Metal detector survey of the West Cemeteries, Aska in Hagebyhöga, Östergötland

Metal detector survey of the West Cemeteries, Aska in Hagebyhöga, Östergötland Report on fieldwork in September 2020. Listed ancient monuments L2012:8383 = Raä 36, L2012:8298 = Raä 1, L2012:7676 = Raä 2, Vadstena kommun. Lst dnr 431-6367-20. By Martin Rundkvist & Julia Schulte Koskinen, 16 January 2021 Background & results The West Cemeteries at Aska came to the attention of archaeology in 1920, when the landowner removed some cairns in the northern one and uncovered the richest Viking Period female burial known from Östergötland. The grave, dating from c. AD 975, contained a set of silver pendants that were about 200 years old when buried, including the famous Lady Pendant. Ture J. Arne excavated what was left of the cairn and two nearby ones, graves Arne 1-3 on the present site plan, all three cremations. He published the finds in 1932. The oldest plan of the site is found on a 1688 geometrisk avmätning map. At that time, much of the site had already been ploughed over, and the map shows only five surviving impediments, all likely groups of cairns or single ones. A 1767 storskifte map shows seven, and an 1861 laga skifte map shows 15. This successive increase reflects the improved accuracy of the mapping and possibly fragmentation of earlier islands in the field. The main change in the land use over the 183 years 1688-1861 was that the area around the pond south-east of the graves was taken into cultivation too. Today, only three mounds or cairns survive on the field, and there are no visible surface features on the site of the 1920 find. The pond is now only a fraction of its 1767 size. On 11 and 13 September 2020, Rundkvist directed 121.7 person hours of metal detecting across the assumed extent of the cemeteries, as deduced from where the surviving monuments and the registered coordinates of the 1920 site were. The team made rich finds in two clusters, each with surviving monuments, separated by over 50 metres of unproductive ploughsoil. The north cluster yielded much fragmented copper-alloy jewellery from the Middle Viking Period c. AD 875-1000. The south cluster offered four brooches from the Early Vendel Period c. AD 540-610 and two finds from the Middle Viking Period, but nothing from between these phases. None of the finds show any damage from the cremation pyre. The Early Vendel Period brooches probably mark a farmstead site as inhumation burial is almost unknown in that period here. The northern find cluster probably represents ploughed-out burials. It is difficult to tell what the rite was since the 1920 graves were cremations but the furnishings had not been on the pyres with the bodies. As for finds from the period AD 1000-1600, the team found a small assortment of everyday objects. Only one object from after 1600 was collected, a silver coin struck for Carolus IX no later than 1612. 1 50-metre grid in RT90. Note the pond partly in square AB. Plan by Jon Lundin. 2 Methodology Rundkvist divided the area into fourteen 50-metre squares on the RT90 grid and recorded how many person-hours of metal detecting were done in each. The ground conditions were excellent, recently ploughed and harrowed, and the weather was good too. The average search intensity was 8.8 person-hours per 2500 sqm or 3.5 person-hours per 1000 sqm. All finds were pinpointed with a hand-held hiking GPS. The detectorists avoided digging on iron signals. The team reburied most of what Rundkvist could not date and everything he could date to after 1600, except for one silver coin. The three surviving monuments were not touched. Sq Finds Person hours Area sqm Finds / hr / 10,000 sqm Pers hrs / 2500 sqm AA 0 6.0 2500 0.0 6.0 AB 1 5.8 2277 0.8 6.4 AC 3 13.9 2500 0.9 13.9 AD 2 7.7 2500 1.0 7.7 AE 2 10.6 2500 0.8 10.6 AF 5 8.0 2500 2.5 8.0 AG 2 9.7 2500 0.8 9.7 AH 2 12.1 2452 0.7 12.3 AI 1 7.0 2500 0.6 7.0 AJ 4 12.6 2500 1.3 12.6 AK 6 6.0 2500 4.0 6.0 AL 4 6.8 2500 2.4 6.8 AM 4 8.5 2479 1.9 8.6 AN 4 7.0 2479 2.3 7.1 121.7 34687 Sum The positioning of the search squares is a little odd in relation to the surviving cairns and to the ones investigated in 1920. Specifically, squares AA-AD may seem superfluous. They were metal-detected intensively because the person entering Arne’s fieldwork into the Sites & Monuments Register had