Saltwiik – Boo – Kvarnbo (PART 3)

Some reflections on the Early Medieval Åland – settlement reduction or continuity

by Jan-Henrik Fallgren

If we return to the question of discontinuity or continuity, and consider what place-names can say about this matter, it is obvious that the majority of the place-names of Åland are of younger types. Above all, the many –böle, –bo names, and the numerous –by names with a person name as the first element, which are considered to have been popular during the high medieval and late medieval periods (but still, there are also a few other names, topographic names, that might be of older origin). Thanks to new pollen investigations, supporting the older ones, and a few new excavations, it is equally obvious today that there were continuous cultivation and settlement in large parts of the archipelago, as well as an intensified clearing of the landscape and an increase in land use during the Viking Age and the high medieval period.  How can one understand this contradictory information? Is it possible to understand these conflicting data at all? Well, I actually think it may be possible.

First, one must accept the idea that settlements could change their original names, and that this could affect villages/hamlets in an entire region. If we extend our gaze slightly further afield to other parts of Europe, this phenomenon appears to be much more common than one might first imagine. The British Isles can serve as a good example. Firstly, when the Anglo-Saxons invaded the eastern parts of Britain during the 5^th and 6^th centuries, they took over already existing settlements, villages and hamlets named with British or Roman names, and gave them new Anglo-Saxon names. Furthermore, they built a few completely new settlements. The same thing happened when Gaelic people or culture spread from western Scotland to the Pictish eastern and northern parts of Scotland, during the 9^th century. The same happened when the Vikings from Norway conquered and settled in the northern and western parts of Scotland during the 9^th and 10^th centuries, and again when Danish Vikings invaded the eastern Anglo-Saxon regions, and renamed a large number of villages and hamlets. A large proportion of the latter were given names of the same type as the Ålandic –by names, that is by-names with a personal name as the first element! Then again, after the battle of Hasting 1066, it was time to rename a bunch of settlements again. Now, it was added a large number of Norman, Flemish and French names to the “British names flora”. It is possible to line up a lot of other examples from Central Europe, Eastern Europe, the Mediterranean, the Iberian Peninsula and others, but I shall confine myself with these examples. What is important with these examples is to show that the settlements that changed names, or had relatively young names, need not to have suffered a prolonged devastation and depopulation. Instead, the new younger names were caused by conquest, changed sovereignty, migration or cultural fusion. The majority of the settlements as such, and the farmlands, have in those examples survived several invasions, re-naming and changed lordship or sovereignty, even though in many instances the people living in the villages could have changed during these dramatic events. This is shown very illustratively in the case of Wharram Percy in Northumberland, England’s most excavated village. The settlement started as an Iron Age hamlet around 50 BC. It survived the Roman, Anglo-Saxon, Viking and Norman conquests, but changed size and layout after most of them, and was finely abandoned in the 16^th century.  It is also known that the name of the settlement was amended several times.

If we then return to Åland and consider when, and under what circumstances, the archipelago acquired its relatively young place-names, it is obvious that it must have happened between the end of the early medieval period and the middle of the high medieval period. This is exactly the period when the Baltic Crusading was taking place (this was also the time period suggested by Lars Hellberg, but he thought that the colonists arrived to a deserted group of islands). It is well known that both Danes and Swedes made several crusades/raids from the 1100’s onwards in the Finnish speaking areas. The political map in the Baltic region changed gradually from the year 1147, when Bernhard of Clairvaux proclaimed that the Christians in the region should pursue war against their ‘own heathens’, and thus the Baltic Sea would be ‘their Jerusalem’. Germans, Danes, different orders of knights and eventually Swedes, all representing the western Catholic Church, began to compete over land areas in the southern and eastern parts of the Baltic Sea, additionally encouraged by a religiously sanctioned ideology. From the east, the Novgorodians, representatives of the Orthodox Church also beset them. These where ruff times for the, not yet Christianized, eastern tribal societies and stateless kingdoms, that were not organized in larger political units with administrative structures, and therefore lacked access to any professional military apparatus. Furthermore, they were often in conflict with each other.

