Environmental History

Oxbow Books

Chapter Title: Silk Trade to Scandinavia in the Viking Age Chapter Author(s): Marianne Vedeler

Book Title: Textiles and the Medieval Economy Book Subtitle: Production, Trade, and Consumption of Textiles, 8th–16th Centuries Book Editor(s): Angela Ling Huang, Carsten Jahnke Published by: Oxbow Books. (2015) Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvh1dm0t.8

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6.  Silk Trade to Scandinavia in the Viking Age

Marianne Vedeler

Silk textiles from the Viking age are a small but exclusive group of archaeological finds in Scandinavia. The silk fragments are produced in many different qualities. The majority of silks have been interpreted as either Central Asian or as made in the Byzantine production area, that is in  Constantinople, or in associated areas in the eastern Mediterranean region.� A few fragments from  Birka have been interpreted as Chinese silk.� Great emphasis has been placed on the Swedish Viking’s  strong ties to the Byzantine Empire in the �0th century and thereby the trade on the westernmost  of the Russian waterways. Archaeological sources give no reason to believe that the distribution  of silk to the Scandinavian areas is a result of trading along one single route. I will argue that both  the two major eastern trading routes along the Russian rivers Dnjepr and the Volga-Oka region are likely routes for the arrival of silk to both Oseberg and to Birka. Archaeological evidence and written sources give reason to regard the trading and gift exchange of silk as part of more complex  systems of distribution crossing military, ethnic and social boundaries. 

In Scandinavia I have so far registered 23 archaeological sites with finds of silks dating to the 9th and �0th centuries, in most cases from graves.� This includes both silk fabrics and silk thread and  lan-cores used in embroideries. In addition there are several graves with finds of fibres assumed to be silk but not yet identified. Many of the sites revealed only one or a few fragments of silk. The largest concentration of graves is in Birka in eastern Sweden where 49 graves, according to Agnes Geijer, contained silk.� The largest concentration of silk in a single grave was, on the other  hand, found in Oseberg, where over 100 fragments of samite silk from different fabrics were preserved.� Altogether five sites are located in present-day Norway, eight in Sweden, seven in Denmark and two in Finland6. Here we take a closer look at the largest concentrations of silks,  namely Birka in southern Sweden and Oseberg in southern Norway. � Nockert 2006, 298; Geijer 1952, 17; 1972, 261. � Geijer 1938, 59, 66. �  Vedeler �0��. � Geijer 1938, 176–179. � Nockert 2006; Vedeler 2011. 6 In Norway: Oseberg, Voss, Sandanger, Haugen, Gokstad. In Sweden: Önsvala, Vivallen, Brista, Lund, Valsgärde, Tuna, Birka, St. Ihre in Gotland. In Denmark: Fløjstrup, Hørning, Hvilehøj, Bjerringhøj Mammen, Jelling, Slots Bjergby and Viborg Søndersø. In Finland: Eura and Tampere

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795. Silk Trade to Scandinavia in the Viking Age

Oseberg The Oseberg grave chamber is dated by dendro-chronology to the year c. 834, giving the silks this year as a  terminus ante quem.7 Margareta Nockert published the Oseberg silks in 2006. She identified 15 different fabrics.8 

The majority of fabrics from Oseberg are relatively simple samite products with irregular pattern reports and many weaving mistakes. All of them have single z-spun inner warp and weft without spinning. Unlike most other similar products they also irregularly have some z-spun weft threads. Nockert interprets them as Central Asian products.9 Patterns with the Shāhrokh duck in fabrics 1–7 and the alternating colours in the weft (lattè) make this interpretation plausible.�0

Two of the fabrics were interpreted by Nockert as having been produced in Byzantine workshops or in the eastern part of the Mediterranean area associated with Byzantine silk production��. These  are evenly woven samite fabrics of medium to high quality with single z-spun warp and weft without spinning. Both patterns and colours are close to patterns presumably used in Byzantine  workshops. New HPLC-analysis revealed that one fabric (No. 12) has been dyed with a combination of madder and the precious dyestuff from Kermes Vermilio, which strengthens this argument.�� 