misunderstood the site plan in the 1932 journal paper. It features a dirt track that no longer exists, and apparently someone misidentified the track on Arne’s plan with the main road through the village. When the team arrived on site, the Register had the rich 1920 jewellery burial Arne 1 pinpointed near the shared corner of squares AA-AD 3 down by the pond, and Rundkvist did not check whether this was correct before marking out search squares. The team found very little here. When Jon Lundin georeferenced Arne’s plan for the present site plan he ignored the track and only used the surviving cairns. He found that Arne had not measured their relative positions very accurately, and so there are two main ways to fit Arne’s plan to the the surviving monuments. This does not make a significant difference for the graves Arne 2-3. But it offers two possible positions for the rich grave Arne 1, 17.5 m apart (centre to centre). Finds Early Vendel Period AD 540-600 The oldest finds are five brooches from the earliest Vendel Period 540-600. They are four small equal-armed brooches and one Husby brooch. The equal armed brooches belong to Ørsnes’ types F1, F2 and F4. The type F4 brooch has pale yellow glass inlay on its surviving terminal, which is rare. Four of these early brooches cluster around the large surviving cairn Raä 1. The little equal-armed brooch with inlay was found in an isolated position north-east of the surviving cairn Raä 2:2, not in the cluster of Middle Viking Period metalwork. Five brooches without fire damage and nothing else from the 500s suggests a settlement site rather than a cemetery. Inhumation burial is exceptionally rare in Östergötland’s Vendel Period. All three graves that have been excavated at the site were centuries later than these finds. Middle Viking Period AD 875-1000 Rundkvist was motivated to investigate the site by finds from the Middle Viking Period made in 1920, and this is also the date of most collected finds from 2020. Arne found tortoise brooches of types P51:B1 and P52. The team found a complete but damaged P51:B1 brooch, eleven fragments of similar brooches, and the crown-like finial of a P52 brooch. Subtype P51:B1 belongs to the first half of the phase before c. 940, P52 belongs to the second half. There is no sign of P48, the last tortoise brooch type that was fashionable after Birka was abandoned but before the Late Viking Period and the Ringerike style began c. 1000. In other words, burial ceased at this cemetery a quarter century before the end of the Middle Viking Period. Other Middle Viking Period finds are fragments of two silver filigree pendants (one of them spoon-shaped), part of an equal-armed brooch of Aagård’s type III A:1 (which is almost exclusively found with P51 tortoise brooches in graves), the copper-alloy handle from a key whose iron business end has rusted away, and a pendant or small brooch in the shape of a Borre style eagle. These finds suggest female burials, either inhumations or cremations where unburnt furnishings were added at interment. They do not cluster with the finds from after AD 1000. This must have to do with Christianisation and the end of furnished burial. The site of a little 11th century wooden church at Klåstad-Klosterstad is clearly visible across the fields from the site. 4 After AD 1000 The site’s oldest male dress accessories belong to the Late Viking Period after AD 1000. They are a piece of a Ringerike style strap end (the type with an 8-shaped beast) and a chevron-shaped decorative mount from an Oriental-style belt. The latter find might also belong to the Middle Viking Period, but not enough survives of its decoration to judge. The two mounts were found too far apart for them to belong to one burial. A small padlock key shares their date or may belong to the 1100s. A small featureless spool-shaped ingot of debased silver (22.3 g) is difficult to date and does not cluster with the Middle Viking Period jewellery. Perhaps it also belongs to the 1000s or early 1100s. Datable finds from the period 1200-1600 are three thimbles, a brass rowel from a spur, part of a brass pot, a decorated Gothic-style fragment, a butt mount from a table knife and an attenpenning coin from c. 1520. Only one object from after 1600 was collected, a silver coin struck for Carolus IX no later than 1612. Bibliography Aagård, Gun-Britt. Gleicharmige Spangen. Arwidsson, G. (ed.) 1984. Birka II:1. Systematische Analysen der Gräberfunde. KVHAA. Stockholm. Arne, T.J. 1920. Ein bemerkenswerter Fund in Östergötland. Acta Archaeologica 3. Copenhagen. Jansson, I. 1985. Ovala spännbucklor. En studie av vikingatida standardsmycken med utgångspunkt från Björkö-fynden. Uppsala. Ørsnes, M. 1966. Form og stil i Sydskandinaviens yngre germanske jernalder. Copenhagen. 