International conference: The birth of Christian life in the Nordic region, Abstracts:

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1 International conference: The birth of Christian life in the Nordic region, Venue: Bryggens Museum, Bergen Time: 6 th -7 th May 2010 Abstracts: Bertil Nilsson: Funeral liturgies and counciliar decisions on Christian burials in the early Middle Ages. With regard to the transition from pagan to Christian burial customs it is appropriate to pose the question against the background of the archaeological evidence from the period as to which might be the conceptions of funeral rites and burial customs that the missionaries could reasonably have had or brought with them. However, in no case is it possible to show that a specific missionary in a specific place or territory brought about specific ideals with regard to liturgy and Church law. There are no written sources preserved which describe how the funeral rites were performed or which sort of theology concerning death and burial that was taught by means of preaching or in other ways in Scandinavia during the period of mission. On the other hand, it can be ruled out that the missionaries themselves invented totally new rituals of their own in the missionary territories. In this respect they brought and conveyed what they knew from their original context. This means that, in all likelihood, the essential parts of the rites as they were performed in the missionary territories did not differ very much from each other regionally and that they presumably also reflected the liturgical changes and clarifications made on the Continent and in the British Isles during the 9th and 10th centuries. In Church law, on the other hand, where specific prescriptions concerning interment and graves were to be found, variations were greater and thus probably sometimes lead to conflicts between different customs that were in opposition to the local traditions and demands expressed by the recently converted populations. Therefore, in this context, a number of usages may have existed, and the distance between the ideals of the prescriptions and actual practice might have been considerable. Usage might also have varied over time and region respectively. Thus, my lecture wiil first deal with the Christian funeral liturgy, which was intended for burials of persons, who had not belonged to the clergy nor had been monks or nuns from the first half of the 8th century and onwards. There one can find a basic structure, to which new elements of a practical nature were gradually added. Fundamental theological thoughts were also expressed in prayers and readings from the Bible and these were developed and entered into in greater depth in the rituals of later days. To the liturgical material related to funerals also belonged the ritual for benediction or consecration of the churchyard as a burial place for Christians only. The Nordic Centre for Medieval Studies (NCMS), University of Bergen, P.O.BOX 7805, N-5020 BERGEN Tel: (+47) post@ncms.uib.no, URL: page 1 of 7

2 page 2 of 7 oldest preserved liturgical orders for this type of benediction were presumably based on the pontifical of Archbishop Egbert of York dating from the middle of the 8th century. The second part will deal with the ecclesiastical regulations from the earliest period of the Carolingian era when pagan rites and burial customs were forbidden among the baptized populations. Cremation and interment in grave-mounds were mentioned especially but also the phenomenon known as sacrifices for the dead (sacrificia mortuorum). Otherwise there were two main questions that were dealt with at the councils of the 9th century. Firstly: Should interment inside a church building be permitted? Secondly: Who was to be denied ecclesiastical burial? Finally, it was also determined at which type of churches burials should take place. At the end of the 9th century it was decided that the episcopal church had priority but nothing was excluded. Stefan Brink: Early Church Sites and Early Christian Cult Places We have today a new and rather complex picture of the usage and localization of pagan cult places in Scandinavia, this mainly thanks to recent archaeological excavations. Cult has taken place at many different localities, i.e. natural places, special cult buildings, but also obvious outdoor cult sites. The long-standing discussion of the so-called cult continuity between pagan and Christian time, which was qualified in the 1960s by Olaf Olsen, has again been turned around, due to new archaeological evidence and reinterpretations. One aspect, the cult-site continuity, can not be neglected today, but the new picture that has arisen regarding the sites of our earliest churches demands a re-examination of the evidence known under the label The Church in the Landscape. We have to differentiate between different kinds of churches, already in the earliest phase of the Christianisation process. Many churches were obviously built on farms, hence private churches, and probably have nothing to do with a continuity of cult sites. Churches built on royal farms and manors, however, becomes interesting, since many of these sites obviously were also central places in the pre-christian time, many hence with halls (salir). The most interesting examples, which this paper will focus on, are churches, which have been erected on obvious or probable pre- Christian assembly and cult sites, used by a settlement district. These we mainly find in northern Sweden, some in Norway. Ulrich Müller: From places to spaces and vice versa the birth of Christian life in Schleswig-Holstein und lower Saxony In the talk, I would present archaeological and historical sources depicting the process of belief change. As a theoretical framework, I will make a distinction between the social and the geographical space to give a description of the variety in Christian life. The central thesis is: religious change is a process of reconstitution the social space. Belief change is tangible in the practices of individual actors. But only the repeatability of social practices caused a permanent realignment of social goods and items. The restructuring of social space also causes a change in the physical/geographic area - an intertwining of space and place. I will discuss these differences and similarities in the written and archaeological sources for the mission in the 8th and 9th. c. in northern Germany. Both the mission of the Saxons and the

