century were excavated in 2000 (Hedvall 2003 ). At the churchyard thirty fragments of
so-called ‘Eskilstuna sarcophagi’ were found, with ornaments datable to the middle
of the eleventh century. One of the monuments was found in situ, placed 60 – 70 cm on
top of the grave of a young woman.
The first certainly documented stone church in Scandinavia was built in Roskilde
c. 1027. Its patron was Estrid, the sister of Knútr (Cnut the Great) (Olsen 1992 ). There
are several stone churches from the second half of the eleventh century preserved in
Denmark, but in Sweden and Norway they are somewhat later: the earliest ones date to
the last decades of the century or even to c. 1100. In Norway the wooden stave-churches
were an original contribution to ecclesiastical architecture. There were once hundreds
of them, but only about thirty have survived. In Urnes at Sognefjord in Vestlandet a
portal with rich carved animal ornament from the last quarter of the eleventh century,
belonging to the oldest stave-church on the site, has been reused in the succeeding
stave-church built in the 1130 s.
ARTEFACTSArtefacts reflecting the conversion are above all the silver pendant-crosses from graves,
settlements and hoards (Staecker 1999 ). Normally, they do not occur until the tenth
century. Pendant-crosses in graves are primarily found in Sweden and Finland, whereas
those from hoards occur in all Scandinavian countries. The crosses from the Birka graves
are all found in tenth-century female graves; the crosses are simple, cast or cut, with
stamped or punched decoration or with filigree. The earliest Scandinavian crucifix is the
filigree example from a tenth-century grave at Birka, where the crucifix is one of several
amulets, worn by a woman, identified as a vo ̨lva by the presence of an iron staff in the
grave (Price 2002 ). This casts light on the problem of syncretism, a concept with a wide
meaning denoting a mixture of religions. A requirement is that the two religions in
question have some similarities. Probably there was a long period of influence or even
interaction between Old Norse religion and Christianity, and in the literary evidence we
can see similarities: the end of the world and Ragnaro ̨k, Christ and the good áss Balder,
the crucifixion of Christ and Balder’s death etc. This also facilitates the phenomenon
interpretatio Christiana, signifying that a pagan object or feature gets a Christian
meaning. An example may be the shield-shaped amulets seen as pagan (see Gräslund,
ch. 18 , above) Recently a new interpretation was suggested, that they should be seen
as symbols of the defenders of the Christian faith (Trotzig 2004 ). In my view such a
transition is exactly what can be expected.
Other Christian amulets are reliquary pendants and pendants with images of saints.
There are also encolpia, reliquary crosses, originally a Byzantine type. A Scandinavian
version was found in Gåtebo in Öland, where the artist has elegantly translated the
eastern form into a Scandinavian one, using native Urnes style.
Imported originally probably liturgical vessels should also be mentioned. The so-
called Tating-ware jugs, produced in Westphalia, are found on the early trading centres
in north-west Europe, including Birka, Hedeby and Kaupang. They have applied
tin-foil decoration with equal-armed crosses at the base. The large hanging bowls of
insular origin, made of copper alloys, have sometimes fish-shaped escutcheons. Both
these categories are found in chamber grave Bj 854 at Birka, together with rich
jewellery, a lot of other artefacts and a bronze key, which is another artefact with a
–– Anne-Sofie Gräslund––