Means of Exchange: Dealing with Silver in the Viking Age

382 Pages·2007·43.314 MB·English

by  Dagfinn Skre (ed.)

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Published in the series Norske Oldfunn, 2 Kaupang Excavation Project
Museum of Cultural History, Publication Series,Volume 2
University of Oslo
Norske Oldfunn XXIII
means of
This second volume concerning the excavations in the Viking-period town m
Kaupang in 1998–2003 examines types of find used in economic transactions:
e
coins, silver ingots, hacksilver, balances and weights. Changes in the types and
a
volume of economic transactions at Kaupang and in Scandinavia are discussed,
exchange
and the economic thought-world of Viking-age craftsmen and traders explored. n
The study of Viking silver currency has previously been based mainly on
s
hoards. In this volume, the integrated study of the types of finds noted, in light

of the detailed chronology of settlement finds from sites such as Kaupang, sheds
o
completely new light upon economy and exchange.
In the early 9th century, long-distance trade goods seem to have come to f
Kaupang mainly from the Carolingian world. In the earliest phase, transactions
e
were made using commodities as payment within a commodity-money system.
x
From c. 825 silver weighed using locally produced lead weights, and possibly also
Western coins, was used as currency on a limited scale. The old øre weight-unit c
was easily convertible into Carolingian measures.
h
After the mid-9th century, trade with Carolingian regions declined and
Kaupang was more heavily involved in trade with the Baltic. The greater supply a
of silver resulting from the importation, via eastern Scandinavia, of Islamic
n
coins, as well as the introduction in most of Scandinavia of standardized weights
of probably Islamic origin, paved the way for an increasing use of silver in pay- g
ment from then on.
e
These studies demonstrate that urban communities like Kaupang led the
way in the development of means of payment and types of trade in Viking-age
Scandinavia. In earlier times and in rural areas, trade took place within tight
social networks where economic agency was socially sanctioned and prices were
fixed by tradition. Urban long-distance trade was less dependent of such net-
works and therefore provided space for traders and craftsmen openly to display
their economic agency. This development was encouraged by the urban environ-
ment, which housed a non-food-producing population dependent on numerous
daily transactions to survive. By easing the traditional constraints on the econo-
my and so allowing for economic expansion, the Viking towns contributed
significantly to the fundamental transformation of Scandinavian culture and
society around the turn of the millennium.
E d i t e d b y d a g f i n n s k r e
a
Aarhus University Press isbn978 87 7934 308 5
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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
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Means of Exchange
Dealing with Silver in the Viking Age
Kaupang Excavation Project Publication Series, Volume 2
Norske Oldfunn XXIII
© Aarhus University Press
& the Kaupang Excavation Project, University of Oslo 2007
Published as part of the series Norske Oldfunn,
Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo
English translation: John Hines
Language revision: Frank Azevedo, John Hines
Technical editing: Dagfinn Skre
Map production: Julie K. Øhre Askjem, Anne Engesveen
Illustration editing: Elise Naumann, Julie K. Øhre Askjem
Cover illustration: Coins, silver and weights found at Kaupang.
