Ny Björn Gustafsson

The winner of the 2026 CA Award for Archaeologist of the Year (sponsored by Andante Travels) is… Dr Jane Kershaw (@ox.ac.uk) #CALive26

New on Old Uppsala by Charlotte Hedenstierna-Jonson, Johan Callmer, John Ljungkvist, Per Frölund and others, presenting some of the results from the last 20 years of excavations and research.

"Från hallar till fynd i Gamla Uppsala"

A bleak morning by the medieval gallows above Visby.

Proceedings of the 40th Interdisciplinary Viking Symposium - 3 May 2023 in Odense:

”Travelling Viking Age”

museumodense.dk/wp-content/u...

Borre-styled bridle fittings with interlaced animal ornaments (n:o 1,2,3, 5/7 and 6) from a burial mound excavated in 1872 "close to the cemetery of Bezhetsk" by Finnish scholar Daniel Europeus. Parts of a similar bridle have also been found in Gnezdovo by modern Smolensk. Picture from "Об угорском народе, обитавшем в средней и северной России, в Финляндии и в северной части Скандинавии до прибытия туда нынешних их жителей"(1874).

The Norse Borre style has its name from an ornamented bridle found in Borre, Norway. But it's by no means restricted to western Scandinavia - parts of such bridles have been found in graves from Norse-influenced areas of present day Russia. Like these, found in 1872 at Bezhetsk in Tver Oblast:

Gitte Ingvardson on the Viking-period hoards from the Danish island Bornholm:
"The Hoarding Vikings" (2025)

Open access 🔓 🥳🏺

www.routledge.com/The-Hoarding...

...and here's another example of a keen but personal Insular eye for Norse ornaments, found 2019 in the Burythorpe area, North Yorkshire. Thankfully it was at least reported to PAS... 🏺

finds.org.uk/database/art...

A late Viking-period scabbard chape of unknown provenance, though there are strong reasons to believe it is a detector find from England. Sold on auction without any further registration. It features a central anthropomorph figure standing on top of a worn but discernible animal's head. The top is somewhat fragmentary.

The scabbard's motif is clearly a lokal rendition of a Norse/Rus' type which is normally found in eastern Europe - the chape to the left was for example found in the Zhytomyr province, Northern Ukraine.

The 3 other finds of this particular type, 2 from England (South Humberside according to Mills 2001; Tupholme, Lincolnshire - PAS DENO-527092) and Iceland (Ljárskógar, in Dalabyggð - 5072 in Þjóðminjasafn Íslands).

A good object for a #FindsFriday the 13th:

This scabbard chape was sold on auktion, possibly last year, in the UK. There are only 3 other known specimens.

It is immensely sad that it didn't end up in a museum since it is such a good example of appropriation from the Norse cultural sphere. 😢🏺

I en tid när tidningarna i princip slutat recensera facklitteratur (som inte är skriven av journalister…) känns det lite svårt att få spridning på sin bok. Då blir man glad över Bibliotekstjänsts recensioner, och extra glad när de är så här positiva!

The hillfort Borg on Björkö in Lake Mälaren, Sweden. View from northeast across the fields which holds the remains of the Viking-period emporium Birka. Photo: Hjalmar Stolpe, 1890’s. (His wife Emmy is standing to the left by the fence)

The hillfort Borg on Björkö in Lake Mälaren, Sweden. View from north towards the main gate. Inside, on top of the cliff is the 19th century monumental S:t Ansgar’s cross. Photo: Hjalmar Stolpe, 1890’s. (His daughter Estrid is standing in the gate)

The hillfort Borg on Björkö in Lake Mälaren, Sweden. View from south west, below the cliff. The S:t Ansgar’s monument is visible on top of the cliff to the top right. Photo: Hjalmar Stolpe, 1890’s. (His wife and daughter can be seen to the left in the photo)

The Viking-period hillfort Borg on Björkö/Birka in the 1890’s, captured by the legendary Swedish field archaeologist and later Professor in ethnography Hjalmar Stolpe (using wife and daughter as scale bars…)

#HillfortsWednesday

More info + 3D model (where the recent paint can be omitted) here:
www.gotlandicpicturestones.se/s/index/item...

