#björkö

[ebonseraph63]

[broomsick]

A few elements of interest concerning the temple at Uppsala

Yngvi-Freyr constructs the Temple at Uppsala (1830) by Hugo Hamilton

Chapter 26: “Now we shall say a few words about the superstitions of the Swedes. That folk has a very famous temple [134] called Uppsala, situated not far from the city of Sigtuna and Björkö. In this temple, [135] entirely decked out in gold, the people worship the statues of three gods in such wise that the mightiest of them, Thor, occupies a throne in the middle of the chamber; Wotan [Odin] and Frikko [Freyr] have places on either side. The significance of these gods is as follows: Thor, they say, presides over the air, which governs the thunder and lightning, the winds and rains, fair weather and crops. The other, Wotan -that is, the Furious–carries on war and imparts to man strength against his enemies. The third is Frikko, who bestows peace and pleasure on mortals. His likeness, too, they fashion with an immense phallus. But Wotan they chisel armed, as our people are wont to represent Mars. Thor with his scepter apparently resembles Jove. The people also worship heroes made gods, whom they endow with immortality because of their remarkable exploits, as one reads in the Vita of Saint Ansgar they did in the case of King Eric.”

Scholium note 134: “Near this temple stands a very large tree with wide-spreading branches, always green winter and summer. What kind it is nobody knows.”

Scholium note 135: “A golden chain goes round the temple. It hangs over the gable of the building and sends its glitter far off to those who approach, because the shrine stands on level ground with mountains all about it like a theater.”

Chapter 27: “For all their gods there are appointed priests to offer sacrifices for the people. If plague and famine threaten, a libation is poured to the idol Thor; if war, to Wotan; if marriages are to be celebrated, to Frikko. It is customary also to solemnize in Uppsala, at nine-year intervals, a general feast of all the provinces of Sweden. From attendance at this festival no one is exempted Kings and people all and singly send their gifts to Uppsala and, what is more distressing than any kind of punishment, those who have already adopted Christianity redeem themselves through these ceremonies.”

Selected excerpts from Adam of Bremen’s late 11th century work Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum (“Deeds of the Bishops of Hamburg”)

[spacetimewithstuartgary]

Uplift Underway in Finland’s Kvarken Archipelago

Some 20,000 years ago, during the Last Glacial Maximum, the Baltic Sea sat under a sheet of ice as thick as 3,000 meters (10,000 feet). Scientists estimate that the weight of that ice pressed the land down more than 500 meters (1,600 feet).

Since the glaciers receded and the weight was lifted, the land has been bouncing back. The rates of uplift, known as glacial isostatic adjustment or isostatic rebound, in this region are among the highest on Earth. By one estimate, 700 hectares of new land—about twice the size of Central Park in New York City—rise from the sea each year along the coast of the Gulf of Bothnia, the Baltic Sea’s northern arm.

This uplift is especially apparent in the Kvarken Archipelago of Finland. The area, seen in this image acquired by the OLI (Operational Land Imager) on Landsat 8, is an agglomeration of islands that is constantly changing as the land rises. Its approximately 5,600 islands and 2,400 kilometers (1,500 miles) of shoreline form labyrinthine waterways that present hazards to ships but exploration opportunities for canoers and kayakers. The Kvarken Archipelago, along with the High Coast region across the gulf in Sweden, is designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site.

The terrain emerging from the sea has revealed remarkable glacial formations. On and around the island of Björkö, shown in this detailed view, unique features known as De Geer moraines have surfaced thanks to isostatic rebound. These washboard-like ridges form when water running beneath the ice deposits boulders, stones, and finer material at the ice edge. When the ice retreats or a large block breaks away, another moraine begins to form at the new edge.

De Geer moraines typically measure 1 to 2 kilometers long and 2 to 5 meters high, spaced 50 to 200 meters apart. Scientists think their presence and spacing are related to the speed of ice-margin retreat, the water depth in which they were formed, and the terrain beneath the ice. LiDAR-based digital elevation models have recently revealed the existence of more De Geer moraines in southern and western Finland than previously realized.

