AmS-Skrifter
type: channel
description: AmS-Skrifter covers the field of archaeology, including various themes like archaeological method and theory, interdiciplinary studies, museology, heritage management, conservation studies, field work and practice.
publisher: Stavanger Museum of Archaelogy
language: en
publication name: AmS-Skrifter
issn: 0800-0816
items: The Raven’s Eye. Stylistic references to sight and vision as symbols of knowledge and power
items: On the iconography of the gold foil figures from Hauge
items: The Bergkamen warrior
items: Landscape, places of knowledge, and religion on Iron-age Bornholm
items: Nithijo in Illerup and his colleague in Thorsberg
items: An Unusual treasure find of the 3rd century from Suluc in Dobruja (Romania) with fragments of a Scandinavian snake-head arm ring
items: Crampons – Late Iron-age everyday items and/or artefacts with sacred meaning?
items: Iron-cased cloisonné brooches from the early medieval cemetery of Harmignies (Prov. Hainaut, Belgium)
items: The Rosette Fibulas and the Social Strategies of the Late Roman Iron Age
items: From Wagnijos workshop
items: Production, Distribution, and Use of Standard and ‘Rogue’ Migration Period Gold Bracteates
items: Sustainable energy and archaeology
items: Iron Age Norway – an inverted pear-shaped society against the state?
items: Household ecology, gender and funerary rites in the 4th or 5th century AD
items: Technology – art – identity. Zoomorphic spurs in the light of metallographic analysis
items: Convergence of knowledge
items: Amber workshops in central Poland during the Roman Period
items: Craft productions in Quentovic
items: Crafted Worlds, Imagined Pasts
items: Technologies on display. The Storhaug ship burial
items: Viking Man, Viking women
items: Manufacturing and secondary treatment of gold foil figures
items: 9. Together in Death: Demography and Funerary Practices in Contemporary Multiple Internments in Irish Medieval Burial Grounds
items: Bronze Age and Early Iron Age house and settlement development at Forsandmoen, south-western Norway
items: Intentional fire management in the Holocene with emphasis on hunter-gatherers in the Mesolithic in South Norway
items: 2. Funerary Treatment of Immature Deceased in Neolithic Collective Burial Sites in France. Were Children Buried with Adults?
items: 3. Personal Relationships between Co-buried Individuals in the Central European Early Bronze Age
items: 4. Grandparents in the Bronze Age?
items: 5. White Hair and Feeding Bottles: Exploring Interactions Between Children and the Elderly in the Late Bronze Age Aegean

The Raven’s Eye. Stylistic references to sight and vision as symbols of knowledge and power
type: item
description: In many cultures throughout history, eye symbolism has a special function in connection with religion, mythology, and superstition. In some mythologies, eyes are linked to birds and their ability to be omnipresent and gather information. In Old Norse written sources, strong, piercing eyes can symbolise power, masculinity, and royal descent, and there is a special eye symbolism associated with the knowledge and esoteric insight that surrounds the one-eyedness of the main god Odin. In this paper, decorative rivets on high-status metal objects from the 5th to 8th centuries AD are interpreted as a stylistic imitation of the characteristic eyes of ravens. The paper takes a closer look at the use of these rivets in relation to eye symbolism in the Scandinavian archaeological material and iconography from the period ca. 200 to 700 AD, drawing further on personal names referring to eyes and ravens and the relations to Old Norse mythology. We suggest that the raven-eye rivets can be seen as representations of Odin’s all-seeing eye and thus his quasi-physical presence, as a way of animating objects, or as symbols of esoteric knowledge. They are therefore interpreted as stylistic traits that were a part of a power symbolism of the elite.
subject: Knowledges
  topic: section
subject: animal style
  topic: keywords
subject: eye symbolism
  topic: keywords
subject: iconography
  topic: keywords
subject: military elite
  topic: keywords
subject: Odin cult
  topic: keywords
subject: Old Norse mythology
  topic: keywords
subject: power symbolism
  topic: keywords
subject: raven
  topic: keywords
subject: Style II
  topic: keywords
subject: personal names
  topic: keywords
creator: Anne Nørgård Jørgensen
creator: Sofie Laurine Albris
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Anne Nørgård Jørgensen, Sofie Laurine Albris https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2026-02-04
publication date: 2026-02-04
starting page: 151
ending page: 160
doi: 10.31265/cnpbxx13

On the iconography of the gold foil figures from Hauge
type: item
description: The 16 gold foil figures from Hauge depict a man and a woman embracing each other. This scene is very common on Scandinavian gold foils of the Merovingian Period and often is interpreted as a pair of gods or as a wedding rite. What particularly distinguishes the find from Hauge is a staff or plant stem that the woman seems to be holding in her hand. In this paper, I will explore the meaning of this plant, which can also be seen on other Iron- and Viking-age pictorial representations and, against the background of a very rich literary and runic tradition, can be understood as an allium plant, a leek. Since antiquity as well as in the north, this plant has been attributed magical powers and healing properties and was associated with fertility and sexuality.
subject: Knowledges
  topic: section
subject: Gold foil figures
  topic: keywords
subject: gullgubber
  topic: keywords
subject: leek
  topic: keywords
subject: runes
  topic: keywords
subject: bracteates
  topic: keywords
subject: Hauge
  topic: keywords
subject: Tinghaug
  topic: keywords
subject: Norway
  topic: keywords
creator: Sigmund Oehrl
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Sigmund Oehrl https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2026-02-04
publication date: 2026-02-04
starting page: 161
ending page: 170
doi: 10.31265/ndsdkk69

