Islam and Scandinavia during the Viking Age By EGIL MIKKELSEN A theoretical background The most common way of explaining the spread of Oriental and other “exotic” artefacts is within the framework of “trade”, However, not infrequently “objects and ideas travel together, but archaeological theory has been very little concerned with the dif- fusion of ideas. ‘What types of archaeological objects may be inter- preted as religious elements or symbols? Moreover ~ how can we distinguish between pure trade on the fone hand, and the spread of religious ideas on the other? These questions are by no means easily answered. ‘There are a number of prerequisites for such a study one must possess knowledge about the various religions, their types and characteristics; did any of them carry out missionary activities and, if so, how? What kinds of material objects are related to these religions? Furthermore, such objects must be studied as part of an archaeological context, not as single, isolated object: “Religious elements”, material objects or traces of behaviour linked to a specific religion, are of dif- ferent categories: + Images of a deity, or symbols for a deity + Objects sacrificed in religious ceremonies, or structures forming part of such ceremonies * Objects linked to ritual ablutions * Objects used during baptism or communion + Other ritual or religious objects + Objects with inscriptions referring to a specific religion * Burial customs One challenge is that we must find, not merely the most obvious “religious elements”, but also objects or traces of a more symbolic significance. ‘An object may have a religious meaning in one context, but a different one in another. Therefore the context of such an object must be studied at the “dispatcher” end as well as at the “recipient” end, Several intermediary contexts may also require study. By applying the following criteria we should be able to infer which aspects of an archaeological context can increase the probability of an object having retained its religious significance (or at least some of it) on the way from the “dispatcher” to the “recipient”: + The object was found together with other objects of religious significance in any context, relating either to the same or to other religions. + More than one object in the “recipient” context shows links with the “dispatcher” region. + It seems probable that the object retained its original function on the way from the “dispat- cher” to the “recipient”. + Symbols of one religion are opposed to those of a different religion. * There are many points of resemblance between the burial practice at the “dispatcher” end and that at the “recipient” end, at the same time as such a “recipient practice” differs considerably from former local burial customs. In an analysis of culture relations covering great distances it is essential that these criteria are applied as an indivisible set, if we are to “discover” the spread of religious ideas and beliefs. Source criti- cism is important. Islam — early history: distribution, mission and trade The young Arabic-Islamic state was to prove ex- tremely expansive. In an amazingly short time after the death of Mohammed in AD 632, the nomadic tribes of the Arabic peninsula had turned into a military elite, and conquered great parts of the Middle East as well as parts of Europe, Asia and Africa. Damascus and Jerusalem fell in the year 635, Egypt in 641, and the entire Sassanian empire in Persia was conquered in 650. In 711 a Muslim army crossed the Strait of Gibraltar to Spain, and they reached India in the same year. Later, in AD 827, the Arabs invaded Sicily, and now the Muslim Arabs were permanently settled on the shores of the Medi- terranean (Vogt 1993:100). Moreover, Europe was 39Arabernes politiske ekspansjon 632-715 Kaa Bgeaigtestese! 7) ening ers Restate (7) Eetrngerinnt ess] Rt sarge osomerie) under strong influence from the Arabs in the east, by way of Russia. Organized missionary activity is a fairly recent phenomenon as far as Islam is concerned. The ortho- dox Muslim rejects priests or other mediators be- ‘ween him and God, Every Muslim, by virtue of his strong faith, is regarded as a missionary. The first spread of Islam was the result of war and conquest. Such wars have very often been inter- preted as “holy wars”, Jihad, However, they were first and foremost intended as an internal protection for the Islamic society, of its borders and its faith, and to prevent internal conflicts and disintegration, Wars of aggression were not the most important. This “holy war” concept has gained new political life within Islam largely after the 1970s (Vogt 1993: 155, 157). In the earliest period of the spread of Islam — tween AD 650 and 1000 the most active