Current Swedish Archaeology

Fredrik Gunnarsson. Det digitala uppdraget: Om uppdragsarkeologins möjligheter att skapa relevant kunskap i ett digitalt samhälle

Daniel Löwenborg — Fri, 23 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0100

Editorial

Sophie Bergerbrant, Alison Klevnäs — Fri, 23 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0100

Pirates in the Age of Populism

Søren M. Sindbæk — Fri, 23 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0100

Body-Worldings of Later Scandinavian Prehistory: Making Oddkin with Two Body-Objects

Marianne Hem Eriksen — Fri, 23 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0100

In the last two decades, the body has emerged as a rich field of theorization and scholarly exploration in archaeology. This paper is an excursion into a consideration of two bodyobjects of prehistoric Denmark: an anthropomorphic bronze figurine from the Fårdal assemblage dating to the late Bronze Age, and a figural gold foil with an anthropomorphic stamp from Sorte Muld, created perhaps as much as 1 500 years later, in the Merovingian period (550–750 CE). The two images are made in very different materials, in distinctly different forms, and belong to different historical situations. Nevertheless, the two artefacts render what are likely women’s bodies with clear differences, but also some uncanny similarities.
This article explores these artefacts from a more-than-representational perspective. Moving beyond a taxonomic approach, it focuses on aspects of these images beyond what or who they ‘represent’. What can such an approach tell us about the capacities of bodies, as well as the capacities of the artefacts themselves? This entails, following the work of Donna Haraway, worlding them in two vastly different social, material and political worlds; drawing out their making from two very different technological processes; engaging with the similarities and differences of their biographies; and, crucially, thereby contemplating their kinship.

Revisiting the ‘Valkyries’: Armed Females in Viking Age Figurative Metalwork

Leszek Gardela, Peter Pentz, Neil Price — Fri, 23 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0100

This paper offers an in-depth exploration of a group of small Viking Age figurines commonly referred to as ‘valkyries’ in Viking and Old Norse scholarship. After presenting an overview of the long research history pertaining to these finds and their varying definitions, this study re-analyses their various formal and stylistic features and proposes a new typological system based on a comprehensive investigation of the current find corpus. This is followed by a deconstruction and discussion of the ambiguous gender characteristics of the figurines and an exploration of the potential new avenues of their interpretation. The study is supplemented by detailed catalogues of all presently known finds of so-called armed ‘valkyrie’ figures as well as high-quality illustrations that demonstrate their great iconographic value for studies of Viking Age clothing, martial equipment and ritual behaviour.

Public Viking Research in Museums and Beyond

Howard Williams — Fri, 23 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0100

There is No Essential Museum

Caroline Owman — Fri, 23 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0100

The Viking Brand in Crisis?

Chris Tuckley — Fri, 23 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0100

Populistic Exhibitions or Dedicated to a New Elite of Consumers?

Hakon Glorstad — Fri, 23 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0100

Victims of Their Own Success - Academia and Public Research on 'The Vikings'

Matthias Toplak — Fri, 23 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0100

Hip Viking Heritage

Fredrik Svanberg — Fri, 23 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0100

This Belongs in a Museum

Søren Michael Sindbæk — Fri, 23 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0100