The constant emergence of new land after the ice’s disappearance affected how people ultimately developed the area. For example, the land on which the town of Vaasa was founded was a forested island in the early 14th century. The island later merged with the mainland, and Vaasa grew throughout the 17th and 18th centuries as a thriving harbor and trading point. Still, the land continued to rise, causing the coastline to migrate farther and farther from the town. In August 1852, a napping peddler’s pipe ignited a fire that destroyed much of the settlement. Officials took the opportunity to reestablish Vaasa about 6 kilometers (4 miles) to the west to make it a coastal city once again. Remnants of the original town are preserved in “Old Vaasa” (or Vanha-Vaasa).

The islands, peninsulas, and coastlines around the Kvarken Archipelago and the Gulf of Bothnia will continue to morph and evolve. Since the ice retreated, the land has risen at least 286 meters (938 feet); this figure corresponds to the elevation of the ancient shore and so-called “world’s highest coastline,” located across the gulf at Skuleberget in Sweden’s High Coast. The remaining 100 meters or so of depression should equilibrate over the next several thousand years, scientists say.

In that time, the sea level will continue to drop relative to the land, and the Gulf of Bothnia will continue to narrow. Millennia from now, the shores of Finland and Sweden may even connect at the narrowest point, rendering the northern Gulf of Bothnia an inland lake. However, the exact nature of these changes will depend on how much global sea level rise—driven by ice melt and thermal expansion of ocean water—offsets the regional land uplift. Currently, the rate of regional uplift, at about 9 millimeters (0.4 inches) per year, outpaces the 3.4 millimeters (0.13 inches) of global sea level rise per year.

NASA Earth Observatory images by Wanmei Liang, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey. Photo by Hendrik Morkel, Unsplash. Story by Lindsey Doermann.

[mjolnir-viking-jewelry]

Excited to share the latest addition to my #etsy shop: Viking knot pendant. Authentic sterling silver viking replica necklace from Uppland. Viking jewelry gifts.

[archaeologyprehistoricstones]

She Came From Another Place:

Grave Bj 463 in Birka, Sweden, is on the island of Björkö, that was an important Viking Age trading center which handled goods from Scandinavia as well as many parts of Continental Europe and the Orient.

Birka itself was founded around CE 750 and it flourished for more than 200 years. It was abandoned in CE 975, around the same time Sigtuna was founded as a Christian town some 35 km to the northeast. It has been estimated that the population in Viking Age Birka was between 500 and 1000 people.

The archaeological sites of Birka and Hovgården, on the neighboring island of Adelsö, make up an archaeological complex which displays the elaborate trading networks of Viking Scandinavia and their influence on the subsequent history of Europe. Birka is generally regarded as Sweden's oldest town,

Many burial sites have been uncovered at Birka, one such grave contained the skeleton of a girl from the mid-10th century. She was buried in a coffin deposited next to the city wall, about 90 centimeters deep. The grave goods are associated with those of other high-status women: a golden buckle, 21 pearls, a knife, a small box with sewing needles, a round brooch, and glass beads. Her dress was of high quality, as was the jewelry worn with it. By the condition of her teeth, she was 5–6 years old at the time of her death, and further analysis determined that her diet was similar to that of male warriors instead of a typical child's diet. There are no injuries to her skeleton that could indicate a cause of death.

Her skeleton was originally found by Swedish archaeologist Hjalmar Stolpe in 1876 and taken to the Stockholm Historical Museum, where it is on permanent display.

Scholar Marianne Hem Eriksen maintains that this girl is an unusual case of a high-status child burial, as children were seldom buried with identifiable grave goods.

Though commonly called the ��Birka girl”, this child most likely did not come from Birka or the surrounding region at all, but from another place altogether. Scientists believe that she came from a well-off family, but her clothes and set of jewelry are not typical for the Mälardalen region.

