Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 36 (2021) 102828 2352-409X/© 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Microscopic identifcation of feathers from 7th century boat burials at Valsg¨ arde in Central Sweden: Specialized long-distance feather trade or local bird use? Birgitta Berglund a, * , Jørgen Rosvold a, b a Department of Archaeology and Cultural History, NTNU University Museum, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), 7491 Trondheim, Norway b Norwegian Institute for Nature Research (NINA), 7485 Trondheim, Norway A R T I C L E INFO Keywords: Bird remains Boat burials Folklore Late Iron Age Microscopic feather investigations Trade commodity Valsg¨ arde ABSTRACT The warriors in the well-equipped, high-rank 7th–8th century boat burials at Valsg¨ arde in Central Sweden were lying in feather stuffed beds. Feathers, especially from Common Eider, are known as trade commodities from the coast of North Norway from the 15th century onwards, but written sources indicate that it started much earlier. The main goal of this investigation was thus to see if the feathers from two of the boat burials, Valsg¨ arde 7 and 8, showed any indications of such specialized long-distance trade of certain bird species. Various levels of bird identifcations were obtained through microscopic analysis of the ancient feathers. Some of these identifcations were corroborated with avian bones in the two burials and from a contemporary farm close to the burials. In this way a remarkably large variety of birds, among them Eagle Owl, was identifed. The birds are likely to have been present in the surrounding areas including the nearby coast of the Baltic Sea. Therefore, the feathers do not suggest long-distance trade, but appear as a new source of knowledge of local bird fauna in archaeological sites. Scandinavian folklore and Islandic Sagas indicated that the feathers had a special meaning, in connection with death and shamanism. The investigations could not confrm long-distance trade with feathers, but gave new perspectives on the use and cultural signifcance of birds in the Late Iron Age in Scandinavia. 1. Introduction Feathers have been used by man as far back as we know to e.g. make clothing and pillows, to help arrows fy, and in decorations. Neander- thals have been found to intentionally harvest feathers (Peresani et al., 2011; Finlayson et al., 2012), and bird wings have been found in several Stone Age graves (Albrethsen and Brinch Petersen, 1976; Mannermaa, 2008; Grünberg, 2013). Alpine ice patches have revealed over 5000 years old feather fetchings (Dove et al., 2005) and goose down pillows are known from at least Roman times (Albarella, 2005). Here we investigate the use of feathers in pagan burials, which in Northern Europe are mostly known from high-rank boat burials from the Late Iron Age (AD 570–1030) (Berglund, 2009). Feathers, especially from Common Eider (Somateria mollissima), are mentioned as trade commodities in North-European written sources from the 15th century onwards, for example from the Faroe Islands (Kolsrud, 1959). In Helgeland, the southern part of North-Norway, Common Eider was almost domesticated. People built nesting houses (and still do), and in return they collected eider down from the nests (Berglund, 2009). Land registers from the 15th century show that nesting sites in this area were highly evaluated (Berglund, 2009). Ohthere, the North-Norwegian chieftain and seafarer, told King Ælfrede of England around AD 890 that the Sami paid him taxes in feathers, and some paid as much as tyn ambra feðra 1 (Bately, 1980). Substantial amounts of feathers were thus probably used as a trade commodity several centuries before it was mentioned in the land- and tax-registers. Feathers used to stuff bedclothes in the two 7th century boat-burials Valsg¨ arde 7 and 8, in Central Sweden, are here investigated through microscope analysis of downy feather types. Thus far, we know of only a handful of such studies on archaeological material (Hargrave, 1965; Messinger, 1965; Sibley et al., 1992; Dove and Peurach, 2002; Rob- ertson, 2002; Rogers et al., 2002; Dove et al., 2005; Hardy and Moncel, 2011; Dove and Wickler, 2016) and as far as we know, the burials at Valsg¨ arde are the oldest among the Late Iron Age burials with feathers * Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: birgitta.berglund@ntnu.no (B. Berglund), jorgen.rosvold@nina.no (J. Rosvold). 1 Ten ambers with feathers. Ambar is a type of bucket made of lags of wood. The size of the ambers is not constant but varies in different areas. (Stigum, 1956). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jasrep https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2021.102828 Received 19 July 2020; Received in revised form 18 January 2021; Accepted 19 January 2021