A perennial favourite!

Those who want to have a closer look at the "Wayland Stone" from Sherburn find a rather good 3D-rendition here:

sketchfab.com/3d-models/wa...

The fragment 1191X1618R from Sorte Muld, Bornholm, with a beaked creature holding a seemingly female figure around the neck. Photo from Museernes samlinger,samlinger.slks.dk.

Sculpted stone fragments from St Hilda's Church (Sherburn). Picture from "Anglian and Anglo-Danish Sculpture in the East Riding, with Addenda to the North Riding" by W. G. Collingwood (1911). Fragment i-j-k-l, in the middle, depict Weyland abducting Böðvild on face i.

Interpretive sketch of the Wayland fragment from St Hilda's Church (Sherburn). From "Sigurd and Weland in pre-Conquest carving from northern England" by J. T. Lang (1976) Fig. 7.

The sketch of the Sherburn fragment (left) beside the bronze fragment from Bornholm (right).

An interesting bronze fragment from Sorte Muld on Bornholm:
A human figure held by the neck by a beaked creature.

Is it a part of a Merovingian-period representation of the myths about Wayland/Vǫlundr the Smith violating King Niðhad's daughter? 🏺

samlinger.slks.dk/samlinger/de...

#FindsFriday

” by examining the spatial pattern of beacon chains alongside that of places of military assembly, it is possible to discern different systems of civil defence”

Fires over England—Sources for and Functions of Viking Age Signalling (Stuart Brookes, 2026)🏺

Open Access 👇

brill.com/display/book...

Depictions of the intricately ornamented Borre-styled bridle cheek piece with from Dig Site 15, Troitsky Excavation, Novgorod. It feature two animal heads, one in each end and a central entwined animal. Source: "Археологические открытия. 2022 год/Archaeological discoveries. 2022" (Moscow 2024). 1) Outermost left: Analytical drawing of the front side 2) Second from the left: Photo from the same point of view 3) Middle: Photo from above, displaying the secondary bending of the piece 4) Second from right: Photo of the rear side, displaying that the animal heads are accentuated also there. 5) Outermost right: Photo of the cheek piece from below.

A Borre-styled bridle cheek piece from Dig Site 15, Troitsky Excavation, Novgorod. Bent and pierced secondarily for some unidentified purpose. Found in 2022.

From p. 75f in "Археологические открытия. 2022 год (Moscow 2024).

More here: archaeolog.ru/media/ao/AO_...

#FindsFriday

Fig. 4 of ”The Bryndum burial ground in Denmark: news on Viking Age women’s clothing”. Visualisation of the layers of textiles.

”The Bryndum burial ground in
Denmark: news on Viking Age
women’s clothing” by Mannering et al

In p. 24-41 of the Archaeological
Textiles Review 67, free to read here

👇

atnfriends.com/wp-content/u...

Aerial photograph from 2023 showing crop marks from post-borne buildings along the shoreline, with elevation curves added. Photo by Lantmäteriet.

Analytical drawing with interpretation of the postholes as mainly boat house structures by Wramler

#OpenAccess
Wramler, A: "Naust i sikte. Spår efter en forntida hamnbebyggelse vid Albrunna på Öland."
Short report on newly discovered #cropmarks on the Swedish island of Öland, interpreted as boat houses part of a harbour site. [in Swe]
#Archaeology #IronAge #Medieval
urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=...

And here I thought he was cosplaying Mick Aston…

Precisely what happened to the Fishermen’s gate, in the oldest stretch of Visby’s town wall (which is of course some 900 years younger) - but it’s arch ended up more all over the surrounding area and had to be reassembled…

Photo of the book “From Farm to Viking-Age Trading Centre: the 1994-2012 Excavations at Llanbedrgoch, Anglesey” by Mark Redknap. Book cover has photos of the landscape, a Thor’s hammer pendant, a coin and a metal fitting.

This absolute behemoth of a book landed on my doorstep this week, excited to dive into it - but it’s so huge it might take me a good long while! But I spy lots of C14, isotopes & aDNA! ⚛️🧬The much awaited tome on Llanbedrgoch! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 ⚔️ #medievalsky #archaeology @oxbowbooks.bsky.social

Strap mount in gilded bronze featuring a dragon or similar creature. photo: mine

One of the more important late Viking-period finds from the emporium Västergarn on the west coast of central Gotland.