“It’s unlikely that she comes from that region,” Charlotte Hedenstierna Jonson, a researcher at the Museum of History, tells news agency TT.

To determine her origin scientists have measured levels of sulfur, carbon, and nitrogen in the girl’s skeleton and teeth. They have matched the results against animals from the Birka region.

“The animals have a different sulfur profile than she does,” says Hedenstierna Jonson. In the 10th century, people came to Birka from many different places in Europe. “My guess is that she comes from northern Germany or southern Denmark,” says Hedenstierna Jonson.

(Sources: https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf?pid=diva2%3A874629&dswid=1071, https://sverigesradio.se/artikel/5489514, https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birka#:~:text=Grave%20Bj%20463%20contained%20the%20skeleton%20of,brooch%2C%20glass%20beads%2C%20and%20a%20needle%20case, https://pt.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menina_de_Birka)

Source: Facebook

The Tudor Intruders

Shelli Hafterson

[intragalacticartscollective]

see the horison together

Collective residency at Björkö konstnod.

[hedgewitchgarden]

Gastro Obscura’s Summer Cookout columnist Paula Marcoux is a food historian and the author of Cooking With Fire. Throughout the summer, she’ll be sharing recipes and stories from the luminous history of open-fire cooking.

AH, THERE’S NOTHING QUITE LIKE an aromatic loaf of freshly baked bread, still crackling and steaming from the oven. But for archaeologists, that option—so enticing to normal people—might be a second choice to a fragment of bread that has been incinerated with a human corpse, then entombed for a millennium or two. Perhaps that sounds grim, but it happens to be the recipe for an ideal scenario to preserve the payload of information encoded in a bread-artifact for future excavation and analysis.

Charring your breakfast toast may seem tragic in the moment, but, if disposed of in the correct conditions, that blackened breadstuff could tell future archaeologists a great deal about your life. Post-excavation lab testing and imaging can indicate way more than bread’s ingredients; it can also shed light on historic baking techniques, the agricultural system that fed you, and the trade routes enmeshing your society. Even better, if you plan ahead and deposit that incinerated slice in a contextualized location (like a grave), archaeologists can infer ideas about ritual, caste, and gender among your people.

If your grave is the only one with a surviving bread sample among contemporaneous burials in your cemetery, your morning toast could end up as the sole representation of all the bread of your time and place. Academics might caution against using this sample as a basis for sweeping conclusions regarding your culture’s diet, though: As a ritualized funereal offering, your toast may represent a very special sort of bread for the dead, not the commonplace bread of the living.

Most bits of bread do not become archaeological relics, but rather soil, sometimes after passing through a human or animal. But once fully carbonized in fire, bread is rendered inedible, and, given the correct circumstances, its structure will remain stable, occasionally to the point of perfect wholeness. Even when reduced to little more than charred crumbs, an amazing stability endures in the bread’s microscopic structures, including the identifiably distinctive grain fragments that make up flour; accidental or intentional inclusions, like seeds; and certain fungus cells (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) indicating the presence of yeast or sourdough leavening. Further lab work on your breakfast gone wrong might include analysis of lipid and protein residues: Was it enriched with fat, milk, or eggs? And an examination of its starch granules can reveal what type of grindstone milled the flour and whether the grains had been sprouted first.

Ann-Marie Hansson has made a career of interrogating the cremation burial breads of Viking-era Sweden. Her exhaustive 1996 study analyzed scores of samples archaeologists had excavated from sites on the central Swedish island of Björkö, including Birka—a once-thriving Viking trading hub. Of the 575 cremation burials in question—fewer than one-tenth held identifiable remains of bread-offerings; the presence of additional grave goods in these burials suggested that class or wealth, not age or gender, determined which graves were likely to receive such provisions for the afterlife.

