Mobility at the Center of the Viking World

Peschel, Emily M.

Mobility at the Center of the Viking World

dc.contributor.advisor	Katzenberg, Mary Anne
dc.contributor.author	Peschel, Emily M.
dc.contributor.committeemember	Dawson, Peter C.
dc.contributor.committeemember	Hallgrímsson, Benedikt
dc.contributor.committeemember	Wieser, Michael E.
dc.contributor.committeemember	Schillaci, Michael A.
dc.date	2020-11
dc.date.accessioned	2020-04-30T18:23:11Z
dc.date.available	2020-04-30T18:23:11Z
dc.date.issued	2020-04-23
dc.description.abstract	This dissertation examines migration at Gotland, an important island in Viking Age Scandinavia (750-1050 CE) that is widely recognized for its role in trade. Located off the southeast coast of Sweden in the Baltic Sea, Gotland connected western European and Eastern trade routes. Despite its economic importance, there has been little investigation into the political affiliation of this island. It is argued that Gotland was both independently ruled, and that it was a part of the Svear kingdom, a Swedish polity that ruled over the Baltic Sea. One step toward addressing the political identity of Gotland is to investigate mobility on the island. Although artifacts indicate trade occurred with much of the known world, the degree of migration to the island is not known. This project examines the degree of mobility of two skeletal populations from Gotland, Fröjel and Kopparsvik. Biological distance (biodistance) from cranial and dental nonmetric traits were used to assess gene flow between Gotlandic populations and among Scandinavian populations. Strontium isotope analysis was used to determine the geological origins of individuals from the Gotlandic populations. The dental biodistance results showed that Fröjel and Kopparsvik were biologically isolated from mainland Scandinavian populations. The cranial biodistance results, however, indicated a small biodistance between Kopparsvik and the Svear kingdom, while Fröjel remained isolated from biologcial interactions with the mainland populations. While dental nonmetric traits reflected the ancestral relationships among Scandinavian populations, cranial nonmetric traits indicated more recent changes to the population structure. These interpretations of migration on the island are corroborated by the increase in non-local individuals at the Kopparsvik cemetery throughout its use, as determined by strontium isotope analysis. While there were only local individuals interred at the cemetery during the earliest phase of use, there was an increase in nonlocal individuals throughout the latter half of the Viking Age. Gotland, therefore, saw increased Swedish presence throughout the Viking Age, which suggests an effort by the Svear kingdom to take advantage of trade on the island. Fröjel, however, remained isolated from gene flow and immigration, indicating that the Svear kingdom had limited authority on Gotland.	en_US
dc.identifier.citation	Peschel, E. M. (2020). Mobility at the Center of the Viking World (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.	en_US
dc.identifier.doi	http://dx.doi.org/10.11575/PRISM/37748
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/1880/111932
dc.language.iso	eng	en_US
dc.publisher.faculty	Arts	en_US
dc.publisher.institution	University of Calgary	en
dc.rights	University of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission.	en_US
dc.subject	Viking Age	en_US
dc.subject	Gotland	en_US
dc.subject	Biological Distance	en_US
dc.subject	Strontium Isotope Analysis	en_US
dc.subject.classification	Literature--Scandinavian and Icelandic	en_US
dc.subject.classification	Archaeology	en_US
dc.title	Mobility at the Center of the Viking World	en_US
dc.type	doctoral thesis	en_US
thesis.degree.discipline	Archaeology	en_US
thesis.degree.grantor	University of Calgary	en_US
thesis.degree.name	Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)	en_US
ucalgary.item.requestcopy	true	en_US