The excavations of Birka's Garrison in 1997-2004 produced a rich and varied find material of unusual character. Most striking are the weapons, 400 in total. The warriors who lived in the Garrison seem from the finds to have been well trained in fighting techniques and to have been in contact with distant lands. Perhaps they were periodically in foreign service, such as the Byzantine Emperor's Varangian guard. Apart from the great number of weapons, some objects were found that remind us of everyday life. Re-examination and analysis of the excavation finds has identified a number of these as linked to writing activities, namely, runic plate amulets, bone fragments incised with runes and an iron stylus. To these, the author also wishes to add a possible wax tablet in the form of a damaged decorated antler plate found during excavations in the Garrison in 1934. The runic amulets and rune bones belonged to the private sphere and bore magical-ritual formulae. These fit well within a martial environment where the warriors would have invoked protection. The stylus and the wax tablet on the other hand belonged to a different, clerical, sphere.

Hedeby was the largest town in the Viking North. Investigations have identified imports at the site from central and northern Scandinavia revealing long-distance connections. The chronology of this trade, however, is unclear. Here, the authors use a typological-biomolecular approach to examine connections during the early Viking Age. The application of ZooMS to an assemblage of antler combs, stylistically dated to the ninth century AD, reveals nearly all were made of reindeer antler. As most craft production waste from Hedeby comprises red deer antler, it is argued that these combs were manufactured elsewhere, perhaps hundreds of kilometres further north. The results have implications for understanding of production and regional connectivity in early medieval Scandinavia.

This is a report of archaeological investigations, excavations and geochemical propections, in search for the today lost part of the town rampart of the Viking Age site Birka in eastern central Sweden, conducted by the Archaeological Research Laboratory, Stockholm University, in 2018-2019. The results show, for the first time ever, evidence of a town rampart with an associated defensive ditch in the investigated portion of the town perimeter. This is inferred to be the result of deliberate choices to build different types of defensive structures with regard to the varying terrain in different sections around Birka, indicating explicit tactical considerations when choosing construction technology.

Projektets syfte var att skapa ett kunskapsunderlag gällande gallring av metallföremål vid arkeologiska undersökningar. Målet var att kartlägga situationen, belysa hur urvalet görs och besluten tas. I studien har ingått en inventering av inkomna material till Statens Historiska museum tillsammans med tillståndsdokumentationen för projekten. I samtliga av de 11 undersökta projekten har gallring skett, 40-90 % av föremålen har gallrats. En framtida genomlysning av hela processen för att undersöka var de svaga punkterna ses som nödvändig.

The Birka dragon' symbol is synonymous with the famous Viking Age town of that name, an association born from the 1887 discovery of a casting mould depicting a dragonhead. Recent excavations in Black Earth Harbour at Birka have yielded a dress pin that can, almost 150 years later, be directly linked to this mould. This artefact introduces a unique Birka style' to the small corpus of known Viking Age dragonhead dress pins. The authors discuss and explore the artefact's manufacture, function and chronology, and its connections to ship figureheads.