mission- aries were probably traders and officials of various categories. Some of them are known to us from literary sources. The ancient trade routes changed considerably as a result of the Muslim conquest. The Romans, and later Christian peoples, had reinforced the unity of the Mediterranean world. “After the seventh century ‘vo rival faiths, supported by the organization of empires, stood facing each other across the narrow waters. Instead of a highway, the Mediterranean be- came a frontier, a sea of war...” (Hourani 1951 52f,). ‘The Persian Gulf and the Red Sea were no longer rival routes to Rome or Constantinople ~ they had 40 become alternative routes. Trade between the Persi- an Gulf and India and China flourished greatly du- ring the Abbasside dynasty, when Bagdad was the metropolis of the Middle East (op.cit.). Arabic artefacts found in Scandinavia A considerable number of Viking Age archaeologi- cal finds from Scandinavia ~ mostly from Sweden — testify to contacts with the Arabic world: they are known as “oriental imports”. These artefacts have been interpreted and referred to as commodities, as expressions of trade (Ame 1914; Jansson 1985; 1987; 1988). I would raise the following question: is, it possible that ideas and religious concepts associ ted with these objects also reached Scandinavia? Moreover — do these artefacts show whether, and to what extent, Islam as a religion had any influence in Viking Age Scandinavia? The 9th and 10th centuries were a period of upheaval, the Christian Church challenging the ancient Norse religion by means of repeated missions. Was Islam a competitor in this process at any time? Here I shall consider some of the archaeological material interpreted as being of Arabic origin. The richest material comes from the market centre and cemeteries at Birka, Sweden. I am here most directly concerned with objects testifying to Islamic (reli- gious) influence in some way or other, basing my ist on the T. J. Arne’s and Ingmar Jansson’s more complete surveys covering Oriental imports in Vi- king Age Scandinavia (Arne 1914; Jansson 1988).Fig. 1. Fingering of silver with an amethyst, from grave 515 at Birka, “Allah” is engraved in Arabic on the stone. Finger-rings Artefacts belonging to this group were often used as amulets in Viking Age Scandinavia, In Birka grave 515 a silver finger-ring with an amethyst was found. ‘The stone bore the legend “Allah”, engraved in Arabic. Finger-rings with semi-precious stones of this kind are very common among the Volga Bulgars and the Khazars in the east, and also in the Caliphate (Ame 1914; Arbman 1940-43; Jansson 1988), Costume and costume accessories Costume accessories of various kinds form one of the largest groups of artefacts of Islamic origin in Scandinavia, They include bronze mountings in the form of hearts, shields or quadrangles, most ofien with palmette motifs. Many of these have come to light in the Birka graves. A large number of them probably came from West Turkestan, mainly during the 10th century, by way of the Khazars and the Volga route to Scandinavia (Ame 1932; Jansson 1988). Many graves, especially in Birka, have also yielded textiles deriving from so-called “oriental” costume: this applies to women’s as well as to men’s burials. Silk, and other textiles and ornaments of gold and silver, as well as fur trimmings, are inter- preted as part of such “oriental” costumes. This ma- terial has, however, been variously interpreted. Agnes Geijer (1938) saw these as foreign luxury goods which the individual Viking tader had acquired during his travels in the East. The costume was regarded as yet another commodity, in the same way as glass, weapons and beads, or maybe, even as souvenirs. Anne-Sofie Griislund (1980:80f.) interpreted the rich chamber graves of Birka—and it was here that the “oriental” luxury costumes were most common — as probably representing the burials of Scandinavian as well as foreign traders and their wives. Inga Haigg (1983) is more inclined to regard these garments as symbols of rank. They belonged to sig- nified persons of particularly high rank, people who were in close contact with the Byzantine court, with the court in Kiev probably acting as an important intermediary during the 10th century. Thus it is not easy to decide whether certain mem- bers of the Swedish warrior class adopted an oriental costume practice during the Viking Age, as a result of war and other forms of contact with the Islamic world, nor can we know whether the Birka graves are proof of Arab traders having stayed fairly regu- larly at this market centre, or whether the Iuxury garments simply reflect upper class Swedish Vikings living in Birka, persons who had close relations with the courts of the