3 page 3 of 7 early missionary efforts of Anskar will be considered. Research has pointed out the temporal hiatus of around 100 years, which lies between the written sources and archaeological data. Not only many places and spaces but also different objects and persons highlight the complexity of the change in belief and mission strategies in northern Germany. While churches can be considered as direct evidence of the mission, the change in the burial grounds (topography, location, grave goods) and the Christian character of individual grave goods is still controversially disputed. Using selected examples like the cemeteries of Ketzendorf or Maschen, churches like Tosted oder Hademarschen, gateways like Haithabu or Hamburg and objects like "Heiligen-Fibeln" I would like to discuss the birth of Christianity as an interaction of space and place. Anne Pedersen: Jelling. Recent results In 1994 the Jelling monuments were added to the UNESCO World Heritage list, and Jelling is without question one of the most significant and most debated Viking-Age sites in Denmark. Our present knowledge of the site builds on a long tradition of research beginning with the early antiquarians, first and foremost the Danish professor Ole Worm in Copenhagen who published the first comprehensive description of the two runestones, the huge mounds and the church. Excavations since the 1980ies have revealed traces of Iron- Age settlements immediately south of the town but it was not until 2006 that excavations conducted by Vejle Museum uncovered remains of a vast palisade complex together with evidence of an assumed 350 m long ship setting. A donation from the Danish Bikubenfonden has allowed the National Museum (the Jelling Project) to carry out further excavations and analyses that provide new information about the monuments and their local settting, at the same time also giving rise to further questions and a need for re-evaluation of the complex and its functions. Why was the site chosen, and what was its purpose in the Viking Age? At present the evidence suggests that the monument complex may have been a short-lived manifestation linked to specific social and political developments in the time, yet one that continued to be used, remembered and re-interpreted over the following centuries. Jakob Kieffer-Olsen: Early Christian cemeteries in Denmark There have been many archaeological excavations in early medieval cemeteries in Denmark and as a consequence burial customs have been studied and are rather well known at least after However it is a problem dating cemeteries older than 1100 and especially older than 1050, leaving us with the question: how well do we really know the burial customs and the organizing of the cemeteries before 1050 and maybe even before 1100? From a critical point of view less than a handful of cemeteries can without doubt have been used in the period c and nearly no one before c. 990 forcing the archaeologists to consider where the early Christians were buried.

4 page 4 of 7 Anna Wessman: Early possible Christian graves in Finland In Finnish archaeology, the criteria for Christian burials have traditionally been (1) the transition from cremation to inhumation, (2) the orientation of the inhumations to E-W direction, (3) coffins, (4) the lack of grave goods, (5) the presence of cross pendants, and finally, (6) the position of the deceased arms. However, these criteria s have been criticized by Scandinavian archaeologists because it has become evident that the Christian church was in fact quite flexible when it came to burial. The Finnish conversion into Christianity has been proposed to have happened in three phases. The first phase, that begun ca AD 1100 are inhumation burials in E-W orientation still containing grave goods. This phase cannot be understood as Christian, even though the religious ideas have started to change. The second phase, ca AD 1150 is inhumation burials that only contain details of the dress. During this time the so called first crusades to SW-Finland are organized by the Swedes. The third and last phase, ca AD 1200, is described by clearly discernible Christian burials without any grave goods. By this time also the church has started to collect taxes. The first inhumation burials appear during the beginning of 11 th century AD within the so called cremation cemeteries under level ground. These graves still contain grave goods, but some artefacts shows Christian elements, such as the cross pendants or the Germanic Animal art. However, these find categories do also appear in cremation cemeteries. The cross pendants found from the cremation cemeteries could be argued to have had derived from destroyed inhumation burials but their context to fire should perhaps not be overlooked either because some cross pendants have traces of fire. This paper will present some inhumation burials from W- and E-Finland. My aim is to give an overview of the current research situation. Tore Artelius: Cremation, inhumation and Conversion. Ritual and religious Change within the Viking Age Burial Tradition of South-Western Sweden The paper focuses on how changes in ritual traditions can be described and understood in terms such as of a religious conversion process. How can changes in the way that people concept the structure and content of a certain symbolic universe be traced in archaeological material? From the presentation of recently excavated burial-grounds in South-western Sweden the author sets out to describe how the pre-christian burial tradition, for a period longer than a century, and as a consequence of the influence from the Christian world, slowly and successively changed both in its form and religious symbolism. The ongoing process of religious acculturation should be looked upon as synonymous with the conversion into a Christian universe. However, in the research tradition, the much shorter introduction of the inhumation tradition in the late Viking Age in many aspects has been interpreted as a representation of the whole conversion process. In this paper the author intends to show how the conversion into a Christian symbolic universe, from an anthropological-archaeological view, rather can be described as a multifaceted social process than as a short period of religious change. A period that for most Viking Age women and men, was noticeable in the changes in the concrete ritual actions that became carried out at the burial-grounds when their loved ones had died.

