For this study, Eriksen analyzes and interprets the archaeological data of house remains from Viking Age Norway, which are here synthesized for the first time. Doors control access, generate movement, and demark boundaries, yet also serve as potent ritual objects. A highly charged architectural element, the door is not merely a practical, constructional solution. In this book, Marianne Hem Eriksen explores the social organization of Viking Age Scandinavia through a study of domestic architecture, and in particular, the doorway. ![]() Ultimately, the paper suggests that deposition of door rings in buildings with sacral qualities must be considered a practice holding a specific and powerful meaning, and that door rings and doors could have cultic-judicial connotations in the Viking Age. Rings are also connected with oaths – ‘swearing a ring oath’, associated with the god Ullr. Furthermore, the ring is a powerful sacral symbol in Norse worlds, and neck and arm-rings are archaeologically interpreted as expressions of leadership and social rank. In a few instances door rings have been intentionally deposited in sacral buildings. ![]() I focus particularly on ring-shaped door-handles, which in the Viking Age seem exclusively linked with cult buildings and aristocratic halls. It is argued that the door constituted a meaningful boundary to sacral and domestic spaces in the Viking Age, a boundary with judicial and cultic implications. This paper considers a connection between the Viking-age door, judicial regulation, and the cult place.
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