Table Of ContentMasking Moments
The Transitions of Bodies and Beings in Late Iron Age Scandinavia
Ing-Marie Back Danielsson
Masking Moments
The Transitions of Bodies and Beings in Late Iron Age Scandinavia
Ing-Marie Back Danielsson
Stockholm University
Doctoral dissertation 2007
Department of Archaeology and Classical Studies
Stockholm University
106 91 STOCKHOLM
MASKING MOMENTS
The Transitions of Bodies and Beings in Late Iron Age Scandinavia
Ing-Marie Back Danielsson
BA in Archaeology and BSc in Economics and Business Administration
Maskerade ögonblick. Förvandlingar av kroppar och väsen i skandinavisk yngre
järnålder.
(Med en svensk sammanfattning).
Abstract
This thesis explores bodily representations in Late Iron Age Scandinavia (400–1050
AD). Non-human bodies, such as gold foil figures, and human bodies are analysed.
The work starts with an examination and deconstruction of the sex/gender catego-
ries to the effect that they are considered to be of minor value for the purposes of
the thesis. Three analytical concepts – masks, miniature, and metaphor – are de-
ployed in order to interpret how and why the chosen bodies worked within their
prehistoric contexts.
The manipulations the figures sometimes have undergone are referred to as mask-
ing practices, discussed in Part One. It is shown that masks work and are powerful
by being paradoxical; that they are vehicles for communication; and that they are, in
effect, transitional objects bridging gaps that arise in continuity as a result of events
such as symbolic or actual deaths.
In Part Two miniaturization is discussed. Miniaturization contributes to making
worlds intelligible, negotiable and communicative. Bodies in miniatures in compari-
son to other miniature objects are particularly potent. Taking gold foil figures under
special scrutiny, it is claimed that gold, its allusions as well as its inherent properties
conveyed numinosity. Consequently gold foil figures, regardless of the context, must
be understood as extremely forceful agents.
Part Three examines metaphorical thinking and how human and animal body parts
were used in pro-creational acts, resulting in the birth of persons. However, these
need not have been human, but could have been the outcomes of turning a de-
ceased into an ancestor, iron into a steel sword, or clay into a ceramic urn, hence
expanding and transforming the members of the family/household. Thus, bone in
certain contexts acted as a transitional object or as a generative substance.
It is concluded that the bodies of research are connected to transitions, and that the
theme of transformation was one fundamental characteristic of the societies of
study.
Key words: Masking practices, masks, transitions, Iron Age, Scandinavia, kuml,
body, metaphorical thinking, miniaturization, queer theory, feminism, sex, gender,
personhood, rune stones, gold foil figures, oral literacy, food preparation, burials.
©Ing-Marie Back Danielsson, Stockholm 2007
ISSN 0349-4128
ISBN 91-7155-330-4
Printed in Sweden by Elanders Gotab, Vällingby 2007
Distributor: Department of Archaeology and Classical Studies, Stockholm University
Contents
List of Illustrations...........................................................................................9
Acknowledgements.......................................................................................12
PART ONE – FOUNDATION........................................................................15
Levelling........................................................................................................16
Buto dance, quantum physics and the absence of disorderly archaeologies...............16
Purported purposes.......................................................................................................17
How the thesis works....................................................................................................18
The moving needle in the seamless web......................................................................19
Scientific reproaches and approaches..........................................................................25
Queer theory – not quite as queer as the queer of the normal................................26
Oral communities, medieval texts and interpretations of Iron Age bodies..............29
Images and representations of bodies.....................................................................43
Images and sex........................................................................................................46
Categorisation and Variability – the Control of Gender and Sex and the
Resistance of Material culture.......................................................................49
The discursive limits of sex – especially in archaeology...............................................50
The constraining order of gender dualisms...................................................................51
The sorting of bodies through centuries........................................................................52
The sorting of bodies within archaeology......................................................................59
The never-ending story with manly swords and female jewellery – the not-so-
hardcore sexing........................................................................................................60
The hardcore sexing: skeletons and genes.............................................................63
Example one: gold foil figures............................... ...................................................70
Example two: the serving and waiting.....................................................................81
Example three: sexing as educating and self-explanatory......................................85
Slamming doors to other worlds....................................................................................87
Conclusive thoughts on “sex”........................................................................................88
Good riddance, sex!......................................................................................................89
Essential Engagements................................................................................91
Introduction....................................................................................................................91
Persons and personhoods............................................................................................91
Essential disembodiments.............................................................................................93
Examples of disembodiments – sejd and shamanism.............................................94
Masking and Performance – Bodily Metamorphoses...................................99
Masking and performance as socio-cultural practices................................................100
Introduction............................................................................................................100
The complex of masking........................................................................................100
Masks in transitional situations..............................................................................104
Masks – events – deaths.......................................................................................107
Masks and reversals..............................................................................................107
Creating acts of revelation: the mask and its wearer.............................................108
The importance of the audience............................................................................114
The purposes of masking.......................................................................................115
Masking practices during the Iron Age in Scandinavia...............................................117
Make up and doll up – figures of speech...............................................................117
Representations of facial masks............................................................................131
The mask – a favoured concept already in the Late Iron Age...............................148
Rune stones, mounds and masks, or the meanings of transitional events and
objects....................................................................................................................150
Kuml – the guiding marks and masks for body passages and transformations....152
Rune stones – directing dwellers on thresholds....................................................156
Bridging gaps between different worlds.................................................................163
Mounds and colourful rune stones.........................................................................164
Conclusions: kuml.......................................................................................................167
