scholarly journals Veidekongen, olifanten og bøkeskogen

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ragnar Orten Lie ◽  
Frans-Arne Stylegar

This article discusses aspects of aristocratic hunting in theViking and Middle Ages. Falconry requires great knowledgeof birds, dogs and horses and the ability to make theminteract. The hunt itself should involve danger and requiredlarge resources. Falconry and other types of hunting wasassociated with high status, partly because hunting wasconsidered training for war. In the King’s Mirror from the13th century, emphasis is placed on the positive aspects ofhunting, such as allowing the king to maintain his health,and as having sporting fun with hawks, dogs, horses andweapons makes one accustomed to the use of weapons andwar. Earlier scholars have usually considered Norway asan exception from the general trend of aristocratic, warpreparinghunting, as hunting was practiced solely for foodor economic gains. Furthermore, Norway, together withIceland, has mainly been seen as a mere supplier of huntingbirds. Following recent research, this paper considers certainaspects of the archaeological record from Norway, as wellas written sources, that indicate falconry and other formsof aristocratic hunting practices. It is furthermore arguedthat the substantial beech forests of SE Norway were in factestablished as hunting parks in the Viking Age and later.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tor-Ketil Krokmyrdal

In this paper, I discuss a potential market place for theexchange of goods at Sandtorg in Harstad municipality,Troms and Finnmark county during the Iron Age and theMiddle Ages. Recently, a total of 125 objects were uncoveredon a farm, previously only mentioned in written sources inthe mid-16th century. Finds of jewelry, silver, coins, weightand metal waste from the Viking Age suggest that exchangeof goods started at the site somewhere between AD 800 and 900. Further finds indicate that there were exchangegoods here throughout the Middle Ages and onwards to thehistorically documented trade. At the location, excavationshave uncovered a far larger amount of metalworking wastethan one would expect on an ordinary farm. This included lead, copper alloys, iron and silver. The finds indicate asmithy close to the Viking Age beach level and may suggestconstruction and repair of sea vessels at the site. AroundSandtorg there are no known Viking Age graves, indicatingthat Sandtorg did not have a large permanent population,and consequently was not a large marketplace. However,it is possible that the market function was combined withservices such as repairs or construction of seagoing vesselsand guesthouses for travelers. If so, the activity at Sandtorg may have been significant. 


2016 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 456-476 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alison Margaret Klevnäs

This article examines the wide range of grave disturbance practices seen in Viking-age burials across Scandinavia. It argues that the much-debated reopenings at high-profile sites, notably the Norwegian ‘royal’ mounds, should be seen against a background of widespread and varied evidence for burial reworking in Scandinavia throughout the first-millennium AD and into the Middle Ages. Interventions into Viking-age graves are interpreted as disruptive, intended to derail practices of memory-creation set in motion by funerary displays and monuments. However, the reopening and reworking of burials were also mnemonic citations in their own right, using a recurrent set of practices to make heroic, mythological, and genealogical allusions. The retrieval of portable artefacts was a key element in this repertoire, and in this article I use archaeological and written sources to explore the particular concepts of ownership which enabled certain possessions to work as material citations appropriating attributes of dead persons for living claimants.


Author(s):  
Iñaki Martín Viso ◽  
Juan Ignacio García Hernández

This paper focuses on the analysis of the ways which areas of collective use were created and claimed in the Middle Ages, through the case of the devasos of Ciudad Rodrigo. They were lands used preferentially to the grazing of cattle and to the collection of firewood; the inhabitants of the town of Ciudad Rodrigo as well as the neighbours of the villages that surrounded those areas had rights of entitlement to access. The means of claiming communal rights over those spaces between eleventh and fifteenth centuries have been studied thanks to a combination of archaeological record and written sources. The main hypothesis is the use of a claiming strategy based on sacralisation. First, burials linked the territory to the ancestors during early Middle Ages, and after the construction of buildings with religious functions, small churches that were not parishes, would have been a key to preserve the commons. Those politics of the sacred coexisted with the progressive identification of the devasos as properties of the council as a result of the affirmation of the power of the town of Ciudad Rodrigo.