Birka The majority of silk containing graves from Birka are dated to the 10th century. Of 49 graves, 37 are dated to this period while 12 date to the 9th century. The fabric type by Geijer called S4 dominates in both centuries and is the most common type represented in all graves.�� This is a  type of samite with z-spun main warps and weft with no traces of spinning. Unlike the Oseberg silk fragments it has a double main warp. The S4 group contains several different degrees of coarseness in the weave. Geijer noticed that some fragments seemed mono coloured while others bore traces of pattern.�� This could very well be caused by differences in preserving condition, as seen in the Oseberg silks.�� Geijer explains the arrival of the most common type called S4 with strong connections with the Byzantine Empire.�6 A coarser and more uneven woven quality of similar samite was separated by Geijer in a singular group called S5 with patterns showing similarities with some of the Oseberg fragments regarded as Central Asian products.17

In one of the Birka graves, a very special find appeared. This is a fabric of two-coloured silk

7 Bonde and Kristensen 1993. 8 After studying the silks my opinion is that this number could be reduced. Many of the fragments in Nockerts fabrics 1–7 could be from the same fabric. 9 Nockert 2006, 298. Nockert interprets fabric Nos 1–11 as provincial Persian or east of this area, and fabric Nos 14–15 as Sogdian or from farther east than Sogdiana. These last fabrics are without spinning in both warp and weft.  �0 Vedeler 2011, 138–140; Ciszuk 2011, 9–10. �� Fabrics 12 and 13, Nockert 2006, 298. �� Berghe 2011, 6. High-performance liquid chromatography. Method used to separate and identify dye compounds. �� Geijer 1938, 176–179. �� Geijer 1938, 58. ��  Vedeler �0��. �6 Geijer 1952, 17; 1972, 261. 17 Found in one grave dated to the 10th century, No. 944, together with fragments of S3, S4, bands, possament, embroidery. Geijer 1938, 178.

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Marianne Vedeler80

damask, with a pattern of stars and dots.18 The threads of raw silk bear no traces of spinning in  either warp or weft. This silk, the only one of  its kind so far found in Scandinavia,  is probably  produced in China.19 Two different qualities of raw silk tabby were found in four of the graves in Birka.�0 The fabrics bear no traces of spinning in warp or weft. 

Silk Trade Following the major routes of exchange, the eastern silk could have come to Scandinavia either from  the  Baltic  areas  through  the  Russian  waterways,  or  through  trading  stations  in  Western  Europe. 

When the burial mound at Oseberg was raised in AD 834, the town Kaupang in Vestfold was located about 44 km south of Oseberg. The precious silk could have come through Kaupang or other nearby trading centres to Oseberg. Recent excavations have revealed traces of extended trading with goods from the Caliphate and Mediterranean lands in Kaupang in the 9th and early �0th century. This includes glass beads, cornelian and rock crystal beads, coins and probably also  ingots of copper alloy. All types of beads found in Kaupang were probably imported to the town  from the first half of the 9th century onwards.�� Archaeological finds of coins shows a flow of Islamic dirhams into Scandinavia dated to around c. 800 to the last quarter of the 10th century. The  coins  were  primarily  produced  in  the  Abbasid  and  Samanid  caliphates,  but  a  number  of  dirham imitations found in Scandinavia were also struck in Bhulgar, an important trading hub  situated on the Volga route.�� 

Fifty-nine coins found in Kaupang can be dated to the 9th and 10th centuries.�� The place of  minting has been identified for 40 of them. Nearly 50% were minted in Central Asia, most of them in places well-known for silk production like Samarkand and Tashkent.

Dagfinn Skre argues that the goods probably arrived at Kaupang through two different routes. An eastern route was probably in operation from the Caliphate via eastern Scandinavia throughout  the town’s history. Another route, arriving through the Frisian lands, seems to have been in use in the early 9th century. At this time, Anglo-Saxon and Carolingian towns along the North Sea coasts declined and the North Sea trade seems to have collapsed, leading the surviving towns to focus on trade through the Baltic area.��

If we look at the distribution of preserved eastern silk, over �000 early medieval eastern silks  have been found spread around western Europe.�� Finds from Chelles and Sense in France, Rome in Italy and from Aachen and Trier in Germany are directly comparable to the samite silks from  Oseberg.�6 Muthesius interprets two-thirds of the western silks as being of Byzantine provenance. 18 Found in grave No. 944. 19 Geijer 1938, 59–62, 66. �0 Group S 1 found in three graves, two of them dated to the 10th cenury (grave Nos 731 and 824) and one grave without dating (grave No. 535). Group No. S 2 was found in one single grave (grave No. 660) dated to the 10th century. Geijer 1938, 176–179. ��  Skre �0��, ���. �� Gullbekk 2008, 161. ��  Rispling et al. 2007, 75–93 ff. �� Skre 2007, 351; 2011, 426. �� Muthesius 1990, 126. �6 Nockert 2006; Vedeler 2011, 142.

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815. Silk Trade to Scandinavia in the Viking Age

Concentrations of Central Asian silk are particularly found in the Lowlands. Still, archaeological evidence in the Scandinavian region suggests that some of the most plausible routes for trading silk  to Scandinavia in most of the Viking age went through the Russian waterways and the Baltic.

There is reason to believe that Scandinavian merchants travelled through the newly established  Rus areas in the 9th and 10th centuries. Even though the ethnic origin of the town’s establishers is still a subject of controversy, a general growth of urban settlements with strong connections to Scandinavia took place both in the Baltic countries and in Russia and the state of Great Moravia  between the 7th and 9th centuries.27 The river systems of Volkhov-Lovat, Dniepr, Volga and Don formed a central nerve in communication and trade. From the Rus northern strongholds you could go either to the south, sailing along Dnjepr to the Black sea and finally reach Constantinople, or you could go further east, and along the river Volga to the trading hub of Bulghar connecting  the northern trade with the northern silk roads in Central Asia and from there to China. 

Archaeological excavations show that a line of strongholds was established in the Kiev area along  the Dnjepr in the last two decades of the 9th century. Tax collection was probably a motivation for establishing these strongholds.28 It has been suggested that tax collection could have slowed  or even stopped the trade to Scandinavia by this route from the last decades of the 9th century till the mid-10th century.29 But there is no reason to believe that the Kiev realm should have any  motivation to stop Scandinavian trading by tax overload. On the contrary, strong connections between Kiev and Scandinavia mixed with more organised tax collection would probably make  it easier to travel along the Dnjepr for Scandinavian merchants. If we are to believe The Primary Chronicle, most peace agreements made between AD 860 and 945 contain commercial treaties. From the agreement between Kiev Rus and the Byzantine emperor dated to c. 945, we learn that if a Rus merchant lost a slave on Greek territory he could be compensated by the payment of two pieces  of silk per slave. At this time, Rus merchants were given the right to purchase silk to the value of  �0 bezants on the condition that the goods was registered and a receipt stamped by an imperial  official.�0 Even if we do know neither the size nor the quality of these pieces of silk, it becomes clear that silk represented significant monetary values. Given the strong connection between Rus and Scandinavia, it is reasonable therefore to assume that at this time silk of various qualities could be sold directly to Scandinavian merchants  in Constantinople and other times traded to  merchants further north along the Dnjepr. Trade and manufacturing of high and medium quality silk was strictly controlled and already organised in guilds by this time.�� 

What about the eastern route along the river Volga? This route connected the northern trade  with the northern silk roads and the silk producing hubs in Central Asia. The earliest archaeological  traces of a Norse presence in the Volga area dates to the early 9th century, located south west of Rostov Velikij.��

Later, at about the same time as the establishment of Rus strongholds on the shores of Dnjepr, settlements with distinct Scandinavian cultural components were established not far from Volga 

27 Davidson 1976, 73. 28 Callmer 2007, 255–266. 29 Larsson 2007, 231. �0 Cross and Sherbowitz–Wetzor 1953, 75. �� Jacoby 2004, 205–206. �� Duczko 2004, 190.

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Marianne Vedeler82

nearby  contemporary  Yaroslavl.��  Even  though  they  are not directly on the shores of the river, they show  a  Scandinavian  connection  with  the  areas  north  of  the  trading  hub  of  Bhulgar  situated  about  �0  km  downstream from Volga’s confluence with the Kama River near today’s Kazar. 

