http://kulturarvsdata.se/raa/fornvannen/html/2011_242
Ingår i: samla.raa.se
In October 2010 archaeologist Jonas Paulsson made a remarkable discovery during a metal de - tector survey which formed part of Gotland Coun ty Council’s project “Ett plundrat kultur- arv” (“A looted cultural heritage”). On land be - longing to the farm Eskelhem Alvena 1:21 in Mästerby parish he recovered what is most likely a ploughed-out hoard of bronze objects (fig. 1).
The project’s goal is to re-survey recorded find sites with the intention to recover as much as possible of the metallic stray finds in the topsoil.
Campaigns like the current one have been launch- ed intermittently since the 1970s, when the development of metal detectors had reached a point when anyone thusly equipped could get at the often very rich finds in Gotlandic fields (cf.
Jonsson & Östergren 1990).
The field in Mästerby had previously seen metal-detecting by archaeologists in 1984, 2000
and 2006. From the first visit it was evident that the field contains a settlement site. The recov- ered artefacts point firmly towards the Late Iron Age and Middle Ages (c. AD 400–1500). Several finds are clear indicators of advanced metalwork- ing on the site (e.g. copper-alloy smelts, frag- ments of hearth lining, scrap metal and a possible master model for a pendant). Most of these were found in the northern part of the field. This part of the parish is mostly known for an all together different event – the fabled battle of Ajmunds bridge, fought between an invading Danish force and a Gotlandic muster in 1361. It was a less- known prelude to the final end to Gotlandic resistance brought on by the Battle of Visby on 27 July 1361.
The battlefield area in Mästerby has recently attracted the attention of several researchers, and in 2006 one of two teams metal-detected the
A Viking Period Metalworking Hoard from Alvena in Mästerby parish, Gotland
studies of prehistoric agriculture in northern Ångerman- land.Early Norrland 1. Stockholm
IntCal 09 C-14 calibration curve. OxCal online version 4.1. Bronk Ramsey, C. (2009). Bayesian analysis of radiocarbon dates. Radiocarbon, 51:1.
Runeson, H., 2007. Den goda ordningen. Gustafsson P. & Spång L.G. (eds). Stenålderns stationer. Arkeo- logi i Botniabanans spår.Riksantikvarieämbetet. Stock- holm.
Schierbeck, A.,1994. Hedningahällan – en undersökning för att skydda och vårda. UV Stockholm, Rapport 1994:31. Stockholm.
Segerström, U.,1990. The natural Holocene vegetation development and the introduction of agriculture in nor - thern Norrland, Sweden. Dept of Ecological Bo tany, University of Umeå.
Sundström, S., 2002. Arkeologisk undersökning av boplats, Potatislandet 13 och 14, Umeå sn och kn. Västerbottens mu seum, Umeå.
Wallin, J-E., 1996. Ekonomi och bebyggelsemönster vid Övre Norrlands kustland under bronsålder och förromersk
järnålder. Resultat av pollenanalyser. Arkeologi i norr 6/7. Umeå.
Welinder, S., 1998. Del 1, Neoliticum–bronsålder 3900–500 f.Kr. Welinder S. et al. (eds). Det svenska jordbrukets historia, jordbrukets första femtusen år. Bo - rås.
Viklund, K., 1989. Förkolnade frön från anl 1-3, Raä 16, Umeå sn, Västerbotten. Institutionen för arkeologi, Umeå universitet.
– 2002. Makrofossilanalys av jordprover från Potatis- landet 14, Umedalen, Umeå kn, Västerbottens län.
Miljöarkeologiska Laboratoriets rapportserie 2002 –019. Umeå universitet.
Karin Viklund Miljöarkeologiska laboratoriet Institutionen för idé- och samhällsstudier Umeå universitet SE–901 87 Umeå karin.viklund@arke.umu.se
field discussed here in search of traces from the battle. Nothing directly relatable to that event was found. However, at one spot the detectorists found what the finds list refers to as a “Fish-head shaped brooch” (Landgren et al. 2006). The find spot was later added to the Swedish National Heritage Board’s register of ancient remains (Raä Mästerby 88). Since the so-called brooch dates from the Viking Period it met with little interest, and it was not until Paulsson’s re-survey of the area in 2010 that the site’s full potential was discovered. In the very same area, spread over a surface of some 10 m2, Paulsson found an additional 13 similar objects. It now became evi-
dent that neither they, nor the 2006 find are actually brooches. They are pendants of an in - digenous Gotlandic type generally referred to as fish-head shaped (Sw. fiskhuvudformiga hängen).
