News
The Mørstad-hoard - the largest coin hoard from Viking Norway ever. In sum 4862 coins dated from c.970 to 1040s have been found on a field in Rena in Innlandet county, some 170 kms north of Oslo. For an overview of this hoard see. For a presentation by Innlandet archaeological unit see. For a webinar on this extraordinary treasure see by Norwegian Directorate for Cultural Heritage see.
Murray Andrews has recently been awarded a grant from the Sven Svenssons stiftelse to undertake research into the Hornö treasure, off the coast of Bohuslän. The Hornö treasure is of crucial importance to understanding the bifacial coinages of Magnus Lagabøte and Eirik Magnusson. Murray's research aims to produce a modern catalogue of the hoard, which will be integrated into ongoing re-assessment of the typology and chronology of the royal coinage in the late 13th century.
Public defence: NOVUM MONETAE
Master Mika Boros at the Department of Archaeology, Conservation and History will defend her dissertation NOVUM MONETAE - Implementation of regulated coinage in medieval Norway, Poland and Austria for the degree of philosophiae doctor (PhD).
Time and place: Thursday May 28, 2026 12:30, Theologisk eksamenssal, Domus Academica, Centrum. Trial lecture Thursday 28 May 2026, 10:15.
Coins and Scaldic Poetry - Legitimation of Royal power 11th century
Funding from Norwegian Research Council (FRIPRO)
Ben Allport has received funding for Researcher Project for Early Career Scientists (FRIPRO): "Medieval Propaganda. Coinage, Skaldic Poetry, and the Legitimization of Royal Power in Norway, c. 995-1111."
Allport's project was one of nine Early Career projects that received funding. Host: Department of Ethnography, Numismatics, Classical Archaeology and University History, Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo. Duration: Four years.
Congratulations!
Dr. Florent Audy, New Associate Professor at the Coin Room
Florent has primarily focused on the use of coins in the Viking Age, and he has already made valuable contributions to the exhibitions in the upcomming Viking Age Museum and the newly discovered Mørstad-hoard from Åmot in Innlandet, that so-far comprises more than 4,500 Viking Age coins.
Welcome!
XVII International Numismatic Congress 2027 in Frankfurt am Main
To mark the centenary of the founding of the International Numismatic Council in 1927, the congress will be held under the theme ‘Transformations and Transitions’ at Goethe University. The call for sessions is now open, and submissions can be made via the Congress website until 15 June 2026. The subsequent call for papers and posters will be open from September 2026.
Seminar, Thursday 5 November 2026: St. Olavs gate 29, 14:00-16:00: Immanent Saints and Stranger Kings: Power, Presence, and the Cult of St Adalbert in Medieval Poland v/professor Wojtek Jezierski (University of Gothenburg)
Seminar, Thursday 17 September 2026, St. Olavs gate 29, 14:00-16:00: Princess Kristin Håkonsdatter in Castilian Primary Sources v/professor Michele Curnis (Carlos III University of Madrid)
20th Viking Congress
The 20th Viking Congress will be held in Norway 8–14 August 2026 followed by a Post-Congress Tour 15–17 August. It will be 76 years since the first Viking Congress was held Lerwick in 1950. The themes of the Congress: Landscapes and resources, Interactions, collaborations, and a sense of belonging, The long Viking Age, and The future of the Viking Age – dialogues with the public. The Congress will include several papers on coins, coinage and monetary issues. For more relevant information, see Congress webpage.
Public defence doctoral thesis 28 May 2026: Novum Monetae - Introduction and implementation of coinage in medieval peripheral Europe v/Mika V. Boros. Details on the event follow soon.
Seminar, Thursday 21 May 2026, St. Olavs gate 29, 14:00-16:00: Interpreting coins, finds and collections: A contextual approach to numismatics v/Florent Audy.
Conference: 29-30 April 2026 National Museum, Copenhagen: Beyond Jelling: Place, Body, Process, c.800-c.1200. Paper: Byzantine influence on Scandinavian coinage c.1040s to c.1070s: why Denmark, why not Sweden or Norway? v/Svein H Gullbekk
Seminar, Thursday 23 April 2023, Museum of Cultur History, 3rd floor 14:00-15:30: Coinage in the medieval periphery v/Mika V. Boros.
