This publication reveals intricate relationships between the Viking Age and its pasts. The book explores previous studies of the past in the past and their theoretical foundations, drawing on relationality, materiality, and affectivity as productive ways of moving the field forward.
Three case studies examine the use of the past in the raising of ship settings in the Viking Age, the presence of antiquities and references to the past in Viking Age hoards, and the use of kerbstones as references to a specific past. Furthermore, it explores the relationship between social memory and reuse in the past. It demonstrates how active engagement with the past was integral to social identities and self-perceptions.
The analyses of the archaeological record point to some of the mechanisms through which the past was appropriated, altered, and integrated into Viking Age practices. The analysis underscores the political dimensions of memory, challenging established preconceptions of reuse as automatically being conducted to legitimise power relations. The study thus provides a nuanced lens through which to examine how Viking Age inhabitants conceptualised and utilised their temporal realities. By recognising the relational nature of pasts and their materials, the publication re-evaluates Viking Age society, underlining the relevance of collective memory in shaping identity and social relations across temporal boundaries. More than anything, it shows how uses of the past were varied and diverse practices in Viking Age society.
The book explores how people in Viking Age Scandinavia (750-1050 CE) engaged with and related to the past materially and referentially, as part of their social identities, social memories and their conceptualisations of time and temporality.
Chapter 1: Approaching Time and Temporality in the Viking Age
Chapter 2: All about Power and Commemoration? Previous studies of the Past in
the Viking Age
Chapter 3: Temporality, Power, Affectivity and Memory. Theoretical
Perspectives on Reuse in the Past
Chapter 4: Ship settings. Templates from the Pasts and a Question of Scale?
Chapter 5: The Temporality of the Theme Hoards
Chapter 6: Kerbstones. Connections to Specific Pasts
Chapter 7: Time and Temporality in Viking Age Scandinavia
References
Julie Lund is Professor in Archaeology at the University of Oslo. In her current research she focuses on changes in mentalities and world-views of Pagan and Christian Scandinavia, diverging concepts of personhood and ideas of corporality, and varying ways of relating to the past or to pasts. Her recent publications include:
Lund, Julie; Furholt, Martin & Austvoll, Knut Ivar (2022). Reassessing power in the archaeological discourse. How collective, cooperative and affective perspectives may impact our understanding of social relations and organization in prehistory. Archaeological Dialogues 29(1): 3350. Lund, Julie (2021). Kerbing Relations through Time: Reuse, Connectivity and Folded Time in the Viking Age. Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 120. Lund, Julie & Semple, Sarah (Ed.) (2022), A Cultural History of Objects in the Medieval Age. A Cultural History of Objects, Volume 2. Bloomsbury Academic. Lund, Julie & Sindbæk, Søren Michael (2022). Crossing the Maelstrom: New Departures in Viking Archaeology. Journal of Archaeological Research.