The Bergkamen warrior
type: item
description: The 2011 discovery of an Early-medieval cemetery in Bergkamen, featuring notably the burial of a man with rich grave goods, highlights extensive cultural contacts during this period. The presence of multiple shields, unusual in Merovingian-period burials, but well-known from Vendel-period graves in Scandinavia, hints at dueling practices or high-status burial customs that apparently had come to be known to the man buried in Westphalia. The grave's rich inventory and the inclusion of items typically reserved for the upper social echelons suggest that the individual held a significant rank within his society, potentially as a leader or a warrior of high repute. This grave provides valuable insights into the funeral practices and social structures of Early-medieval Germany, particularly in the Westphalian region.
subject: Knowledges
  topic: section
subject: Merovingian Period
  topic: keywords
subject: Early-medieval burials
  topic: keywords
subject: grave goods analysis
  topic: keywords
subject: weaponry
  topic: keywords
subject: shields
  topic: keywords
subject: cultural contacts
  topic: keywords
subject: mobility
  topic: keywords
creator: Eva Cichy
creator: Ulrich Lehmann
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Eva Cichy, Ulrich Lehmann https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2026-02-04
publication date: 2026-02-04
starting page: 137
ending page: 150
doi: 10.31265/dzr5fc83

Landscape, places of knowledge, and religion on Iron-age Bornholm
type: item
description: This paper addresses religious knowledge from a landscape perspective and explores different ways knowledge in a past oral society could have been embedded in and circulated through space and materiality. Drawing on Christian Jacob’s concept of lieux de savoir, the article focuses on the island of Bornholm in the Iron Age, investigating various scales of knowledge transmission. It looks at knowledge in relation to central places, sacral place names, and monumental communication lines, as well as to gold bracteates and gold foil figures. Through the examples, the paper reflects on the production and social distribution of knowledge and differences between open and concealed communication, common knowledge shared by all, and esoteric knowledge passed on in narrowly defined circles.
subject: Knowledges
  topic: section
subject: history of knowledge
  topic: keywords
subject: knowledge transfer
  topic: keywords
subject: sacral landscapes
  topic: keywords
subject: lieux de savoir
  topic: keywords
subject: sacral place names
  topic: keywords
creator: Sofie Laurine Albris
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Sofie Laurine Albris https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2026-02-04
publication date: 2026-02-04
starting page: 125
ending page: 136
doi: 10.31265/grwaad13

Nithijo in Illerup and his colleague in Thorsberg
type: item
description: The spoils of war from Roman-period southern Scandinavia offer a wide range of possibilities for analysis and interpretation, also with regard to the production conditions of fine smiths in the 3rd century AD. One striking aspect of this is that for the first time a comprehensive serial production of spears, javelins and shield bosses, which often comprised several hundred pieces, can be proven. This new production process also found its way into silversmithing, as the elaborate shield fittings from llerup, deposit A, show. The combination of Roman and Germanic elements in the equipment of military elites is striking and has been discussed in the literature since Conrad Engelhardt’s discoveries on Thorsberg Moor. Current research into the finds from Thorsberg Moor has revealed a wealth of fascinating individual observations. Through the concept of “conscious or active reception” as a process of appropriation and artistic transformation, these phenomena can now be conclusively summarised in a model that can explain the relevance of this process, especially for the social elites of the later Roman Period in the barbaricum.
subject: Technologies
  topic: section
subject: Scandinavian war booty sacrifices
  topic: keywords
subject: serial production
  topic: keywords
subject: equipment for military elites
  topic: keywords
subject: the concept of “active or conscious reception”
  topic: keywords
creator: Claus von Carnap-Bornheim
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Claus von Carnap-Bornheim https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2026-02-04
publication date: 2026-02-04
starting page: 9
ending page: 18
doi: 10.31265/sd36vx17

An Unusual treasure find of the 3rd century from Suluc in Dobruja (Romania) with fragments of a Scandinavian snake-head arm ring
type: item
description: In 1911, a most remarkable treasure find from the last third of the 3rd century was discovered in Suluc in Dobruja, Romania. It contained four Roman gold coins (Hostilian and Gallienus), the gold head of an emperor’s bust, two silver cups of the Leuna Type, a gold crossbow brooch and three gold arm rings. One of them is a snake-head arm ring of Hildebrand’s Type C. The treasure from Suluc is extraordinary, as a comparable composition does not exist elsewhere in the eastern part of the Roman Empire. There, deposits of the 3rd century mainly contained coins, and occasionally precious-metal jewellery. Silverware, on the other hand, has been deposited more frequently only since the 4th century. It is therefore possible that the find from Suluc was hidden by a non-resident in the Roman Empire. As some of the objects already were in second- or even third-hand use and obviously were worn as jewellery or as “trophies of war”, it is likely that the treasure is connected with the numerous Gothic incursions into the Roman Empire in the second half of the 3rd century.
subject: Knowledges
  topic: section
subject: hoard
  topic: keywords
subject: “trophies of war”
  topic: keywords
subject: jewellery
  topic: keywords
subject: Leuna-Type silver cups
  topic: keywords
subject: gold imperial bust
  topic: keywords
creator: Dieter Quast
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Dieter Quast https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2026-02-04
publication date: 2026-02-04
starting page: 99
ending page: 106
doi: 10.31265/7dayap89

