Abstract
Individual geographic mobility is a key social dynamic of early Viking-Age urbanization in Scandinavia. We present the first comprehensive geographic mobility study of Scandinavia’s earliest emporium, Ribe, which emerged around AD 700 in the North Sea region of Denmark. This article presents the results of strontium isotope analyses of 21 individuals buried at Ribe, combined with an in-depth study of the varied cultural affinities reflected by the burial practices. In order to investigate geographic mobility in early life/childhood, we sampled multiple teeth and/or petrous bone of individuals, which yielded a total of 43 strontium isotope analyses. Most individuals yielded strontium isotope values that fell within a relatively narrow range, between 87Sr/86Sr = 0.709 to 0.711. Only two individuals yielded values >87Sr/86Sr = 0.711. This suggests that most of these individuals had local origins but some had cultural affinities beyond present-day Denmark. Our results raise new questions concerning our understanding of the social and cultural dynamics behind the urbanization of Scandinavia.
Highlights
Research on human migration in the past has seen a revival in archaeology, largely owing to the development of methods such as aDNA and strontium isotope analyses [e.g. 1], and is highly relevant in the context of the urbanization of Scandinavia in the early Viking Age
The results provide new insights into Ribe’s early urban community, and hint at the complex social and cultural processes linked to human geographic mobility in the context of the urbanization of Scandinavia
Addressing the question of cultural affinity and geographical origin is of paramount importance for understanding social dynamics in the early Scandinavian towns
Summary
Research on human migration in the past has seen a revival in archaeology, largely owing to the development of methods such as aDNA and strontium isotope analyses [e.g. 1], and is highly relevant in the context of the urbanization of Scandinavia in the early Viking Age. There is much debate about what (and who) prompted the urbanization of Scandinavia, especially concerning its ties to royal power [22,23,24], one fact remains: Few people were already settled in the locations where the key Viking-Age sites of Birka (present-day Sweden), Kaupang (present-day Norway), Hedeby (present-day Germany) and Ribe (present-day Denmark) appeared and thrived from the early 8th to the late 10th centuries, but at one point or another, all these sites hosted a large, permanent population Their success implies that some people moved there, and stayed. The history of populating the Viking-Age towns involves geographic mobility, and is marked by encounters between individuals with cultural ties and geographic origin in the towns’ immediate hinterland, and beyond
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