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

Abstract

This article examines the development, handling, and depositions of disc-on-bow brooches from the sixth to tenth centuries ad in 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.

First Ladies

“…The Norwegian disc-on-bow brooches, a corpus now totalling 69 specimens, share the same basic form/outline with the 'standard-type' of relief brooch, with a rectangular headplate, bow and a more or less rhomboidal footplate (Glørstad & Røstad 2021). As the name implies, a characteristic feature is a disc on the bow.…”

“…Feminine gender is usually attributed through association with brooches and/or several items of jewellery, or textile implements. Correlation between biological sex and these items is collaborated by studies of burials from northern Norway and other parts of Scandinavia (Glørstad & Røstad 2021:93; Røstad 2021:34 with references). It is likely that all the graves containing relief brooches represented inhumations (tables 1 and 3), while 13 of the burials with disc-on-bow brooches were cremations, and 10 represented inhumations (tables 2 and 3).…”

An Insular Reliquary from Melhus: The Significance of Insular Ecclesiastical Material in Early Viking-Age Norway

“…The Melhus example is one of 24 button-on-bow brooches from Norway believed to have been produced in the latter part of the Merovingian period (Phase 3, approximately ad 725-800). 115 With a length of 240 mm, the Melhus brooch is the largest specimen of this type ever found in Norway. The large size indicates that such brooches were not intended for daily use, but rather only worn on specific occasions where the women themselves had central roles.…”

“…118 Here they are clearly depicted worn across the lower neck area of the women, 119 similar to the in situ position of three such brooches from Norwegian graves. 120 A distinctive feature on the 'Freya' pendant is the four rows of 'dots' below the button-on-bow brooch, which is believed to represent a large bead necklace (Fig 11). Thus, it is intriguing to note that many of the Norwegian burials with button-on-bow brooches also contained large collections of beads, with the necklace from Melhus comprising at least 139 pieces.…”

Kerbing Relations through Time: Reuse, Connectivity and Folded Time in the Viking Age

“…In Viking Age Scandinavia, the past appears to have held significant importance. Within Scandinavian Viking Age archaeology, the use of the past (or rather pasts) has been studied primarily through burials, in particular the reuse of mounds and the occurrence of antiquities in the graves (Andrén 2013; Artelius & Lindqvist 2005; Arwill-Nordbladh 2008; Fahlander 2018; 2020; Glørstad & Røstad 2015; Hållans Stenholm 2012; Lund & Arwill-Nordbladh 2016; Williams 2014). In his review article of the field, Anders Andrén (2013) points out that memory clearly played a vital role in Viking Age Scandinavia, as testified by the raising of rune stones, the reuse of graves and the use of material objects as vehicles of remembrance.…”