Now You See It, Now You Don’t: Gender and Identity in a Danish Viking Age Hoard Horizon

The Lille Karleby hoard is the fifth known drinking vessel hoard from the mid-AD 900s. This paper highlights equipment in this and other hoards associated with elite women and argues that we need to understand women’s central role in elite culture in order to understand these hoards. The paper speculates that these five hoards were deposited in reaction to a political crisis, provoked by the expansion of the West Danish Jelling Dynasty and its replacement of old East Danish elites with new, appointed officials. Thus, it draws attention to elite women’s gender specific-roles and agency in politics during a period of significant political change.