East. Be this as it may — these burials are evidence of very close relations with the Islamic world, Bronze vessels Five bottle-shaped bronze vessels have been found — four in Sweden and one on Aland: Fothagen, Bjorke, Gotland, Sweden. A cylindrical bronze bottle used as a container for a hoard of silver coins; the neck has been cut off. The hoard consisted of 835 Cufic coins (the most recent struck in AD 971), and ca. 400 Western European coins, struck no later than AD 1002 (Arne 1932:103). Tuna, Hidilsta, Uppland, Sweden Half a bronze bottle, refashioned into a cylindrical cooking vessel. The bottom is covered with an orna- mental pattern (Odencrant 1934: Figs.2-3), obvi- ously the original shoulder of the bottle; the neck had been cut off, the opening closed and a new one cut at what had originally been the base of the bottle (op.cit.:150-1). The vessel is from a grave which also yielded an iron spear-head and an iron sword, a bronze penannular brooch with Borre style orna- mentation, two buckles, parts of a horse-bit, a frag- ‘ment of an iron key, a weight etc. The find context is, not entirely certain, but the burial has been inter- preted as a richly equipped 10th-century male in- humation grave, probably dating from the latter part, of that century (Odencrantz 1934), Klinta, Képing, Oland, Sweden Bronze bottle from a cremation burial, containing bones of a woman and of a man (Petersson 1958). The bottle was near-cylindrical in shape, with a 41curved neck and a handle which is probably sec- ondary. A bronze bottle from Tatarskij Tolkos in Russia has a point of attachment for the handle which is similar to that on the bottle from Klinta (Ame 1932: Fig. 68). A layer with bones was found in a burial caim. It contained more than 300 iron nails, suggesting that this is a boat burial, one Arabic (Cufic) silver coin, struck in AD 801-804, fragments of an equal-armed brooch of bronze, and beads made of carnelian, rock-crystal and glass. The following artefacts were found in a pit below the cremation layer: one clay vessel containing burnt bones, a bottle and a dish of 42 Fig. 2. Two bronze bots, one with conventionalised. Arabic inscription from Aska, Hageby- hea, Ostersétand, the other with a handle from Klint, Ko- ping, Oland: a clay vessel from Hemse, Gotland and a gass vessel from grave 542 at Birka, Uppland, Photo: G, Hildebrand, Stockholm, bronze (the latter probably of Anglo-Irish origi iron bar with bronze mounts, 2 oval brooches, a cru- ciform mount and 2 rings of bronze, a silver pen- dant, beads of the same kind as those found in the cremation layer, an axe, a key, a knife, 2 pairs of scissors and fragments of an iron chain. Most of the 16.7 litres of bones found in the grave come from animals —horse, cow, pig, sheep, dog, cat, bear etc. Near the clay vessel, at the bottom of the pit, the unburnt bones of a chicken were found The grave has been dated to the middle of the 10th century (Petersson 1958:139). It is thought toresemble closely the Viking chieftain’s burial some- where in Eastern Russia in about AD 920, as de- scribed by the Arab Ibn Fadlan (op cit.:141). Aska, Hagebyhiga, Ostergétland, Sweden. Bronze bottle from a grave, an extremely rich female burial in a mound (Ame 1924; 1932). The finds in- cluded, among much else, 3 fragments of a Cufic silver coin, 46 beads of glass and rock-crystal (one possibly of camelian), and fragments of an Anglo- Saxon bronze bowl. The bottle is cylindrical, with a narrow, cylindrical neck. The shoulder is decorated, and also bears a conventionalized Arabic inscription (Ame 1924:Figs.5-6), which has been transcribed and read as follows: el-fadl el-akmal wa- (l-a) san gabisa, lillah “The most perfect beneficent and most beautiful gift [is] for God”. Itis thought that the inscription was added to the bronze bottle at a later date, probably by someone not familiar with Arabic letters (Arne 1924:108 1932:107). As the closest parallel to this bottle, a similar one (but with a handle) found in Tatarskij Tolkis, Cistopol, Kazan, Russia, is cited, The hoard it contained included a great number of Cufic silver dithems, struck between AD 875 and 984. This bottle is decorated, but without any inscription (Arne 1932: 100 f. The rich Aska grave with the bronze bottle dates from about AD 975. However, the artefacts it con- tained were produced over a period of at least 150 years (Arne 1932:11), and the bottle may well be earlier than the date of deposition. Bertby, Saltvik, Aland Bronze bottle with a conventionalized inscription, used as a container for a hoard of silver coins. The shape and the ornamentation are similar to those of, the Aska bottle, and the two are thought to have been made at the same place. The inscription is al- most