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"The Viking Age--between 750 and 1050--saw an unprecedented expansion of the Scandinavian peoples. As traders and raiders, explorers and colonists, they reshaped the world between eastern North America and the Asian steppe. Based on the latest archaeological and textual evidence, Children of Ash and Elm tells the story of the Vikings on their own terms: their politics, their cosmology, their art and culture. From Bjèorn Ironside, who led an expedition to sack Rome, to Gudrid Thorbjarnardâottir, the most traveled woman in the world, Price shows us the real Vikings, not the caricatures they've become in popular culture and history"--

Delving into the intriguing aspects of magic, sorcery, and witchcraft within Viking culture, this award-winning work offers a fresh perspective on the Viking Age. It meticulously examines historical evidence, shedding light on the spiritual beliefs and practices that shaped this fascinating period. Through this exploration, readers gain a deeper understanding of the cultural significance of the supernatural in Viking society.

In this timely collection, Neil Price provides a general introduction to the archaeology of shamanism by bringing together recent archaeological thought on the subject. Blending theoretical discussion with detailed case studies, the issues addressed include shamanic material culture, responses to dying and the dead, shamanic soundscapes, the use of ritual architecture and shamanism in the context of other belief systems such as totemism. Following an intial orientation reviewing shamanism as an anthropological construct, the volume focuses on the Northern hemisphere with case studies from Greenland to Nepal, Siberia to Kazakhstan. The papers span a chronological range from Upper Palaeolithic to the present and explore such cross-cutting themes as gender and the body, identity, landscape, architecture, as well as shamanic interpretations of rock art and shamanism in the heritage and cultural identity of indigenous peoples. The volume also addresses the interpretation of shamanic beliefs in terms of cognitive neuroscience and the modern public perception of prehistoric shamanism.Part One -- The archaeology of shamanism: Cognition, cosmology and world-view1. An archaeology of altered states: Shamanism and material culture studiesNeil S. Price2. Southern African shamanistic rock art in its social and cognitive contextsJ.D. Lewis-WilliamsPart Two -- Siberia and Central Asia: The 'cradle of shamanism'3. Rock art and the material culture of Siberian and Central Asian shamanismEkaterina Devlet4. Shamans, heroes and ancestors in the bronze castings of western SiberiaNatalia Fedorova5. Sun Gods or shamans? Interpreting the 'solar-headed' petroglyphs of Central AsiaAndrzej Rozwadowski6. The materiality of shamanism as a 'world-view': Praxis, artefacts and landscapePeter Jordan7. The medium of the message: Shamanism as localised practice in the Nepal HimalayasDamian WalterPart Three -- North America and North Atlantic8. The gendered peopling of North America: Addressing the antiquity of systems of multiple genderSandra E. Hollimon9. Shamanism and the iconography of Palaeo-Eskimo artPatricia D. Sutherland10. Social bonding and shamanism among late Dorset groups in High Arctic GreenlandHans Christian Gullov and Martin AppeltPart Four -- Northern Europe11. Special objects -- special creatures: Shamanistic imagery and the Aurignacian art of south-west GermanyThomas A. Dowson and Martin Porr12. The sounds of transformation: Accoustics, monuments and ritual in the British NeolithicAaron Watson13. An ideology of transformation: Cremation rites and animal sacrifice in early Anglo-Saxon EnglandHoward Williams14. Waking ancestor spirits: Neo-shamanic engagements with archaeologyRobert J. Wallis