Microwear and Reflectance Transformation Imaging Data of Iconic Viking-Age Anthropomorphic Figures: a BODY-POLITICS Dataset

Abstract

The dataset consists of microwear analysis and Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI) datafiles of ten iconic Viking-Age anthropomorphic artefacts (c. 750-1050 CE) from the collections of the Swedish Historical Museum in Stockholm. The objects, anthropomorphic silver and bronze miniatures, were recorded in September 2023 as part of the ERC Starting Grant BODY-POLITICS.

The key objective was to empirically interrogate the engagements the objects elicited, i.e. traces of attachment, use, handling, and manipulation [1, 2]. The data consist of data from microwear analysis in a .csv file, 29 micrographs taken with a Dino-Lite, 16 RTI files, and a contextualizing word document, all stored in the EU Open Research Repository on the open-access repository Zenodo. The data are the first of their kind for these types of objects and have value for research targeting microwear and digital imaging analyses on metal, engagement with anthropomorphic imagery, and interpreted religious/ritual objects.

The aim of this paper is thus to describe the formation of the datasets and outline possible reuse of the data. The following articles are linked with the dataset:

Eriksen, MH, B. Marshall, E. Aslesen and C. Tsoraki 2025 Viking body-making: new evidence for intra-action with iconic Viking anthropomorphic ‘art’. Antiquity. Published online 2025:1-19. doi:10.15184/aqy.2025.10230

Eriksen, MH, K.M. Olley, E. Tollefsen and B. Marshall 2025 Womb Politics: The pregnant body and archaeologies of absence. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 35(3), 522–535 https://doi.org/10.1017/S0959774325000125