Gold-foil figures and human skulls in the royal hall at Aska, Hagebyhöga, Östergötland

• Autores: Martin Rundkvist, Axel Löfving, Rudolf Gustavsson, Jens Heimdahl, Andreas Viberg
• Localización: Antiquity, ISSN 0003-598X, Vol. 97, Nº 396, 2023, págs. 1534-1547
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • During the mid-first millennium AD, centres of royal power with large halls emerged across southern Scandinavia. No evidence for such sites, however, was known from Östergötland in south-east Sweden. Here, the authors present results from fieldwork at Aska near Vadstena, identifying the principal manor of a petty royal lineage occupied between c. AD 650 and 1000. Excavations have revealed a 50m-long hall raised on a 3.5m-high platform and the largest known assemblage of small gold-foil figures from the first-millennium kingdom of Östergötland. Aska represents a ‘second-generation ruler’ site, similar in form and date to Old Uppsala, Borre, Old Lejre and Tissø, revealing Östergötland as an integral part of the political geography of early medieval Scandinavia.