5 Administrativia County admin case number 431-6367-20 Municipality Vadstena Location Aska in Hagebyhöga Property Aska 10:1 Site numbers L2012:8383 = Raä 36 L2012:8298 = Raä 1 L2012:7676 = Raä 2 Site type Two ploughed-out cemeteries Type of fieldwork Metal detector survey Rationale Research and outreach Project director Martin Rundkvist Permit keeper Östergötlands Läns Museum County case administrator Malin Svarvar Fieldwork period 11 and 13 September 2020 Archiving The documentation was compact and was transferred to digital media during fieldwork. There is nothing to archive in addition to this report. Participants Ahlstrand Uffe Ancker Johan Blomqvist Micke Hed Martin Gunnar Lander Michael Leverin Frank Lindberg Håkan Lindelöf Magnus Lärk Kenth Orell Aarno Södergren Olle Svantesson Patrik Tibell Anna-Lena Westerberg Mattias Österblad Magnus 6 Finds list Fno Mtrl Object Spec 101 Cu Tortoise brooch P51 base Bd:a1 102 Cu Tortoise brooch P51:B1 top shell 103 Pb 104 x y Date Finder 59.26 6481063 1451230 VIK2a Uffe 41.56 6481041 1451249 VIK2a Blomqvist Spindle whorl 55.63 6481046 1451281 ? Ag Ingot 22.30 6480914 1451355 ?VIK 105 Cu Eagle brooch 5.23 6481087 1451283 VIK2 106 Cu Strap end Ringerike style 2.80 6481044 1451280 VIK3 107 Cu Tortoise brooch Top shell 5.64 6481002 1451201 VIK2a 108 Cu Tortoise brooch P51 base Bd:a1 8.12 6481093 1451281 VIK2a 109 Cu Key 3.82 6480956 1451368 VIK3MED 110 Cu Tortoise brooch 1.95 6481070 1451195 VIK2a 111 Top shell Wt (g) Olle Erik MÖ Discarded 112 Cu Handle fitting 8.87 6480991 1451306 ? 113 Ag Ring 2.88 6480936 1451272 ? Matte 114 Cu Thimble 4.71 6480952 1451390 MED Håkan 115 Cu Counterwasher 0.80 6480913 1451235 ? Frank 116 Cu Thimble 5.39 6480980 1451314 MED Frank 117 Cu Tortoise brooch P51 base Bd:a1 4.43 6481092 1451288 VIK2a RÅ 118 Cu Tortoise brooch Top shell 2.78 6481076 1451256 VIK2 Olle 119 Cu Tortoise brooch P51:B1 top shell 6.00 6481050 1451260 VIK2a RÅ 120 Cu Key 14.27 6480992 1451400 VIK2 MGH 121 Cu Tortoise brooch Top shell 2.96 6481014 1451256 VIK2 PS 122 Cu Tortoise brooch P51:B1 top shell 5.75 6481054 1451247 VIK2a Frank 7 123 Cu Hook Gilded 1.68 6480983 1451278 ? Olle 124 Cu Tortoise brooch P52 finial 8.99 6481058 1451244 VIK2 Uffe 125 Cu Tortoise brooch Top shell 6.48 6481055 1451248 VIK2a Kenth 126 Ag Pendant Filigree, spoonshaped 1.10 6481052 1451261 VIK2 127 Cu Fragment Flat 2.11 6481003 1451328 ? Frank 128 Cu Brass pot frag 16.86 6480981 1451348 MEDEMOD MGH 129 Cu Eq-arm brooch 7.29 6480910 1451255 VEN1 Matte 130 Cu Eq-arm brooch 5.78 6480985 1451245 VEN1 Erik 131 Cu Husby brooch 6.00 6480966 1451282 VEN1 M Lander 132 Cu Table knife butt mount 3.53 6481133 1451246 MEDEMOD MGH 133 Cu Fragment 2.75 6481124 1451222 MED 1250-1500 134 Cu Spur rowel 1.29 6481116 1451298 MED 1200-1500 135 Cu Eq-arm brooch III A:1 9.69 6481133 1451208 VIK2 M Lander 136 Cu Strap mount Oriental 2.37 6480931 1451248 VIK2-3 MÖ 137 Cu Thimble 3.52 6481137 1451286 EMOD MÖ 138 Cu Tortoise brooch P51 base Bd:a1 2.34 6481102 1451251 VIK2a M Lander 139 Gothic style Discarded 140 Ag Coin Carolus IX 1 öre 1.29 6480949 1451284 EMOD 1609-12 141 Cu Eq-arm brooch Glass inlay 5.65 6481131 1451279 VEN1 RÅ 142 Cu Eq-arm brooch 8.16 6480968 1451224 VEN1 MÖ 143 Cu Fragment Decorated 0.87 6480903 1451204 ? 144 Ag Pendant Filigree 1.49 6481100 1451242 VIK2 145 Ag Coin Attenpenning 2.44 6480946 1451278 MED 1520 146 Cu Tortoise brooch Top shell 1.34 6481077 1451327 VIK2 8 Finds photographs 9 10 11 12 13 14 Early maps The land west of Aska village on the 1861 Laga Skifte map. The still surviving large cairn Raä 1 is left of the big “C”. Half of the platform mound at the end of the village street is visible top right. 15 Ture J. Arne’s plan of the site from his 1932 paper. The three cairns Raä 1, Raä 2:1 and Raä 2:2 survive. Arne excavated cairns 1, 2, 3 and nothing remains visible above ground there. The track zum Aska frälsegård no longer exists. 16