IoA/BM Seminar Gruszczynski

Jacek Gruszczynski (Oxford): Viking Age silver hoards in the Baltic zone: deposition and (non)retrieval

Three of the biggest Viking-Age hoard concentrations in the Baltic Zone, at Gotland, Pomerania, and Svealand, will be introduced in their historical, geo-political and archaeological context, and their contents considered. The type of objects within them will be briefly presented, highlighting the variety and extent of contacts; the focus of the presentation will be on the possible reasons for deposition and especially on why so many of them were never retrieved. Discussion will be based on Jacek's DPhil research in which he uses not only archaeological data, but also contemporary and near contemporary written sources, Scandinavian laws and sagas, and spatial and regression statistics.