…to be continued 🙂

Saltwiik – Boo – Kvarnbo (PART 2)

Some reflections on the Early Medieval Åland – settlement reduction or continuity

by Jan-Henrik Fallgren

Because of the nature of Åland as an archipelago, the settlements have always been very scattered, distributed on a variety of islands. Despite this, one can distinguish several contiguous smaller settlement and farmland areas (bygder), naturally demarcated by water, forest and rocky areas. These areas are clearly shown by the concentrations of ancient monuments from the early medieval period, such as graves, grave-fields, and stone foundation houses. These concentrations correlate well with where the best farmland where situated on Åland, and where most settlements can be found at the oldest maps from the 17^th and 18^th centuries. The archipelago’s six hill-forts are placed and built next to, or on the outskirts of, each larger contiguous farmland and settlement district within the island group.

Due to differences in the archaeological records within the archipelago, and the distribution of the hill-forts, it has been suggested by Jan Storå and others, that Åland consisted of two broad polities during the end of the pre-historic period; one north-eastern, with a strong connection to both eastern Sweden, and the coastal areas of present day Finland, and one south-western polity, exhibiting a more local or regional character. Both polities had a set of three hill-forts each. These sets of hill-forts have been interpreted as reflecting organized groups with social hierarchies and conventions of conduct differentiating themselves from other organized groups, i.e. as separate polities. This, I believe, is a highly probable interpretation in many ways. One might think that these six would be too small to constitute a political entity by themselves. The fact is that most Iron Age tribal political units and early medieval petty-kingdoms rarely were any larger than these. Usually they consisted of a single settlement district (bygd in Swedish, bygd and fylke in Norwegian, scir in Old English, mag and tuath in Old Irish, mag and howe in Gaelic Scottish, pays in French, gau in German, campus in Classical Latin, and regio in Medieval Latin), and sometimes two. These smaller units were usually also parts of, and the building blocks of, larger entities-kingdoms, where a hierarchy of kings was the normal situation.

There are 6 hill-forts on Åland that are placed and built next to, or on the outskirts of, each larger contiguous farmland and settlement district within the island group. Shoreline on the map: 10 m a.s.l that is roughly corresponding to the situation in the beginning of Late Iron Age

The hill-forts were always the biggest, the most potent expression, and often the most complex constructions within a territory in the regions of Europe where hill-forts were erected and built during the Iron Age and the early medieval period. No doubt they were collective structures, at regular intervals maintained, repaired or expanded collectively by the people living in the area. In those cases where the original name of the forts is known, and is not containing a god’s name as prefix, they were often named by the people, tribe, gens or kingdom where they were erected.  A kingdom could be named after a hill-fort, or the cliff or mountain where it was erected. There are also several known early medieval examples of a special kingship, a High kingship, named after a hill-fort, the fort where these kings where inaugurated. These High kingships always included several petty kingships, where the different petty kings were competing to gain the higher office, or where the High kingship was itinerant between some or all of the included petty kingdoms, or was itinerant between a few of the royal lineages in the region. All this, together with the fact that hill-forts often exhibit proof of communal feasting and plenty of ritual activities when excavated, demonstrates that hill-forts probably always had a primary communal symbolic and ritual function for those who used and built it. During martial context they could also be used as a last refuge.

Therefore, each of the Ålandic hill-forts can be regarded as symbolic manifestations for each of the six different cohesive settlement districts within the archipelago, representing six different polities/regions divided into two larger political units with three lesser in each. Perhaps they all had a common meeting point, gathering- or assembly place at the small island of Tingön, at the inlet to Kastelholm and Sund parish, as the name of the island certainly would indicate. In addition to the name itself, the island is located almost at the geographical centre point of the archipelago, which would fit extremely well into what we know about those kinds of places from other regions of Europe during the Iron Age and the early middle ages, for example Roma on Gotland, Uisneach on Ireland, and Carnutes in Gaul. This kind of gathering places were looked upon as the sacred centre, or navel of the earth, and constituted the axis mundi for the people gathering here.