A strap mount with animal ornaments. It has clear relationships with much earlier bridle mounts in Borre-style.

🏺 #FindsFriday 🏺

Kan vi skydda våra fornlämningar från plundrare? - Förmiddag i P1 Förra året utförde okända personer vid flera tillfällen olagliga grävningar vid fornlämningar i Mälardalen och Uppland. Myndigheterna misstänker att det ...

Swedish Radio discusses the recent surge in illegal metal-detecting at registered monuments, in Swedish.

www.sverigesradio.se/avsnitt/hur-...

The crossguard from Sherborne Lane, London. After Wheeler, R.E.M. (1935) London and the Saxons. London Museum Catalogues: No 6 p.181 fig. 43

The crossguard fragment from Strøby, Denmark. Object nr: C 59828 Photo: Rasmus Bak Meng, CC BY-SA

The two crossguards together.

Museum of London holds a peculiar crossguard from a late Viking-period sword (object ID 31.100). It was found in Sherborne Lane and is sometimes described as cast in Ringerike-style. 🏺

I've kept my eyes open for similar pieces - and lo and behold; there's one from Strøby in Denmark, found in 2016:

Can't refrain from speculating a bit - if the X-ray pics don´t show a massive piece of iron inside the chape it might hold the tip of the scabbard, fossilised by corrosion, as is the case with this find from Finland:

(📸: The Finnish Heritage Agency, KM13962:557, CC BY 4.0)

Great! Sound a bit strange though - these chapes are not composites (we have more than 40 of them by now, if not 50 - all Cu-alloy)

Fragment of a ringed pin, although catalogued as an equal-armed brooch from Krogegård omr. II, Østerlars on Bornholm. From here: https://samlinger.slks.dk/samlinger/e5191d08-5928-4511-a595-870572ea6619

Ringed pin from Gotland, more here: https://samlingar.shm.se/object/E725305F-5F54-4416-98F0-5FF668B28E94

The fragment on top of the extant pin.

Some light fragment spotting... this time from Krogegård in Østerlars, Bornholm (📸 1, objectnr 2252X00124).

It is originally a part of the ring from a Borre-style ringed pin, possibly a lot like the one in 📸 2 (from Alkvie in Endre, Gotland, SHM 1265).

🏺

Det där har jag gjort, har dock fortfarande inte vågat göra något av ämnesjärnen. Hade förmånen att ha KG som lärare ett år på Bäckedals Folkhögskola runt millennieskiftet.

The top of a Viking-period scabbard chape of Kazakevičius type Ib1, which has been found from Iceland to Bulgaria. This particular piece was found during metal detector survey i Finland 2016. Photo: The Finnish Heritage Agency, unspecified licens.

A very well preserved Kazakevičius type Ib1-scabbard chape found in Norway already in the 19th century (T1503, Rørvik, Nærø, Nord-Trøndelag). Kept in NTNU Vitenskapsmuseet, Trondheim. Photo: Per E. Fredriksen, CC BY-SA 4.0

The Finnish fragment on top of the Norwegian to show where it originally sat in a scabbard chape.

...and there it is - another piece of a Kazakevičius type Ib1-scabbard chape from Finland (Valkeakoski, Pirkanmaa, 📸 1).

🥳

Being one of the most common Norse, "Viking", types of the 10th century (c.f. 📸 2, Rørvik, Norway), this is by no means surprising - but one more find is always good news! 🏺

Ruben’s tools and some smaller projects.

One of my favourite objects in Ruben’s workshop - an unfinished animal-arty hanger featuring two dragons.

Some of Ruben’s sculpted madonnas.

More carved wooden sculptures of many a kind, from houses to guillemots. Through the window you see Ruben’s scruffy but charming greenhouse.

Today saw the funeral of Ruben Persson, Gotland-based woodworker and sorely missed fellow human who passed late last year, aged only 53.

Afterwards his friends opened up his combined studio and greenhouse for everyone who wanted to come and remember him.

Sad, heartbreaking and beautiful.