identical with that of the Aska bottle —it was probably made by the same person, possibly some- one in Bulghar (Ame 1932:108). The hoard con- sisted of at least 859 Arabic silver coins, whole or fragmentary, all of them struck between AD 739 and 874/75. — It was probably hidden during the final quarter of the 9th century (personal com. Tuukka Talvio, Helsinki). The places where the coins were struck (and how many) may be of interest (Ame 1932:101): Bagdad 156 Almuhamadija (Rei) 42 Isfahan 49 ‘Samargand Sd. Merv 2 Al-Schasch (Tashkent) 8 T. J. Arne (1932:104f.) has dated these bronze bot- tles to the latter half of the 10th century AD. How- ever, new evidence points to an earlier date, to the late 9th and probably also early 10th century. Ame suggested West Turkestan, Samarqand or Bukhara as their place of origin, And in fact several of the coins found in the bottles come from these parts of Asia. The carnelian beads in some of these finds may have travelled along the same routes as the bronze vessels. Vessels of this kind were normally used as water jugs in Islam, for purifying water used for ritual ablutions before prayer (Ward 1993). The Scandi- navian find contexts ~ as containers for silver hoards, mostly coins ~ do not support the hypothesis that the function came north together with the object. Both context and functions changed. Glass vessels Birka grave 542, Uppland, Sweden We know of only one glass vessel of Oriental origin in Scandinavia, a cylindrical glass vessel from grave 542 in Birka (Arne 1924: Figs. 1-2). White and trans- lucent, it measures 8.9 cm in height and 9.2 cm in diameter. The outside is decorated with bird and plant motifs (originally inlaid with a white paste in relief) (Lamm 1941), The finds from the grave include, among other objects, a sword, shield boss and spearhead of iron, a gilded bronze brooch, a chain of braided gold thread, a silver pendant, and 5 bronze weights. Several similar cylindrical glass vessels have been found in the Caucasus, a region which was strongly influenced by the Persian-Arabic culture around AD 800. One such vessel is known from Egypt, while another, a very close parallel to that from Birka, was found in Samarra, by the river Tigris (Ame 1924 103). Therefore Arne dates the Birka glass to the 9th century, and its most probable place of origin some- where between the Tigris and the Nile, on Islamic soil (op.cit:105). The chain of braided gold thread is also thought to be of Oriental origin, while the silver pendant is Carolingian in style (loc.cit,). 4BFig. 3. Beads from grave 507 at Birka. Most of the beads are made of rock-crystal and carnelian, Photo: ATA, Stockholm. Barkarby, Jarfeilla, Uppland, Sweden Fragments of at least 6 glasses, two of which are Islamic (both with “lustre ornamentation”). One of the Islamic pieces has an inscription in Greek or Coptic (SHM 22145:14) (Jansson 1988:646) Clay vessels Hemse, Gotland, Sweden An inhumation grave here yielded a small, round pottery cup with a handle, (height 4.8 cm, diameter 6.3 cm). The cup is thinly glazed, and the colour varies between white and pale yellow. The following, probably come from the same grave: one “box- shaped” and two animal-head bronze brooches, 3 arm-rings, one bronze pin, a brooch with a fragment of a chain, 26 beads, an antler comb and a damaged Arabic coin. The grave is dated to the 10th century AD (Ame 1938). The cup is thought to have been made in northern Tran, south of the Caspian Sea. The place of origin is most likely to be Gorgan in the 44 province of Mazandaran, and Chinese influence seems indicated. It probably came to Sweden by way of Russia. As the closest parallel Ame cites a cup from Kurganen Pany No, 42, near Vesi, Susdal district in the Gouv. Vladimir in Russia (op.cit.: 107-108, 113; Fig.2). Another similar cup was found in Latvia in 1835, in a Livian burial mound near Sigulda (Ginters 1937:41, fig.1). Birka, Uppland, Sweden Two glazed potsherds from “the black earth” at Birka may be of Islamic origin (Arthenius 1973; Jansson 1988:646). Ceneer (see page 33) Abyn, Hamrange, Gastrikland, Sweden A cast bronze object with open-work plant ormamen- tation, which has been interpreted as a censer. It wasFig. 