![]() ![]() The status of hacksilver as a calculable substance of value was guaranteed through ertog calculation. Hacksilver, by contrast, has no body, and its meaning as a form of currency was indissolubly dependent upon the use of standardized weights which sanctioned the economic value of this amorphous silver. a given number of coins per eyrir (Norw.: øre “ounce”). The value of the rings and ingots was rooted in the concept of the god Odin’s eternal and stable gold ring, and their character as calculable objects guaranteed through aurar-calculation: i.e. The meaning of the coin as an object of value was rooted in a world of Antique-Christian concepts, and its status as a unit of reckoning was guaranteed through seedcorn calculation. The wholeness of the object was essential for the concepts of value to exist. Both coins and rings/ingots were used and valued as complete objects. These were coins, rings/ingots, and fragmented silver respectively. In this study, it is argued that in the Viking Period there were three different principles of value and payment that were materially embodied in the outer form and weight of the silver object. This scale makes it possible to compare goods and put a price upon them. On the other hand, money as a medium of exchange relates to a scale of calculation which legitimates and defines its exchange-value. The value of “money” was guaranteed in terms of inalienable possessions which stabilized and at the same time initiated exchange relationships. For “money” to be acceptable as an item of value depends on the one hand upon unshakable reference points that are rooted in an imaginary conceptual world. The use of “money” at Kaupang is approached from two angles. Such were the circumstances from when Kaupang was founded at the beginning of the 9th century to the abandonment of the town sometime in the middle of the 10th. It is argued that there had existed standardised media of value, or “cash/money” in Kaupang, which made calculations and payment for goods possible. The working hypothesis of this chapter is that exchange across such borders was undertaken outside a socially binding “sphere”, a situation that was made possible by the existence of different forms of market trade. Kaupang has yielded comprehensive evidence of craft activity and long-distance trade crossing economic, political and ethnic boundaries. This chapter examines the use of silver as a medium of payment in the Early Viking Period. Moreover, new archaeological finds from private metal detecting from recent years indicate that bullion-based trivial transactions seem to have taken place at a large range of littoral farms around the Trondheimsfjorden, and not, as could be expected, only in the most important central farms or a small number of major trading places. By analysing a number of case studies, their locations and resource bases, the partly different functions of these sites within the frames of local and supra-regional exchange networks become obvious. This paper explores the role of these central farms as gateways and nodes between waterscapes and landscapes within an amphibious network, exemplified by matters of trade and exchange. Literary and archaeological sources indicate a high number of central farms situated around the fjord or at waterways leading to it, all of them closely connected by water. “The millions of resonant interactions between the atoms and the laser light required for trapping and detection increase substantially the signal-to-noise ratio, making the method extremely selective for the targeted 39Ar atoms.During the Viking Age, the Trondheimsfjorden in Central Norway emerges as a hub of maritime communication and exchange, supported by an advanced ship-building technology which offered excellent conditions for water-bound traffic on both local and supra-regional levels. “In our approach, the atoms are slowed down, trapped inside a magneto-optical trap and single 39Ar atoms are counted selectively,” explains Ebser. The difference in mass number and nuclear spin of the different isotopes result in a shift of the optical resonance frequency that enables the detection of different nuclides. ![]() The method uses a laser to induce fluorescence in a particular radioisotope. The team proposes a new method - argon trap trace analysis (ArTTA) - that reduces the sample size to 5 litres and measurement time to 24 hours, and enables the detection of rare isotopes down to 10 −16. Because of the low concentration and long half-life of 39Ar, samples of ~1000 litres and several weeks of measurement were needed. ![]() In the older deep water, there is even less 39Ar,” remarks Ebser. ![]() “In modern air or ocean surface water there is only one atom of 39Ar in about one quadrillion ( 39Ar/Ar = 10 −15) stable Ar atoms. The first attempts to use 39Ar to study ocean ventilation date back to the early 1980s and were complicated by the very low concentration of 39Ar in deep water. ![]()
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