Holmfridur Sveinsdottir

• Hólmfríður Sveinsdóttir. 2026. ‘Objects of Lived Religion: Medieval Birthing Amulets in Nordic Countries’. In: Karen E. McCluskey and Raisa Maria Toivo (eds), Art and Lived Religion: Medieval and Early Modern. Routledge.
• Hólmfríður Sveinsdóttir. 2026. ‘Sensory Affordances of Objects: Amulets and the Medieval Sensorium’. In Zuleika Murat, Valentina Baradel and Sara Carreño (eds), The Role of the Senses in Medieval Liturgies, Rituals, and Devotional Practices. Brepols.
• Kristine Ødeby Haugan & Hólmfríður Sveinsdóttir. 2025. Uttrykk for omsorg i middelalderbyen Oslo. Nicolay: arkeologisk tidsskrift, nr. 139.
• Hólmfríður Sveinsdóttir. 2024. “Hitting the Vein: Bloodletting Fleams from Medieval Oslo.” Journal of Medieval Archaeology. https://doi.org/10.1080/00766097.2024.2347754.
• Hólmfríður Sveinsdóttir. 2024. “A Material Culture of Medieval Disability: Contextualising Norwegian Votive Offerings”. Norwegian Archaeological Review. https://doi.org/10.1080/00293652.2024.2332383.
• Hólmfríður Sveinsdóttir, og Lilja Björk Pálsdóttir. 2023. “Beingripir frá Gufuskálum: Daglegt líf á 15.–17. aldar verbúð.” Árbók Hins íslenzka fornleifafélags 111, 171–183.
• Hólmfríður Sveinsdóttir. 2019. “Ferðasaga mósaíkflísa – Porfýrsteinar á Íslandi.” Árbók Hins íslenzka fornleifafélags 108, 107–149.

• Sveinsdottir, Holmfridur (2026). Objects of Lived Religion: Medieval Birthing Amulets in Nordic Countries. I McCluskey, Karen E. & Toivo, Raisa Maria (Red.), Art and Lived Religion: Medieval and Early Modern. Routledge. ISSN 9781003691075. s. 25–43. doi: 10.4324/9781003691075-3. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  This chapter examines objects of lived religion and their capacity to illuminate past lived experiences through a focused study of medieval birthing amulets. It centres on a gilded silver medallion bearing the image of St Margaret, held at the Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo (C1787), and situates it within medieval Nordic birthing practices and the associated material and visual culture of childbirth. By examining the object through the lenses of lived religion and art history, the chapter demonstrates the intimate ways in which imagery and objects functioned as mediators between the human body and the sacred. It argues that birthing amulets shaped embodied and spiritual experiences in ways that can be partially recovered through close attention to their materiality, imagery and use.

• Sveinsdottir, Holmfridur (2026). Sensory Affordances of Objects: Amulets and the Medieval Sensorium. I Murat, Zuleika; Baradel, Valentina & Carreño, Sara (Red.), The Role of the Senses in Medieval Liturgies, Rituals, and Devotional Practices. Brepols. ISSN 9782503623429. s. 369–385. doi: 10.1484/M.SENSART-EB.5.154212. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  Archaeological artefacts serve as a compelling source for the sensory experiences they elicit. In this chapter, the potential of artefact studies as a methodology for research into past sensory practices will be explored through a study of medieval amulets from Norway, used for healing and protection. When examined in connection to contemporary written evidence describing their use, the artefacts under study seem to have been interacted with in a very intimate manner, reflecting the physical nature of the problems they supposedly aided. It is here suggested that the study of the sensory affordances of objects, in particular when contextualised within their cultural sensorium, can be a useful way to engage with past embodied experience through material culture.

• Sveinsdottir, Holmfridur (2024). Hitting the Vein: Bloodletting Fleams from Medieval Oslo. Medieval Archaeology. ISSN 0076-6097. 68(1), s. 139–156. doi: 10.1080/00766097.2024.2347754. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  AN ARCHAEOLOGY OF MEDIEVAL HEALING can expand beyond the confines of textual sources. This is exemplified by the discovery of bloodletting fleams from medieval Oslo, iron tools used in the medical practice of phlebotomy. Based on the archaeological context of these finds, phlebotomy was not undertaken solely in monastic institutions or the elite secular settings of manors and castles in the medieval North, but also in urban residential areas. The material properties of the fleams furthermore provide an insight into the process of venipuncture as well as the embodied experience of bloodletting for both practitioners and patients. The paper positions itself within the theoretical framework of archaeologies of corporeality in order to reflect on the correlation between the practice of bloodletting and cultural conceptions of the body as humoral. The archaeological evidence for bloodletting in urban contexts indicates a widespread conception of the medieval body and its fluid boundaries with the natural environment.

• Sveinsdottir, Holmfridur (2024). A Material Culture of Medieval Disability: Contextualising Norwegian Votive Offerings. Norwegian Archaeological Review. ISSN 0029-3652. 57(1), s. 39–58. doi: 10.1080/00293652.2024.2332383. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  In this paper, the potential for material culture studies within the history of disability is explored through a study of preserved anatomical votives from medieval Norway left in connection with miraculous healing practices. The Norwegian votives, which include wooden body parts of hands, arms, finger, feet and legs as well as mobility aids, are here related to the lived experience of the physically impaired. Anatomical votives have been interpreted as meaningful depictions of how an individual conceptualised the body part in question, which they sought healing for. Through a posthumanist approach, anatomical votives can, however, not only be seen as solely representational of a body part but as material extensions of the body. Preserved mobility aids, here identified as hand-trestles and a knee-brace, provide insight into the availability of aids for individuals with lower limb impairments in the medieval North. The study of the material culture of disability can elucidate cultural notions of disability in relation to physical impairment. While written miracle accounts have been identified as important sources for the study of medieval disability, their associated material culture is here presented as important data for the embodied experience of the physically impaired in medieval Norway.

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• Haugan, Kristine Ødeby & Sveinsdottir, Holmfridur (2025). Uttrykk for omsorg i middelalderens Oslo. Nicolay: Arkeologisk tidsskrift. ISSN 0332-8937. 139(3-2025), s. 27–33. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv

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