swords intended for use. Finnish finds have produced a large number of swords, close to
330 examples, all identified as to type.
Perhaps the most common weapon of the Viking Age was the spear, mostly of
Scandinavian types. The socket tube of later spear types may be handsomely decorated
with silver inlay and gilded looped animals in the style of the late runestones. Most of
these spear points, like the most artistically silver-inlaid sword grips, may have been
manufactured on Gotland.
SILVER HOARDSFinnish coin hoards from the Viking Age number some forty separate finds and consist
of c. 1 , 600 Islamic, c. 1 , 000 Anglo-Saxon and c. 4 , 000 German coins together with a few
Scandinavian, Irish, Bohemian, Hungarian, Spanish and Byzantine pieces. The oldest
Finnish hoards, which contain only oriental coins, come from Åland and date to the
ninth and tenth centuries. The others, which also include various other kinds of silver
objects, are from Finland Proper and Häme and date to the latter part of the eleventh
century. Viking Age silver apparently came to Finland from two different directions.
During the early part of the period silver was obtained on voyages to the east, later on it
came from western Europe.
The silver hoards of the Viking Age have generally been interpreted as evidence of
war and troubled times: when danger threatened, people hid their silver in the ground.
The actual reasons for burying treasures are really much more complicated. Objects
of value have always been hidden away, while troubled times and outside threats have
increased the number of hoards only temporarily. We can only speculate on the reasons
why the hoards were left in the ground rather than being retrieved once the threat
was past. It often appears as if the owner had died suddenly or in a foreign land
without being able to tell his or her heirs where the silver was hidden. Other possi-
bilities, however, have also been suggested based on, for example, the fact that the
Icelandic chronicler Snorri Sturluson wrote in the thirteenth century that Óðinn had
laid down laws whereby anything one buried away during one’s lifetime could
be enjoyed in the afterlife. We must therefore take into account that there are also
other possible explanations for stowing away treasures besides purely practical
considerations.
The number of hoard finds is naturally dependent on the influx and availability of
coins. The fact that no eleventh-century coin hoards are known from Åland does not
mean that the archipelago was depopulated, as has been suggested. The answer lies in
the fact that the eastern influx of coins dried up, a phenomenon that has also been
considered one of the contributing factors to the decline and fall of the central Swedish
trading centre, Birka.
TRADING CENTRES AND TRADE ROUTESThe trading town of Birka, located on the island of Björkö in Lake Mälaren, is an
important archaeological monument. At least during the trading season, Birka must
have been a meeting place for many nations, making up a polyethnic trading centre. The
finds include Finnish objects such as pottery and round brooches, indicating that women
from south-western Finland visited Birka.
–– chapter 35: The Viking Age in Finland––