Seminar, Tuesday 21 April 2026, Museum of Cultur History, 3rd floor 14:00-15:30: Byzantine influence on Scandinavian coinage c.1040s to c.1070s: why Denmark, why not Norway or Sweden? v/Svein H Gullbekk
The Spanish Ministry of Culture's National Research Projects has awarded Noé Conejo Delgado’s project with funding: Money, Economy, Rituality and Christianity in the North-east of the Iberian peninsula (AD 4th-7th centuries).
New member: Gareth Williams, one of the finest and most prolific scholars of our generation working on numismatics, history and numismatics with ongoing research on subjects as “Coins and Conquest: The coinage of Harold II and William I”, “The use of early medieval coins as evidence”, “Viking warfare and military organisation” and “Viking camps and urbanisation”. Gareth is a member of the steering group of the new Viking museum under construction at Bygdøy. He has accepted an invitation to give a lecture on Longphort and wintersetl: Viking camps as a new model for proto-urban settlement in the ninth century at MCH this Autumn (date tbd).
New artikkel: S.H. Gullbekk, Sean O’Neill, Matthew J. Walsh. "Measuring trust: Attitudes towards money in eleventh century Norway", in: Viking special issue 3: Telling different stories: Combining perspectives on the Viking Age (2025), 191–210, DOI: http://dx.doi.org/12204
Ben Allport moves to Groningen: Ben will take up a position as postdoctor on the ERC-funded CONTACT project at the University of Groningen. The project explores the Norse expansion across the North Atlantic using a combination of cutting edge dating methods, statistical analysis and historical research. Ben's role will be to explore the European knowledge and conceptualization of Greenland and Vinland during the medieval period. He will still be a member of our research Group.
We wish him good luck in his new position.
New member: Dr. Noé Conejo Delgado, Humanities: History, Geography, and Art Department, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid.
Spanish visiting scholar to the Coin Room May-June 2025: Dr. Noé Conejo Delgado is a Spanish historian and archaeologist specializing in ancient and medieval numismatics. Dr Delgado has recently held a position as Marie Curie-scholar at the Università degli studi di Padova for two years (2021-2023). In 2019 he obtained a PhD in archaeology at the University of Seville and the University of Lisbon with a thesis entitled "Monetary economy of the rural areas of Roman Lusitania". His main line of research is to reconstruct the social, economic and ideological sphere of ancient and medieval societies through the study of coins. During his stay in Oslo he will give two seminars (to be announced).
New article by phd-student Mika Boros: "New Eleventh-Century Coin Finds from Norway," Numismatic Chronicle 184 (2024), 173-229. En oppdatert oversikt over norske myntfunn ca. 1000-1100 etter Kolbjørn Skaares doktoravhandling, Coins and Coinage in Viking-Age Norway (1976). En solid diskusjon om funnenes betydning for vår forståelse av mynt- og pengehistorien på det norske 1000-tallet.
“Vikingtidsmuseum, ikke vikingskipsmuseum”, debattinnlegg i Klassekampen,
21. oktober: Samlet sett planlegges det for omtrent 5000 gjenstander i utstillingene på Bygdøy. Nærmere halvparten er mynt. Det ligger an til å bli en av de største utstillingene av vikingtidsmynt noensinne i norsk regi. Les artikkelen
Murray Andrews has published a new article on ritually folded coins from medieval
Norway - "Faith and Fortune: Ritually Folded Coins from Medieval Norway" in the Journal of Archaeological Numismatics (vol. 13/14, 2024), pp. 241-253.
Opportunity: Associate professor in numismatics in Oslo
We are happy to announce this rare opportunity - a permanent numismatic post with generous opportunities for research with emphasis on Viking Age and Medieval studies. Deadline: 1 September 2024
New publications: Standardization in the Middle Ages, vol. 1 (of 2): The North,
edited by: Line Cecilie Engh, Svein H Gullbekk and Hans Jacob Orning, Berlin: De Gruyter. Available Open Access.
