Trade Beads and Bead Trade in Scandinavia, ca 800-1000 AD

Beads are among the most numerous objects found in the Scandinavian Viking period find materials. Most artifact catalogs are nation-specific and give only superficial coverage of beads, at best. Callmer believed that the two centuries between 800 and 1000 AD best defined the placement of beads in graves during the Viking age before grave goods ceased with the advent of Christianity. The research area--Scandinavia, which here includes the German province of Schleswig-Holstein, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden--was chosen because the territory constitutes an area with similar dress customs, basic burial practices and other cultural characteristics, according to the author. Gotland was judged too different to be included. Bead material from other adjacent areas did not exist or was inaccessible at the time of publication.