Crampons – Late Iron-age everyday items and/or artefacts with sacred meaning?
type: item
description: The question is whether crampons, ordinary artefacts in everyday use on icy roads, also may have had a sacred meaning. The notion that they did is supported by Old Norse literature: in G.sle Sursson's saga, it is mentioned twice that it was customary to bind helskór to a dead man’s feet. After a description of crampons for horses and people, I have selected Valsgärde and Birka, two well-known burial grounds from the second half of the first millennium in the Mälar valley in eastern Sweden, to study the frequency of crampons and their distribution according to grave type and the sex of the interred. Crampons are rather common and occur in both men’s and women’s graves and in both inhumations and cremations. An exception seems to be children’s graves: in Birka, there probably are at least 80–100 children’s inhumations, and only in one of them a crampon has been found. Strangely enough, there are several examples where a dead person was provided with a horse crampon. Philologist Dag Strömbäck has commented upon the mentioning of helskór in Gisli’s saga. He points out that translators have misunderstood the significance of the custom and strongly rejects their suggestion that the shoes were supposed to fasten the dead person into the grave and prevent him from returning to the world of the living as a ghost. To Strömbäck, it is obvious that the purpose of helskór was to help the deceased persons on their long and arduous journey to the Other World. I find Strömbäck’s argumentation strong and sound, and I join his opinion.
subject: Technologies
  topic: section
subject: Crampons for horses and people
  topic: keywords
subject: helskór
  topic: keywords
subject: Valsgärde
  topic: keywords
subject: Birka
  topic: keywords
subject: journey to the Other World
  topic: keywords
subject: 2nd half of the 1st millennium
  topic: keywords
creator: Anne-Sofie Gräslund
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Anne-Sofie Gräslund https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2026-02-04
publication date: 2026-02-04
starting page: 91
ending page: 96
doi: 10.31265/y4cp9j58

Iron-cased cloisonné brooches from the early medieval cemetery of Harmignies (Prov. Hainaut, Belgium)
type: item
description: In this article, the Mero-Jewel project (BRAIN-be 2.0) presents its first production-focused research results regarding iron-cased cloisonné brooches from the Merovingian cemetery of Harmignies. The aim is to elucidate technical aspects of production to possible differentiate artisanal tendencies or shared knowledge, which would help identify the network of production and exchange in which these objects circulated. To this effect, the composition of these brooches is discussed, and key observations are made regarding techniques, material composition and decoration. While specific workshops remain undefined, the article discusses future avenues of research while considering the large amount of data retrieved from this relatively small, yet representative sample.
subject: Technologies
  topic: section
subject: Early Medieval
  topic: keywords
subject: ; Cloisonné jewellery
  topic: keywords
subject: Cross-craft interaction
  topic: keywords
subject: Production
  topic: keywords
subject: Mero-Jewel
  topic: keywords
subject: Harmignies
  topic: keywords
creator: Britt Claes
creator: Femke Lippok
creator: Elke Otten
creator: Helena Wouters
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Britt Claes, Femke Lippok, Elke Otten, Helena Wouters https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2026-02-04
publication date: 2026-02-04
starting page: 61
ending page: 72
doi: 10.31265/zq4efz68

The Rosette Fibulas and the Social Strategies of the Late Roman Iron Age
type: item
description: During 2018-2022, the North Jutland Museums excavated large parts of one of three closely located burial grounds by the farm Grønhøjgård southeast of Aalborg, Northern Jutland. Both the graves, their content, and the general character of the site stand out from the region's rich record of contemporary burial grounds, and the rich and varied find material from the site forms the picture of a sacral site without precise parallels from Iron Age Denmark. Among the finds from the burial ground are ten rosette fibulas. The rosette fibulas, found in good numbers in many regions across Denmark, are everywhere else only represented by one-four copies at the individual find locations. This paper presents the fibulas from the Grønhøjgård burial ground and discusses the social significance of the rosette fibula. It is argued that the rosette fibulas may be viewed as a tool of communication that conveyed symbolic meaning at several levels and thus served multiple purposes in a Late Roman social landscape where the roles of some highborn women were changing markedly.
subject: Knowledges
  topic: section
subject: Rosette fibula, Late Roman Iron Age, Social strategies, Gender archaeology
  topic: keywords
creator: Torben Trier Christiansen
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Torben Trier Christiansen https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2026-02-04
publication date: 2026-02-04
starting page: 107
ending page: 116
doi: 10.31265/ecfh7q94

From Wagnijos workshop
type: item
description: This paper presents a comparison of Scandinavian spear heads of the Vennolum type through the use of Principal Component Analysis in order to examine the sustainability of an alleged supra-regionality of weapon typology in early 3rd century Scandinavia. It shows that such a supra-regional similarity is exaggerated. There is considerable variation within type Vennolum spear heads and some of these variations have clear regional tendencies.
subject: Knowledges
  topic: section
subject: Illerup Ådal
  topic: keywords
subject: Scandinavia
  topic: keywords
subject: Vennolum spear heads
  topic: keywords
subject: inter-Scandinavian communication
  topic: keywords
subject: workshops
  topic: keywords
subject: weapon graves
  topic: keywords
creator: Rasmus Birch Iversen
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Rasmus Birch Iversen https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2026-02-04
publication date: 2026-02-04
starting page: 117
ending page: 123
doi: 10.31265/3m0v8g95

