Life at Borg
For Convenience and Pleasure
In day to day activities, the woman was indispensable, as she alone held th responsibility for housekeeping, including the milking of cows and sheep. She baked the bread, brewed the beer, prepared meals, washed, spun, wove and, moreover, raised the children.
Medical treatment was also a specifically female field. Women with medical skills assisted at child birth and were needed in wars. Herbal medicine was an important tool.
When they were very young, boys and girls had a similar upbringing. They played together inside and outdoors, most of them also taking part in day to day chores. They acquired a number of skills needed to run a farm and keep a society at large going.
At the age of 15, the young man attained majority. Now he was entitled to decide how to use his property and to bear responsibility for his actions. He was given public tasks and had to take part in defence and vengeance. He went out into the world to show his mettle and to win honour and wealth. The young woman went straight from childhood to matrimony. She was equipped with a dowry which was her own. This was her first contribution to the wealth of the farm to which she moved.
Benefits and Pleasure
At Borg, various kinds of work were carried out. Agriculture and fishing were probably the most important. Fishing was mainly for the household.
Dried cod was staple food, above all a substantial resource in periods when food was scarce. It could keep for a very long time and may occasionally also have been sold on trading expeditions to the south, possibly in return for wine glasses from the Rhine. Fishing mostly targeted cod, herring, salmon and was carried out with a line or nets. At Borg, fish hooks and sinkers have been found. Many kinds of handicrafts were performed here, including work in silver and gold and the rougher work of blacksmiths. Spinning wheels were made as well as soapstone pots. Wood and bone were carved and leather was worked.
Lying in the Lap of Arctic Luxury
Eiderdown was an important trading commodity in the Viking Era. The gentry had taken to sleeping in beds made up with linen and eiderdown duvets. For a mattress, straw was used and if this was not avaiable, moss or seaweed or lichen were used. Northern Norway had plenty of nesting grounds for the eider duck and produced eiderdown for all of Europe .
What the beds we know of from the Viking Age had in common is that they could easily be assembled or taken apart. They were most likely designed for travel. The bedposts were adorned with decorative patterns and wood carvings. The horse was a sacred animal and was perhaps meant to protect the sleeper.
In the area there are also vestiges of boathouses for long-boats, circular tunnel systems, barrows, and vestiges of other long-houses. Added together, these remains indicate that there was a concentration of power in the area during the Iron Age.