Vox Patrum ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 58 ◽  
pp. 221-236
Author(s):  
Jarosław Dudek

The Early Middle Ages brought grave losses to the Christian Churches in the East. It was only the patriarchate of Constantinople that managed to maintain its previous dignity. Starting form the end of the 7th century, one may notice the pa­triarchate activity in the western Balkans. That church substance, having survived barbarians invasion, was defined in the literature as „the bridge between the West and the East” and it became the subject matter of a rivalry with the papacy. The patriarchate of Constantinople, consistently supported by the emperors of the New Rome, gradually gained superiority in this field. A significant role in these changes was played by the attitude of the patriarchate towards the bishopric in Dyrrachion (at present Dürres in Albania). The majority of preserved written sources concern­ing this church centre was created in a defined relationship with projects pursued by some emperors and patriarchs. From this perspective, one may follow the evo­lution of the local bishopric status based on preserved registers of bishoprics sub­ject to Constantinople (Notitiae episcopatuum Ecclesiae Constantinopolitane) as well as the lists of attendance of Dyrrachion’s metropolitan bishops at the Trullan Synod (692) and The Second Council of Nicaea (787). In the first case, it is pos­sible to reconstruct the image of the mediaeval Dyrrachion metropolis clearly referring to the ancient church traditions of the New and Old Epirus (Epirus Vetus i Epirus Nova). However, the second preserved source data collection underlines quite high status of the bishops of Dyrrachion at synods and councils, which re­flects their growing position (in comparison with Thessaloniki, Corinth or Athens) in the organization structures of the patriarchate of Constantinople.


Britannia ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 37 ◽  
pp. 337-353 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Pearson

ABSTRACTThis paper is concerned with the nature of the contacts between late Roman Britain and the seafaring peoples of the continental North Sea coast. Evidence for Germanic piracy during this period is extremely slight, with the consequence that notions about its character are poorly defined. However, this paper argues that there is a basic similarity between these barbarian attacks and those of the late eighth- and early ninth-century Vikings against England, Ireland and northern France. The Vikings are much better evidenced, both in terms of written sources and the archaeological record: this makes it possible to offer a model for the nature, scale and consequences of Germanic piracy in late Roman Britain.


Author(s):  
Naja Mikkelsen ◽  
Antoon Kuijpers ◽  
Susanne Lassen ◽  
Jesper Vedel

NOTE: This article was published in a former series of GEUS Bulletin. Please use the original series name when citing this article, for example: Mikkelsen, N., Kuijpers, A., Lassen, S., & Vedel, J. (2001). Marine and terrestrial investigations in the Norse Eastern Settlement, South Greenland. Geology of Greenland Survey Bulletin, 189, 65-69. https://doi.org/10.34194/ggub.v189.5159 _______________ During the Middle Ages the Norse settlements in Greenland were the most northerly outpost of European Christianity and civilisation in the Northern Hemisphere. The climate was relatively stable and mild around A.D. 985 when Eric the Red founded the Eastern Settlement in the fjords of South Greenland. The Norse lived in Greenland for almost 500 years, but disappeared in the 14th century. Letters in Iceland report on a Norse marriage in A.D. 1408 in Hvalsey church of the Eastern Settlement, but after this account all written sources remain silent. Although there have been numerous studies and much speculation, the fate of the Norse settlements in Greenland remains an essentially unsolved question.


2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 165-171
Author(s):  
Igor Valentinovich Kazakov

This paper is a logical continuation of our paper The daily life of Franks according to written sources at the time of Gregory of Tours, I: diseases, medicine, hygiene and food. This paper is an attempt to collect and systematize information about the material conditions of life in the Frankish state of the Merovingians in the 6th century in the descriptions of contemporary authors. The choice of the topic is due to the need to compose a complete picture of a persons life from the beginning of the early Middle Ages, which until now has remained poorly researched, unlike the Carolingian period. The sources used are the writings of Gregory of Tours, Venantius Fortunatus, Apollinaris Sidonius, The Chronicle of Fredegar, The History Book of the Franks and others. The paper collects data on the clothes of various population groups, on the weapons and armor of the Franks and the level of military affairs development, on cities and urban life, and some features of the mentality of so far half barbaric society. The collected material allows us to state that: a) the sources of the early Merovingian period, in contrast to the Carolingian era, are distinguished by the extreme scarcity of data in the field of genesis; b) despite a rather primitive look of clothing, it possessed considerable material value, as well as it had a significant essence, c) Roman cities continued to exist on the territory of Gallia, but largely lost their urban character, turning into fortified centers, and c) Christianization had very little influence on the moral character of the Franks; society remained largely barbaric, although some features indicate the beginning of the formation of a new civilization.


Author(s):  
Pardaev Ahrorqul Hasanovich ◽  

The article examines the historical medieval towns, fortresses and other geographical areas of the Jizzakh oasis based on written sources and data obtained from archeological excavations. As a result of scientific analysis, the geographical locations of the Jizzakh Horde and its environs, which are the location of the modern city of Jizzakh in the late Middle Ages, have been clarified.


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