Spoken words: equality and dynamics within a group of women skalds in the third century ad, Skovgårde, Denmark

In the third century ad a group of women, who wore a certain kind of bead set on the chest, was buried in a burial ground in Skovgårde in the southern part of Zealand in Denmark. I suggest that these women constituted a sub-group in which the members shared the skill of skalding and that the pieces...

Full description

Saved in:

Bibliographic Details
Published in	World archaeology Vol. 39; no. 2; pp. 263 - 280
Main Author	FERNSTAL, Lotta
Format	Journal Article
Language	English
Published	Basingstoke Routledge 01.06.2007 Taylor & Francis Group Taylor & Francis Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group
Subjects	3rd century Archaeological theory Archaeology Beads Cults, religions and funeral rites Denmark Environmental studies Equality Ethnology and art Funerary archaeology Gender Gender equality Gender identity Geology and climatology Graves Group dynamics Hierarchy Historieämnen Historisk-filosofiska ämnen History and philosophy subjects History subjects Human paleontology HUMANIORA och RELIGIONSVETENSKAP HUMANITIES and RELIGION Iron Age Late Roman Iron Age Mankind origin and evolution Material culture Methodology and general studies Mnemonics Oral poetry Oral tradition orality Poetic meter Poetry Prehistory and protohistory skalding Skovgarde Skovgårde Social archaeology Spoken language Story telling Storytelling sub-groups Tales Women Womens rights Early Late Roman Iron Age Chalcolithic A-Group Denmark Europe Floor Skovg#rde gender orality Human palaeontology skalding Relations Romans sub-groups Burial Late Roman Iron Age Grave Bead beads graves Society Woman Story poetry
Online Access	Get full text
ISSN	0043-8243 1470-1375 1470-1375
DOI	10.1080/00438240701258885

Cover

More Information
Summary:	In the third century ad a group of women, who wore a certain kind of bead set on the chest, was buried in a burial ground in Skovgårde in the southern part of Zealand in Denmark. I suggest that these women constituted a sub-group in which the members shared the skill of skalding and that the pieces in the bead sets, of which many were exotic and old already when they were worn, had been used as mnemonics during the composing of stories and poetry. The members of this sub-group were societal equals in the matter of class and gender but, nonetheless, a hierarchical order probably existed within the group based on skill, age and experience. However, the relations between the members of the group were probably mainly of a cooperative nature and as a sub-group they may have had opportunities for common strategies in society.
Bibliography:	SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-1 content type line 14 ObjectType-Article-2 content type line 23
ISSN:	0043-8243 1470-1375 1470-1375
DOI:	10.1080/00438240701258885