Environment and Vikings, with Special Reference to Birka

This volume, published jointly as PACT 52 and Birka Studies 4, is devoted to the environmental history of Viking Age urban sites and their hinterlands, with special reference to Birka, Sweden. The analysis of pollens, diatoms, phytoliths, soil chemistry, macrofossils (fruits, seeds, plant remains, molluscs), the magnetic susceptibility of sediments, the seismic characteristics of the ground, soil erosion and rubbish, are of great value to the study of urban ecology. The authors are mostly the participants in a seminar held on Björkö in 1994; some special studies on Birka were carried out by members of the Birka Environmental History Research Team. The collaboration between the Central Board of National Antiquities (Riksantikvarieämbetet, RAA) and Stockholm University (Dept. of Quaternary Research and Archaeological Research Laboratory) has generated new interdisciplinary research methods and new results for the history of Northern Europe.