Bornholm – the island in the middle. Communication, mobility and trade on the example of materials from the Store Frigård cemetery

Abstract

One of the key sites for understanding the scale of the mobility and intercultural contact between continental Europe (Poland and northern Germany) and Jutland and southern Scandinavia (including Öland and Gotland) in the Iron Age is the previously unpublished cemetery at Store Frigård on Bornholm. The 1256 graves, dating from the early pre-Roman Iron Age to the late Roman period (500 BC–AD 400), make Store Frigård the largest and longest-functioning cemetery on Bornholm and in the entire Baltic area. In the graves were recorded at least 650 metal finds (ornaments and parts of clothing, tools and weaponry). As an example of trans-regional contacts, the paper analyzes iron brooches with a long true spring and a large, cast bronze ornament on the bow, Kostrzewski type K brooches, the so-called ‘Scandinavian belts’ and, as a local pattern, brooches type Slusegård 7c. The presence of cross-regional clothing ele¬ments can be interpreted as an indication of the diffusion of cultural patterns, exchange and/or trade, and the mobility of people (including artisans), as well as long- or short-dis¬tance exogamy and alliance building. All such contacts had to be undertaken by sea. The positioning of Bornholm in the Baltic meant that it could be used as a starting point or as a ‘pit-stop’ for longer cruises. The problem is that there are no remaining boats or ships from the younger pre-Roman and early Roman periods, but maritime attempts to reconstruct a much earlier boat from Hjorstpiring have shown that it could have made even longer cruises. With a boat paddled by a well-trained crew, it was possible to cover a distance of between 40 and 55 nm in a long day depending on weather conditions. This would easily have allowed a crew to cover the distance between the Swedish coast (Schonen) and Bornholm, which is only 20 nm, where the distance is shortest. A much longer journey (56 nm), but also possible, would be the route from Nexø to Mielno or Kołobrzeg in central Pomerania, Poland. The route from Gotland to Bornholm, despite the much longer distance (about 160 nm in a direct line), also seems quite feasible. In this case, the easiest way would be to sail to Öland and then stick to the Öland coast and then Sweden. Such a voyage, however, would require much more time and, above all, crew effort, and numerous pit-stops would be needed. This route is reflected in archaeological materials, for example, in the Scandinavian belt fittings discussed here. A direct trip from Gotland to the Gulf of Gdańsk would be much more difficult. The problem here is the long distance, some 160 nm, and the lack of stopping facilities along the way. Perhaps imports from Gotland made their way to the Vistula estuary region by a circuitous route, via the “reloading station” at Bornholm. However, Scandinavian or Baltic imports from the younger Pre-Roman period are accumulated almost exclusively in the lower Vistula region, and there are only few traces, if any, in Central Pomerania. The direct route from Bornholm to the Gulf of Gdańsk is longer, about 170 nm, and just as difficult, unless the captain chooses to sail to Central Pomerania in one jump, and then all the way along the coast. Such voyages were most likely to have taken place in summer due to better weather conditions, milder waves and greater visibility of the sky and destination, allowing for better navigation. The relatively small amount of goods that could be taken in a fairly small paddled boats indicates that the mobility had other, more personalised reasons than a regular, profit-oriented trade with a strictly commercial function.