…to be continued 🙂

Saltwiik – Boo – Kvarnbo (PART 1)

Some reflections on the Early Medieval Åland – settlement reduction or continuity

by Jan-Henrik Fallgren

There are some major unresolved and frustrating problems when it comes to Åland’s Iron Age, and the early historical periods. In particular, whether or not there has been continuity between the Viking Age settlement and the settlement known from the earliest written sources. There is today, and has been for some time, various opinions concerning this subject. However, since Lars Hellberg’s classical study of the place-names on Åland from 1980, many researchers believe that the archipelago was deserted between c. AD 1000 to at least the 12^th century. Others have pointed out that at least some of the settlements show continuity from the Viking Age to the end of 13^th century. The fact that no coins are found on Åland from the end of the Viking Age, has also been put forward as an important argument for the former opinion, or at least showed that the Ålanders suffered economically from a serious loss from the geopolitical map, due to the collapse of the earlier important east-western trade route during this century.

Lots of islamic coins have been found on Åland – all dating before AD 950. No coins* are found on prehistoric Åland from the end of the Viking Age.  *with one certain exeption of a fragmentary Anglo-Saxon penny of King Athelstan (924-939) (there are “rumours” of more).

Strangely enough, also the speedy shore displacement during the late Iron Age/Medieval Period has sometimes been mentioned in connection with the presumed desolation, or as one of the causes of population decline. This is really odd. In other geographical contexts, for instance the Mälaren Valley, a speedy shore displacement has always been regarded as something positive and beneficial for the contemporary agrarian economy and for the growth of the population. Both osteological and paloebotanical analyses reveal that the agrarian Viking Age economy on Åland was based on the same kind of farming practise as everywhere else in north-western Europe during this time period; that is an agricultural system based on cattle breeding, alongside with crop growing on a minor scale. Therefore, this land elevation must have been similarly beneficial to the agrarian economy of Åland, as rightly pointed out previously by Birgitta Roeck Hansen, Johan Callmer and Kristin Ilves.

As mentioned above, the Iron Age and Viking Age agrarian economy on Åland appears to have been exactly of the same type as in other parts of north-western Europe during the early medieval period, i.e. farming based mainly on animal husbandry together with small-scale cultivation of essentially barley, on few and very small fields. Actually, this was characteristic for all north-western early medieval kin-based, tribal societies, stateless petty kingdoms, ranked societies, traditional societies, or whatever you would like to call them, before what has been labelled the “cerialization” and “manoralization” of Europe occurred, when the feudal estate-system was born.  These transformations started in the western parts of Europe (Frankish) during the 8^th century, but accelerated strongly only when the reformed Catholic Church from the 10^th century onwards got a firmer grip on the political and ideological situation in Europe and thus could incorporate several larger kingdoms and regions in their economic and administrative system. However, these momentous changes did not arrive to our part of the world until the 13^th and 14^th centuries.

Before these radical economical and agrarian changes during the early medieval period, all social contracts, bonds and agreements within kin-based, tribal societies and petty kingdoms with their gift-giving economies, was confirmed and sealed by the receiving or giving of basically three different types of media; ale, livestock and women (neither pre-feudal nobility or kings built their wealth or social positions by some major land ownership or estates, instead it was food-rent and hospitality from free clients, and these clients obligations to participate in war and plundering, that gave pre-feudal lords and kings their social positions and economical resources). And of course, if there were access to exotic objects, like glass vessels, silver or other precious metals in the form of foreign coins, or melted down and remoulded coins to prestige objects; these were also part of such socio-economic transactions and situations, such as tribute, payment or fiefs by lords or kings to clients. However, absence or lack of coins or precious metals in those kinds of societies was not a problem or a catastrophe, and, above all, it would never have made people to abandon their fields and farms, and it did not lead to starvation. They did not live in a market economy. So any drop off from the geopolitical map, or the fact that the silver trade was interrupted for the people on Åland during the 11^th century, could hardly have caused any serious crisis in the agrarian economy or society at large (except, perhaps to a few individuals). Above all, it would not have been the cause of any possible depopulation of the islands.

