Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-mp689 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-19T16:45:58.071Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Who was in Harold Bluetooth's army? Strontium isotope investigation of the cemetery at the Viking Age fortress at Trelleborg, Denmark

Part of: The Vikings

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

T. Douglas Price ,
Karin Margarita Frei ,
Andres Siegfried Dobat ,
Niels Lynnerup  and
Pia Bennike
T. Douglas Price
Affiliation:
Laboratory for Archaeological Chemistry, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1180 Observatory Drive, Madison, WI 53706, USA; Department of Archaeology, University of Aberdeen, St Mary's Building, Elphinstone Road, Aberdeen AB24 3UF, UK (Email: tdprice@wisc.edu)
Karin Margarita Frei
Affiliation:
Saxo Institute and Center for Textile Research, University of Copenhagen, Njalsgade 76, DK-2300 Copenhagen S, Denmark
Andres Siegfried Dobat
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, University of Aarhus, Moesgård Allé 20, DK-8270 Højbjerg, Denmark
Niels Lynnerup
Affiliation:
Laboratory of Biological Anthropology, University of Copenhagen, Panum Institute, Blegdamsvej 3, DK-2200 Copenhagen, Denmark
Pia Bennike
Affiliation:
Saxo Institute and Center for Textile Research, University of Copenhagen, Njalsgade 76, DK-2300 Copenhagen S, Denmark
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

The circular fortress of Trelleborg on Zealand in Denmark is well known as a military camp with a key role in the formation of the Danish state under Harald Bluetooth in the tenth century AD. Taking a sample of 48 burials from the fort, strontium isotope analysis once again demonstrates its ability to eavesdrop on a community: at Trelleborg, the young men in its cemetery were largely recruited from outside Denmark, perhaps from Norway or the Slavic regions. Even persons buried together proved to have different origins, and the three females sampled were all from overseas, including a wealthy woman with a silver casket. Trelleborg, home of Harald Bluetooth's army, was a fortress of foreigners with vivid implications for the nature of his political mission.

Keywords

southern Scandinaviastrontium isotopesmigrationbioarchaeology
Type
Debate
Information
Antiquity , Volume 85 , Issue 328 , June 2011 , pp. 476 - 489
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 2011

