In Identity Formation and Diversity in the Early Medieval Baltic and Beyond, the Viking World in the East is made more heterogeneous. Baltic Finnic groups, Balts and Sami are integrated into the history dominated by Scandinavians and Slavs.
Interaction in the region between Eastern Middle Sweden, Finland, Estonia and North Western Russia is set against varied cultural expressions of identities. Ten scholars approach the topic from different angles, with case studies on the roots of diversity, burials with horses, Staraya Ladoga as a nodal point of long-distance routes, Rus' warrior identities, early Eastern Christianity, interaction between the Baltic Finns and the Svear, the first phases of ar-Rus dominion, the distribution of Carolingian swords, and Dirhams in the Baltic region.
Contributors are Johan Callmer, Ingrid Gustin, Charlotte Hedenstierna-Jonson, Valter Lang, John Howard Lind, Marika Mägi, Mats Roslund, Søren Sindbaek, Anne Stalsberg, and Tuukka Talvio.
About the Author: Johan Callmer, Ph.D (1977), Lund University, is professor emeritus of Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, Germany. He has published on early medieval urbanisation, identities among traders and artisans, as well as Scandinavian expansion into the East: From West to East: The Penetretation of Scandinavians into Eastern Europe ca. 500-900 (Lethielleux, 2000) and Herrschaftsbildung und Machtausübung: die Anfänge der ar-Rus (Rus') ca. 500-1000 n. (Thorbecke, 2008).
Ingrid Gustin, Ph.D. (2004), Lund University, is a researcher in Historical Archaeology. She has published two monographs and many articles dealing with Birka, Viking Age trade and eastern contacts including Mellan gåva och marknad: handel, tillit och materiell kultur under vikingatid (Almqvist & Wiksell, 2004) and Trade and Trust in the Baltic Sea area during the Viking Age (Maney Publishing, 2015).
Mats Roslund, Ph.D (2001), Lund University, professor of Historical Archaeology at the same university, has published on social identities, Viking and Medieval trade and ceramics such as Guests in the House. Cultural transmission between Slavs and Scandinavians 900 to 1300 AD (Brill, 2007) and At the end of the silver flow. Islamic dirhams in Sigtuna and the shrinking Viking network (Archeopress, 2015).