…to be continued 🙂

Breaking the silence with an article

Two years ago, during the summer and autumn of 2015 I worked on an article. I set an intention to account for and contextualize the Kvarnbo Hall based on the results of the investigations in 2014. I discussed the site and the building at the state of knowledge at that time in its regional and historical context, in comparison to the full data set of coeval houses on Åland. I also examined the development of Iron Age settlement and explanatorily discussed the rapid and large-scale colonization to Åland evident in the middle of the first millennium AD. As a result, a new perspective for our understanding of the emerging importance of Late Iron Age Åland was provided.

As the text turned out pretty well (if I might say so 😉 ), with lots of new knowledge potentially relevant beyond the Fennoscandian region, I decided to submit it to The Journal of Island & Coastal Archaeology, a well-renowned, peer-review journal rated high among archaeology journals worldwide. I was, of course, well aware of the fact that not only is it more difficult to get accepted in journals of such calibre, but that the wait time might turn out to be rather long. I submitted the manuscript on the 8^th of December 2015. And I received positive reviews on the 1^st of February 2016. My revisions were submitted on the 12^th of February 2016. But then, the great silence spread its wings over the whole thing… (This silence was, however, apologetically explained by the editor during the summer). The processing of my manuscript was resumed in the beginning of 2017 and on the 7^th of March 2017 it was finally published online. Why do I provide such a lengthy account on this process? To illustrate the anxiety the author is faced with?? Well, partially, yes, but also because things obviously changed during the excavation 2016 and certain aspects of this article written in 2015, the ones related to the building remains as seen from the infra-red aerial photo, should probably be reconsidered, at least, to a certain degree. In general though, I am very happy with this research being published and thereby providing some interesting stuff on the Late Iron Age settlement archaeology on Åland for a wide audience.

You can find the text following this link: http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/9k2H9XfnYqtS7MjTdQAD/full  (the journal provides a number of free downloads of the full article, so first come – first served 😀 )

Reflections of a volunteer – part 6

by Anton Larsson

Anton as a front page teaser in the newspaper

Originally from the town of Uddevalla on the Swedish West Coast, I moved a few miles south to the “big city” Gothenburg three years ago to study archaeology. I recently took my Bachelor’s Degree there, so it seems to have gone quite well, and I’m just about to begin working towards my Master’s Degree. History and prehistory have always been my passion, and while my primary research interests have been quite different in the last few years, it was in fact the Baltic Iron Age which first caught my attention. At age four, I went with my family to Gotland, and was very excited by all the old Viking tombs, mainly beautifully preserved ship burials… and my parents bought me a wooden Dane axe-style toy. Big mistake. I kept running around screaming with it. Now, this summer, I returned to the Baltic Iron Age, although further to the north and with no axe.

I spent four full weeks at the Kvarnbo excavation, although it seemed almost like a lifetime – that’s probably because of the lack of WiFi and battery charging possibilities, though. I spent the four weeks at a campsite in Mariehamn, sleeping in a tent, which certainly took its toll. If it wasn’t for the magnificence of the project, if you pardon my hyperbole, I would have been complaining far more than I was doing. But a work experience so fulfilling and exciting can drive away the bothers of any living conditions, no matter how frugal. Although I have worked on prehistoric sites before, including one dating to the Vendel / Merovingian Era, there’s certainly no excavation in my short career so far that can match the one in Kvarnbo. Not only is it a fantastically fascinating place, with beautiful finds and ample knowledge to be uncovered, it has also been an excellent exercise in archaeological fieldwork. Although I did nothing during the four weeks that I technically haven’t done before, the work process has certainly opened my eyes to the uses and benefits of many strategies and technologies I have just barely considered before, including 3D-modelling, georeferencing, drone-based aerial photography, metal detecting, and plough layer digging. As I left the Åland Isles, that summery paradise (to tell you the truth, it was almost too summery sometimes, what with the nearly constant sunshine), I was filled with inspiration and new ideas for my future work.

