Means of Exchange

Edited By Dagfinn Skre

Description

This second volume, based on the excavations of the Viking town Kaupang 2000-2003, presents find types used in economic transactions - coins, hacksilver, ingots, weights and balances. Changes in type and volume of economic transactions at Kaupang and in Scandinavia are discussed, and the economic mentality of Viking crafts- and tradesmen is explored. Earlier, the study of Viking silver currency was based mainly on hoards containing coins and hacksilver. In this volume, the combined study of the find types mentioned, as well as the sophisticated chronology of settlements finds from sites like Kaupang, gives a completely new insight into economy and exchange. In the early 9th century, silver and goods seem to have come to Kaupang mainly from the Carolingian world. Silver, weighed with locally produced lead weights, was used as currency on a limited scale. The old e unit was easily convertible to Carolingian units. After the mid-9th century this early system was altered. The increased availability of silver caused by the import of Islamic coins, as well as the introduction in most of Scandinavia in the 860s/870s of standardized weights of probable Islamic origin, paved the way from then on for an increasing use of silver as payment. These studies demonstrate that sites like Kaupang led the way in economic development in Scandinavia. The urban environment promoted an economic mentality which contributed significantly to the fundamental transformation of Scandinavian culture and society, which culminated in the region's integration in Christian Europe in the High Middle Ages.

Sujets

• Islam
• Medieval studies
• Archaeology

Informations

• Publié par: Aarhus University Press
• Date de parution: 31 décembre 2008
• Nombre de lectures: 2
• EAN13: 9788771244328
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 29 Mo

Extrait

Kaupang Excavation Project Publication Series, Volume 2 Norske Oldfunn XXIII

meansof exchange

E d i t e d b y d a g f i n n s k r e

Means of Exchange Dealing with Silver in the Viking Age

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Means of Exchange Dealing with Silver in the Viking Age Edited by Dagfinn Skre

Kaupang Excavation Project Publication Series, Volume 2

Norske Oldfunn XXIII

This page is protected by copyright and may not be redistributed

Means of Excange Dealîng wît Sîlver în te Vîkîng Age Kaupang Excavation Project Publication Series, Volume 2 Norske Oldfunn XXIII

© Aarus Unîversîty Press & te Kaupang Excavatîon Project, Unîversîty of Oslo 2007 Publîsed as part of te serîesNorske Oldfunn, Museum of Cultural Hîstory, Unîversîty of Oslo Englîs translatîon: Jon Hînes Language revîsîon: Frank Azevedo, Jon Hînes Tecnîcal edîtîng: Daginn Skre Map productîon: Julîe K. Øre Askjem, Anne Engesveen Illustratîon edîtîng: Elîse Naumann, Julîe K. Øre Askjem Cover îllustratîon: Coîns, sîlver and weîgts found at Kaupang. Poto, Eîrîk I. Jonsen, KHM Grapîc desîgn, typesettîng and cover: Jørgen Sparre Type: Mînîon and Lînotype Syntax E-book productîon: Narayana Press, Denmark

ISBN 978-87-7124-432-8

Copyrîgt maps: Contour dîstances 1 meter: he Muncîpalîty of Larvîk Contour dîstances 5 metres: Norwegîan Mappîng and Cadastre Autorîty Scandînavîa, Europe: ESRI

Weblînks were actîve wen te book was prînted. hey may no longer be actîve

The University of Oslo wishes to thank the financial contributors to the Kaupang Excavation Project:

Ministry of the Environment

Ministry of Education and Research

Ministry of Culture and Church Affairs

The Research Council of Norway

The Anders Jahre Humanitarian Foundation

Vestfold County Council

The Municipality of Larvik

Arts Council Norway

Contents

1

2

Part I:

3

Dagfinn Skre Introduction 1.1 Rethinking the substantivist approach 1.2 The present volume 1.3 Future volumes

Lars Pilø, Dagfinn Skre Introduction to the Site 2.1 Exploring Kaupang and Skiringssal 1771–1999 2.2.1 The cemeteries 2.1.2 The settlement 2.2 Fieldwork in the Kaupang settlement 1998-2003 2.2.1 Research questions 2.2.2 Overview Surveys Excavations Method of excavation 2.2.3 Contexts 2.3 Investigations in Skiringssal 1999–2001 2.3.1 Fieldwork at Huseby 1999–2001 2.4 Main results 1998–2003

