Highlights
• Violence-induced skeletal trauma is frequent in Viking Age Norway, rare in Denmark.
• Viking Age weapons (swords) were more numerous in Norway than Denmark.
• Rune stones and earthworks reveal Denmark to be more stratified than Norway.
• Where present, robust centres of authority helped contain violence in Scandinavia.
• Norway and Denmark were distinct societies in the Viking Age.
Abstract
Comparing Viking Age Norway and Denmark, the article examines the primary proposition that as centers of authority become progressively more robust, violence will be proportionately contained. The article introduces a new approach in using indications of violence as a focal point to elicit broader social practices. The disciplines employed in this study – archaeology, osteology, philology, and sociology – are used together in the study of covariance of different indicators across a societal range. The indicators for assessing violence include skeletal trauma and weapon frequency. For assessing the steepness of the social pyramid, we use runestones, indicating variations in social stratification, and monumental constructions as a measure of power to command labor. Among the findings: weapons and interpersonal violence in Norway was much more widespread than in Denmark, and the social pyramid in Denmark was progressively steeper and more complex than in Norway. “Official” executions accounted for the preponderance of violence in Denmark, while rare in Norway. Denmark was evidently a more “civilianized” society than Norway. The comparative research supports the primary proposition. The research, furthermore, suggests that Denmark and Norway were sociologically distinct societies, which accords with recent findings that the respective regions displayed distinct, though still similar, genetic profiles.
Violence as a lens to Viking societies: A comparison of Norway and Denmark
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/a ... 6524000369