Production, Distribution, and Use of Standard and ‘Rogue’ Migration Period Gold Bracteates
type: item
description: Studies of Migration Period gold bracteates often have focused on the iconography of these fascinating yet enigmatic objects. An enduring secondary interest has been the attempt to understand the technology by which they were produced. In this essay, I examine how three approaches—close observation of bracteates and the dies from which they were struck, modern experiments to reproduce early medieval goldsmiths’ techniques, and analysis of geographic patterns of the distribution of bracteate find places—can help us comprehend more about how and where bracteates were made. While most bracteates can be grouped according to iconographic and stylistic features, some examples depart considerably from typical bracteate iconographic choices or display unusual details produced by unconventional techniques. The term ‘rogue’ is introduced by the author to refer to such bracteates, and with the proposal that some of these rogue pieces may have been fabricated by smiths who did not have access to metal dies or did not have the ability to make beaded edge wire or sturdy suspension loops. In addition, it is noted that many pieces that iconographically deviate from established family groups have been discovered in locations geographically peripheral to other members of their iconographic groups, and in some cases, irregular iconography and atypical techniques intersect.
subject: Technologies
  topic: section
subject: bracteates
  topic: keywords
subject: Migration Period
  topic: keywords
subject: central places
  topic: keywords
subject: metal technology
  topic: keywords
subject: goldsmiths
  topic: keywords
creator: Nancy Wicker
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Nancy Wicker https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2026-02-04
publication date: 2026-02-04
starting page: 29
ending page: 38
doi: 10.31265/my5tjb86

Sustainable energy and archaeology
type: item
description: The number of linear projects such as transmission lines, pipelines, and roads and cables within solar parks increases rapidly due to changing needs for sustainable energy and energy infrastructure. While the supervision of trenches is undoubtedly valuable, this type of archaeology also holds certain restraints, and the results are not necessarily comparable to systematically excavated sites. According to the current recommendations of the Danish Agency of Culture and Palaces, the solar parks need not be systematically examined, but it is argued here, that they pose an immanent threat to our cultural landscapes. Due to the increasing number of such projects, it is becoming increasingly urgent to address certain methodological problems and to increase the awareness of potential threats to the archaeological remains.
subject: Sustainability
  topic: section
subject: Linear projects
  topic: keywords
subject: trial trenches
  topic: keywords
subject: solar parks
  topic: keywords
subject: developer-funded archaeology
  topic: keywords
creator: Pernille Kruse
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Pernille Kruse https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2026-02-04
publication date: 2026-02-04
starting page: 213
ending page: 220
doi: 10.31265/32406787

Iron Age Norway – an inverted pear-shaped society against the state?
type: item
description: The unification of Norway is a central theme for historians and archaeologists alike. Despite increasing hierarchization, the emergence of local power centers, and the gradual development of larger political entities from the Roman Period, Norway was not unified until the end of the Viking Age at the earliest. In my opinion, the absence of a state is the key political characteristic of Iron Age society. Therefore, I replace the commonly raised question “what caused the unification of Norway?” with the related, but different “how did Western Scandinavia remain stateless for so long?” Inspired by anarchist theory and social anthropological works, I will emphasize the importance of identity politics and present a model that takes into account numerous contemporary high-status environments.
subject: Sustainability
  topic: section
subject: Viking Age
  topic: keywords
subject: state formation
  topic: keywords
subject: politics
  topic: keywords
subject: anti-state
  topic: keywords
subject: identity politics
  topic: keywords
creator: Lars Erik Gjerpe
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Lars Erik Gjerpe https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2026-02-04
publication date: 2026-02-04
starting page: 205
ending page: 212
doi: 10.31265/vc7bk405

Household ecology, gender and funerary rites in the 4th or 5th century AD
type: item
description: The Tune runestone is a funerary memorial, first recorded in 1627, at which date it had been incorporated into the stone wall enclosing the churchyard of the parish of Tune, near Sarpsborg in .stfold. Its earlier history has to be reconstructed, and while there is evidence that provides clues to its earliest contexts, the date at which the inscription was made is difficult to pin down. Linguistic features of the inscription and the way it has been laid out on the stone are characteristic of very early runestones from Norway, but even so it could be either of the Late Roman Iron Age or the early Migration Period. In any case, the inscription clearly documents important facets of the social and economic circumstances in which it was made. Those show how valuable it will be when scholarship and science advance to the point at which they can locate the memorial stone in a more precise historical context.
subject: Sustainability
  topic: section
subject: bread
  topic: keywords
subject: kinship
  topic: keywords
subject: memorial
  topic: keywords
subject: Migration Period
  topic: keywords
subject: Roman Iron Age
  topic: keywords
subject: runes
  topic: keywords
subject: settlement archaeology
  topic: keywords
subject: social relations
  topic: keywords
subject: Tune runestone
  topic: keywords
subject: Østfold
  topic: keywords
creator: John Hines
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 John Hines https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2026-02-04
publication date: 2026-02-04
starting page: 193
ending page: 204
doi: 10.31265/t3pv7d86

