Weights and Values in the Gotlandic Heartland

Abstract

Roma parish in the centre of Gotland, Sweden, was the point of assembly for the island’s highest political and judicial body – the Gutnal Thing. By scholarly tradition it has been attributed to the area around Roma Abbey, founded by the Cistercian order in the middle of the 12th century. Beginning in 1990, rich Viking Age finds have been recovered during metal detector surveys in the field of Guldåkern, north of the Abbey. The composition of finds lacks parallels on the island and includes a very high number of weights. This paper compiles and discusses these weights in comparison with other Scandinavian finds and relates them to the site and the Gutnal Thing as a social and physical institution.