All the loaves in the study had been incinerated and buried with cremated remains sometime between 750 and 975 AD; while some were in pretty good shape, many were only barely discernible as crumby char. Hansson subjected these samples to macro- and microscopic morphological examination as well as residue analyses. Overall, they were found to be composed of quite finely milled and sifted flour—sometimes enriched with fat- and protein-bearing ingredients—fashioned into sturdy, variously-shaped cakes, and baked on a griddle. A good range of regionally grown grains were represented: barley, oats, rye, field peas, and two of the earliest cultivated varieties of wheat, einkorn and emmer.

In several graves, groupings of small breads were found threaded on iron or bronze wires, leaning against a ceramic vessel holding the cremated remains of the deceased. This practice likely echoes the customary local way of storing bread supplies for the living by stringing them up on flax or hemp threads or withy rods sheltered under the house’s roof. Securing the burial breads with more costly and durable metal filaments, instead of twine or twigs, would not only convey mourners’ esteem for their dead, it may have served the pragmatic purpose of helping them recover the charred loaves after their cremation with the body.

For the fire-loving food historian, an archaeological analysis this detailed pretty much constitutes a recipe manual for a range of simple, tasty small flatbreads. Exploring different ingredient choices available in Early Medieval Scandinavia is part of the fun and a great way to experience the flavors and properties of lesser-used bread grains, too. Even better, whether you mill your own grain or use purchased flours, it’s probably the easiest bread dough you could ever mix.

Making Viking Funerary Flatbread

The archaeological record allows the home baker a lot of latitude in recreating these tasty offerings; it’s especially interesting to delve into some of the era’s trends. Hansson found that the grains represented in individual bread samples closely paralleled the period’s known agricultural practices. For example, Scandinavian farmers have long paired barley with oats—they are sown, harvested, and ground together in a mixture known as tvebland—and sure enough that duo constitutes a frequent bread type among the charred burials. Similarly, another pair with overlapping agricultural demands was field peas and the early wheats, emmer or einkorn; they, too, turn out to have been frequent companions both in the field and on the bakestone.

In a follow-up study, Hansson looked at cremation burial bread remains from other nearby sites that were culturally-related to those on Björkö and found some intriguing ingredient variations. Among these samples, Hansson found evidence that some of the doughs included animal ingredients, which would boost protein, fat, and flavor. Lab analysis also showed significant quantities of the seeds of flax, chenopodium, and camelina. Whether these were accidental weed-seed inclusions or an intentional high-protein adjuncts is only known only to the farmers and bakers who have long-since joined their honorees in the grave.

While the original intentions of the historic Swedes may be up for interpretation, from a modern baker’s perspective, these optional variants are a lot of fun to play with. In the interest of flavor, nutrition, and curiosity, you may wish to use a livestock-based liquid, like whey or buttermilk, instead of water, to mix the dough. In an interesting twist—still reflected in a present-day, admittedly niche, practice in Sweden—some of the ceremonial breads were discovered to have been mixed using blood as the liquid. If you happen to slaughter and butcher your own animals, perhaps you’ll give it a try; fatty meat broth would be another, slightly less outré, option.

Customize your burial bread further with the addition of some appropriate seeds, whole or lightly ground. Flaxseed is readily available commercially. Chenopodium (also known as lamb’s-quarters) and camelina (or, gold-of-pleasure) seed can be found through an internet search or, way better, by foraging around the edges of roads and fields in the height of summer.

Milling

Viking Age Swedes appear to have considered that only the finest-ground and finely-sifted flours were appropriate for honoring their dead, but here, too, you can choose according to taste—after all, the modern resurgence of whole grains has been shown to keep us among the living a bit longer.

I use a small home mill and simply weigh the whole grains and toss them in to grind together to form a coarse flour. In a move that would likely be considered a slight to the about-to-be-cremated, I don’t sift out any of the bran. The resulting flour smells and tastes fresh and

Shaping options

The majority of the burial samples were mere crumbs, with no discernable top, bottom, or sides. However, many showed evidence for a variety of distinctive shapes—thin, thick, round, oval, triploid, and rectangular. The best-preserved were those that had been patted into sturdy, cookie-like shapes and strung in threes onto an iron or bronze wire just after baking. They were then cremated with the body, retrieved, and placed carefully in the final burial place alongside the urn containing the similarly incinerated-and-recovered human remains.

