Ritual Decapitation and Display At the Viking Settlement of

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Bloody Slaughter: Ritual Decapitation and Display At the Viking Settlement of Hofstaðir, Iceland

By Gavin Lucas and Thomas McGovern

European Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 10, No. 1 (2007)

Abstract: This article attempts an interpretation of an unusual assemblage of cattle skulls recovered from recent excavations at the Viking Age monumental hall of Hofstaðir in Iceland. Osteological analysis of the skulls indicates ritual decapitation and display of cattle heads, and this article seeks to explore the meanings of this practice in relation to the context of the site and the wider historical and ethnographic literature. It is argued that the beheading of cattle and display of their heads was a part of sacrificial acts conducted on a seasonal basis at the site, and primarily in the context of feasting and socio-political gatherings. The gatherings acted simultaneously as a means of both dissipating social tension and enhancing political status.

Introduction: Recent excavations at the tenth-century Viking settlement of Hofstaðir in northeastern Iceland have recovered a minimum of 23 individual cattle skulls which display a range of unusual contextual, taphonomic and butchery characteristics. The site itself is also highly unusual because of the size of its main hall and the place name, which together might indicate it was a pagan cult-site. The conjunction of these features forms the subject of this article, which considers the problem of how to interpret the site and, in particular, the assemblage of skulls associated with it. It will be argued that seasonal acts of ritual slaughter occurred which were entwined with social gatherings in the context of feasting; moreover, the highly bloody nature of the slaughter will be emphasized as a key element to understanding the specific link to the socio-political nature of the gathering, underlining its broader importance rather than a narrowly religious interpretation.

http://eja.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/10/1/7

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