in the sacrificial bog (chapter 2). These sagas are written down long after the establishment of Christianity in Scandinavia, but even though part of the description of the sacrifice in Kjalnesinga Saga has a parallel in Exodus XII, 22, the concept of sacrificing in the cauldron and the bog is original. It is therefore possible that the descriptions in the sagas build on genuine knowledge of the cult activities in Iceland some centuries earlier. This is strengthened by two elements in the Eddic poems. Firstly, the appearance of the place name hvera lunda, meaning ‘the sacred grove called cauldron’ in Vọluspá (st 35), pointing towards a link between sacred places and cauldrons. Secondly, that the combination of placing an object and a person in the cauldron and the bog is present in Guðrunarkviða 3. In this poem Guðrun proves her innocence after false accusations by placing her hand in a boiling cauldron (hver vellanda). As she is unburned the accuser, Herkja, is forced to place her hand in the cauldron. As Herkja is burned, she is thrown directly into the bog (st 6–11). The resemblance to Kjalnesinga Saga is clear, and both point to a direct link between the activities connected to the cauldron and the bog

The Cauldron, the Body and the Bank of WaterLike other objects from the Viking Age the cauldron could have had a dual role, on the one hand being used in everyday life, while on the other being connected to cosmology. Human beings categorise the world through metaphors. The body can be perceived as metaphoric in the fundamental way people organise the world. In the same way in which the human body can be perceived as a container with an inside separated from an outside, other elements in the world can be divided. This concept of what is outside and inside is projected by humans onto other physical objects (Lakoff and Johnson 1999, 108). When people take notice of an artefact, this action takes place in comparison to the human body (Merleau-Ponty 1962, 108). In this process the outline of the container is fundamental in the division of what is in the container and what is not (Fredriksen 2002, 29; Lakoff and Johnson 2003[1980], 27–29). Per Ditlef Fredriksen has pointed out that vessels and cauldrons used as containers for the bones of the deceased in many graves could be expressions of the metaphorical thinking of the body as a container, and that containers with liquids, like the cauldrons, on a universal level are recurring metaphors for the body (Fredriksen 2002, 21). The transformation of Kvasir’s body to the cauldron Oðrærir is an obvious example of this metaphoric link.

As categories, the cauldron and the body of water overlap. The cauldron and Mimis brunnr contain the mead of wisdom. Hymir’s mead cauldron is placed at the judgement place of the gods (Hymiskviða) which is the bank of Urðr (Snorri’s Gylfaginning). The lake and the cauldron are both containers for the sacrifice, and within these two types of containers transformative actions take place. The two Old Norse concepts of cauldrons, hverr and ketill, are synonymous (Vigfusson 1991[1871], 300). In South Scandinavian place names, lakes and bogs are often described as cauldrons, hverr and ketill (For instance in Hverrestrup, Værløse, Kedelsø, Kedelmose, Kettilsjö og Kitteln) (Kousgård Sørensen 1978, 196; 1981, 61–62; Kousgård Sørensen 1981, 61f). In some cases an Icelandic spring can be referred to as an öl-kelda, meaning beer spring. Strikingly, lakes, cauldrons and


wells also seem to have overlapping functions and meanings in the English and Welsh sources from around AD 600–1200 (Green 1998, 66). In these sources both the cauldrons and the lakes function as gates to the Otherworld (Green 1998, 64; Van de Noort and O’Sullivan 2006, 73). In Irish sources from the same period, magical cauldrons coming out of lakes, cauldrons healing wounded warriors, and cauldrons brewing beer that bestow immortality, are recurring features (Green 1998, 64–78).

Hence, there is a striking merging between the role of the cauldrons in the Old Norse and the English, Welsh and Irish sources. In all these regions wetland depositions took place in the entire period from late Neolithic to the Middle Ages, indicating that wetlands were important parts of the cognitive landscapes. The connotations of the wetlands naturally changed significantly through time and varied in the regions. Concurrence in myths and legends in Scandinavia and Ireland has been interpreted as a result of contacts in prehistoric and early historic times (Kilfeather 2003, 27). The joint concepts in the relationship between bodies of water and cauldrons in Scandinavia and the British Isles could however, also be due to the fact that the cauldrons as containers on a universal level encourage this type of categorisation. Studying the merging principles in the categorisation of landscape and other types of material culture holds a potential for a better understanding of the relationship between the cauldrons and the banks of the lakes. Even though the lake is a feature in the landscape and the cauldron is an artefact they seem to have been categorised in similar ways in the Viking Age, as is conveyed in the archaeological material and the Old Norse sources. Containers like cauldrons as well as lakes have surfaces and natural limitations of what is inside and outside. With this spatial metaphor in mind it is understandable why the bank of the lake can form a central part of constructing and sustaining the cognitive landscape. The relationship between the lakes and the cauldrons seems to be twofold: on the one hand they seem to work as metonyms in the Old Norse cosmology as reflected in the Old Norse sources. On the other, in the material culture the lakes and cauldrons do not seem to be direct metonyms. They rather entangle a double symbolism, as the cauldrons are deposited by or in the lakes. The relationship between the lakes and the cauldrons in this sense provides us with glimpse of an attitude towards categorisation in the minds of people living in the Viking Age which is profoundly different from modern ones.