Looking at these as a baker, I see them as being fabricated for durability at the expense of flavor and texture, the characteristics suiting them to recovery from a pyre also compromising some of their potential tastiness. Hence, if you’re planning to eat, rather than cremate, these, I suggest rolling out the dough just a little more thinly—it delivers an especially crisp, delicious perimeter.

Equipment

Have everything you need at hand: a griddle; a good pile of small, dry fuel; a fire poker of some sort; a spatula; a rack or cloth to place them on when done; and an optional skewer.

Ingredients

100 grams (3.5 ounces) hulled barley OR ¾ cup barley flour, plus a bit for rolling out dough 50 grams (1.75 ounces) oat groats OR ½ cup oat flour (or rolled oats run through the food processor) 1 tablespoon lightly ground flaxseed, camelina, and/or chenopodium seed (8 grams or 0.3 ounces) ½ teaspoon sea salt (3 grams or 0.15 ounces) ½ cup buttermilk (or blood, milk, yogurt, or water)

Method

1. If you are using whole grains, reduce them to a coarse flour in a mill or with a mortar and pestle. 2. Combine all the dry ingredients thoroughly in a mixing bowl. Stir in the liquid until a dough is formed. If necessary to incorporate all the dry particles, add a small amount more liquid. (It’s fine if the dough is a little soft. It will dry out considerably during the rest period; whole grains imbibe moisture slowly.) Round up the dough nicely, place and cover in an airtight container, and allow to rest while you make a fire and arrange your griddle.

3. Set up a hearth so that you can place a griddle or bakestone securely a few inches over it. A few bricks work wonders in this regard. Setting the griddle aside, make a fire of medium-sized wood and burn it down to coals. Have a small pile of dry twigs on hand in case you have to goose the heat of your fire later while baking.

4. While your fire is burning, form the breads. Toss a light skim of barley flour on the work surface. Round up the dough ball, and slice it into 8 even bits. Flouring your fingers and counter lightly as needed, roll or pat each out to desired thinness (see note on shaping above)—about 3 inches in diameter for cremation burial, 4 to 5 inches for cocktail snacks. If the dough proves a bit too sticky to handle, grease two sheets of parchment paper and repeat this step with the paper on the top and bottom of the dough. 5. Adjust and even out the fire, then return the griddle to its supports to preheat. Aim to have a low to medium-low heat on the griddle; the flavor and crunch develops best rather slowly. Load up the griddle with the flatbreads. turn when flecked with brown. As you go, you’ll learn to adjust the heat by feeding twigs onto the established coalbed or by pushing aside anything burning too aggressively. 6. When the breads are done—crisp and brown on the edges, still a bit leathery in the middle—remove to the rack or cloth, or perforate with the skewer and suspend them, to cool.

7. This should yield 8 cracker-like breads. Their nutty flavor pairs well with butter or cheese of any kind, with smoked or pickled fish, and with cured meats. They keep as sustenance for weeks, but are truly tastiest when eaten within a few hours, so��carpe diem.

[volmarrsheathenism]

Important Places During the Viking Age

#### Scandinavia – **Birka:** A major trading center and settlement on Björkö Island in Sweden, crucial for Baltic trade routes. – **Hedeby:** Located in present-day Germany (Schleswig-Holstein), a significant trading hub connecting Scandinavia with the rest of Europe. – **Uppsala:** An important religious and political center in Sweden, home to the Temple at Uppsala where major pagan rituals…

[alexbkrieger13]

The talents who can decide Damallsvenskan league title race part 1: Häcken's Felicia Schröder, 16 years old.

https://www.aftonbladet.se/sportbladet/fotboll/a/VP7z0r/16-ariga-fotbollstalangen-felicia-schroder-kan-komma-att-skjuta-sm-guldet-till-hacken-i-damallsvenskan

Good long interview with her, her current and old coach. Her mother played handball (why am I not surprised lol) and clubs like Rosengård and IFK Göteborg were after her signature before she joined Häcken. Last year she scored over 100 goals and got the other players on her old team to raise their level so much they did good without her the first season as an A-squad. They were promoted directly to division 4.