It was in the town of Bulghar that Ibn Fadlan made  his  famous  observation  of  a  Viking  funeral  in  the  �0th  century.  Bulghar  functioned  as  an  eastern  meeting point between north and east, a melting pot  of different cultures and languages. On his journey to Bulghar, Ibn Fadlan travelled across the desert from Baghdad  to  Bukhara,  one  of  the  main  production  centres for Persian silk in the 9th and 10th centuries. Ibn Fadlan seems to have had a certain understanding of differences and variations in luxury textiles. He brought with him a lot of different textiles to be used as presents and tax payment on his journey. When describing the different textiles and clothing items, he  uses  the  name  of  the  place  of  production.  An  example is his description of the presents he gave to an  army commander he met on his journey, who among other  things  was  given  cloth  from  Merv.�� Not only expensive fabrics from Central Asia seem to have been  transported along this road. According to Ibn Fadlan, the Viking chief buried in Bulghar was equipped with costly fabrics of Byzantine origin on his last journey at the beginning of the �0th century. 

The  complex  trading  relationship  between  areas  of  production  in  this  period  further  complicates  the  interpretation  of  trading  routes.  In  spite  of  strong  political  rival  and  competition  in  trade  and  silk  production,  both  preserved  silk  fabrics  and  written  sources show a strong interaction relating to pattern  exchange  and  technology  as  well  as  trading  and  gift  exchange  between  Byzantine  and  Persian  areas.  Potentially,  this  means  that  Persian  silk  could  have  been brought to Scandinavia via Constantinople and,  maybe less plausible, that silk produced in Byzantine  areas could have come by the way of Muslim trading  centres. It is interesting to note that a trade regulation 

�� Callmer 2007, 260. �� Frye 2005, 40.Fig. 6.1. Oseberg silk. Photo: Marianne Vedeler

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835. Silk Trade to Scandinavia in the Viking Age

in Constantinople forbid merchants from Bhulgar to buy Persian silk of higher value when they  were visiting the town. According to the Book of Epharc silk  fabrics and clothing from Baghdad  were among goods brought by Syrian merchants to Constantinople in the early �0th century. In  addition, Islamic fashion in the form of garments “tailored in the Saracen style” was according  to De Ceremoniis made in the Byzantine capital.��

There is also reason to believe that many of the town markets were regarded as multicultural  meeting  places.  In  several  Arab  sources,  towns  like  Baghdad  and  Tashkent  are  described  as  cosmopolitan hubs of trade. A writer of the late 9th century describes the thriving trade in Baghdad like this: “There are not a people from any country but has a quarter in it, a place for the exchange of their produce, and a special district of their own. That which is not to be found  in any other town of the world is brought together here”.�6

Silk trade between the Caliphate and the Byzantine Empire also led to diffusion and imitation of fashion. Arab sources written in the 8th and 9th centuries indicate a clear consciousness of

�� Jacoby 2004, 219–220. �6 Ya`kubi translated in Serjeant 1972, 27.

Fig. 6.2. Sites with traces of Scandinavian material culture along the Russian rivers after Wladyzlaw Duczko. Other sites mentioned in the text are also added.

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Marianne Vedeler84

Byzantine fashion among the people of Baghdad.37 This indicates that not only physical products  but  also  ideas  and  fashion  to  some  extent  were  exchanged  between  the  rivals.  This  makes  it  extremely difficult to know the specific trade routes the different types of silks came through.

Conclusion Silk finds in Oseberg and Birka show that luxury goods from both Central Asia and Byzants were traded to Scandinavia in the 9th and 10th centuries. The archaeological and written sources show that some of the most plausible trading routes for these silks went along the Russian rivers.

Great emphasis has been placed on the Vikings’ strong ties to the Byzantine power through  Rus  and  their  participation  in  the  Varangian  guard  in  the  �0th  century.38 Nevertheless, both the excavations along the Volga and Scandinavian coin finds minted in Central Asia also show a connection to the Central Asian production areas for silk through the Volga-Oka region. It is likely that both these routes were used for trading silk to Scandinavia. Silk trade and exchange  of fashion ideas between the main areas of production makes it even more plausible that more  than one trading route was used. Silk trade was probably part of a complex and multidimensional  system in which merchandise and gifts changed hands.

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