Bøker av Mads Ravn

Recent studies have reshaped the understanding of the early Viking Age power center, near Erritso just a few kilometers from Fredericia in Southern Denmark. Investigations at the site, which in many ways resembles the grand royal halls at Lejre in Zealand, have revealed significant new insights into the Iron Age and Viking Age around the royal estate. Notably, Erritso's strategic location, where all transportation routes between north, south, east, and west converge, both by land and by sea. This anthology presents several similar sites in Northern Europe by multiple top international researchers: from Norway, Sweden, North Germany and England. Similarities and differences in time and space are examined, providing a nuanced understanding of the international power dynamics of this period. Notably, the latest research results and datings provided by the studies at Erritsø are presented. Here, the acquisition of the majority of c-14 datings and chronological modeling of c-14 data on such halls has significantly refined the dating framework. The book is the result of a research project that over the past eight years, has greatly expanded our understanding of this subject and location.

The aim of this book is to understand the development of the social structure of Germanic society in selected parts of "Germania Libera" in Europe from around c. 200 AD to 600 AD. Social structure here is primarily defined as the way the Germanic tribes perceived and expressed themselves and their worldview through their texts, their person, gender, family, lineage, tribe, and internal social and religious relations in the material culture. This book incorporates a relatively large time span which highlights aspects of Germanic social structure not identified in traditional shorter studies dictated by arbitrarily defined periods and areas. The focus is especially on the way Migration period cemeteries are differently or similarly structured within Germanic society. The Migration period is defined widely as the time from c. AD 200-600. In England, the equivalent time period is called late Roman and Early Saxon. When the cemeteries are analysed, other find categories are discussed in broader terms, together with analogies from social anthropology and from written sources, in this case, contemporary and later sources. One of the aims of the work is to look more closely at the singularity of the archaeological material in south-eastern Europe as a means of assessing the relevance of the written sources in the same area about social structure in both Southern and Northern Europe, especially in Scandinavia. (It also involves exploring the controversial source of Beowulf). The nine chapters focus on Germanic social structure; theoretical and methodological approaches to burials; south Scandinavian and Central European archaeology; social analysis of South Scandinavian cemeteries; a survey of the Sintana de Mures/Chernyakhovo culture; social analysis of Gothic cemeteries; survey of Anglo-Saxon scholarship; analysis of Anglo-Saxon graves, with special reference to Spong Hill; and conclusion.