4. Weights with pseudo-Arabic letters ‘or inscriptions: a) Ny- sutra, Uppland, Swe- den, b) Kopparsvik, Gotland, Sweden Grom Sperber 1996) ¢) Gotland, Sweden, 4) Rosenbys, Eskel- hem, Gotland, Swe- den (from Montelius 1872), e) Haithabu, Germany (from ‘Steuer 1987). found between two large stone blocks, together with a fragment of an oil lamp and 3 glow tongs. Karin Adahl (1990) has described the censer in detail, and also cites parallels. Ame (1943) and Jansson (1988:621f., 646) sug- gest that it could have been made anywhere between Egypt and Iran in about AD 800. According to Karin Adahl (1990), it probably comes from the province of Khorasan in Iran, and should be dated to the late 9th century. ‘The censer may have come from a prosperous home, but we cannot rule out the possibility that it was connected with religious activities. It bears two inscriptions in Arabic (Adahl 1990:33): bi’ ism Allah —“ in the name of God” rahim ~ “merciful” These inscriptions relate the object to the Islamic faith in some way or other Beads One group of artefacts which has been found in a great many Viking Age graves in Scandinavia con- sists of rock-crystal and carnelian beads (Callmer 1977; Hjorungdal etal. 1987). Certain types are thought to have been produced in India (Callmer 1977:94f,), in the state of Gujarat, but other places of origin have also been suggested (Heyerdahl- Larsen 1979). Beads like these were used as votive gifts in Buddhist cultures, and as rosary beads in Islam as well as in the Catholic Church. When the beads came to Scandinavia during the Viking Age, Gujarat had been conquered by the Muslims (Nadwi 1934-5). It thus seems likely that they came to Scandinavia as part of the Arabic trade, which we can trace as far east as to India on the evidence of other archaeological finds (Bykov 1965). However, we have at present no indication of any religious ideas or functions linked to the beads in their origi- nal context having come to Scandinavia together with them, Here they are usually found in women’s graves, where they occur as parts of necklaces. Balances and weights Among the objects from the Arab world which came to Scandinavia during the Viking Age we also find balances and weights. As early as in 1914, T. J. Ame suggested that the Viking Age weight system in Sweden had originated in the Near East (Ame 1914). The material has been analyzed by several archaeologists in recent years, including Erik Jondell (1974; the Norwegian material), H. Steuer (1987), Susan E. Kruse (1992; the English material) and Erik Sperber (1996; the Swedish material). Here I refer mostly to Sperber’s work. Most of the 115 collapsible balances found in Sweden are of an Eastern type which was introduced into the country around AD 880/890. The most com- mon types of Islamic weights found in Sweden are the bronze cubo-octahedral type, and the spherical type with flat poles the latter are most often of iron and coated with lead bronze, although some are of solid lead bronze. An extremely thorough analysis has led Erik Sperber (1996) to the conclusion that the cubo-octahedral weights, as well as the spherical weights from Gotland, fit into weight systems orig nating from the Islamic system, which was estab- lished in Bagdad in AD 696. Eight of the Swedish spherical weights display 45pseudo-Arabic symbols or letters on the poles. These ornaments are reminiscent of Islamic coins. On one of them (UMF 3442: Nysitra parish, Got- land), we may read: rastil Allah bakh — “choise’ lah’s prophet”, and: The latter text occurs also on two other weights, and may be seen as a kind of warranty of quality ‘The great influx of weights into Sweden has been dated to the period AD 890-930. Many of the Birka ‘graves from that period contained weights belonging to the Islamic weight system (Sperber 1996: 104-6). All traders in Birka, whether Eastem, Western or Scandinavian, seem to have adopted the Islamic 46 Fig. 5. Silver hoard with Islamic (Arabic) coins and jewellery hid- den in the soil around A.D. 970 at Birka, Sweden, Photo: Soren Halloren, ATA, Stockholm, weight system, Sperber has a very interesting con- clusion about conditions in Birka (Sperber 1996: 107): It is most probable that the Muslim people stayed at Birka; many of them may have been wealthy and literate. Pethaps they needed someone, a mullah, to lead their prayers and speak for them in front of the king and also to guarantee the precision of the weights. In all, it seems quite possible that the well-docu- mented Christian mission by Ansgar in the 830s had a commercial and/or religious Islamic follower about AD 890 before the final Christianization of Sweden started several decades later, Such an interpretation agrees well with my conc- Jusion at the end of the present paper.Fig. 6. The distribution of Islamic coins found in Europe. (From Jansson 1988). Cufic coins ‘The largest — and possibly also the most important — group of artefacts demonstrating the connections between the Arab world and Scandinavia are the Arabi or Cufic coins found in northern Europe. Most of them are silver dirhems, only a few are gold coins. About 85.000 such coins have been found in Scandinavia, most of them in silver hoards on the Swedish islands of Gotland and land (Hovén 1981; 1985). There