Photo, Eirik I. Johnsen, KHM
Graphic design, typesetting and cover: Jørgen Sparre
Type: Minion and Linotype Syntax
Paper: PhoeniXmotion Xantur, 135 g
Printed by Narayana Press, Denmark
Printed in Denmark 2008
ISBN 978-87-7934-308-5
Copyright maps:
Contour distances 1 meter: The Muncipality of Larvik
Contour distances 5 metres: Norwegian Mapping and Cadastre Autority
Scandinavia, Europe: ESRI
The University of Oslo wishes to thank the financial contributors to the Kaupang Excavation Project:
Ministry of the Environment The Anders Jahre Humanitarian Foundation
Ministry of Education and Research Vestfold County Council
Ministry of Culture and Church Affairs The Municipality of Larvik
The Research Council of Norway Arts Council Norway
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Contents
1 Dagfinn Skre
Introduction 9
1.1 Rethinking the substantivist approach 9
1.2 The present volume 10
1.3 Future volumes 11
2 Lars Pilø, Dagfinn Skre
Introduction to the Site 13
2.1 Exploring Kaupang and Skiringssal 1771–1999 13
2.2.1 The cemeteries 14
2.1.2 The settlement 15
2.2 Fieldwork in the Kaupang settlement 1998-2003 17
2.2.1 Research questions 17
2.2.2 Overview 17
Surveys 17
Excavations 18
Method of excavation 18
2.2.3 Contexts 20
2.3 Investigations in Skiringssal 1999–2001 23
2.3.1 Fieldwork at Huseby 1999–2001 24
2.4 Main results 1998–2003 24
Part I: The Kaupang Finds 27
3 Mark Blackburn
The Coin-finds 29
3.1 The coin-finds: discovery and context 30
3.1.1 The earlier finds, 1950–1974 30
3.1.2 The new finds, 1998–2003 30
3.2 The interpretation of site finds 34
3.2.1 The need to determine typical patterns of loss 35
3.2.2 A sample of single finds from Southern Scandinavia 36
3.2.3 Date of production versus date of loss 38
3.2.4 Changes in the currency in the early 10th century 39
3.2.5 Considering changes in the size of the coin-stock and the wastage rate 41
3.2.6 Are the hoards representative of the local currency? 43
3.2.7 Is the archaeological evidence from Birka inconsistent with the hoard evidence? 45
3.3 The Kaupang finds: their significance for the chronology of the site 47
3.3.1 The Islamic dirhams 47
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3.3.2 The 9th-century Western coins 56
3.3.3 The Roman, Merovingian and Byzantine coins 58
3.4 The spatial distribution within the site 62
3.5 Fragmentation, graffiti and other secondary treatment of the coins 63
3.5.1 Fragmentation 64
3.5.2 Whole coins and pendants 66
3.5.3 Bending and nicking 66
3.5.4 Graffiti 67
3.6 The coins found at Huseby 68
3.7 Summary and conclusions 69
Appendices: Data on which find histograms are based 72
4 Gert Rispling, Mark Blackburn and Kenneth Jonsson
Catalogue ofthe Coins 75
5 Birgitta Hårdh
Hacksilver and Ingots 95
5.1 Introduction 95
5.2 The Kaupang silver finds of 1998–2002 96
5.3 Silver finds from Charlotte Blindheim’s excavations 1950–1974 97
5.4 Silver as currency 97
5.5 The hacksilver 99
5.5.1 Analysis of the hacksilver by weight 100
5.6 Ingots 103
5.6.1 The large Kaupang ingot 106
5.6.2 The small Kaupang ingots 107
5.6.3 A local production of ingots? 108
5.7 Spiral-striated rods 108
5.8 Fragmented jewellery 113
5.9 Hacksilver from well-dated contexts 114
5.10 Discussion 115
5.11 Summary 118
6 Unn Pedersen
Weights and Balances 119
6.1 Graves and settlement – two different worlds? 120
6.1.1 Types of weight at Kaupang 121
6.1.2 Types of balance at Kaupang 126
6.1.3 Representativity 127
6.2 A radical change from the 9th to the 10th century? 130
6.2.1 The chronological distribution of weights in the settlement 130
6.2.2 Dating of the weight-types 131
6.2.3 A chronological change? 132
6.2.4 Two different groups of weights? 136
6.3 Weight-standard 138
6.3.1 Accuracy 138
6.3.2 Standards 140
6.3.3 The weight of well-preserved weights from the settlement 144
6.3.4 Punched-dot decoration on the weights from the settlement 148
6.4 The weights – function and meaning 155
6.4.1 The spatial distribution of weights in the settlement 155
6.4.2 Tools of trade 159
6.4.3 Weights and metalcasting 166
6.4.4 Weights and symbolic meaning 168
6.5 Summary 177
Appendices 179
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Part II: Silver,Trade and Towns 197
7 Christoph Kilger
Kaupang from Afar:Aspects ofthe Interpretation ofDirham Finds
in Northern and Eastern Europe between the Late 8th and Early 10th Centuries 199
7.1 Introduction 200
Dirham finds from Kaupang 201
The early Viking-period trading sites as dirham zones 205
