The first detailed appraisal of Norse assembly sites, providing detailed discussion of their archaeological profile and landscape setting
Until very recently Viking and Norse assembly sites were essentially unknown, apart from a few select sites, such as Thingvellir in Iceland. The Vikings are well-known for their violence and pillage, but they also had a well-organised system for political decision-making, legal cases and conflict resolution. Using archaeological evidence, written sources and place-names, this book provides a comprehensive analysis of their legal system and assembly sites, showing that this formed an integral part of Norse culture and identity, to the extent that the assembly institution was brought to all Norse settlements.

Sites are analysed through surveys and case studies across Scandinavia, Scotland and the North Atlantic region. The author moves the view of assembly sites away from a functional one to an understanding of the symbolic meaning of these highly ritualised sites, and shows how they were constructed to signify power through monuments and natural features. This original and stimulating study is set not only in the context of the Viking and Norse periods, but also in the wider continental histories of place, assembly and the rhetoric of power.

Alexandra Sanmark is Reader in Medieval Archaeology at the Centre for Nordic Studies, University of the Highlands and Islands. She specialises in The Viking Age in Scandinavia and the Viking expansion in the west and the North Atlantic, with a particular focus on landscape archaeology. She is the author of Power and Conversion: A Comparative Study of Christianization in Scandinavia (2004).

List of Figures; List of Tables; Abbreviations; Acknowledgement; Preface 1. Assembly Research: Past and Present2. Early Germanic and Norse Assembly Organisations3. Introducing the Assembly Sites of Scandinavia 4. Elite Rituals at Scandinavian Assemblies 5. Assembly Sites in Scandinavia: Activities and Rituals of the Community 6. Centralisation of Power: Christianity and Urbanisation 7. Norse in the North Atlantic: Iceland, Faroe Islands and Greenland 8. Norse in Scotland: Assembly and New Ancestors 9. Assemblies in the Longue Durée Glossary; Bibliography; Index