merchants whose contacts reached far to the east: to the Rus’, the Khazars, Byzantium
and the eastern Caliphate (Ambrosiani 2001 ).
These Black Earth excavations yielded very rich settlement finds, including work-
shop products and objects of trade. All of the houses showed evidence of household
activities and textile production: spinning, weaving, and the production of fine thread
and high-quality fabrics (Andersson 2003 ). Furs were also produced (Wigh 1998 ,
2002 ), as well as combs and glass beads along with cast bronze objects.
DEFENCEThe town Birka was long believed to have been undefended, its earliest recognised built
defence being the hill fort Borg. Today an earlier system of ninth-century ramparts
is known to have existed, the larger part of which was successively covered by the
expanding town. The rampart, still visible today, probably dates to the tenth century at
the earliest, and the chronology of Borg has not yet been fully established. Recent
excavations have focused on an area outside and adjacent to Borg where evidence of a
strong, mainly tenth-century military presence has been uncovered. Terraces with the
remains of several generations of longhouses and finds linking to a male, armed presence
include sacrifices to the war god Óðinn (Holmquist Olausson and Kitzler Åhlfeldt 2002 ).
Comparable finds have not been made in the hill fort itself, where instead graves from
c. ad 800 lie superficially situated inside its rampart (Arbman 1940 – 3 : 127 – 31 ).
GRAVESCharacteristic of Birka are its richly equipped graves (Arbman 1940 – 3 ; Gräslund 1980 ;
Arwidsson 1984 – 9 ) of which c. 1 , 100 were investigated by H. Stolpe. With altogether
c. 2 , 000 mounds, Birka’s prehistoric cemeteries are among the largest in Sweden, the
majority of the visible barrows covering cremation layers particularly characteristic for
the Mälar Basin area in the Viking Age.
Unusual grave traditions for eastern central Sweden at this time are the unmarked
wooden coffin and chamber graves, lying in an area inside the later town rampart
and the hill fort. Regarding dress and lifestyle, these show links mainly to local
traditions. Both men and women were buried fully dressed with jewellery, weapons
and tools, but many of these graves also include objects from distant sources. They may
have been imported objects available at the local market or as part of the personal
belongings brought to Birka by merchants and craftsmen from their own respective
home regions.
CHRONOLOGYThe finds from Birka’s graves form an important basis for understanding Viking Age
chronology, but finds recently uncovered in the bronzeworker’s workshop have com-
plicated this picture. Objects dated as deposited in the 900 s can be directly linked to the
workshop’s moulds dating to the early 800 s (Ambrosiani and Erikson 1992 , 1996 ).
The relationship between production and deposition, of objects in the Black Earth and
the grave contexts at Birka, is a central question for future discussion with implications
for the chronology of Birka’s monuments, but which generally influence Viking Age
chronology in various ways.
–– chapter 8 ( 1 ): Birka––