Such pendants are known in considerable num- bers from Gotland (cf. Thunmark-Nylén 1982), but the ones from Mästerby are different in an important respect: not one of them is finished.
Most of the pendants are rather severely dam- aged, probably from ploughing, and have mainly lost their original surface. Yet it can still be ob - served that they all lack the suspension holes cru- cial to pendants. Instead, all are fitted with an iron stud piercing the middle part and a smaller Fig. 1. Five sword pommels and fourteen unfinished fish-head pendants from the Alvena metalworking hoard.
stud in the basal end. These studs fulfilled an im - portant purpose as they fixed the cores of the casting moulds in which the pendants were cast.
To cast a hollow object it is necessary to have a core around which the molten metal can solidi- fy – a mould without a core cannot produce a hol- low object in a single casting. The full procedure of the line-of-production of the pendants from Mästerby will be described in a forthcoming paper though – as the unfinished pendants were not the only objects recovered.
Within the same area, Paulsson also found something previously unseen on Gotland: a col- lection of five cast sword pommels in a zoomor- phic style. They are very similar to a master mod- el or rather cast found by metal detector in Fole parish on Gotland in 1992 (now in the Historical Museum, Stockholm, inv. no. 34300a:67). All five pommels display the same damage as the pendants, i.e. a nearly complete loss of original surface, but judging from the small portions that still cling on, none of them were ever finished off like similar pommels from other sites. Taken together, the pendants and pommels from Alve- na in Mästerby suggest a date of deposition most likely in the late 10th century judging from Lena
Thunmark-Nylén’s WKG chronology (2006).
Three such pommels are currently known from other sites: from Gråsand in Ginding, Den- mark (Horn-Fuglesang 1980, s. 157), Pacuiul lui Soare on the Bulgarian border with Romania (Popa 1984) and the Taman peninsula of Russia (by kind information from Sergei Kainov, Mos - cow). All these are partly gilded and fitted with ornate silver casings.
Two of the pommels from Mästerby (finds no. 207–208) do however show signs of some fur- ther working. They had apparently been some- what miscast and had several unintended holes.
The caster tried to mend these by adding fitted pieces of a sixth pommel which had been cut up.
These patches were soldered to the pommels by means of a copper-alloy based solder (fig. 2). By the time of their recovery, one of them (no. 208) had lost its mending patch, leaving a ring of sol- der around the edges of the hole. Analysis by means of SEM-EDS showed that the two pom- mels were cast in an alloy consisting of roughly 92% copper, 7% zinc, 1.5% tin and small amounts of lead (0.5 atomic %). The solder was found to consist of an alloy of approximately 70% copper, 20% tin, 4% zinc and 0.5% lead. The five pom- mels measure between 66 and 67 mm at their longest point, 30.8 and 33.3 mm at their highest and 23.1 and 25 mm at their widest.
In the spring of 2011 the area was re-surveyed yet again and two more unfinished pendants were recovered, thus making the total number 16 so far. All in all it is hard to overestimate the value of the Mästerby find – not only does it consist of 16 pendants and five pommels, but due to the fact that they are all unfinished, they offer hith- erto unseen clues as to the methods of Gotlandic bronze casters in the Viking Period. The whole find is currently undergoing in-depth analysis at the Archaeological Research Laboratory at the University of Stockholm and will be exhaustive- ly published in a forthcoming paper.
References
Horn Fuglesang, S., 1980. Some Aspects of the Ringerike Style. Odense.
Jonsson, K. & Östergren, M. 1990. The Gotland Hoard Project and the Stumle hoard : an insight into the affairs of a Gotlandic “farman”. Jonsson, K. &
Fig. 2. Repaired miscasting on one of the Alvena sword pommels.