Finally, something really must be said regarding the people of the excavation and of the Ålanders in general. Rarely have I ever been received as warmly as I was on Åland, or with such hospitality. Especially, the staff at the Kvarnbo dig – Kristin, Kim, Frands and Henke – were wonderful to work with, as were my fellow volunteers. No man can live on archaeology alone; such a lifestyle can only be sustained by the companionship of good colleagues.

The end of the excavations

Reflections of a volunteer – part 5

by Kåre Lund

Kåre at the sieving station, at which he found a really exquisite bead that looks black, but actually has the colour of an aubergine 🙂

My name is Kåre, and I had the pleasure of being a volunteer at the Kvarnbo Hall dig site. My background is not from archeology, but as a teacher in Norway.

I first heard about this project during a convention in Mariehamn, Åland, last year, where Kristin talked about the project and the local islands during the Viking age. I`ve always been interested in history, so when she informed about the possibility to volunteer, I thought this might be an interesting experience.

The excavation had already been going on for a few weeks before I arrived, but I was given a good introduction to the basic tools of the trade (trowel, bucket, hand shovel, measuring tape), and shown where and how to dig a proper hole in the ground, and how to wash, sift and sort the soil. It was also a new and interesting experience to learn what to look for. Especially, the fact that you could taste things, to feel the texture and hardness against your teeth. I haven’t put this many rocks in my mouth since kindergarten. Usually, I have to tell pupils in first grade not to put things from the ground in their mouth 🙂 To see and experience how much work that lies behind finding and sorting objects in the ground was an eye opener.

It was also very nice to work with the people who share a lot of the same interests. I don`t always get the opportunity to do this, since teachers are a very diverse group. I also found the tasks I was given interesting when I was told why it was done. Talking to, learning new things and getting to know the other people at the site made the work even more rewarding. I learned quite a lot from all of this.

The thing I found I had to work most with was to overcome my feeling of inexperience in the field, and my “Oh God, I`m going to destroy something if I do this wrong” – reflex. I think this made me a little hesitant at first, until I got my feet wet. Despite my inexperience in the field I felt I was included among the others at the site and made to feel welcome among everyone.

All in all I`m happy I volunteered for this, and hope to do it again sometime.

Reflections of a volunteer – part 4

by Peter Kollin

The blacksmith Peter with his leather hat 🙂

I live in Sweden and I’m a blacksmith, but I also have a Bachelor’s degree in archaeology. I use to attend the annual Viking market in Kvarnbo, Saltvik, and during the market last year I learned from a friend about the upcoming investigations at the Kvarnbo hall site. I got in touch with Kristin and made arrangements for the accommodation, so that I could participate as a volunteer.

I spent four weeks at the excavation. It was a fantastic experience and I’ve met so many nice people and made new friends during the time spent on Åland. The archaeologists in the crew were all highly skilled and very generous with sharing their knowledge. I have participated in a number of excavations before, but this one was by far the one that gave me most in terms of experience and knowledge. The one thing I had never done before, but got to work with in Kvarnbo, was to assist in the process of stripping of the plough soil with an excavator. It was really exciting to work next to the excavator, cleaning up after the machine, and watching the archaeological features appear. This is really what makes archaeology – to see the traces of more than thousand years’ old houses, hearths and cooking pits emerge in front of your eyes. After the soil stripping, there was a massive effort put into cleaning the entire surface of the 1000 m2 large trench using just trowels. This made the archaeological features uncovered with the help of the machine even more visible and many more new features were discovered. The investigation of every single feature followed. Unfortunately, I only had the time to investigate a few, as I had to leave before the end of the investigation… One of my personal best finds was a nice segmented blue glass bead with parallels to a find in Birka´s black earth.

I will always carry in my heart the warmth of all the people I met at the investigation and all the good laughter we shared and I wish you all good luck with the rest of the investigation. I really hope there will be further investigations at this exciting site so that I can participate once again. I also want to thank Saltvik B&B for a very nice accommodation and treatment. Last but not least, many thanks to Kristin Ilves who made it all happen!

