The Center-Periphery-Effect

Artifiziell deformierter Schädel einer etwa 55–60 Jahre alten Frau aus dem Gräberfeld von Havor, Hablingbo sn, Gotland - Copyright: Johnny Karlsson SHM 2008-11-05 Artificially deformed skull of a approx. 55-60 year old woman from the cemetery of Havor, Hablingbo sn, Gotland | © J. Karlsson SHM 2008-11-05

Subproject:
B 06 Humans and resources during the Viking Era. Anthropological and bioarchaeological analyses on the usage of food resources and detection of mobility

Project leadership:
Prof. Dr. Jörg Baten, Prof. Dr. Jörn Staecker, Prof. Dr. Joachim Wahl

Staff:
Dr. Laura Maravall Buckwalter, M.A. Valerie Palmowski, Dr. Matthias S. Toplak

Region:
Northern Germany, Scandinavia

Where did the women with the tower skulls in Scandinavia come from?

In Viking cemeteries, three female skeletons propose a conundrum: Their heads were lengthened in childhood by bandages to tower skulls, which was not common in Scandinavia. Where did they come from and how did they live? Questions like these will be answered within the scope of the subproject ‘Man and Resources in the Viking Age. Anthropological and Bioarchaeological analyses of the use of food resources and the detection of mobility’. Investigations of several cemeteries in Gotland as well as in Haithabu will clarify central questions of Viking Age research on mobility and the use of resources. Three questions are in the foreground: The investigation of 1.) migration based on strontium isotopes, 2.) the interaction between rule, social inequality and adaptation of use, and 3.) the interaction of experiences of violence with cultural-historical developments.

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