Malmer, B. (ed.). Sigtuna Symposium on Viking-Age Coinage, proceedings of the Sigtuna Symposium on Viking-Age Coinage 1–4 June 1989. Stockholm.
Landgren, J. Pettersson, M. & Ström, J., 2006. Arkeo- logisk undersökningsrapport över forskningsprojekt Fjäle - myr 1361, Mästerby sn, Gotland.Archive report in the ATA archives, Stockholm.
Popa, R., 1984. Knaufkrone eines wikingerzeitlichen Prachtschwertes von Pacuiul lui Soare. Germania 62. Mainz.
Thunmark-Nylén, L. 1982. Återanvändning av vikinga- tida metallsmycken – primärt och sekun därt bruk
av fiskhuvudformiga hängen och några andra före- målsgrupper. Gotländskt arkiv 54. Visby
– 2006. Die Wikingerzeit Gotlands III. KVHAA. Stock- holm.
Ny Björn Gustafsson Arkeologiska forskningslaboratoriet Institutionen för arkeologi och antikens kultur Stockholms universitet SE–106 91 Stockholm bjorn.gustafsson.ny@arklab.su.se
I Fornvännen 105 (2010) har Henrik Thrane en debatartikel, »Germansk oldtidskundskab som leksikon», om baggrunden for og tilblivelsen af 2. udgaven af Hoops Reallexikon der germanischen Altertumskunde, der udkom i perioden 1973– 2007.
Mine bemærkninger her vedrører ikke forfatte - rens gennemgang af leksikonets baggrund, ind- hold samt vurdering af værkets anvendelighed i dag. Her er Thrane – ikke mindst i kraft af hans årelange medlemskab af leksikonets fagredak - tionsgruppe – naturligvis på hjemmebane. Artik- lens afsluttende afsnit om leksikonets hoved- mand, den tyske arkæolog Herbert Jankuhn (1905–
1990), fortjener dog et par ord med på vejen.
Nærmere bestemt drejer det sig om Thranes vur- dering af Jankuhns virke i nationalsocialismens tjeneste.
Thrane opfatter sig selv som en elev af Jan - kuhn, og det smitter efter min mening lidt for meget af på hans bedømmelse af forbilledets la- den og gøren under Hitlerregimet, navnlig når talen falder på Jankuhns karriere i SS. Den var, skal vi tro Thrane (s. 119), et udslag af opportu - nisme på arkæologiens, men næppe egne vegne.
Argumentet er overtaget fra en anden Jankuhn- elev, Heiko Steuer, som Thrane også refererer til i sin artikel. Steuers vurdering af sin Doktorvaters karriere under Hitlerstyret (se f.eks. Steuer 2001;
2004) har i Tyskland mødt kritik (se f.eks. Eick- hoff & Halle 2007). En kritik, jeg også finder berettiget. Det er efter min mening ikke holdbart udelukkende at se Jankuhns karriere i SS som et udtryk for opportunisme på arkæologiens vegne.
Jankuhn var nationalsocialist af overbevis- ning, og hans tilknytning til den nazistiske be - vægelse rakte videre end blot medlemskabet af SS (fig. 1). Som blandt andre Wolfgang Pape (2001, s. 68 f) har dokumenteret, var Jankuhn fra 1933 tilknyttet SA og fra juni 1934 medlem NSD- Dozentenbund, inden han i maj 1937 blev med - lem af NSDAP. Den sene indmeldelse i NSDAP kan skyldes, at partiet fra 1. maj 1933 til 1. maj 1937 havde lukket for tilgangen af nye medlem- mer. Jankuhn søgte 1936 om optagelse i SS og blev fundet egnet dertil. Året efter blev han over- flyttet fra SA til SS, hvor han gjorde hastig kar- riere og 1944 opnåede rang af oberstløjtnant i Allgemeine SS og major i Waffen-SS. At Jankuhn havnede i SS var naturligvis ingen tilfældighed.
SS-rigsføreren Heinrich Himmler (1900–1945), som Jankuhn fra 1934 stod i forbindelse med, havde blik for Jankuhns talent og ikke mindst hans lederpotentiale.
Som den overbeviste nationalsocialist han var, følte Jankuhn sig hurtigt til rette i den elitære SS-organisation. Her blev hans primære arbejds-
