Echoes of the Past: Women, Memories and Disc-on-Bow Brooches in Vendel- and Viking-period Scandinavia

Zanette T Glørstad,Ingunn M Røstad

doi:10.1017/eaa.2020.23

Abstract

This article examines the development, handling, and depositions of disc-on-bow brooches from the sixth to tenth centuriesadin the Vendel and Viking periods in Norway and mainland Sweden. A revised typological framework is presented, and the context of these brooches explored. The authors discuss their preservation, re-use, fragmentation, and ritual meaning within ongoing social negotiations and internal conflicts from the late Vendel period into the Viking Age. References to the past in Viking-Age society and the significance of women for maintaining narratives of the past are considered, as are levels of access, control, and definition of narratives of the past in times of social redefinition.

Highlights

In recent years, research into Viking Age
We argue that the disc-on-bow brooches become increasingly important as mnemonic objects during the Vendel period, and that this is linked to negotiations and conflicts around the past as a political resource in the late Vendel period and early Viking Age
We argue that the development and long-term use of both complete and fragmented brooches reflects ongoing social negotiations and internal social conflicts from the late Vendel period to the Viking Age, and that women were central to these negotiations

Summary

Introduction

Research into Viking Age (c. AD 790–1050) society has explored its complex social compositions, group formations, and social identities (Svanberg, 2003; Downham, 2009; Raffield et al, 2016). We explore the social complexities that characterize this period of transition through an in-depth study of the disc-on bow brooches (Figure 1) in Norway and mainland Sweden.

Results

Conclusion