Rituella depositioner i våtmark under vikingatid : Kan politisk och religiös centralisering kopplas till kontroll av ritualer?

Sammanfattning: To date, previous discussions of the practise of ”weapon deposition” in prehistoric Scandinavia have focused primarily on the Roman Iron Age. The focus of these investigations have been the large offerings of weapons in bogs, which were presumably taken from enemies defeated in battle. Until recently, these particular kind of ritual practises were thought to have ceased in the middle of the 6th century. It is now widely acknowledged, however, that this sort of ritual practises did not simply dissappear, but instead re-emerged during the Vendel- and Viking age in a changed state. These rites, which are frequently associated with elite groups and so called ”central places” are embodied, for example, in the weapons and other valuable objects deposited in the lake adjacent to the Late Iron Age magnate site at Tissø, Denmark. Similar finds have been recovered in Scania and Gotland, but these practises have not received enough attention compared to other ritual aspects of the Viking Age. This essay therefore aims to investigate the ideologies and motivations underpinning these rites, and provide a reassessment of their possible connection to elites, political and religious centralization, and central places/manorial sites.