Stridsyxor och sjöfågel : norrländska nätverk med Östeuropa under vikingatid och tidig medeltid

• Main Author: Roslund, Mats
• Other Authors: Gustin, Ingrid, Hansson, Martin, Wienberg, Jes
• Format: Book Part
• Language: Swedish
• Published: 2016
• Subjects: History and Archaeology; Rus’; Onega; Fennoscandia; Northern Sweden; saami
• Online Access: https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/36c2a106-5b59-4a5e-9b9c-2bea9020439a; https://portal.research.lu.se/files/16117308/Roslund_Stridsyxor_Sj_f_gel_H_guppl_st.pdf

Interaction between the nomadic Saami and Germanic- speaking farmers in the northern part of Sweden is often seen as an intra-Scandinavian south-north phenomenon. In this paper, some artefacts from regions of the Baltic-Finnic Ves’ and mixed populations of Kievan Rus’ found in Norr- land are brought into the discussion. The first artefacts observed are two war axes of a suggested Kievan Rus’ origin. Added to these are imports found among the Saami, such as Kievan Rus’ jewellery as well as Baltic Finnic waterfowl- and lunula-pendants. The different types of artefacts had varied social and cultural meaning, addressing separate groups in the area. All artefacts imply a south-eastern route in a network, probably managed by Baltic Finns and Saami on inland trails running from the Onega-Ladoga water systems, through inland Finland, leading to northern Sweden. The axes imply that sedentary farmers and Finnic-speaking Kvens and Ves’ also played a part in the eastern network, not only the Saami. Information gained from the interregional analysis is set in a wider frame of changing political and economic relations in north eastern Fennoscandia. Socioeconomic analogies are sought among seventeenth-century fur-trapping Huron and French actors.