The dominant 10th century 207
The questions 208
7.2 Phasing 208
A general summary of the finds 209
Geographical terminology 209
Methodological principles 210
7.3 The Caucasian link (Phase I, t.p.q. 770–790) 211
An inverted view of transit trade 211
Conclusions 214
7.4 The establishment of the dirham network in Eastern Europe (Phase II, t.p.q. 790–825) 214
The North African signature 215
The West Slav and Prussian dirham paradox 218
The early Gotlandic find-group 220
Conclusions 221
7.5 The establishment of the dirham network in the Baltic area (Phase III, t.p.q. 825–860) 221
The reduction of minting in the Caliphate 222
The Khazar imitations 224
Structural changes in the dirham hoards 225
The re-use of dirham silver 226
Conclusions 227
7.6 The Abbasid find-horizon after AD 860 (Phase IVa, t.p.q. 860–890) 228
The concept of a great silver crisis 230
Silver crisis or silver glut? 232
Dirham finds from the North-West of Europe 233
Conclusions 234
7.7 The Samanid find-period after AD 890 (Phase IVb, t.p.q. 890–920) 235
The Samanid transitional phase according to hoard-finds 235
The Samanid find-period in archaeological contexts 238
The dirham network in the Samanid silver period 239
Conclusions 240
7.8 The quantitative jump after c. 860 240
7.9 Final conclusions 242
The dirham finds from Kaupang revisited 243
Kaupang as a site for the handling and melting down of silver 245
7.10 Check list of dirham hoards found in Europe and the Caucasus region (t.p.q. 771–892) 247
8 Christoph Kilger
Wholeness and Holiness: Counting,Weighing and Valuing Silver
in the Early Viking Period 253
8.1 Introduction 254
The northern route, and three different concepts of silver as currency 254
Bridging disciplinary clefts 255
8.2 Exchange, money, and value 256
A singular world of chieftains and gifts 257
Means of exchange in non-monetized contexts 258
The exchange of values 259
Material and non-material aspects of monetary value 261
8.3 Coins and coinage around the North Sea 263
Counting seeds and coins – an Antique and medieval way of reckoning 264
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The use of silver coins in the Frankish realm 267
The Frankish commodity-money economy 270
Dorestad – a hub for coin silver in the North Sea region 271
“Give us this day our daily bread…” 272
The snake, the long-haired man, and the monster:
the use of coin outside the Romano-Christian orbit 275
Conclusions 278
8.4 Traces of the eyrir-standard at Kaupang 279
Gold coins and the concept of aurar 280
Reckoning aurar according to the Early Scandinavian law-codes 282
Evidence of weighing practices in the Norwegian Merovingian Period 283
Weights with mounts and armrings with a cross 285
Looking for aurarin ring hoards 286
Dirhams as weights, and grivnas 288
Odin’s inalienable property: the stable and eternal gold ring 292
“Aurar-sites” in Southern Scandinavia 293
Verdaurarand vadmál– Commodity-money in Late Iron-age Scandinavia 296
Conclusions 297
8.5 Ertogs, pveiti and fragments 298
Two models of Early-medieval silver economy 299
Commerce and fragmentation in the Caliphate 301
Reflexes of the Islamic weight-system in Northern Europe 304
Weights with a copper-alloy shell and pseudo-Arabic characters 307
A new time of threat: the fragmentation of silver objects 309
One set and two systems of weights 312
Wholeness, holiness and dissolution 315
The early use of hacksilver around the North Sea and at Kaupang 318
Conclusions 320
8.6 Summary 321
9 Dagfinn Skre
Post-substantivist Towns and Trade AD 600–1000 327
9.1 Substantivist emporia 329
9.2 Substantivist economics – some flaws 330
9.2.1 The economy of Norway c. 1000–1500 330
9.3 Post-substantivist economics 333
9.4 Typologizing sites of trade and craft 335
9.4.1 Hodges’s concept emporium 335
9.4.2 An alternative typology of sites 337
9.5 Kings and trade 338
9.6 The significance of long-distance trade 340
10 Dagfinn Skre
Dealing with Silver:
Economic Agency in South-Western Scandinavia AD 600–1000 343
10.1 Silver and sites AD 600–1000 344
10.1.1 Central-place markets before AD 700 344
10.1.2 Local and nodal markets in the 8th century 346
10.1.3 Towns in the 9th and 10th centuries 347
Western coins c. 800–840 347
Danish coins and fragmented silver c. 825–860 348
Islamic silver c. 860–890 351
Economic agency and commodity-money in towns 352
10.2 Production and long-distance trade AD 700–1000 352
Abbreviations 356
References 357
List of Authors 378
8 means of exchange