Transferring Meaning from Artefacts to Places The selection of the specific artefacts to be deposited could have been made on the basis of the different meanings these objects had obtained through their social life as jewellery, weapons or tools. These artefacts came from completely different contexts, but they all ended up deposited in wetlands. The acts of deposition served as the conclusion of their life cycle (Appadurai 1986; Kopytoff 1986; Helms 1993; Gosden and Marshall 1999). This perspective has recently been incorporated into studies of the Viking Age silver hoards (Ryste 2005; Spangen 2005). It deals with the changing layers of meanings obtained by and contained in an artefact like a sword, a piece of jewellery, a smith’s tool or a key as it was produced, purchased, possessed, displayed, passed on as a heritage, a gift or by theft, and – in the case of the weapons – could have partaken in battles. Several of the artefacts deposited in the Scandinavian wetlands had

66 Julie Lund

been manufactured by a highly skilled smith. A few of the artefacts were made abroad, which meant that, before the conclusion of their social life, they had participated in journeys. Finally, the artefacts were placed in a grave, lost accidentally, or deposited as either garbage or as parts of ritual activities. Through this frame of interpretation the act of depositing an artefact can be seen as the conclusion of this object’s social life – a burying of its social body, so to speak.

Ritual actions can be used to handle, change and demonstrate a social situation (Brück 2007, 287). This is an important notion, as it points to a somewhat under-developed element in the study of ritual depositions: the acts of deposition could indeed be a way of handling or changing a situation, that is as a way of dealing with artefacts which no longer could or should be used due to the layers of meaning assigned to the object through its social life. One example is seen in Egils saga Skalla-Grímssonar, (58), where a copper cauldron and a chest containing silver are lowered into a spring, and a rock is placed over them by the chief and smith Skallagrímr, as the last acts of his life (Lund 2006, 334). The tool hoards might also represent such a case. These tools had been involved in powerful processes of transforming ‘dead’ raw materials into ‘living’, social objects (Helms 1993, 18). A conceivable result of this is that the tools used in this operation could not be used again after the death of the smith (Lund 2006, 330–331, with references). Focusing on the social life of things thus seems to provide a useful way of understanding the choice of deposited artefacts. By wielding a magnificent sword like the one from Oppmanna Sjö (Figure 3), the owner demonstrated his experience and knowledge by having been able to acquire such a sword. Thereby, the sword materialised its owner’s experience, his cultural capital and his ability to claim such a position wherein he could gain a sword like this, possibly through long-distance trade or gift-exchange (Helms 1993, 10). As the sword was lowered into the lake, his knowledge and experience was transferred to this very place.

Repeated practices create embodied links between people, places and identities (Brück 2005, 62). Ritual acts clearly fall into this category of practices, and the depositions are indeed an active way of creating these links. Chris Fowler (2001, 153–158) has stated that acts of deposition could be a way of expressing, negotiating and creating links between divisible selves made out of humans and artefacts; but the creation of relations does not end here. The acts of deposition further express and create relations between the objects and the landscape – both physically and symbolically. During the acts of deposition – at the point where things literally took place – layers of meaning were transferred from the artefact to the place, and at the same time the social biography of the places changed. This is an element in the study of the social biography of things which has been somewhat overlooked.

Through the special handling of material culture in the acts of deposition, chains of relations were created, not only between people and things, as Fowler (2001) has convincingly demonstrated, but between people, things and places. It is through these kinds of actions that a specific position in the landscape transforms into a place. The lakes and their banks were used and staged as important parts of the cognitive landscape in the minds of the people of the past. Through the acts of deposition, the cognitive landscape was constructed and sustained, embodying it with human qualities and thus integrating it into the body and identity of the people living in it and through it.


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72 Julie Lund

Appendix 1

Place Finds Museum-nr. Dating Other references

OppmannaSjö

A sword of JP type D A silver hoard of 34 Arabic coins, silver threads from several rings and a round piece of jewellery in silver with decorations in filigree work.

LUHM 24929 SHM 2429

The sword: JP type D, first quarter of the 9th century AD (Petersen 1919). The hoard: t.p.q. AD 927, based on the coins (Hårdh 1976, nr. 108).

Strömberg 1961, 72; Klæsøe 1999, 133

Hammar Sjö

a sword of JP type H LUHM 12358 The sword: AD 830/840–950 (Nørgård Jørgensen 1999, 75–102).

Råbelöv Sjö 13 adzes, 15 axes and five spearheads, tools, all of iron, a glass pearl and an Arabic coin

SHM 8328,38–45, 47–48, 52; SHM 4115; SHM 7577; SHM 13.900; LUHM 8458

The adzes: Late Iron Age–Older Viking Age, primarily first half of the 9th century (Petersen 1951, 165). One axe: Jan Petersen’s (JP) type L, dating to 900–1050 (SHM 8328,52, Petersen 1919; Svanberg 2003, 161). Six axes: JP type C, Late Iron Age–around 900 (SHM 7577,467, Petersen 1919; Strömberg 1961, 67; Svanberg 2003, 161). One axe: Nørgård Jørgensen’s Gotlandic type AX2, 9th–10th century (SHM 13900, Nørgård Jørgensen 1999, 104pp). One axe from the 11th century (LUHM 8458). The spearheads: JP type B and D, respectively the beginning of the Viking Age and the 10th century (Petersen 1919; Strömberg 1961, 67). The glass pearl: Late Iron Age–Middle AgesThe scissors: Viking Age (Rygh 1885; Petersen 1951, 312–313) The Arabic coin AD, a samanid from 932–933

Some of the finds are included in Strömberg 1961

SHM: Swedish Historical Museum, StockholmLUHM: Lunds University’s Historical Museum

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