The Kaupang Finds

Mark Blackburn The Coin-finds 3.1 The coin-finds: discovery and context 3.1.1 The earlier finds, 1950–1974 3.1.2 The new finds, 1998–2003 3.2 The interpretation of site finds 3.2.1 The need to determine typical patterns of loss 3.2.2 A sample of single finds from Southern Scandinavia 3.2.3 Date of production versus date of loss 3.2.4 Changes in the currency in the early 10th century 3.2.5 Considering changes in the size of the coin-stock and the wastage rate 3.2.6 Are the hoards representative of the local currency? 3.2.7 Is the archaeological evidence from Birka inconsistent with the hoard evidence? 3.3 The Kaupang finds: their significance for the chronology of the site 3.3.1 The Islamic dirhams

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9 9 10 11

13 13 14 15 17 17 17 17 18 18 20 23 24 24

27

29 30 30 30 34 35 36 38 39 41 43 45 47 47

c o n t e n t s

5

6

4

5

6

3.3.2 The 9th-century Western coins 3.3.3 The Roman, Merovingian and Byzantine coins 3.4 The spatial distribution within the site 3.5 Fragmentation, graffiti and other secondary treatment of the coins 3.5.1 Fragmentation 3.5.2 Whole coins and pendants 3.5.3 Bending and nicking 3.5.4 Graffiti 3.6 The coins found at Huseby 3.7 Summary and conclusions Appendices: Data on which find histograms are based

Gert Rispling, Mark Blackburn and Kenneth Jonsson Catalogue of the Coins

Birgitta Hårdh Hacksilver and Ingots 5.1 Introduction 5.2 The Kaupang silver finds of 1998–2002 5.3 Silver finds from Charlotte Blindheim’s excavations 1950–1974 5.4 Silver as currency 5.5 The hacksilver 5.5.1 Analysis of the hacksilver by weight 5.6 Ingots 5.6.1 The large Kaupang ingot 5.6.2 The small Kaupang ingots 5.6.3 A local production of ingots? Spiral-striated rods Fragmented jewellery Hacksilver from well-dated contexts Discussion Summary

5.7 5.8 5.9 5.10 5.11

Unn Pedersen Weights and Balances 6.1 Graves and settlement – two different worlds? 6.1.1 Types of weight at Kaupang 6.1.2 Types of balance at Kaupang 6.1.3 Representativity 6.2 A radical change from the 9th to the 10th century? 6.2.1 The chronological distribution of weights in the settlement 6.2.2 Dating of the weight-types 6.2.3 A chronological change? 6.2.4 Two different groups of weights? 6.3 Weight-standard 6.3.1 Accuracy 6.3.2 Standards 6.3.3 The weight of well-preserved weights from the settlement 6.3.4 Punched-dot decoration on the weights from the settlement 6.4 The weights – function and meaning 6.4.1 The spatial distribution of weights in the settlement 6.4.2 Tools of trade 6.4.3 Weights and metalcasting 6.4.4 Weights and symbolic meaning 6.5 Summary Appendices

m e a n s o f e x c h a n g e

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56 58 62 63 64 66 66 67 68 69 72

75

95 95 96 97 97 99 100 103 106 107 108 108 113 114 115 118

119 120 121 126 127 130 130 131 132 136 138 138 140 144 148 155 155 159 166 168 177 179

Part II:

