Mer än ett spel: En social och materiell analys av vikingatida Birkas spelmaterial

Sammanfattning: The aim of this essay is to create a more nuanced picture of board games during the viking age, through a qualitative study of the gaming material from Birkas graves. The focus of the study is to see if there is any correlation between status and board games, what social groups were the one playing them and how widespread the activity was in this town. This is based on the raw materials of the gaming pieces and the characteristics of the board games. In order to reach this knowledge, the analysis is separated into two parts. The first part focuses on the raw material of the gaming pieces, and their places of origin. The second part focuses on the social and cultural aspects of the gaming material. The result of the study shows that there is a correlation between certain materials and social status. Essentially the gaming pieces made of imported material seems to have a higher status than those gaming pieces made of local material. This factor was used by the higher social classes to differentiate themselves from other social groups, since board games probably was a wide spread activity throughout society and different social classes. There were probably at least three different board games played in Birka, and they might have been connected to different social groups. Lastly there is no clear evidence from the Birka gaming material that one gender was more likely to have been playing board games than another.