A large manor has been found at the archaeological site of Korshamn near the Viking Age proto-town of Birka in Sweden.
Artist’s impression of the Viking Age manor at Korshamn, Sweden. Image credit: Jacques Vincent.
“This kind of Viking period high status manors has previously only been identified at a few places in southern Scandinavia, for instance at Tissø and Lejre in Denmark,” said Dr. Johan Runer, an archaeologist at the Stockholms länsmuseum and co-author of the findings appearing in the journal Archäologisches Korrespondenzblatt.
“It is known that the fenced area at such manors was linked to religious activities.”
In 2016, Dr. Johan Runer and his colleagues from Sweden and Germany identified a number of large presumed house terraces at Korshamn, one of the main harbor bays of the island of Björkö, situated outside the town boundaries of Birka.
The archaeologists then carried out a high resolution geophysical survey using ground-penetrating radar.
The survey revealed a major Viking period hall on the site, with a length of around 131 feet (40 m).
“Based on the land upheaval the area of the Viking hall can be dated to sometime after 810 CE,” the researchers said.
“The hall is connected to a large fenced area that stretches towards the harbor basin.”
During the survey a predecessor for the Viking Age manor was also identified at the site: a high status manor that existed during the Vendel period, prior to the establishment of Birka.
Both the identified buildings and their continued use from the Vendel period to the Viking Age correlate well with the ‘ancestral property’ of Birka’s royal bailiff Herigar as mentioned in Rimbert’s Vita Anskarii.
Herigar was Christianized by Ansgar, archbishop of Hamburg-Bremen, during his first mission c. 830 CE, and he built the first church on his land.
“Chapter 11 of the Vita Anskarii deals with Ansgar’s first visit to Björkö in c. 830,” Dr. Runer and co-authors said.
“It reads: ‘With great difficulty they [Ansgar and Witmar] accomplished their long journey […] and eventually arrived at the Swedish port called Birka. They were kindly received here by the king, who was called Björn [at Haugi] […].
There were many who were well disposed towards their mission and who willingly listened to the teaching of the Lord. […] These included the prefect of this town named Herigar, who was a counsellor of the king and much beloved by him.
He received the gift of holy baptism and was strengthened in the Catholic faith. A little later he built a church on his own ancestral property and served God with the utmost devotion.’”
Interpretation of the GPR results from the site: the smaller building (red) refers to the older house and the larger building (dark blue) refers to the younger house. Image credit: Sven Kalmring et al.
According to the team, the identification of the house terraces at Korshamn and the subsequent geophysical surveys of these, together with the one of the house plateau conducted in September 2016 offers unique opportunities as hardly encountered before — to a deeper understanding of a site, which is not only central to the earliest history of Sweden, but also a key location of the Viking world as such.
“The measurements suggest an unimagined chronological depth of activities long before the emergence of the Viking town of Birka and lead seamlessly up to the large manorial hall with its fenced special area,” the archaeologists said.
“The possible connections to the historical accounts would be to the core of what this site is about, mirroring the first Christian mission, the role of royal administration and the origins of urban life in Scandinavia.”
“With the discovery of the grand milieu at Korshamn, it seems that Herigar finally may have found his way home.”
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Sven Kalmring et al. 2017. At Home with Herigar: a Magnate’s Residence from the Vendel- to Viking Period. Archäologisches Korrespondenzblatt 47 (1)