7

8

Silver, Trade and Towns

Christoph Kilger Kaupang from Afar: Aspects of the Interpretation of Dirham Finds in Northern and Eastern Europe between the Late 8th and Early 10th Centuries 7.1 Introduction Dirham finds from Kaupang The early Viking-period trading sites as dirham zones The dominant 10th century The questions 7.2 Phasing A general summary of the finds Geographical terminology Methodological principles 7.3 The Caucasian link (Phase I, t.p.q. 770–790) An inverted view of transit trade Conclusions 7.4 The establishment of the dirham network in Eastern Europe (Phase II, t.p.q. 790–825) The North African signature The West Slav and Prussian dirham paradox The early Gotlandic find-group Conclusions 7.5 The establishment of the dirham network in the Baltic area (Phase III, t.p.q. 825–860) The reduction of minting in the Caliphate The Khazar imitations Structural changes in the dirham hoards The re-use of dirham silver Conclusions 7.6 The Abbasid find-horizon after AD 860 (Phase IVa, t.p.q. 860–890) The concept of a great silver crisis Silver crisis or silver glut? Dirham finds from the North-West of Europe Conclusions 7.7 The Samanid find-period after AD 890 (Phase IVb, t.p.q. 890–920) The Samanid transitional phase according to hoard-finds The Samanid find-period in archaeological contexts The dirham network in the Samanid silver period Conclusions 7.8 The quantitative jump after c. 860 7.9 Final conclusions The dirham finds from Kaupang revisited Kaupang as a site for the handling and melting down of silver 7.10 Check list of dirham hoards found in Europe and the Caucasus region (t.p.q. 771–892)

Christoph Kilger Wholeness and Holiness: Counting, Weighing and Valuing Silver in the Early Viking Period 8.1 Introduction The northern route, and three different concepts of silver as currency Bridging disciplinary clefts 8.2 Exchange, money, and value A singular world of chieftains and gifts Means of exchange in non-monetized contexts The exchange of values Material and non-material aspects of monetary value 8.3 Coins and coinage around the North Sea Counting seeds and coins – an Antique and medieval way of reckoning

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197

199 200 201 205 207 208 208 209 209 210 211 211 214 214 215 218 220 221 221 222 224 225 226 227 228 230 232 233 234 235 235 238 239 240 240 242 243 245 247

253 254 254 255 256 257 258 259 261 263 264

c o n t e n t s

7

8

9

10

The use of silver coins in the Frankish realm The Frankish commodity-money economy Dorestad – a hub for coin silver in the North Sea region “Give us this day our daily bread…” The snake, the long-haired man, and the monster: the use of coin outside the Romano-Christian orbit Conclusions 8.4 Traces of the eyrir-standard at Kaupang Gold coins and the concept of aurar Reckoningauraraccording to the Early Scandinavian law-codes Evidence of weighing practices in the Norwegian Merovingian Period Weights with mounts and armrings with a cross Looking foraurarin ring hoards Dirhams as weights, andgrivnas Odin’s inalienable property: the stable and eternal gold ring “Aurar-sites” in Southern Scandinavia Verdaurarandvadmál– Commodity-money in Late Iron-age Scandinavia Conclusions 8.5 Ertogs,pveiti and fragments Two models of Early-medieval silver economy Commerce and fragmentation in the Caliphate Reflexes of the Islamic weight-system in Northern Europe Weights with a copper-alloy shell and pseudo-Arabic characters A new time of threat: the fragmentation of silver objects One set and two systems of weights Wholeness, holiness and dissolution The early use of hacksilver around the North Sea and at Kaupang Conclusions 8.6 Summary

Dagfinn Skre Post-substantivist Towns and Trade AD 600–1000 9.1 Substantivist emporia 9.2 Substantivist economics – some flaws 9.2.1 The economy of Norway c. 1000–1500 9.3 Post-substantivist economics 9.4 Typologizing sites of trade and craft 9.4.1 Hodges’s conceptemporium 9.4.2 An alternative typology of sites 9.5 Kings and trade 9.6 The significance of long-distance trade

Dagfinn Skre Dealing with Silver: Economic Agency in South-Western Scandinavia AD 600–1000 10.1 Silver and sites AD 600–1000 10.1.1 Central-place markets before AD 700 10.1.2 Local and nodal markets in the 8th century 10.1.3 Towns in the 9th and 10th centuries Western coins c. 800–840 Danish coins and fragmented silver c. 825–860 Islamic silver c. 860–890 Economic agency and commodity-money in towns 10.2 Production and long-distance trade AD 700–1000

Abbreviations References List of Authors

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267 270 271 272

275 278 279 280 282 283 285 286 288 292 293 296 297 298 299 301 304 307 309 312 315 318 320 321

327 329 330 330 333 335 335 337 338 340

343 344 344 346 347 347 348 351 352 352

356 357 378