This paper investigates the process of early urbanization in Oslo, Norway, during the initial period of early 11th–late 12th Century using a bioarchaeological approach. Through the use of isotope analyses performed on teeth and bone from 20 humans buried in Oslo during the first phases of urban settlement, individual dietary change and mobility are reconstructed. Oslo is traditionally perceived as one of many urban settlements initiated by royal power, and this paper contributes to this discussion by investigating the origin of the first settlers, and also how the early urban process affected their way of living. Results suggest that most individuals in the study were of local origin, and had a constant diet throughout life from childhood to its last phase. The absence of individual dietary change sharply contrasts the dynamic dietary patterns observed in people from the Viking age. Dietary variation between individuals does suggest, however, social differences among the early urban population of Oslo.

This article examines the development, handling, and depositions of disc-on-bow brooches from the sixth to tenth centuries ad in the Vendel and Viking periods in Norway and mainland Sweden. A revised typological framework is presented, and the context of these brooches explored. The authors discuss their preservation, re-use, fragmentation, and ritual meaning within ongoing social negotiations and internal conflicts from the late Vendel period into the Viking Age. References to the past in Viking-Age society and the significance of women for maintaining narratives of the past are considered, as are levels of access, control, and definition of narratives of the past in times of social redefinition.

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