group of specialists that hardly existed for more than 100 years as the runestones
ceased to be raised around ad 1100.
Wood was the most important material in society for most parts of Scandinavia, used
for buildings, tools, fences etc. Unfortunately very little wood is preserved that can tell
us about how the wooden objects were decorated. Most of them we have preserved today
come from wet culture layers in towns such as Hedeby, Staraya Ladoga and Lund, where
parts of houses as well as objects have been well preserved. A few objects, such as the
ship, sledge and wagon from the Oseberg grave, and the later stave churches, reveal
some extraordinary high artistic levels as regards wooden objects.
Textiles are also quite rarely preserved. In most cases they are found either on metal
objects in graves, where metal salts have preserved the fabric next to the object, or in the
wet culture layer of the towns. Complete clothes from the Viking Age are very rare.
Wool is the main textile represented, but textiles made of plants, such as linen or hemp
and nettles, are even more rarely preserved, and little is known about the use and
manufacture of these materials. The textile craft was very time consuming; almost all
the women in society were involved in it. Traces of textile crafts are quite common in
archaeological settlement excavations. The loom that was used was of a primitive stand-
ing type with weights in clay or sometimes stone, which held down the warp threads.
These weights as well as spindle whorls – used for transforming the raw wool into
threads – are often found on excavations. Brick weaving was popular in the Viking Age
for producing decorative borders on clothes, sometimes with threads in silk, gold and
silver. Probably the most prominent examples of Scandinavian textile crafts have
been found in the Oseberg ship-burial, where both the tools and the textiles have been
preserved.
Leather craft was almost as important as textile craft and was used for shoes, ropes,
straps etc. Unfortunately leather does require a wet environment for preservation
and this material is almost only ever found in excavations in towns with wet culture
layers, such as Hedeby, York and Staraja Ladoga. The material from these places gives us
a good idea of what kind of products were made. On the other hand it is hard to discuss
how widely spread leather craft was and who in society performed the not-so-pleasant
handling of tanning and what kind of speciality the leather cutters had.
Bone and antler were the raw material for a wide range of objects. Especially favoured
was thick metatarsal bones from cattle, horses, sheep and goats for the manufacture of
needles for different functions. Antler was the favoured material for making combs. The
material was primarily taken from elk, red deer and reindeer, all depending on where the
manufacture was taking place. In general the availability of the material dictated how
the objects were produced. In Norway the working with bone and antler was slightly
different because of the catch of walruses and whales in the North Atlantic. One special-
ity from this area are gaming pieces made of ivory, another one is the production of
‘washing boards’ made of whalebone. These often richly decorated boards are primarily
found in rich female graves in Norway, but occasionally they have been found in other
areas within and outside Scandinavia. A few objects have been found in Swedish graves
and also on the Orkneys and in Ireland.
Smithing was by far the most common metal craft and also the most important one for
making tools, nails, rivets and weapons etc. Traces of smithing can be found on many
excavated settlements in Scandinavia as it was often easy to get the ore, whether from bog,
stone or sand. The ore was then transformed to iron in relatively simple clay-built ovens.
–– John Ljungkvist––