Technology – art – identity. Zoomorphic spurs in the light of metallographic analysis
type: item
description: In the 11th century AD, spurs with zoomorphic decoration, cast from copper alloy, were attributes of elite horsemen. The pair of spurs from grave 42/2009 at an Early-medieval cemetery at Ciepłe, Pomeranian Voivodeship, Poland, are the best preserved example in Central Europe. Further specimens are known from Lutomiersk, Cerkiewnik, Wrocław, Lubniewice, Kumachevo, and Skegrie. The spur fragments share formal similarities, which suggest that they were made in one place for a narrow circle of individuals belonging to the Early-medieval elite and served as a form of identifier for them. Judging from the finds’ geographical distribution, they were probably made on West Slavic territory. The discoveries in neighbouring areas are extremely interesting; perhaps they are evidence of the presence of members of a Slavic elite in these areas? The spurs’ rich zoomorphic decoration in the form of serpent/dragon and horse/cattle imagery is in line with reconstructed Slavic cosmological and perhaps eschatological beliefs. However, the imagery can also be interpreted within the context of Scandinavian and Baltic mythology. The similarity of the spurs, indicating replicable technology and alloys, suggested that it might be fruitful to examine selected finds using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDS), through which significant differences in the amount of zinc (Zn) were observed. The proportions of the alloys are similar, but were not strictly maintained from object to object.
subject: Technologies
  topic: section
subject: Early Medieval
  topic: keywords
subject: elite
  topic: keywords
subject: riding equipment
  topic: keywords
subject: SEM EDS
  topic: keywords
subject: alloys
  topic: keywords
subject: Poland
  topic: keywords
subject: spurs
  topic: keywords
subject: metallography
  topic: keywords
creator: Paweł Szczepanik
creator: Sławomir Wadyl
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Paweł Szczepanik, Sławomir Wadyl https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2026-02-04
publication date: 2026-02-04
starting page: 81
ending page: 89
doi: 10.31265/cv4g0024

Convergence of knowledge
type: item
description: Through an interdisciplinary investigation carried out by four researchers we sought to increase knowledge of Migrationperiod technology and aesthetics. By combining our expertise in archaeology and material science in a detailed inspection of a 6th century brooch, we attempted to understand its life story and the convergence of knowledge behind the elaborate masterpiece. The reverse of the brooch revealed traces of use-wear and a remarkably well-preserved pin arrangement. The use of raw materials suggests a reorientation among artisans from animal ornaments to metals in the terminal phase of the Migration Period: The aesthetic qualities of our brooch are no longer dominated by the chaotic entangled masses of zoomorphic iconography, but rather replaced by a calmer expression of geometric shapes of contrasting colours and materials which highlight the qualities of the metals.
subject: Technologies
  topic: section
subject: Relief brooches
  topic: keywords
subject: technology
  topic: keywords
subject: interdisciplinarity
  topic: keywords
subject: use wear
  topic: keywords
subject: style
  topic: keywords
creator: Unn Pedersen
creator: Elna Siv Kristoffersen
creator: Nathalie Hanna
creator: Kidane Fanta Gebremariam
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Unn Pedersen, Elna Siv Kristoffersen, Nathalie Hanna, Kidane Fanta Gebremariam https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2026-02-04
publication date: 2026-02-04
starting page: 39
ending page: 50
doi: 10.31265/mxaz8m12

Amber workshops in central Poland during the Roman Period
type: item
description: Archaeological research conducted since the 1960s in the western Mazovia (central region of Poland), has unveiled an extensive iron production centre from the late pre-Roman and Roman periods, referred to as the Mazovian Centre of Metallurgy. This centre, established by the people of the Przeworsk culture, who inhabited vast areas of southern and central Poland from the 2nd century BC to the midd 5th century AD, indicates a significant scale of local iron production, constituting a crucial aspect of the regional economy. However, iron production was not the only branch of the local economy. Relics of amber workshops have been recorded on several settlements. Within them, remains of all stages of amber processing have been discovered: lumps of raw material, semi-finished and finished products (mainly beads). The presence of amber workshops in the western Mazovia is somewhat surprising, as amber does not occur naturally in this part of Poland. Its influx could have been linked to a long-distance exchange, including iron produced in the region.
subject: Technologies
  topic: section
subject: amber processing
  topic: keywords
subject: workshops
  topic: keywords
subject: Roman period
  topic: keywords
subject: Mazovian Centre of Metallurgy
  topic: keywords
subject: central Poland
  topic: keywords
subject: Przeworsk culture
  topic: keywords
creator: Adam Cieśliński
creator: Marcin Woźniak
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Adam Cieśliński, Marcin Woźniak https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2026-02-04
publication date: 2026-02-04
starting page: 19
ending page: 28
doi: 10.31265/0tqf9d61

Craft productions in Quentovic
type: item
description: To date, little is known about the craft productions in Quentovic. However, the artefacts discovered leave no doubt. At the heart of the settlement along the river Canche, the work of amber, metal, antler and glass is clearly documented from the very first occupations at the end of the 6th, until the site was abandoned around the 10th century. On the southern plateau of the valley, a Carolingian potter’s workshop is in use during the 9th century, located at the edge of the monastic estate of Saint-Josse. Our paper will present the current knowledge of these productions, their location and their integration into the site. It will also raise the question of the involvement of the abbeys established near the portus in the exploitation of the resources of the lower valley of the Canche, Quentovic's host estuary.
subject: Technologies
  topic: section
subject: craft productions
  topic: keywords
subject: Quentovic
  topic: keywords
subject: Emporium
  topic: keywords
subject: pottery
  topic: keywords
subject: antler
  topic: keywords
subject: amber
  topic: keywords
creator: Ines Leroy
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Ines Leroy https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2026-02-04
publication date: 2026-02-04
starting page: 73
ending page: 80
doi: 10.31265/nm0rsr03