5 page 5 of 7 Stian Hamre: Burial practices in early Christian Norway The burial legislation in the early Christian Norwegian laws suggests that strict regulations may have been in place with regard to the burial of the dead. These laws, differing according to area of jurisdiction, also suggest that regional differences were present. On the background of this, certain aspects of the burial practices in early Christian Norway have been studied. Particularly aspects related to the placement of the dead on the graveyard; sex, age, social status, and family relations could all have been factors influencing where an individual was buried. This has been investigated through an analysis of the human osteological material from four different graveyards from Bergen, Hamar, Tønsberg and Trondheim, corresponding to the four different judicial areas. It will be argued that the osteological material shows that an individual s placement within the graveyard was not random, and factors influencing the location of the burial also probably varied between the regions. Sæbjørg Walaker Nordeide: Christian graves, Christian cemeteries or Christian churchyards? Searching for the earliest Christian graves in Norway. Christian cult and burial practices are not much studied systematically in Norway. This is why my paper will not give a full presentation of the material. Rather I will concentrate on a few Christian and possible Christian cemeteries among the earliest known to date in Norway, from various parts of the country. My study of archaeological material regarding the Christianisation process in South and Central Norway did not reveal a gradual change from non-christian to Christian burial rites. The material presented here will thus be mostly unquestionable Christian cemeteries. However, among the examples the relation between the graves and a church is uncertain: at some places no church is known at the graveyard, at other places the graves are definitely earlier than any church. In many cases we can be sure the graves were constructed at an ordinary church yard. Examples of all categories will be presented. Cecilia Ljung: Christian cemeteries with Early Christian grave monuments in central Sweden This paper deals with the establishment of cemeteries with early Christian grave monuments (Eskilstuna cists) in 11 th century Sweden. The emergence of these cemeteries is discussed in relation to the rune stone tradition. Early Christian grave monuments and rune stones have several characteristics in common and I argue that they belong to the same memorial tradition, which transforms during the course of the 11 th century due to influence from Christian beliefs and mentality. The occurrence of early Christian grave monuments has often been taken as evidence of the existence of wooden churches. Our knowledge concerning the layout and structure of the cemeteries of the grave monuments is in fact rather limited, since a predominant part of the stone sculptures have been found in secondary contexts, either in connection with churches or ecclesiastical institutions. Even though it is in some cases possible to prove contemporaneity between early Christian grave monuments and remains of wooden churches, we can not be certain this was the prevalent

6 page 6 of 7 pattern. Instead of being treated as signifiers of church buildings, this paper focuses on the early Christian grave monuments in their own sense and discusses how they can be used as a source to the 11 th century ecclesiastical organisation in central Sweden. Jette Arneborg: The early church sites in Norse Greenland Christianization and the building of the early churches in Greenland was hardly the initiative of some distant superior power. Instead of having been introduced from Norway as part of an overall Norwegian Christianization of the North Atlantic in the first decades of settlement in Greenland, new archaeological evidence from the central part of the Norse Eastern Settlement indicate that Christianity formed part of the cultural package that the first Norse settlers brought with them to Greenland in the late 980 ties. From the very beginning small churches or chapels were raised at landnam farms close to the dwelling houses signaling both the cohesiveness and faith of the immigrants and the status of the farmers who had the church/chapel built on their land. Orri Vesteínsson: Prayer and proper burial but not much else? Christian life in 11th century Iceland. A survey of the now quite extensive evidence for church building and Christian burial in 11th century Iceland suggests that, although there is growing evidence that paganism may not have disappeared as quickly or completely as Ari fróði's account of the conversion might indicate, there was still a remarkably swift and enthusiastic reception of the new religion among Icelandic householders. That the dichotomy between the two religions may not have been as marked as traditionally portrayed is consistent with indications that Christian burial practice and at least some of the other elements of Christian ritual was adopted not in response to some outside or institutional pressure but rather to meet local and possibly quite specific social and ideological needs. I will suggest that the apparently early, swift and painless introduction of Christianity in the North Atlantic was facilitated by the need of these new communities to forge a common identity. The ubiquity of small chapels with cemeteries in 11th century Iceland is a testament both to the limited influence of the institutional Church and the communal need to sign up to a new identity, signalled both by symbolic building and symbolic behaviour. Nanna Holm Bendtsen: Hedensted and early churches in Denmark This presentation will mainly deal with topics such as when the early wooden churches were built, and how they were constructed. In the inside of Church of Hedensted was to be renovated. Thereby came an opportunity to explore the older parts of the church. Almost the entire nave and chancel was excavated. Among other things a wooden church was identified through postholes, clay floors and two identical wells. The excavation revealed a wooden church constructed as a three aisled house without chancel. It looked like a typical early medieval

7 page 7 of 7 house, but several indicators point out that the wooden building, that once stood here, must have been a church. At the presentation the results of the excavation will be revealed. During the last couple of years several wooden churches have been discovered mainly through excavations of redundant churches. For a long time the flat plan of wooden churches in Denmark have been described as small versions of today s churches made of stone - without any critical notes to what actually have been found on the excavation site. If the flat plan did not look like a church, it was not a church. The discovery of the wooden church in Hedensted led to a renewed look at the material from old excavated wooden churches. The task was to focus on what was actually found at the excavation site, and not just what was published later on. Another aim was to find a chronological development of the churches construction, before the stone churches became tradition in Denmark in the 12 th century.