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"Kershaw, Jane"
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An early medieval dual-currency economy: bullion and coin in the Danelaw
Metal detecting in England has recovered a large number of Viking Age single finds that have been reported to the Portable Antiquities Scheme. These reveal that silver bullion of Scandinavian origin was used as currency throughout the Danelaw between AD 865 and 940. Standardised weights of copper alloy were an integral part of this metal-weight economy. Bullion was not the sole means of silver payment during this period: coinage had long been used in the occupied Anglo-Saxon territories and continued to be minted under the Vikings. The resulting dual-currency economy may have facilitated trade with neighbouring Scandinavian territories, but the two currencies also served as markers of cultural identity, offering a choice of monetary media.
Journal Article
Silver, butter, cloth : monetary and social economies in the Viking age
Silver, Butter, Cloth advances current debates about the nature and complexity of Viking economic systems. It explores how silver and other commodities were used in monetary and social economies across the Scandinavian world of the Viking Age (c. 800-1100 AD) before and alongside the wide scale introduction of coinage. Taking a multi-disciplinary approach that unites archaeological, numismatic, and metallurgical analyses, Kershaw and Williams examine the uses and sources of silver in both monetary and social transactions, addressing topics such as silver fragmentation, hoarding, and coin production and re-use. Uniquely, it also goes beyond silver, giving the first detailed consideration of the monetary role of butter, cloth, and gold in the Viking economy. (Indeed, it is instrumental in developing methodologies to identify such commodity monies in the archaeological record.) The use of silver and other commodities within Viking economies is a dynamic field of study, fuelled by important recent discoveries across the Viking world. The 14 contributions to this book, by a truly international group of scholars, draw on newly available archaeological data from eastern Europe, Scandinavia, the North Atlantic, and the British Isles and Ireland, to present the latest original research. Together, they deepen understanding of Viking monetary and social economies and advance0new definitions of 'economy', 'currency', and 'value' in the ninth to eleventh centuries.
Book
Sources of early Islamic silver: lead isotope analysis of dirhams
The expansion of the early Islamic state (c. AD 700–900) was underpinned by the minting of silver coins (dirhams) on an enormous scale. While the wider effects of this coinage have been studied extensively, the sources of silver have attracted less attention and research has relied on literary texts pointing to mines in Arabia and Central Asia. Here, the authors use lead isotope and trace element analyses of more than 100 precisely dated silver coins to provide a geochemical perspective on Islamic silver. The results identify multiple new sources, stretching from Morocco to the Tien Shen, and indicate an Abbasid-period mining boom. These source locations have implications for contemporary geopolitics including on the Islamic-Byzantine frontier.
Journal Article
Byzantine plate and Frankish mines: the provenance of silver in north-west European coinage during the Long Eighth Century (c. 660–820)
The late seventh-century introduction of silver coinage marked a transformation in the economy of north-west Europe, yet the source(s) of the silver bullion behind this change remains uncertain. Here, the authors use combined lead isotope and trace element analysis of 49 coins from England, Frisia and Francia to provide new insights into north-European silver sources during the ‘long eighth century’ (c. AD 660–820). The results indicate an early reliance on recycled Byzantine silver plate, followed by a shift c. AD 750 to newly mined metal from Francia. This change indicates the strong role of the Carolingian state in the control of metal sources and economic structures across the North Sea zone.
Journal Article
Culture and Gender in the Danelaw: Scandinavian and Anglo-Scandinavian Brooches
Recent metal-detecting in areas of northern and eastern England has brought to light hundreds of Viking-Age brooches decorated in Scandinavian styles. While some objects are likely to be products of Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian interaction, others are diagnostically Scandinavian and may have been imported from the Scandinavian homelands. The following considers the distribution of these items within England, together with their chronology and status. It suggests that such pieces were worn to express Scandinavian cultural affiliation within the Danelaw. Given the status of these brooches as female dress accessories, it proposes that women in particular had a key role in promoting a Scandinavian colonial identity. In this context, this paper contributes to increasing scholarly interest in the value of material form, decoration, and consumption for negotiating identity in the Danelaw.
Journal Article
The ‘People of the British Isles’ project and Viking settlement in England
The recently concluded ‘People of the British Isles’ project (hereafter
PoBI) combined large-scale, local DNA sampling with innovative data analysis
to generate a survey of the genetic structure of Britain in unprecedented
detail; the results were presented by Leslie and colleagues in 2015.
Comparing clusters of genetic variation within Britain with DNA samples from
Continental Europe, the study elucidated past immigration events via the
identification and dating of historic admixture episodes (the interbreeding
of two or more different population groups). Among its results, the study
found “no clear genetic evidence of the Danish Viking occupation and control
of a large part of England, either in separate UK clusters in that region,
or in estimated ancestry profiles”, therefore positing “a relatively limited
input of DNA from the Danish Vikings”, with ‘Danish Vikings’ defined in the
study, and thus in this article, as peoples migrating from Denmark to
eastern England in the late ninth and early tenth centuries (Leslie
et al.
2015: 313). Here, we consider the
details of certain assumptions that were made in the study, and offer an
alternative interpretation to the above conclusion. We also comment on the
substantial archaeological and linguistic evidence for a large-scale Danish
Viking presence in England.
Journal Article
A new late Anglo-Saxon seal matrix
In 2010 a new late Anglo-Saxon seal matrix was found in Hampshire. The seal die is copper-alloy and engraved on both sides. On the obverse, it portrays and names a man called Ælfric, while the reverse is decorated with acanthus ornamentation characteristic of the later tenth- and eleventh-century ‘Winchester’ style. Unlike any other surviving English matrix of this period, it carries the remnants of gilding once applied across the surface and would thus have appeared to be made of gold. It is only the fourth known surviving Anglo-Saxon seal matrix, and the first to come to light in almost forty years.
Journal Article
