Ny Björn Gustafsson
@nybjorn
Swedish archaeologist (PhD, Arch Sci). Finds specialist (Iron Age through Medieval per.) Surveyor of islands in the Baltic Sea. 😍LiDAR-spotting! Works for @raa-se.bsky.social Papers etc:
Last week, while hiking along the outer coastline of western Mainland, Shetland, we came upon these ramparts by the base of the Lambigart headland; the innermost being the easiest to spot. Turned out to be registered as a possible promontory fort. www.trove.scot/place/245637 #HillfortsWednesday 🏺
Oops… - they still had books in Scotland too… - and sale in the National Museum’s bookstore…
After visiting the actual findsite, the chapel ruins on St. Ninian’s Isle in Shetland, I had to pop in to have a new look at the actual treasure in Edinburgh… 🏺 (I definitely did prefer the number of people in Shetland to that of central Edinburgh though…🫣)
A must for any Viking specialist travelling in Shetland: Viking shield biscuits!
A good day out on Bressey and Noos, messing around in boats, brochs and a fabulous landscape… #Shetland
This one’s for you @helenaullmark.bsky.social - captured at Jarlshof, Shetland, this morning…
Standing some 25 m above sea level on Hoburgen, the last cliff of Gotland, would normally mean that the horizon would be some ~18 Km away - but at 4:50 am this Saturday the Karlsöarna isles, 42 Km to the north where clearly visible… #Mirage
Got to handle the scabbard chape from Sör-Amsberg, Dalecarlia, this morning… - God it’s ugly! A copy of a copy. 🤣 #FindsFriday
- Vacation ✅ - Dalecarlia ✅ - House by Lake Gimmen ✅ - Off (the general) grid ✅
In 1877, Hjalmar Stolpe test-pitted the area we now know as Birka's Garrison. He never understood its importance - but he documented his findings. Earlier this week I realised what a C-shaped feature on his drawings represented: This bronze bracelet. Thank you (yet again) Hjalmar! #FindsFriday
Have you visited the shorter but larger house foundation in Etelhem? (825 m2 vs 737 m2 at Stavgard) app.raa.se/open/fornsok...
On 2 June, 13:00-15:00, Moa Råhlander will defend her Doctoral dissertation "The attributes of beads: what beads can tell as archaeological objects". 🏺 Opponent: Birgit Maixner Zoom-link: stockholmuniversity.zoom.us/j/69840463764 The thesis can be downloaded here: urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=...
For those who understand Swedish: An interview with Per Widerström, Gotland Museum, on the fact that the 12th C silver (mostly) hoard from Mörkö have been bought by the State for 4 million SEK. Short version: www.sverigesradio.se/artikel/mynt... Longer: www.sverigesradio.se/avsnitt/2792...
New publication by Birgit Maixner: ”Three Miniatures on Raw Material Exploitation and Long-Distance Trade in Central Norway During the Early Viking Age: A Regional Study of the Viking Economy Based on Archaeological Evidence” (Gunneria 84) 🏺🥳🇳🇴 Free here 👇 www.ntnu.no/documents/10...
And here’s a message from one of our sponsors: - Scratch a bit more twolegs, no not there - to the left!
…just some light Saturday messing-about with native Gotlandic wool…
Better pictures of the recently reported golden (runic) bracteate and clasp button from Sjonhem, Gotland - along with parallells. #FindsFriday 🏺
Interested in the rules on public metal-detecting in Iceland? Here's a fairly recent set of guidelines (in Icelandic, náttúrlega...): Málmleitartæki, Minjastofnun Íslands Leiðbeiningar 9 (Stefánsdóttir 2026) 🏺 www.minjastofnun.is/static/files...
New article in the Journal of the North Atlantic: "Norse Seafaring in Western Scotland: Sea Routes and Navigation Marks" by Shane McLeod & Alex Sanmark of @insuhi.bsky.social Open access ⤵️ 🥳🏺 bioone.org/journals/jou...
A new VERY interesting find from Telemark fylke, Norway. 🥳 🇳🇴 A Viking-period trefoil brooch with what appears to be a bird of prey-ornament. I have personally never seen anything like it… 🏺 📸: Frank Brødsjømoen Måbø #FindsFriday
@fornvannen.bsky.social just published a (short) paper I wrote on a quite atypical Viking-period sword scabbard chape from the Paviken harbour site, Gotland. 🏺 Read it - open access - here: publicera.kb.se/fornvannen/a...
A really good collection of papers on personhood, possessions and the concept(s) of ownership - “Own and be owned” (2015). 🏺 As alway, best read in the traditional way - but you can also find it on-line, for free, here: www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/di...
In 2013, the Swedish version of ”Antiques Roadshow” visited Visby. A man brought this large, unprovenanced pseudo-penannular brooch from the Viking Period for evaluation and after a bit of a debacle it was bought by the state and is now kept by Gotland Museum. #FindsFriday 🏺
It is an old find, from Busarve in Othem parish on northeastern Gotland, and alas that is all we now about it. Based on the parallels from e.g. Björkö there are reasons to assume that it is early, and for human wrists. Accession nr GFC9779 (📸: Kajsa Pontén Röcklinger, CC BY)
Got to do a bit of hands-on lecturing last night, refreshingly analogous in the storages of Gotland Museum. The theme was “The basics of Viking-period economics”… 🏺 (📸: Lisa Berg)
Another "That belongs in a museum"... Sold 2018 for 103 € - without context of course, but seemingly from the Netherlands. auction.catawiki.com/kavels/19373... It's a rather close relative to a chape found 1931 in a Viking-period cremation grave in Hamrånge, Sweden (SHM 19777, grave 16).
New on Old Uppsala by Charlotte Hedenstierna-Jonson, Johan Callmer, John Ljungkvist, Per Frölund and others, presenting some of the results from the last 20 years of excavations and research. "Från hallar till fynd i Gamla Uppsala"
Proceedings of the 40th Interdisciplinary Viking Symposium - 3 May 2023 in Odense: ”Travelling Viking Age” museumodense.dk/wp-content/u...