A group of Viking Age sword chapes reflecting the political geography of the time

Abstract

During the 1998 excavations on the Garrison site at Birka, Uppland, Sweden, a spectacular deposit was found in a post pit belonging to the Warrior’s House, one of the finds in which was a bronze sword chape of a type not previously found in Birka. The scarcity of this type of chape and its distribution pattern aroused a series of questions concerning its func-tion, iconographic symbols and whether or not the pattern of distribution of a material culture through diplomatic and political contacts can reflect a political landscape? An iconographic study, partly based on a surface structure analysis, is made of the newly found chape.