Memory Set in Stone: Another Look at the Berezan Runic Inscription

Since I cannot upload my book, The Viking-Age Rune-Stones (2000, 2002), I would be very grateful if my colleagues would comment on this paper, which was written (2001) in preparation for articles published elsewhere. It emphasizes the historical value of the runic inscriptions, studied as a whole and summarizes some of the conclusions of my detailed analysis of the material, published in The Viking-Age Rune-Stones; Custom and Commemoration in Early Medieval Scandinavia, Oxford 2000.

Early Medieval Stone Monuments.: Materiality, Biography, Landscape / [ed] Williams, Howard, Kirton, Joanne and Gondek, Meggen, Woodbridge: Boydell & Brewer, 2015, 62-86

The archaeological approach adopted in this work wishes to explore the mnemonic agency of rune-stones through highlighting some of the myriad rhizomatic relations that were generated through the embodied processes of making, staging and encountering rune-stones in the landscape. It equally emphasises that memory work is practical, performative and therefore necessarily embodied in its constitution (e.g. Merleau-Ponty 1962; see also Mauss 1992 [1934]). This approach also takes inspiration from feminist theory, which aspires to avoid reducing ambiguity and complexity in interpretations, in this instance regarding how rune-stones were experienced and understood in the Late Viking Age.

Futhark, 2016

In 2009 an early runic inscription was discovered on a triangular projecting area that through subsequent excavation was confirmed to be at the lower part of a funerary monument. Yet such find reports and commentaries as have appeared to date have tended not to assess the Hogganvik inscription principally as a commemorative expression, as an example of a broader memorial epigraphic tradition. Rather than as an epigraphic record of the history of emotions, suggestions of magic appear in the main treatments of the remarkable find. After all, lexically irregular sequences found on other early runic memorials are often taken as signs they feature a magical aspect. Taking the Hogganvik inscription in its broader linguistic and archaeological context, however, suggests a rather different understanding is to be assumed for the early Norwegian memorial. Instead of reflecting magic, the less clear sections of the Hogganvik text can more regularly be understood as abbreviated or otherwise obscurely expressed sequences.

2010

Modes of Authorship in the Middle Ages. Papers in Mediaeval Studies 22.

2015

Futhark: International Journal of Runic Studies 5 : Containing proceedings of the Seventh International Symposium on Runes and Runic Inscriptions, Oslo, 9–14 August 2010. Part 2: Selected papers

Lund Archaeological Review (LAR), 2010

2016

This article discusses qualitative experiences (qualia) of Scandinavian Late Viking Age rune-stones from a semiotically theorized perspective. Rune-stones with kuml inscriptions receive particular attention. Despite the fact that kuml referred to different material entities, such as rune-stone, other standing stones, and/or grave, it is suggested that they resembled one another on iconic grounds. The quality associated with the multiple qualia was a sensation of safety that resulted in shared experiences that had positive social values. The article demonstrates that the semiotics of Peirce can be of great value to archaeologists who want to delve deeper into the social analysis of things.