Crafted Worlds, Imagined Pasts
type: item
description: Since the 1970s, fantasy gaming has grown from a small niche hobby to a global multi-billion-dollar industry. Whether played around a tabletop or online, millions of people, including many archaeologists, immerse themselves in imagined worlds or pasts during their spare time. There is no doubt such games provide much-needed enjoyment and escapism for their players. But do some of them also hold the potential to yield real insights into past societies, and can they help us get just a little closer to the lived experiences of our ancestors and the societies and worlds they inhabited? The modern gaming hobby and industry may be a very recent phenomenon, but the human imagination, and mythologies and cosmologies that include the fantastic, are ancient aspects of the human condition; does the fantasy genre, and roleplaying games specifically, have the potential to provide genuine insights into the past? This paper explores such questions. It considers both the value of gaming for those already engaged in the serious study of the past, as well as the potential that the hobby offers as a gateway to an interest in archaeology and history for the millions of gamers worldwide.
subject: Sustainability
  topic: section
subject: Archaeology
  topic: keywords
subject: Gaming
  topic: keywords
subject: Fantasy
  topic: keywords
creator: Julia Rawcliffe
creator: Andrew Richardson
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Julia Rawcliffe, Andrew Richardson https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2026-02-04
publication date: 2026-02-04
starting page: 221
ending page: 230
doi: 10.31265/9w8p0q36

Technologies on display. The Storhaug ship burial
type: item
description: Ship burials were grand events in late Iron Age society. Great efforts were invested to make a spectacle in memory of the deceased ruler and to promote the new rulers. No other single context has provided us with such a wealth of material culture from the period as the Oseberg ship burial. The Storhaug ship burial in southwestern Norway (CE 779) is an early example of the same phenomenon. The article examines the various components in the Storhaug burial to highlight the technologies on display here. In the burial event, imports and exports, weapon technology, metallurgy, food production technology, transportation technology, woodcraft, and construction technology were activated and displayed within the frame of a ritual technology. While most types of technologies in society were represented, it was a conscious selection. In the paper, food production technology and construction technology are explored as examples. The Storhaug burial complex is compared especially with the better-preserved Oseberg and Gokstad burials. Although significant similarities are identified with Oseberg, important differences also show that ship burials were not one set material complex. The focus on various technologies reflected renegotiations of the roles of the king and society, guided by the regional context and traditions.
subject: Knowledges
  topic: section
subject: Kingship
  topic: keywords
subject: 8th century
  topic: keywords
subject: burial rituals
  topic: keywords
subject: food production
  topic: keywords
subject: mound construction
  topic: keywords
creator: Håkon Reiersen
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Håkon Reiersen https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2026-02-04
publication date: 2026-02-04
starting page: 171
ending page: 180
doi: 10.31265/2zv8df70

Viking Man, Viking women
type: item
description: Oval brooches are considered one of the most diagnostic elements of female Viking costume, and they frequently are used to indicate that Scandinavian women accompanied their seafaring menfolk when settling new lands. But while they were known in virtually every other area of Scandinavian settlement in the British Isles, they were missing entirely in the Isle of Man, which presumably was conquered and settled by Hiberno-Vikings after about 870. Their conspicuous absence – and general lack of securely sexed female burials among the Viking graves in Man – gave rise to the assumption that those settlers were all-male groups of warriors, who subsequently married local Christian women, and this formed the basis for far-reaching conclusions regarding the early Viking-Age in the Island. This long-lived notion has been challenged in 2015, but in December 2018, the discovery of two oval brooches in the Isle of Man confirmed the doubts about the previous conclusions regarding the nature of interethnic social contact on the late-ninth-century Man. This paper presents the currently unpublished Manx oval brooches, reconstructs the now-obsolete former interpretations and the objections to them, and discusses the impact of this single new discovery on the scholarly perception of early-Viking-Age Manx history.
subject: Knowledges
  topic: section
subject: burials
  topic: keywords
subject: gender
  topic: keywords
subject: Isle of Man
  topic: keywords
subject: oval brooches
  topic: keywords
subject: settlement
  topic: keywords
subject: Vikings
  topic: keywords
subject: women
  topic: keywords
creator: Dirk Steinforth
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Dirk Steinforth https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2026-02-04
publication date: 2026-02-04
starting page: 181
ending page: 190
doi: 10.31265/g10rdx94

Manufacturing and secondary treatment of gold foil figures
type: item
description: Gold foil figures form a fairly standardised class of archaeological finds. Their overall production process appears to be fundamentally simple. Nevertheless, there still are many unanswered questions regarding the technique and the timing of the various work steps (chaîne opératoire). This article sheds light on the theoretical options for the fabrication. The focus is on detectable alterations to already finished gold foil figures: for example subsequent manipulations on some pieces, such as the attachment of additional gold strips, which are apparently intended to represent neck rings. Actions like this either belong to the usual and proper usage of gold foil figures in the context of the related cult, or they are evidence of later adaptations of individual gold foil figures, possibly for other religious or even secular practices. Other pieces show various signs of damage such as scratches or puncture marks, some of which appear to have been inflicted deliberately. However, as this kind of manipulation cannot clearly be assigned to a specific time, and considerations about their purpose remain problematic.
subject: Technologies
  topic: section
subject: Image manipulation
  topic: keywords
subject: Vendel period
  topic: keywords
subject: chaîne opératoire
  topic: keywords
subject: cultic practice
  topic: keywords
subject: central places
  topic: keywords
subject: Sorte Muld
  topic: keywords
subject: Uppåkra
  topic: keywords
creator: Alexandra Pesch
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Alexandra Pesch https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2026-02-04
publication date: 2026-02-04
starting page: 51
ending page: 60
doi: 10.31265/7v3jhk61

