A ritual site with sacrificial wells from the Viking Age at Trelleborg, Denmark

Authors

  • Anne Birgitte Gotfredsen
  • Charlotte Primeau
  • Karin Margarita Frei
  • Lars Jørgensen

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1080/21662282.2015.1084730

Keywords:

human sacrifice, animal sacrifice, ritual well, strontium isotopes, pre-Christian Viking Age, paganism

Abstract

The promontory facing Storebælt with the well-known circular Viking Age military fortress of Trelleborg erected by Harold Bluetooth in AD 980/981 seems to have been an important ceremonial space prior to the erection of the fortress and contemporary with a nearby high status settlement dated to the seventh to the eleventh century. This study presents new cross-disciplinary investigations focusing on three sacrificial well-like structures (47, 50 and 121) from the pre-Christian Viking Age at Trelleborg. Two of the sacrificial wells (47 and 121) included the only skeletal remains of four children hitherto recovered from Danish Viking Age wells. The strontium isotope results of the four children point to local provenance. However, the results of each well seem to pair up in a systematic way pointing to that the children might come from two different key surrounding areas at Trelleborg. Furthermore, the three wells contained animal remains of primarily domestic livestock partly representing consumption waste from either profane or ritual meals deriving from, for example, blót activities. Well 47 produced a young he-goat and well 121 a hindlimb of an above-average-size young horse, a large part of a young cow and a large dog. Altogether intentional offerings deposited while still enfleshed and interpreted to have served as propitiatory sacrifices to honour or appease the gods and to ensure fertility. This research provides new information that enlightens the formation processes underlying accumulation of cultural deposits in features such as ritual wells, in the period prior to Christianity.

Author Biographies

Anne Birgitte Gotfredsen

Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen, Øster Voldgade 5-7, DK-1350 Copenhagen K, Denmark

Charlotte Primeau

Laboratory of Biological Anthropology, Department of Forensic Medicine, University of Copenhagen, Frederiks V’s Vej 11, 2100 Copenhagen Ø, Denmark

Karin Margarita Frei

Department of Conservation and Science, Environmental Archaeology and Material Science, The National Museum of Denmark, Ny Vestergade 11, DK-1471 Copenhagen K, Denmark

Lars Jørgensen

Department of Research and Exhibitions, Ancient Cultures of Denmark and the Mediterranean, The National Museum of Denmark, Frederiksholms Kanal 12, DK-1220 Copenhagen K, Denmark

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2014-11-01

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Gotfredsen, A. B., Primeau, C., Frei, K. M., & Jørgensen, L. (2014). A ritual site with sacrificial wells from the Viking Age at Trelleborg, Denmark. Danish Journal of Archaeology, 3, 145–163. https://doi.org/10.1080/21662282.2015.1084730

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