Reflections of a volunteer – part 3

by Linnéa Hernqvist

Linnéa during a hard day of sieving – dirty but happy 🙂

It was in the middle of writing my bachelor thesis this spring that I stumbled upon an internet post in the student association of archaeology in Gothenburg (GAST) and it captured my interest immediately. It said that Kristin needed volunteers in Åland and I sent away an e-mail right away. Up until then unaware that the post was shared by GAST and thereby found its way that far south, Kristin expressed that she finally understood why two people, with one more to come, all the way from Sweden’s west coast wanted to join in! The wonders of the internet, indeed.

The excavation project at the Iron Age hall in Kvarnbo seemed like a perfect way for me to gather more fieldwork experience after my in June finished bachelor’s degree in cultural heritage with archaeology as main subject. During the studies I’ve dug in Karleby – a new Stone Age site – outside Falköping in Sweden through the university. So, to be a part of the uncovering of an Iron Age context was indeed tempting!

And how happy I am that I decided to participate! Two weeks went (unfortunately) by fast in a steady methodological work mode with the test pit digging and the soil stripping with manual troweling afterwards, the latter which I got to experience on my last day at the dig. To manually clean the surface after the machine had done its work was as tough physically (dense clayish soil at times!), as it was amazing to see the archaeological features appear. To uncover and expose the different features such as presumable postholes, ditches and wall structures was a new experience for me, practically. The constant attention to differences and anomalies – indeed, attention to details – which is, as always, crucial within the archaeological sphere, is not an exception during this stage!

The choice to examine the plough layer when digging the test pits resulted in finds including e.g. prehistoric glass and beads which are important for the understanding of the site. It was great to witness those interesting high status finds suddenly showing themselves and adding some variety in the constant flow of burnt and unburnt bone and burnt clay 🙂

I’ve learned a lot and had a lot of fun these two weeks while meeting and working together with this amazing group of people made up by archaeologists, fellow archaeology students and people from other backgrounds, with as much interest in the subject as myself. I think I’m not only speaking for myself when I say that one felt very welcomed and in good pedagogical hands. Thanks again for this opportunity!

Fishing for knowledge (Reflections of a volunteer – part 2)

by Hannele Parviala

A bit over a year ago I was sitting in the auditorium of Alandica conference centre in Mariehamn being blown away with new and interesting knowledge about Vikings, Fimbulwinter and paw symbols. It was no wonder then, that when at the end of her performance Kristin threw out her invitation to the audience to participate as a volunteer in the next year’s excavation, I was instantly hooked.

My background is in art education, so when it comes to archaeology I’m a total amateur. Now after spending two weeks at Kvarnbohall’s site I’m ready to state that to some extent at least archaeology reminds me of fishing. Fishing for knowledge in the stream of time to put it bit more poetically perhaps. 😀

The atmosphere of yet unknown possibilities and expectation lingers in the air while the crew digs, scrapes, hauls and sieves the dirt in the hope of coming across of something interesting and relevant. And when that happens and someone finds some bit or piece of value, everybody gets exited and dig their own spots with added enthusiasm. Wondering maybe what will be the next catch and if perhaps that might be theirs to make. Hours turn to days in peaceful and steady work and mind roams free to ponder the secrets of time. It is simply just mind boggling to think that some small items have been silently rolling around in that same small field for a thousand years!

During my stay I had the possibility to see different stages of the project. When I arrived the field was green and fresh, there were couple of squares already worked on but otherwise clover and grass still ruled their peaceful kingdom. When I left two weeks later, the field had undergone a total change, squares had multiplied many times over, paths of yellowed grass worn by boots criss-crossed the green and the excavator had stripped half of the field open. As the project advanced from one step to the next it was very interesting to witness how things get done. The amount and meticulousness of the thinking and planning in advance to the actual hard physical human work on the field made a truly lasting impression.

I’ve always had deep interest in history and respect for archaeology but after this experience those feelings have amplified. To plan out, execute and finally analyse such vast projects as the Kvarnbohall you truly have to be strong both in mind and body.

I feel very privileged to have been able to take part in this particular project. Thank you for the opportunity and also for the warm and welcoming camaraderie within the crew!