En nyansering av amulettringarnas sociala funktion under vendeltid och vikingatid

Sammanfattning: Since the 19th century archaeologists have found different types om amulet rings on various dig sites around Scandinavia with the biggest concentration in the Mälardal area. It is an object connect to old Viking age and Vendel period societies found from time to time during archaeological excavations. The problem with the amulet rings is, that the scientists don’t know how to fully interpret these artefacts. The common belief is that amulet rings are object connected to religious practice and the pagan cult. The purpose of this essay is to give the amulet rings a larger meaning and try to put new light on them, to widen the understanding of the object and to point out that more than religion can be interpreted around the artefacts and the context they are preserved in. This will put the rings in a more social sphere and widen the meaning and use of the object and the understanding of the Viking people. This essay is written with an intention to give a broader image surrounding the social role of the amulet rings in Viking age societies. This will be done through a descriptive and investigative mapping of the micro contexts of the amulet rings. The archaeological sites that will be used to do so are Lilla Ullevi and Kalvshälla in Uppland with a contextual approach as a theoretical perspective. In this essay, it has been shown that the sites have used the amulet rings to find religious connections in the Viking age and Vendel period complexes by schematically interpreting the rings as religious objects instead of seeing the possibilities in the material. Even if religion seems to be present the distribution of the rings indicates a larger scale of social use and not only religious actions. The result is that the ring is more flexible and complex then previously thought and more in-depth research into amulet rings is needed to fully understand the object and to use them in bigger archaeological interpretations.