9. Together in Death: Demography and Funerary Practices in Contemporary Multiple Internments in Irish Medieval Burial Grounds
type: item
description: Contemporary multiple interment is a minority burial practice occasionally encountered in Medieval Christian burial grounds that is suggestive of the death of two or more individuals at the same time followed by a conscious decision by the living to bury those individuals together. The study reviews the evidence from thirty-one Irish burial grounds (spanning AD 300 to 1700) to explore the nature of the demographic combinations apparent in these contemporary multiple interments. Drawing upon information gleaned from contemporary historical sources, an attempt will be made to proffer possible scenarios to account for the different demographic configurations apparent in the burials. Funerary practices, in particular, positioning of the bodies, will be explored to see if insights can be gained concerning the nature of the potential social relationships that may have existed between those interred together in each grave. The findings from Ireland will be compared to those of studies of similar burials in Anglo-Saxon England.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: Minority burial practice
  topic: keywords
subject: emotion
  topic: keywords
subject: double burial
  topic: keywords
subject: community
  topic: keywords
subject: general and inter-general relationships
  topic: keywords
creator: Eileen Murphy
creator: Colm Donnelly
rights: Copyright (c) 2019 AmS-Skrifter https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2019-05-02
publication date: 2019-05-02
starting page: 119
ending page: 142
doi: 10.31265/ams-skrifter.v0i26.214

Bronze Age and Early Iron Age house and settlement development at Forsandmoen, south-western Norway
type: item
subject: Folder
  topic: section
creator: Trond Løken
rights: Copyright (c) 2020 AmS-Skrifter https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2020-12-31
publication date: 2020-12-31
doi: 10.31265/ams-skrifter.vi28.378

Intentional fire management in the Holocene with emphasis on hunter-gatherers in the Mesolithic in South Norway
type: item
description: The geographical and altitudinal distribution of the data from 68 palynological sites has allowed the synthesis of a relationship between the microscopic charcoal curves and people over time. Most of the selected sites were of archaeological interest. Quantitative methods, qualitative methods and topics about the relation between fire, charcoal, nature and people in a forested landscape were used. Palynological sites are better suited to revealing fire management activities in the Mesolithic than archaeological sites because intentional burning of vegetation was carried out in areas related to lakes and mires. Climate is ruled out as the cause of the charcoal occurrence because there are no correlations between inferred regional climatic changes and the charcoal. This suggests that an anthropogenic explanation for the charcoal occurrence is the most plausible. There are many indications that hunter-gatherers in the Mesolithic used fire management and that fire was an important part of cultural practice associated with settlement, population density and resource needs. Fire management was a common and regular work task integrated with other activities. The traditional lifestyle of foragers may have included customary controlled burning practices as a part of manipulating the ecological succession and the modification of vegetation communities. Burning may have been central to hunting and gathering practices and the key to many social and cultural activities. The timing of burns may have been related to weather conditions, time of year and annual cultural events. The different pattern of temporal changes in charcoal abundance suggests that no widespread burning (i.e. on a regional or landscape-scale) had taken place. The anthropogenic burning was different from natural fires. The fires set by people were smaller and less intense. Selected areas of vegetation were burnt on a recurrent basis. They were predictable, almost immediately productive, creating mosaics in a co…
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: Mesolithic
  topic: keywords
subject: hunter-gatherer
  topic: keywords
subject: intentional burning
  topic: keywords
subject: fire management
  topic: keywords
subject: South Norway
  topic: keywords
subject: palynological analysis
  topic: keywords
subject: microscopic charcoal
  topic: keywords
subject: etnographical analogy
  topic: keywords
creator: Lotte Selsing
rights: Copyright (c) 2016 AmS-Skrifter https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2016-12-31
publication date: 2016-12-31
starting page: 1
ending page: 131
doi: 10.31265/ams-skrifter.vi25.227

Bronze Age and Early Iron Age house and settlement development at Forsandmoen, south-western Norway
type: item
description: The ambition of this monograph is to analyse a limited number of topics regarding house types and thus social and economic change from the extensive material that came out of the archaeological excavation that took place at Forsandmoen (“Forsand plain”), Forsand municipality, Rogaland, Norway during the decade 1980–1990, as well as the years 1992, 1995 and 2007. The excavation was organised as an interdisciplinary research project within archaeology, botany (palynological analysis from bogs and soils, macrofossil analysis) and phosphate analysis, conducted by staff from the Museum of Archaeology in Stavanger (as it was called until 2009, now part of the University of Stavanger). A large phosphate survey project had demarcaded a 20 ha settlement area, among which 9 ha were excavated using mechanical topsoil stripping to expose the habitation traces at the top of the glaciofluvial outwash plain of Forsandmoen. A total of 248 houses could be identified by archaeological excavations, distributed among 17 house types. In addition, 26 partly excavated houses could not be classified into a type. The extensive house material comprises three types of longhouses, of which there are as many as 30–40 in number, as well as four other longhouse types, of which there are only 2–7 in number. There were nine other house types, comprising partly small dwelling houses and partly storage houses, of which there were 3–10 in number. Lastly, there are 63 of the smallest storage house, consisting of only four postholes in a square shape. A collection of 264 radiocarbon dates demonstrated that the settlement was established in the last part of the 15th century BC and faded out during the 7th–8th century AD, encompassing the Nordic Bronze Age and Early Iron Age. As a number of houses comprising four of the house types were excavated with the same methods in the same area by the same staff, it is a major goal of this monograph to analyse thoroughly the different features of the houses (postho…
subject: Book
  topic: section
subject: settlement
  topic: keywords
subject: village
  topic: keywords
subject: house types
  topic: keywords
subject: longhouse
  topic: keywords
subject: workshop
  topic: keywords
subject: house life expectancy
  topic: keywords
subject: byre
  topic: keywords
subject: activity areas
  topic: keywords
subject: AD 536
  topic: keywords
subject: palanylogical analysis
  topic: keywords
subject: macrofossil analysis
  topic: keywords
subject: phosphate analysis
  topic: keywords
subject: Bronze Age
  topic: keywords
subject: Pre-Roman Iron Age
  topic: keywords
subject: Roman Iron Age
  topic: keywords
subject: Migration Period
  topic: keywords
creator: Trond Løken
rights: Copyright (c) 2020 AmS-Skrifter https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2020-12-31
publication date: 2020-12-31
starting page: 1
ending page: 300
doi: 10.31265/ams-skrifter.vi28.377

