Many Viking artifacts are discovered by accident; this trove from a highway construction site in Norway is no exception. (Ed.)
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by: Staff Writers
From: News Limited Network
The Viking Sagas are celebrated in the
northern hemisphere to this day, but could they have been true stories? AFP
PHOTO/Andy Buchanan
WHEN
archaeologists Geir Grnnesby and Ellen Grav Ellingsen found a silver button, a
set of balance scales and and other artef acts during a dig in mid-Norway, they
realised they had intriguing evidence of a Viking-age trading area mentioned in
the Norse Sagas.
The finds came from two separate
boat graves in an area in Nord-Trndelag County called L, a farm in part of
Steinkjer.
The archaeologists, who both work at
the Norwegian University of Science and Technology's University Museum, were
there to conduct a routine investigation because of an upgrade to Norway's main
national highway, the E6.
But instead of a simple highway dig,
the researchers found themselves with a potential answer to an unsolved puzzle
about a mysterious Viking trading place that is named in ancient sagas, but
that has never before been located.
"These finds got us thinking
about the descriptions in the Sagas that describe Steinkjer as a trading
place,"
the researchers wrote of their
findings in Vitark, an academic journal published by the University Museum .
"The Sagas say that Steinkjer,
under the rule of Eirik Jarl, was brief ly even more important than Nidaros,
before Olav Haraldsson re-established Nidaros as the king's residence and
trading city."
As a medieval city and a religious
capital, Nidaros played an important role in international trade throughout the
Middle Ages. The Lewis Chessmen, an exquisite set of 12th century chess pieces
worked out of walrus ivory and whales' teeth, are widely believed to have been
crafted in the Trondheim/Nidaros area.
The delicate measuring scales suggest
trade in the area.
Olav Haraldsson was the Norwegian
king who is often credited with bringing Christianity to Norway and whose sainthood, proclaimed in
1031, a year after his death, was confirmed by Pope Alexander III in 1164.
Not surprisingly, he features in a
number of different Norse and Icelandic sagas. It was these sagas that mention
a major trading place in Steinkjer that was even larger than Nidaros. But until
archaeologists started the dig in L, they had f ew clues as to where this
Viking-age commercial powerhouse might be.
Apart f rom obvious clues, such as
coins or metal or glass items that were clearly from foreign lands,
archeologists have to rely on much more subtle evidence that can stand the test
of time.
One such hint that a location might
be a trading place is the geography of the place itself , the researchers wrote
in Vitark.
"Even though there is no
archaeological proof that there was a trading place in Steinkjer during Viking
times, there are several aspects that support this idea," the researchers
wrote.
Most importantly, they note,
Steinjker is located in a natural trading areas, at the mouth of a river at the
innermost part of Trondheim fjord. It is also in a place where
f armers have been working flat fields for centuries.
The researchers also plotted all
relevant finds from Nord-Trndelag County , and again and again, the finds
suggested a major trading area in Steinkjer.
Beads made of amber and glass are
commonly traded, and the area around Steinkjer was rich with finds of these
goods, with 254 beads found in 28 different locales, the researchers said.
While beads, swords and imported
jewelry help suggest that Steinkjer was home to a major trading place, two
specific finds, in boat graves in L, were among the most persuasive finds.
One, a silver button made of braided
silver threads that appears to have originated in the British Isles , suggests that the person in the
grave had a high status.
The second is a set of balance
scales found in another boat grave. The balance scales were constructed in a
way that led the archaeologists to believe it came from the west, not from Norway .
Scales themselves naturally suggest
trade, and when the researchers looked at all the scales found in
Nord-Trndelag, they again found a clear concentration in the Steinkjer area.
If all of these concentrations of
finds support the location of a major trading place in Steinkjer as mentioned
in the Norse sagas, then where is it?
Here, the archaeologists can only
make an educated guess. Based on the f act that sea levels were four or five
metres higher in this area 1000 years ago, the location of the existing church
in Steinkjer is the most logical place for the trading place to have been, the
researchers say.
But confirmation of the fact that
Steinkjer was a major trading area in the Viking age raises yet another puzzle:
If Steinkjer was such an important area for international trade, why did trade
eventually shift to Trondheim , as it did?
Grnnesby says that the shift in
trading areas was surely due to the tremendous power struggles between
different rulers in the area. Nidaros along with Levanger, another trading
area, simply had more support than Steinkjer. "We see that Steinkjer disappears
in the sources in the Middle Ages while the same sources show that (nearby)
Levanger was a trading post," he notes.
Nevertheless, determining the exact
answer will require finding more than silver buttons, scales and beads, and may
be an answer that we will never really know.
Some of the objects uncovered in the dig on the site of a future highway in Norway.
Read more: http://www.news.com.au/world-news/tiny-clues-may-prove-viking-sagas-true/story-fndir2ev-1226676731320#ixzz2ZWnm27Yf
Read more: http://www.news.com.au/world-news/tiny-clues-may-prove-viking-sagas-true/story-fndir2ev-1226676731320#ixzz2ZWnm27Yf