Including S.H. Gullbekk, M.J. Walsh and M. Moen, “Standardization of ritual offerings: The Eucharist, human sacrifice and monetization”, pp.201-228.
See De gruyters webpage.
New member: Hans Jacob Orning, professor in medieval history, is joining the research group from May 2. He has been instrumental in several projects related to medieval numismatics: Exhibition "Mirror Kingdoms: Poland-Norway c.1000-1300", as co-supervicor for Mika Boros' phd-project "Monetisation at the frontiers of medieval Europe", and as co-author of the recent book "En reise til Roma i sporene til pilegrimen Nikolas Bergsson året 1152" (Dreyer 2024).
Podcaster: i serien "Historier som endret verden" v/Christian Konglund, Gjenklang media: der vi følger Nikolas på hans tur fra Island til Roma året 1152. I løpet av sommeren og tidlig høst 2024 ble podcastene lastet ned 250,000 ganger. Podcastene er tilgjengelig på Acast, Apple og Spotify
Podcast: En reise til Roma, Liberal halvtime og Civitasamtalen (Youtube) v/Mathilde Fasting, Hans Jacob Orning og Svein H Gullbekk, 10. mai 2024
New book: Hans Jacob Orning and Svein H Gullbekk, "En reise til Roma i sporene til pilegrimen Nikolas Bergsson året 1152", Dreyer forlag 2024. The book has received recommendable reviews in Klassekampen by Thor Erik Hverven and Stavanger Aftenblad by Per Egil Omdal. The Arts and Culture Norway has awarded it with a national distribution to all Norwegian public libraries.
Norgeshistorien NRK P2: Turister i middelalderen: tilgjengelig link.
Project New Viking Museum at Bygdøy: Ongoing work on numismatic and monetary contributions provide new insights into the nature of Viking Ages society and economy. Coins will be found in different parts of the exhibtion and with dedicated space for material narratives on Viking Man, money and resources. Projected date for opening: Ultimo 2027.
Ben Allport has signed up for a four month project position working on the upcoming Viking exhibtions, from April to July 2024.
Murray Andrews leaves Oslo and the position as Assistence Professor at the Coin Room and returns to England for further academic challenges. We wish him all the best and hope to continue the cooperations.
New book: Human Sacrifice and Value: Revisiting the Limits of Sacred Violence from an Anthropological and Archaeological Perspective, edited by Matthew Walsh, Sean O’Neill, Marianne Moen, Svein Harald Gullbekk, Oxford and New York, 2023, 472 pp including articles on CEO dismissal as an act of human sacrifice by Jan Ketil Arnulf, Janicke Rasmussen, Sandra Hjersing and Thea Berner; The Economy of Sacrifice. Christ, coins and the Eucharist in the Middle Ages by Svein H. Gullbekk and Martin Wansgaard Jürgensen, and Some human Sacrifices in Mongolia and their rationales, by Caroline Humphrey.
Date for publication of collected volume: "Standardization in the Middle Ages, vol. 1: The North," edited by: Line Cecilie Engh, Svein Harald Gullbekk and Hans Jacob Orning, Berlin: De Gruyter, September 23, 2024
The book produced under the auspice of the research group https://www.hf.uio.no/iakh/english/research/groups/standardization-in-the-middle-ages/index.html
Upcoming exhibition in Museum of Cultural History: "NORVEGR: Nye fortellinger om Middelalderen 1000-1500" with a special exhibition in hall 3 (of 3) on The Monetary System and Monetary Reform in the Reign of Magnus Lawmender (1263-1280).
Open: February 1, 2024.
Upcoming exhibition in Museum of Cultural History: Mirror Kingdoms: Norway-Poland c.1000-1300. The project group: Ben Allport, Anna Dryblak, Martin Hager-Saltnes, Eili Lindøe and Svein H Gullbekk. Project leadership Grzegor Pac, Wojtek Jezierski and Hans Jacob Orning. Opening: March 21, 2024.