Concluding remarks: Masking and Performance........................................................168
PART TWO – DIRECTING MICROCOSMIC BODIES...............................170
The Workings of Miniaturization..................................................................171
Introduction..................................................................................................................171
Miniaturization – to make the world and other worlds intelligible, negotiable and
communicative.............................................................................................................171
Miniaturization, manipulation and metaphorical thinking............................................172
The human body as a vehicle for metaphorical thinking.............................................175
The recognition of the contextual and socio-cultural body for creating and making
worlds..........................................................................................................................176
Contacting Divine Forces Through Shiny Metal..........................................180
The origins of gold.......................................................................................................180
The importance of colour symbolism within metals....................................................181
The ontophany of gold.................................................................................................187
Brilliant Bodies – Histories and Interpretations...........................................189
Introduction..................................................................................................................189
Anyone can have a go – the positive predicament.....................................................191
Gold foil figures – an heterogeneous delivery.............................................................193
Excavating foils......................................................................................................197
Earlier interpretations.............................................................................................198
How they were used..............................................................................................202
Making sense of senses – creating somatic experiences.....................................204
Playbills Directing Performances of Union and Consummation – Gold Foil
Couples.......................................................................................................214
Introduction..................................................................................................................214
(Em)barking up the right tree – gold foil figures assisting in the births of houses......214
A framing device – making two into one.....................................................................221
Fire down the hall........................................................................................................225
The absence of aristocratic individuality in “transit halls”............................................226
Embracing stories – the pendants from Norsborg and Roskilde................................227
To Tell One’s Beads....................................................................................228
Introduction..................................................................................................................228
Portability.....................................................................................................................228
The seated travellers...................................................................................................228
Props that guide and direct – supporting transformations..........................................229
Birds of a feather – feathers of birds...........................................................................232
The Hemdrup staff – a Sealing Orchestration.............................................233
Introduction..................................................................................................................233
Curing a body – the Hemdrup staff.............................................................................233
Paying attention to details......................................................................................235
To Figure Out Figures – How and Why They Worked................................240
PART THREE – DE-PARTING BODIES....................................................242
Re-circulating Bones...................................................................................243
Introduction..................................................................................................................243
The Great Divide – re-distributing and sharing body parts at moments of interment.243
Bones as objects and as substance............................................................................245
Bones as transitional objects that work like masks...............................................245
Bone as a generative substance...........................................................................246
Bones, semen, flour: regeneration and eternity.....................................................251
Other arenas for mixing animals, humans, and things................................................252
Animality within humanity.......................................................................................252
Animal ornamentation............................................................................................253
Concluding remarks: dividends for dividuals...............................................................256
Reciprocal Engagements............................................................................257
Introduction..................................................................................................................257
Starter..........................................................................................................................257
Ingenious ignition.........................................................................................................260
Keeping engines running.............................................................................................261
Communications: rivers and roads in the shade.........................................................267
Conclusions: picturing paramount motions.................................................................269
The Connections Between the Preparation of Foods and Burials..............271
Introduction..................................................................................................................271
Bread for the dead.......................................................................................................271
A (t)rough start.............................................................................................................274
Transforming food utensils..........................................................................................278
Summary with Conclusions.........................................................................280
Part One – Foundation................................................................................................280
Part Two – Directing Microcosmic Bodies...................................................................286
Part Three – De-Parting Bodies..................................................................................288
Concluding Remarks – The Late Iron Age as the Time of Transformations...............291
Sammanfattning..........................................................................................293
Del Ett – Foundation....................................................................................................293
Del Två – Directing Microcosmic Bodies.....................................................................301
Del Tre – De-Parting Bodies.......................................................................................305
Sammanfattande slutsatser.........................................................................................308
References..................................................................................................309
Abbreviations...............................................................................................................309
Bibliography.................................................................................................................310
Unpublished sources...................................................................................................344
Personal communicators.......................................................................................344