Her journey has gone insanely fast. Last autumn she played for Björkö's junior team with girls born 2007, mixed with Hönö/Björkö/Hjuviks 2 year older women's junior team. She started playing football when she was 6 years old.

The amount of connections to hand Ball with the in Swedish football is kind of hilarious because it is truly every single one of them at this point have some connection

[trachymedusa]

Gamla Uppsala was a significant gathering place in pre-Christian Scandinavia. There is evidence for massive general assemblies, as well as feasts, rituals, marketplaces, and courts being held there.

Thousands of burial mounds have been discovered at Gamla Uppsala.

Some legends say the three largest ones were once dedicated to the gods Odin, Thor, and Freyr. Others said that they were the gravesites of three kings of the ancient Yngling dynasty. Archeological research has uncovered the bodies of a woman and a small boy interred in one of them.

The medieval historian Adam of Bremen wrote,

"That folk has a very famous temple called Uppsala, situated not far from the city of Sigtuna and Björkö. In this temple, entirely decked out in gold, the people worship the statues of three gods in such wise that the mightiest of them, Thor, occupies a throne in the middle of the chamber; Wotan and Frikko have places on either side."

"Near that temple is a very large tree with widespread branches which are always green both in winter and summer. What kind of tree it is nobody knows. There is also a spring there where the pagan are accustomed to perform sacrifices and to immerse a human being alive."

Since all existing accounts were written post-Christianity, it's possible that some of the more bloodthirsty stories about human sacrifice were made up or exaggerated to serve as propaganda. However, there is archeological evidence that human sacrifice really did happen. For example, it's fairly certain that when powerful rulers died, some of their slaves would be expected to 'volunteer' to be buried with them. A horrible practice, on many levels.

"A golden chain goes round the temple. It hangs over the gable of the building and sends its glitter far off to those who approach, because the shrine stands on level ground with mountains all about it like a theater."

Another medieval historian, Saxo Grammaticus, wrote:

"And when he had done many noteworthy deeds among them, he went into the land of the Swedes, where he lived at leisure for seven years' space with the sons of Frey. At last he left them and betook himself to Hakon, the tyrant of Denmark, because when stationed at Upsala, at the time of the sacrifices, he was disgusted by the effeminate gestures and the clapping of the mimes on the stage, and by the unmanly clatter of the bells. Hence it is clear how far he kept his soul from lasciviousness, not even enduring to look upon it. Thus does virtue withstand wantonness."

[ljussangen]

[adampetrinis]

[mjolnir-viking-jewelry]

Viking pendant (Uppland replica) This is an exact replica of viking knot of the findings from Uppland, Björkö, Hemlanden. 

[zulemagaleanoart]

Y aquí empieza la historia. Anna K se adentra en la magia del entorno de Björkö. Alejada de las estepas rusas. Como un alma vikinga ancestral que proviene de una saga que cruzó mares y océanos hasta llegar a los bosques de Indonesia. Despertará en el mismo bosque que la vio morir. . . #annak #zulemagaleano #art #artist #björkö #sweden #fashion #photooftheday #photography #chair #nineteenthcentury #björkökonstnod #airbkn #artistresidency (en BJÖRKÖ KONSTNOD) https://www.instagram.com/p/CjCmWtcjXN-/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[jansetjankat]

İsveç'te 9. yüzyıldan kalma Viking mezarlarında üzerinde "Allah" ve "Ali" yazılı giysi ve kumaşlar bulundu.. İki yıl önce de Björkö Adası'nda yapılan bir kazıda, 9. yüzyıldan kalma Viking mezarında Allah yazılı bir yüzük ortaya çıkarılmıştı.. #Allah #islam #viking #mezarları #isveç #björkö #haberler