The research leading to these results has received funding from the Norwegian Financial Mechanism 2014-2021 (2019/34/H/HS3/00500)
New Member of the research group: Ben Allport, IAKH, embarking on a new project extending ideas from his PhD as part of the ELITES-project, with focus on the construction of collective identity, and particularly collective affiliation to the crown, at the boundary between the Viking Age and the early medieval period (c. 995–1130). Interdisciplinary approach comparing literary sources to evidence from the material record, particularly coinage: the emergence of a native, and later national coinage in Norway, particularly during the reign of Harald Hardrada as part of a drive to establish a collective awareness of, and affiliation, to the crown.
Numismatic symposium in Stavanger 1-2 June 2023: 'Monetary boundries and frontiers'. Open call for papers. Deadline 1 Marz. Contact: Linn Eikje Ramberg linn.l.ramberg@uis.no or Jon Anders Risvaag jon.risvaag@ntnu.no
Our research group has been granted status as interdisciplinary and interdepartemental within the Museum of Cultural History-structures.
Svein H Gullbekk this years (2023) Robinson-fellow at The British Museum, London.
Murray Andrews has joined the research group as Associate Professor at The Coin Cabinet in the Museum of Cultural History from 12 October 2022. He will embark on a project studying the coinage of Eirik Magnusson, Duke Håkon and Håkon V, 1280-1319.
New paperback edition available: S.H. Gullbekk, C.
Kilger, H. Roland and S. Kristensen, (eds.), Coins in Churches. Archaeology, Money and Religious Devotion in Medieval Northern Europe
Projects and ongoing activities
Monetisation in medieval Northern Europe
Stipendiat Mika Boros' Phd-project: Monetisation at the frontiers of medieval Europe. The introduction of local coinage outside the borders of the Holy Roman Empire, Supervisors S.H. Gullbekk, Hans Jacob Orning and Mateusz Bogucki, from 1 September 2021.
Routledge series: Religion and Money in the Middle Ages
The series explores the connections between two of the most dominant aspects of medieval society and culture: religion and money. Both are ubiquitous throughout the Middle Ages, and both are expressed through a wide variety of media, from the textual to the material. In this light, the series recognises the importance of multi-disciplinary perspectives, and welcomes joint as well as individual authorship and editorship.
Vol. 1: Money and the Church in Northern Europe 1000-1200: Practice, Morality and Thought, edited by G.E.M. Gasper and S.H. Gullbekk. Farnham: Ashgate 2015. available in paperback
- Vol. 2: Divina Moneta: coin finds in religious contexts, edited by N. Myrberg Burström and G. Tarnow Ingvardson. New York – Oxford; Routledge 2017, available in paperback
- Vol. 3: Coins in Churches. Archaeology, Money and Religious Devotion in Medieval Northern Europe, edited by S.H. Gullbekk, C. Kilger, S. Kristensen and H. Roland. London and New York: Routledge 2021 ISBN 9780367557065, Routledge 2021, available in paperback
- Vol. 4: Lucia Travaini, The Thirty Pieces of Silver. Coin-relics in medieval and modern Europe, Routledge 2022, 308 pp. ISBN 9780367688028, available in paperback
Series editor: S.H. Gullbekk
Go to Routledge.com to read more about our research on Religion and Money in the Middle Ages
Avsluttete prosjekter
NFR FRIPRO: Religion and Money: Economy of Salvation in the Middle Ages, PI: S.H.Gullbekk (2013-2017)
NFR FRIPRO: Human Sacrifice and Values. The Limits of Sacred Violence, PIs: Rane Willerslev and S.H. Gullbekk (2018-2022)
NFR Humeval: Standardization in the Middle Ages, website (2018-2023)
Norway-Poland Grants (EØS): Symbolic Resources and Political Structures on the Periphery: Legitimization of the Elites in Poland and Norway, c. 1000-1300, PIs: Grzegorz Pac, Wojtek Jezierski and Hans Jacob Orning (2021-2024)