Imported fur in Viking Age Denmark and its importance as visual marker

Lecture by Luise Ørsted Brandt, Assoc. Prof. at the Globe institute, UCPH.

International trade is one of the major characteristics of the Viking Age. Fur’s mention in written sources has placed it as one of the Vikings major commercial products. While the significance of imported Viking fur for the Arab and continental European market is well-described, the quantity and use of fur in the Viking Denmark and Scandinavia has been poorly understood. Fur trade has been notoriously difficult to study as its organic nature leads to its rapid degradation. I however my research (2022) provided the first biomolecular evidence to support that fur was indeed imported to Denmark. My Sapere Aude project aims to answer to what extent Denmark was part of the international fur trade and used fur as a visual markers of status by 1) locating and registering fur, 2) developing new proteomics methods and references to identify the species of fur, 3) conduct a pilot study to validate isotope analysis as a tool to identify non-local fur, and 4) determine the meaning of imported fur.

CTR meetings and lectures Spring 2024

Every other Tuesday at CTR, we have administrative meetings running through the semester, followed by a scientific presentation, either by a CTR member or an invited scholar. We kindly invite everyone interested to join these lectures.

Lecture, ca. 14:00-14:45

The weekly lecture will start at 14:00 and will be followed by a free discussion amongst all participants. Please see the program below. You are more than welcome to join us in person at CTR, University of Copenhagen South  Campus, room 11B-1-05.

If dates are still open for lectures in the calendar, you are more than welcome to write to us with suggestions for speakers.

Zoom Link

You can join us via Zoom in case you are not able to attend the event in person. In that case, simply follow this link.

We expect everybody to turn on the camera and have your name as the “name tag”. It will be possible to join the discussion but until personally addressed, we ask all participants to be muted.

Meeting 15:00-16:00

The second hour, 15:00-16:00, is mainly reserved for CTR members, yet if anyone would like to join, they are welcome. The meeting consists of general administrative and CTR-related news and information as well as “News around the table”, where everyone gives a short update on their projects. Anyone participating in the meeting is expected to join this, also if you are not a member of CTR.