Birka. Rimbert's Vita Anskarii (ca. 870) and Adam of Bremen's Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum (ca. 1075) mention many places in Scandinavia, including Birka, the town of the Svear and the most important harbor of the Baltic. It was abandoned before 1000, but even in the Middle Ages was identified with the island of Björkö in Lake Mälaren, about 30 km. west of Stockholm.
This island of about 1,500 in. in width contains an occupation deposit ("Black Earth") about 13 hectares in extent and up to 2 m. deep, a town rampart, a fortress, and 2,000-3,000 burial mounds. The bays around the shore shelter harbors and stone jetties, which, because of the land elevation, now lie about 5 m. above sea level.
In 1871-1895, the Swedish naturalist Hjalmar Stolpe excavated about 4,500 sq. m. of the occupation deposit and about 1,100 burials. The Black Earth contained large quantities of refuse, including tens of thousands of animal and bird bones, many hundreds of bone ice skates, combs, bone pins, metal objects, and pottery. Tools, molds, and crucibles show that industrial processes had been carried on.
The burials indicate a native and a foreign tradition. The "native" consists of cremation layers under mounds and occasionally boat-shaped stone settings or triangular stone settings with concave sides. The "foreign burials," inhumations in coffins and chamber graves, were confined to areas on the edge of the town. These graves are probably of foreign merchants, craftsmen, and their families, either Christian or Muslim, who came from East and West. They may also have been the graves of Scandinavians newly converted to Christianity.
The inhumation burials contained many well-preserved details of clothing and equipment that, although belonging to foreigners, provide information about Viking Age chronology, culture, and customs of dress. The graves also contained much imported jewelry, glass and bronze vessels, weapons, pottery, and so on (see particularly Birka II). The finds are stored in Statens Historiska Museum, Stockholm.
Most research into Birka has concentrated on the grave goods that have been published in Birka I and II:1-3 and elsewhere (Arbman 1937, Geijer 1938, Selling 1955, Gräslund 1980, K. Ambrosiani 1981, Jansson 1985, Duczko 1985, Ericson 1987).
A trench dug through one of the jetties in the Black Earth in 1969-1971 revealed stratigraphy useful for Birka's chronology, but much remains to be done. Stolpe's discoveries must be studied and trial excavations made to establish the townplan and its stratigraphy, and to answer questions about visible earthworks.
The finds from Birka date from the Viking Age. The site was settled by around 800 and was abandoned in the 970s, when a large hoard of Arab coins and silver rings was deposited. Birka was permanently occupied, averaging 700-1,000 inhabitants. Vita Anskarii mentions a reeve and a "thing," a king living nearby, and Christians before Ansgar's mission. The mission had little success outside the town. The earliest Swedish town law is the "Bjärköarätt," perhaps deriving from Birka.
Birka played an important part in the hinterland of the Mälaren. In exchange for simple manufactured and imported products, its inhabitants acquired such necessities as provisions, fuel, hay, and raw materials that could not be produced on the small island. Its situation on the route from the iron- and fur-producing forests of northern Scandinavia was also important. Raw materials were transported to the town in winter and exported overseas in summer. The many luxury articles found in the Birka graves illustrate surplus from this trade.
Birka also had a significant role in Viking Age trade between East and West, probably largely in the form of valuable, easily portable commodities, such as silver, silk, swords, and slaves.
Björn Ambrosiani