Moving the non-existing brackets – comments on the reception of “Urban Networks and Arctic Outlands”

I have stated in the introduction to my master thesis that appeal to public is a very strong trait of the Viking age research. This can be an advantage but it sometimes contributes to clouding of judgement and over emphasizing the unimportant over the truly interesting in the eye of experienced researcher. I personally believe that it is the case with the public reception of STEVEN P. ASHBY’s, ASHLEY N. COUTU’s and SØREN M. SINDBÆK’s  article.

The paper presents the results of analysis of horn and bone material from three Danish sites of Ribe, Aarhus and Aggersborg. I cannot comment on the scientific part of the paper and discuss the issues of using the mass spectronomy, since I simply lack of knowledge to do so. I can however comment on how results are presented to the public and what seems to be over emphasised in the interpretation. Further I can question the sense of discussing certain issues.

The results of mass spectronomy had revealed that among other raw materials, the reindeer antler, non-local to the area of Southern Jutland was used in comb production in the early phases of the settlement at Ribe. This points towards the fact that the material had to be imported probably from Norway. The authors rightfully stress the importance of the discovery towards a shift of looking at the Viking age urban sites and their relation with the hinterland, pointing that it might have been less important than the longer connections (although I have to say that the reindeer related material seems not to form the majority of the materials used). It is also important that Ribe’s importance as a trading site is attested not only on the local but also non-local level. This discovery could point towards the discussion about the organisation of the supply chain and collection of the raw material in the comb production (partially touched upon in the conclusion), the status of the craftsmen (attached or independent?) or the level of the specialisation (although a lot of other data would be needed). Instead what we get is a discussion about the beginning of the Viking age and what was the impulse for it. Immediately the attention is shifted towards maritime travel and gathering the experience and expertise in it before the famous Viking expedition known from the historical sources. The pop cultural image takes over a relevant subject leading towards web headlines like here:

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-05/uoy-st050715.php (“TRADE STARTED THE VIKING AGE!”)

http://sciencenordic.com/viking-age-began-denmark (My personal favourite: “VIKING AGE BEGAN IN DENMARK!”)

The big news suddenly is that now the Viking Age begins around 725. It is very problematic to present this kind of statement as a relevant discovery. First problem is that Viking Age is not an event – it is a modern category, quite frankly, it will begin whenever we decide to put it and will be triggered by whatever factor a person will chose. There are no objectively defined traits of the period, it all depends on how far into the past tracking origins of certain process we wish to go.  Here, authors point towards establishment of long over regional networks as probably decisive factor. I don’t see any reason why to focus on these particular craft remains as the proof that people were able to make long distance voyages by sea – Authors themselves point toward earlier Iron Age context, such as bog weapon offerings of non-local origin as a prove that people were able to move around. Researchers dealing with older parts of Iron Age point to the fact that Scandinavia was not isolated from the developments taking place in the continent, as people served as mercenaries within Roman legions and came into contact with the Huns. Ulf Näsman had argued for a regional and long term perspective on studying the Viking age already 15 years ago (2000). Sadly, most of his reservations still holds. Mhyre had argued (among other more controversial things) that petty kingdoms, existing before the Viking age were well integrated into continental political and trade system, pointing out that trade was conducted not only with luxury items, but also commodities (2000). Placing the historical narrations in opposition to archaeological remains to prove the earlier start of the Viking age seems to be unnecessary, as anyone interested in the subject probably already is aware of the discovery of the boat grave of Scandinavian origin at Salme in Estonia, that was dated to the beginning of 8^th c. (Allmäe 2011). Additional, there is early evidence of establishing of trading places in the eastern Europe with a substantial influence people of Scandinavian origin (Lind 2011; Lind 2012). The whole debate centres in the west, ignoring evidence from the other side of the Baltic.

This is a result of kind of Anglo-centric view which Scandinavian researchers must shed away, in which Viking age begins when the raids on the British Isle become possible or important. It is puzzling how easy we forget about the imports that pre-date the Viking age from that area, such as  claw beakers (Ljungkvist 2009) or ignore possible Scandinavian connections visible for example in Sutton Hoo burial (Woolf 2014). Additionally bigger control should be exercised over what do the journalists publish. There is a lot of evidence for mobility of people before the end of the 8^th century and probably it is necessary to place Ribe in a larger network of so called Wics (Näsman 2000) and also acknowledge that Franks, Anglo Saxons and Frisians were able to sail in good enough way to maintain connections between those sites already in the earlier period of the iron Age.

Literature:

Most important of all:

Ashby, S., Coutu, A., Sindbӕk, S. 2015 Urban Networks and Arctic Outlands: Craft Specialists and Reindeer Antler in Viking Towns, European Journal of Archaeology (online early access)

And:

Allmäe,  R. 2011. Human bones in Salme boat-grave I, the Island of Saaremaa: Estonia, Papers on Antrophology XX

Lind, J. 2012. “Vikinger”, vikingetid og  vikingeromantik, Kuml 2012

Lind, J. 2011. «Vikings» and the Viking Age, In: Gvozdetskaja, N., Konovalova, I., Melnikova, E., Podossinov, A. (eds) Stanzas of friendship: Studies in Honour of Tatjana N. Jackson

Ljungkvist, J. 2009. Continetal imports to Scandinavia: Patterns and changes between 400-800 AD, In: Quast, D. (eds) Foreigners in Early Medieval Europe: Thirteen International Studies on Early Medieval Mobility

Mhyre, B. 2000. The early Viking age in Norway, Acta Archaeologica 71

Näsman, U. 2000. Rides, Migrations and Kingdoms - The Danish Case, Acta Archaeologica 71

Woolf, A. 2014. Sutton Hoo and Sweden revisited. In: Gnasso, A., Intagliata, E., MacMaster, T., Morris, B. The Long Seventh century: continuity and discontinuity in the age of transition.