are only about 500 in Norway (Skaare 1976; Khazaei 1993), some 5000 in Denmark (Skovmand 1942, Kromann 1990); the rest have been found in Sweden. A few of the coins come from the Arab colonies in Spain and the western Mediterranean (Jonsson & Ostergren 1983, Kro- mann 1988), but the main part came along the eastern routes, from the Caliphate northwards through Russia, Ukraine and other former Soviet republics, and reached Scandinavia by way of the Baltic. The stream of coins started at the end of the 8th century, and reached a climax during the 10th; it came to an almost total stop around AD 1015 (Hovén 1985). ‘The Cufic coins provide a great deal of important information, written in Arabic: the name of the person who had ordered the coin to be struck, that of the caliph and often also that of the mint master. The place of minting and the year the coin was struck — according to the Muslim calendar —are also given. But when they reached the place of deposition, and when they were deposited in their final archaeo- logical context, is a different matter. Islamic coins are fairly stereotype. Apart from the information mentioned above, they are characterized by the quotations from the Quran which occur in the central area of the obverse (Hovén 1985:74f.). The texts quoted change in the course of the years (Mitchiner 1977:13-14). At first, the text was the Islamic creed: Quran 47:21; 6:163: There is no God but God, who has no associate After ca, 830, the coins of the Abbasid and later dy- nasties started to carry an outer marginal inscription: Quran 30:3-4: To God belongs the order before and after; and in that day the believers shall rejoice in the help of God One face of the coins from the Umayyad caliphs bears the text: Quran 112: God is alone, God is eternal, He begets not and is not begotten, nor is there anyone like Him On the other face we find the text: 47Quran 48:29; 9:33: Mohammed is Allah’s prophet sent with guidan- ce and the Religion of Truth, to make i prevail over every other Religion, averse though idolaters may be On the coins of the Abbasid and later dynasties, the inscription on the reverse was changed to merely: Quran 48:29: Mohammed is God’s Prophet These quotations from the Quran may be interpreted in several ways: they were reminders of central parts ‘of the Islamic doctrines for their own fellow- believers. They probably also acted as propaganda aimed at the non-believers, the pagans. The Muslim traders and officials of various kinds were the most active missionaries during the Viking Age. Bearing this in mind, it seems only natural that the exchange medium, the coins, should act as small, yet impor- tant, “missionary tracts”. — Did their message reach Scandinavia during the Viking Age? Graffiti We know of several cases of graffiti and inscriptions on the Arabic coins which reached northern Europe during the Viking Age. Although the significance of these has in some cases been overstated, especi- ally as concerns the runes (Knirk 1994), there is no doubt about this being an important source. A number of studies on the Swedish and Russian mate- rial have been carried out (Linder-Welin 1974; Ham- marberg & Rispling 1985; Dobrovolskij, Dubov & Kuzmenko 1991). ‘The most common types of graffiti and inscrip- 48 Fig. 7. Islamic coins with graffiti found in Sweden: upper row with Thor's hammers, be- ow with Christian crosses. Photo: Egil Mik- kelsen, tions on the Arabic coins are Oriental and runic in- scriptions, depictions of objects such as weapons and boats, religious and magic symbols and, of course, several non-decipherable signs. Most of the graffiti were probably made in Scandinavia, some possibly also in Scandinavian Russia, I have myself investigated graffiti on about 15 000 Arabic coins from Sweden (all in the collec- tion of the Royal Coin Cabinet, Stockholm), concen- trating on signs and symbols which can be associ ated with religion and belief. Below I list the graffiti in the form of Thor’s hammers and Christian crosses in this material. Thor's hammers I found 12 instances of Thor’s hammers, the symbol of the Norse god Thor. They are normally small and simple, and occur in different places of the surface of the coin. 9 consist of two simple lines meeting at right angles, a tenth has an arrow at the end. One consists of a simple line joined to a rectangular box. Finally we have a big Thor's hammer in double outline. 