Vilket landskap ligger birka i
It has been estimated that the population in Viking Age Birka was between and people. The trade of walrus teeth, amber , and honey is also documented. It was unsuccessful. Both publications are silent on Birka's size, layout, and appearance. Sources from Birka are mainly archaeological remains. Foreign goods found from the graves of Birka include glass and metalware, pottery from the Rhineland , clothing and textiles including Chinese silk , Byzantine embroidery with extremely fine gold thread, brocades with gold passementerie , and plaited cords of high quality.
Furs included bear , fox , marten , otter , beaver , and other species. Vita Ansgari and Gesta are sometimes ambiguous, which has caused some controversy as to whether Birka and the Björkö settlement are the same location. Based on Rimbert's account, Birka was significant because it had a port and it was the location of the regional ting.
Reindeer antlers and objects carved from reindeer antlers like combs were important items of trade. As a trading center, Birka most likely offered furs , iron goods, and craft products, in exchange for various materials from much of Europe and Western Asia. Birka was abandoned during the latter half of the 10th century.
Birka was founded around AD as a trading port by a king or merchants trying to control trade. Birca is the Latinised form given in the written sources by Rimbert and Adam; and Birka is the contemporary, unhistorical Swedish form. In recent years, objects from Birka have been in the public eye due to ongoing academic research connection Birka to evidence of trade with the Middle East.
Many burial sites have been uncovered at Birka, leading to the finding of many objects including jewelry and many textile fragments. There are no known Norse sources mentioning the name of the settlement, or even the settlement itself, and the original Norse name of Birka is unknown. Meanwhile it happened that Swedish ambassadors had come to the Emperor Louis the Pious , and, amongst other matters which they had been ordered to bring to the attention of the emperor, they informed him that there were many belonging to their nation who desired to embrace the Christian religion, and that their king so far favoured this suggestion that he would permit God's priests to reside there, provided that they might be deemed worthy of such a favour and that the emperor would send them suitable preachers.
Adam only mentions the port, but otherwise, Birka seems to have been significant to him because it was the start of Ansgar's Christian mission and because Archbishop Unni was buried there. Birka and similar spellings are very common in Scandinavian place names still today leading to speculation that all references to Birka, especially those by Adam of Bremen, were not about the same location.
Saint Ansgar's work was the first attempt to convert the people of Birka from the Norse religion to Christianity. Birka listen help · info Birca in medieval sources , on the island of Björkö lit. Furs were obtained from the Sami people, the Finns , and people in Northwestern Russia, as well as from local trappers. Chapter X. Ansgar was already experienced in the missionary work in Denmark , and set forth to Sweden.
Chapter IX. Ansgar then undertook the mission committed to him by the emperor, who desired that he should go to the Swedes and discover whether this people was prepared to accept the faith as their messengers had declared. It may suffice for me to say that while they were in the midst of their journey they fell into the hands of pirates.
Rimbert's interests were in the Christian faith, not so much in the Swedish geopolicy, so his descriptions of Birka remain approximate at best. Rimbert describes the trip very generally:. The archaeological sites of Birka and Hovgården , on the neighbouring island of Adelsö , make up an archaeological complex which illustrates the elaborate trading networks of Viking Scandinavia and their influence on the subsequent history of Europe.
Birka och Hovgården
From the ninth century onwards coins minted at Haithabu in Northern Germany and elsewhere in Scandinavia start to appear. It was abandoned c.
AD , around the same time Sigtuna was founded as a Christian town some 35 km to the northeast. Both Rimbert and Adam were German clergymen writing in Latin. Related to this was the Bjärköa law bjärköarätt which regulated the life of market places in Denmark , Norway and Sweden. Based on the dating of the coins, the city seems to have died out around A contributing factor may have been the post-glacial rebound , which lowered the water level of Mälaren changing it from an arm of the sea into a lake and cutting Birka off from the nearest southern access to the Baltic Sea.
The Varangian trade stations in Russia suffered a serious decline at roughly the same date.
Birka - Wikipedia
Many other locations have been suggested through the years. However, the vast majority of the coins found at Birka are silver dirhams from the Middle East while English and Carolingian coins are rare. The town was the center of Catholic missionary activities in the 9th century Sweden.
The Latin name is probably derived from an Old Norse word " birk " which probably means a market place.