References

Andersen, M. 1982. De dansk-vendiske forbindelser ca. 950-1225. Unpublished MA dissertation, Århus University.Google Scholar
Andersen, S. W. 1996. The Viking fortress of Trelleborg. Slagelse: Museet ved Trelleborg.Google Scholar
Bennike, P. 1994. An anthropological study of the skeletal remains of Vikings from Langeland, in Grøn, O., Krag, A.H. & Bennike, P. (ed.) Vikingetidsgravpladser på Langeland: 168–83. Rudkøbing: Langelands Museum.Google Scholar
Bennike, P. 2006. Rebellion, combat and massacre: a medieval mass grave at Sandbjerg near Næstved, Denmark, in Otto, T., Thrane, H. & Vandkilde, H. (ed.) Warfare and society: 305–318. Aarhus: Aarhus University Press.Google Scholar
Brather, S. 2001. Archäologie der westlichen Slawen. Siedlung, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft im früh- und hochmittelalterlichen Ostmitteleuropa (Ergänzungsbände zum Reallexikon der germanischen Altertumskunde 30). Berlin: De Gruyter.Google Scholar
Budd, P., Millard, A., Chenery, C., Lucy, S. & Roberts, C. 2004. Investigating population movement by stable isotope analysis: a report from Britain. Antiquity 78:127–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burschel, P. 1994. Söldner im Nordwestdeutschland des 16. und 17. Jahrhunderts: sozialgeschichtliche Studien (Veröffentlichungen des Max-Planck-Instituts für Geschichte 113). Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.Google Scholar
Caferro, W. 2006. John Hawkwood: an English mercenary in fourteenth-century Italy. Baltimore (MD): Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Christophersen, K.-M. 1940. Über die Zahnverhältnisse bei einer Volksgruppe der Wikingerzeit. Acta Odontologica Scandinavica 2:87–108.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Damgaard-Sørensen, T. 1991. Danes and Wends: a study of the Danish attitude towards the Wends, in Wood, I. & Lund, N. (ed.) People and places in Northern Europe 500–1600:171–86. Woodbridge: Boydell.Google Scholar
Dobat, A. S. 2008. Hedeby/Schleswig —a process of urbanisation and its context. Studies into socio-political structures in early medieval south Scandinavia (ca. 700-1000). Unpublished PhD dissertation, University of Aarhus.Google Scholar
Dobat, A. S. 2010. The state and the strangers: the role of external forces in a process of state formation in Viking Age south Scandinavia (ca. AD 900-1050). Viking and medieval Scandinavia 5:65–104.10.1484/J.VMS.1.100674CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Evans, J. A., Montgomery, J., Wildman, G. & Boulton, N. 2010. Spatial variations in biosphere 87Sr/86Sr in Britain. Journal of the Geological Society 167:1–4.10.1144/0016-76492009-090CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Faure, G. & Mensing, T.M. 2005. Isotopes: principles and applications. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Fiorato, V., Boylston, A. & Knüsel, C. (ed.). 2000. Blood red roses: the archaeology of a mass grave from the Battle of Towton AD 1461. Oxford: Oxbow.Google Scholar
Hedenstierna-Jonson, CH. & Olausson, L.H. 2006. The oriental mounts from Birka's garrison: an expression of warrior rank & status (Antikvariskt Arkiv 81). Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell.Google Scholar
Hermann, J. 1974. Die Slawen in Deutschland: Geschichte und Kultur der slawischen Stämme westlich von Oder und Neisse vom 6. bis 12. Jahrhundert. Berlin: Akademie.Google Scholar
Krueger, H. W. 1985. Sr Isotopes and Sr/Ca in bone. Paper presented at Bone Mineralisation Conference, Warrenton (VA), 14-17 April 1985.Google Scholar
Nielsen, B.H. 1991. Langbladsøksen. Skalk 2:9–13.Google Scholar
Nielsen, L. C. 1990. Trelleborg. Årbøger for Nordisk Oldkyndighed og Historie 1990:106–178.Google Scholar
Nørlund, P. 1948. Trelleborg. København: Det Kongelige Nordiske Oldskriftselskab.Google Scholar
Olsen, O. & Schmidt, H. 1977. Fyrkat: en jysk vikingeborg I. Borgen og bebyggelsen. København: Det Kongelige Nordiske Oldskriftselskab.Google Scholar
Pedersen, A. 2009. Materiel kultur, identitet og kommunikation, in Roesdahl, E. & Schjødt, J. P. (ed.) Beretning fra syvogtyvende tværfaglige vikingesymposium: 7–26. Aarhus: Hikuin/Aarhus Universitet.Google Scholar
Petersen, S. B. & Woller, T. 1989. Trelleborggravpladsen til revision, in Jørgensen, L. (ed.) Simblegård-Trelleborg. Danske gravfund fra førromersk jernalder til Vikingetid: 262–319. København: Institut for Forhistorisk Arkæologi.Google Scholar
Price, T. D., Johnson, C., Ezzo, J., Burton, J. & Ericson, J. 1994. Residential mobility in the American south-west: a preliminary study using strontium isotope analysis. Journal of Archaeological Science 21:315–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Price, T. D., Burton, J. H. & Bentley, R. A. 2002. Characterization of biologically available strontium isotope ratios for the study of prehistoric migration. Archaeometry 44:117–35.10.1111/1475-4754.00047CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Price, T. D., Burton, J. H., Sharer, R., Buikstra, J., Wright, L. & Moore, K. 2010. Kings and commoners at Copán: isotopic evidence for origins and movement in the Classic Maya period. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 29:15–32.10.1016/j.jaa.2009.10.001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Randsborg, K. 1980. The Viking Age in Denmark: the formation of a state. London: Duckworth.Google Scholar
Roesdahl, E. 1975. Eastern imports at the Viking fortress of Fyrkat, Denmark, in Chropovsky, B. (ed.) Rapports du IIIe congrès international d'archéologie slave: 665–9. Bratislava: Veda.Google Scholar
Roesdahl, E. 1977. Fyrkat: en jysk vikingeborg II. Oldsagerne og gravpladsen. København: Det Kongelige Nordiske Oldskriftselskab.Google Scholar
Roesdahl, E. 2008. The emergence of Denmark and the reign of Harald Bluetooth, in Brink, S. (ed.) The Viking world: 652–64. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Roslund, M. 2001. Gäster i huset: Kulturell överföring mellan slaver och skandinaver 900 till 1300 (Skrifter utg. av Vetenskapssocieteten i Lund 92). Lund: Vetenskapssocieteten i Lund.Google Scholar
Sellevold, B. J., Hansen, U. L. & Jørgensen, J. B. 1984. Iron Age man in Denmark (Prehistoric Man in Denmark 3/Nordiske Fortidsminder, Serie B 8). København: Kongelige Nordiske Oldskriftselskab.Google Scholar
Sindbæk, S. 2005. Ruter og rutinisering: vikingetidens fjernhandel i Nordeuropa. København: Multivers Academic.Google Scholar
Sindbæk, S. & Roesdahl, E. In press. Borgens formål og funktion, in Pedersen, A., Roesdahl, E. & Sindbæk, S. (ed.) Aggersborg i Vikingetiden. Højbjerg: Jysk Arkæologisk Selskab.Google Scholar
Sjögren, K.-G., Price, T. D. & Ahlström, T. 2009. Megaliths and mobility in south-western Sweden: investigating relations between a local society and its neighbours using strontium isotopes. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 28: 85–101.Google Scholar
Smith, B. 1991. Standards of human tooth formation and dental age assessment, in Kelley, M. A. & Larsen, C.S. (ed.) Advances in dental anthropology: 143–68. New York: Wiley-Liss.Google Scholar
Syse, B. (ed.) 2003. Långfredagsslaget. En arkeologisk historia (Upplandsmuseets Skriftserie 3). Uppsala: Upplandsmuseets.Google Scholar
Thordeman, B. 1939. Armour from the Battle of Visby 1361. Stockholm: Vitterhets Historie og Antikvitets Akademien.Google Scholar
Voerkelius, S., Lorenz, G. D., Rummel, S., Quétel, C. R., Heiss, G., Baxter, M., Brach-Papa, C., Deters-Itzelsberger, P., Hoelzl, S., Hoogewerff, J., Ponzevera, E., Van Bocxstaele, M. & Ueckermann, H. 2010. Strontium isotopic signatures of natural mineral waters, the reference to a simple geological map and its potential for authentication of food. Food Chemistry 118:933–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Woefel, J. B. & Scheid, R. C. 2002. Dental anatomy: its relevance to dentistry. New York: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.Google Scholar