2. Funerary Treatment of Immature Deceased in Neolithic Collective Burial Sites in France. Were Children Buried with Adults?
type: item
description: In France, collective burial sites of the Late Neolithic period (3600-2100 BC) include a variety of structures ranging from simple pits and natural caves to hypogea and megalithic structures. The management of these graves raises questions about their representativeness and about burial practices involving non-adult individuals. This study of funerary selection based on age-at-death compares the results obtained for different sites and offers several potential interpretations concerning the integration of immature individuals in these collective tombs based on their age. The study highlights a particular selection observed in various funerary structures and a chronological difference between northern and southern France. These first results lead to a discussion of distinct cultural choices among different geographical areas.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: Neolithic
  topic: keywords
subject: funerary selection
  topic: keywords
subject: immature individuals
  topic: keywords
subject: collective graves
  topic: keywords
creator: Melie Le Roy
creator: Stéphane Rottier
creator: Frédéric Santos
creator: Anne-Marie Tillier
rights: Copyright (c) 2019 AmS-Skrifter https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2019-05-02
publication date: 2019-05-02
starting page: 21
ending page: 34
doi: 10.31265/ams-skrifter.v0i26.207

3. Personal Relationships between Co-buried Individuals in the Central European Early Bronze Age
type: item
description: People were usually buried in single, individual graves in Early Bronze Age Austria and the surrounding areas, but there are some exceptions. In burials of two or more people, it is often the way that bodies were placed in relation to each other that suggests familiarity, if not family. This paper reviews the social relations expressed through co-burials, and aims to better understand relationships between couples, siblings, or parents and children. The chapter particularly highlights mother-child relationships and presents graves of pregnant women and graves of women and children buried together, in order to understand how such individuals were treated by their societies in death. Ages and age gaps between co-buried individuals reveal the most likely ages for life-transitions such as first motherhood and the addition of new family members. The analysis compares evidence from two different, but contemporary cultural groups (Únětice and Unterwölbing) to shed light on prehistoric gender relations, family structures and social organisation through the lens of the burial record.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: Bronze Age
  topic: keywords
subject: Austria
  topic: keywords
subject: motherhood
  topic: keywords
subject: age relations
  topic: keywords
subject: mother
  topic: keywords
subject: child
  topic: keywords
creator: Katharina Rebay-Salisbury
rights: Copyright (c) 2019 AmS-Skrifter https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2019-05-02
publication date: 2019-05-02
starting page: 35
ending page: 48
doi: 10.31265/ams-skrifter.v0i26.208

4. Grandparents in the Bronze Age?
type: item
description: Evolutionary biology and ethnographic analogy suggest that grandparenting has been critical to the development of human life history and may even explain modern human longevity. However, the roles and functions of grandparents have not previously been investigated in later prehistoric contexts. Ethnographic studies show that grandparents take on an extremely wide range of roles worldwide, whether this is teaching knowledge and skills, providing childcare, or even taking on parental roles and titles. In many cases, grandparents play a critical role in the support and socialization of children. Understanding the roles of grandparents thus has the potential to transform our understanding of prehistoric household and family structures. Through a case study of the Early Bronze Age Traisental in Austria, I explore potential methods for identification of grandparents in the past, and consider the effects of social formations on grandparenting.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: Grandmother hypothesis
  topic: keywords
subject: grandparents
  topic: keywords
subject: care
  topic: keywords
subject: mobility
  topic: keywords
creator: Jo Appleby
rights: Copyright (c) 2019 AmS-Skrifter https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2019-05-02
publication date: 2019-05-02
starting page: 49
ending page: 60
doi: 10.31265/ams-skrifter.v0i26.209

5. White Hair and Feeding Bottles: Exploring Interactions Between Children and the Elderly in the Late Bronze Age Aegean
type: item
description: Scholarship on age and gender in prehistoric Greece has taken an adult-centric approach with focus placed mostly on young to middle-aged men and women and, as a result, two significant age groups – children and the elderly – have been widely neglected. Lacking a strong insight into attitudes that were shown towards these two age groups, however means that archaeologists do not really harbour a concept of the whole span of life in the cultures that developed in the Aegean region during the Late Bronze Age. Making children and the elderly visible in the archaeological record and examining their social roles, agency and interactions is vital for a better understanding of the social workings of the prehistoric Aegean world. Integrating an interdisciplinary methodology with a systematic study of the available material remains – ranging from the study of funerary contexts to iconographic sources and textual references, this study seeks to assess the evidence for childhood and old age in the Late Bronze Age Aegean, and to shed light − for the first time − on the interactions between the younger and older segments of the population in both life and death from the mid-seventeenth to the twelfth centuries BC.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: Chldhood
  topic: keywords
subject: old age
  topic: keywords
subject: Aegean
  topic: keywords
subject: socialisation
  topic: keywords
subject: alloparenting
  topic: keywords
subject: apprenticeship
  topic: keywords
creator: Chrysanthi Gallou
rights: Copyright (c) 2019 AmS-Skrifter https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2019-05-02
publication date: 2019-05-02
starting page: 61
ending page: 76
doi: 10.31265/ams-skrifter.v0i26.210