5 of these coins come from unknown, provenances in Sweden, while 7 are from finds on Gotland, The years of minting lay between AD 814 and 934, with a mean around AD 898 (earliest pos- sible date: the date of minting). (Dating according to Bengt Hovén, pers. com.). Thor's hammers also occur as amulets. Most common are those of iron (from graves); silver ones are mostly found in hoards. About 450 of the iron so-called Thor’s hammer rings have been found in ‘Sweden, 58 of these come from Birka burials. About 95% of all the Thor's hammer rings were found in cremation graves, which are obviously heathen/pre- Christian. In Birka they also occur in 5 chamberOOOO® ADOX®O© Fig. 8. Graffiti on Islamic coins found in Sweden: Thor's ham- mers and Christian crosses, graves and 4 shaft graves. Thor's hammers in all their forms are dominant among 10th-century finds from Sweden (Strém 1984) ‘We may thus conclude that the Thor's hammers graffiti on Arabic coins, and those made as true amulets, are contemporaneous: a few of them were made during the 9th century, but the main part date from around 900 and from the first half of the 10th, century. Christian crosses It can often be difficult to see whether two lines crossing each other at right angles form a Christian cross or not. Some are obviously just lines dividing the coins into two or four parts. The most reliable ones are those where one long and one short line cross each other at the middle of the short one, but beyond the middle of the long one. This is the type of cross we know from westem Christianity. I have found 13 such crosses. Two coins have crosses of the same type, but combined with additional details. ‘The other simple type of cross which is interpre- ted as representing the Christian cross has more or less equal arms crossing each other at right angles at about the middle of both lines. 10 coins with this type of cross have been recorded. ‘Three crosses are of special shapes. On a coin from Hermige, Gallersta, Narke (SHM 8671:25), the cross consists of two rectangles crossing each other at right angles. Another has two sets of parallel lines crossing each other in the same way. Finally, we have a coin from Grausne, Stenkyrka, Gotland (SHM 7093) - this has an Orthodox Christian cross incised on one face. The dates (dates of minting) of the 28 Arabic coins with crosses interpreted by me as Christian crosses, range from AD 758 to 970, with a mean date of AD 907. The 10 cross pendants and one crucifix of silver found in Birka burials were all found in inhumation graves 6 chamber graves, 2 shaft graves and 2 coffin graves, all probably female (Grislund 1984), They are all dated to the “Late Birka” period (op. cit:114-5), generally understood to be the 10th cen- tury. On comparing these with the occurrence and dates of the graffiti crosses on Arabic coins, we find a clear correspondence in time, with a predominance around AD 900 and the immediately following years, Conclusions How is this material to be interpreted? Why were Thor’s hammers and Christian crosses scratched across the quotations from the Quran? We have good reasons to believe that during the Viking Age, the people in Scandinavia, and particularly those in Sweden, knew about Islam, We know that Arab traders had visited Scandinavia; they may even have settled in Birka for some time. Scandinavian traders also travelled afar, to Spain in the west, and east- wards, through Russia, into Asia, where they met Muslims. And thus the Scandinavians must have known about Islam. It is likely that they knew some of the main aspects of the Islamic doctrine, and they must surely also have been aware of the fact that the Arabic texts, as found on the coins, brought a mes- sage from this religion. When our ancestors scratched Thor's hammers and crosses on the faces of the Arabic coins, they must presumably have wanted to show that they dissociated themselves from the other faith, from Islam, During the Viking Age, the people of northern Europe tried, for some reason or other, to render the quotations from the Quran harmless, or to confront Allah with their own Norse or Christian God, by scratching their own symbols and runes over the Islamic messages. During the latter half of the 9th century and the first half of the 10th, the ancient Norse religion was confronted with a strong competitor, brought to the North by the Christian mission. In the discussion about the change of religion in Scandinavia, only ‘two religions ~ the ancient Norse and Christianity — have normally been considered as active pai pants. To my mind, ideas from Islam might have made this process a little more complicated, at least in eastern Sweden. People who had adhered to the old Norse religion, as well as those who had con- verted to Christianity, may well have seen Islam as a competitor to their own faith. It is also worth consi- dering whether the competition between Christianity and Islam might have resulted in a certain delay in the process of Christianisation in parts of Scandi- navia. 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