Re-imagining Periphery : Archaeology and Text in Northern Europe From Iron Age to Viking and Early Medieval Periods

"This edited volume delves into the current state of Iron Age and Early Medieval research in the North. Over the last two decades of archaeological explorations, theoretical vanguards, and introduction of new methodological strategies, together with a growing amount of critical studies in archaeology taking their stance from a multidisciplinary perspective, have dramatically changed our understanding of Northern Iron Age societies. The profound effect of 6th century climatic events on social structures in Northern Europe, a reintegration of written sources and archaeological material, genetic and isotopic studies entirely reinterpreting previously excavated grave material, are but a few examples of such land winnings. The aim of this book is to provide an intense and cohesive focus on the characteristics of contemporary Iron Age research; explored under the subheadings of field and methodology, settlement and spatiality, text and translation, and interaction and impact. Gathering the work of leading, established researchers and field archaeologists based throughout northern Europe and in the frontline of this new emerging image, this volume provides a collective summary of our current understandings of the Iron Age and Early Medieval Era in the North. It also facilitates a renewed interaction between academia and the ever-growing field of infrastructural archaeology, by integrating cutting edge fieldwork and developing field methods in the corpus of Iron Age and Early Medieval studies. In this book, many hypotheses are pushed forward from their expected outcomes, and analytical work is not afraid of taking risks, thus advancing the field of Iron Age research, and also, hopefully, inspiring to a continued creation of new knowledge"-- Provided by publisher History / Europe / Medival Cover 1 Book title 2 Copyright 3 Table of contents 6 Re-imagining periphery – Sketching out new fairways for researching the Iron Age North 8 1. Dream-houses of the Late Iron and Viking Ages – The house and the self: Marianne Hem-Eriksen 14 2. Sticky structures and opportunistic builders – The construction and social role of longhouses in northern Norway: Marte Spangen and Johan Arntzen 24 3. A tale of three Tuna-sites – A classic scholarly problem enlightened by new archaeological material: Susanna Eklund and Anneli Sundkvist 46 4. Ultuna – A Late Iron Age gateway to Uppsala: Helena Hulth 62 5. The digital future of the past – Research potential with increasingly FAIR archaeological data: Åsa M. Larsson and Daniel Löwenborg 74 6. Searching for new central places – An experiment: Anders Andrén 84 7. Striking a blow for the plough layer – Exploring the importance of plough-zone finds for the interpretation of a Late Iron Age site: Kristin Ilves and Kim Darmark 92 8. The dating of Ottarshögen and the emergence of monumental burial mounds in Middle Sweden: John Ljungkvist and Andreas Hennius 104 9. What was a cooking-pit called in the Iron Age?: Stefan Brink? 116 10. Poetry and picturing in deep historical time: Lotte Hedeager 120 11. Kumbl and stafR in runic texts: Anne-Sofie Gräslund 130 12. Beowulf – The Scandinavian background. A summary: Bo Gräslund 138 13. Rebooting the Gospel for a Germanic audience – The case of Heliand: Jhonny Therus 148 14. Female cultic leaders and religious (ritual) specialists in Germanic and ancient Scandinavian sources: Olof Sundqvist 158 15. Negotiating narrative – An emic perspective on Norse reuse of ancient monuments on the Northern Isles of Scotland: Charlotta Hillerdal 170 16. Some thoughts about the early medieval settlement on Åland, from a western European perspective: Jan-Henrik Fallgren 182 17. The solidus from Slättäng: Svante Fischer 192