Monumental lies. Draft of an Orwellian archaeology

Abstract

Inspired by George Orwell’s novel 1984 I explore the Viking Age use of the past at Gulli, Vestfold. In the Viking Age a person’s legal status depended on genealogy, a leader should be able to claim to be a descendant from gods. As there are no gods, a potential leader needed to create a mythical genealogy by weaving her/himself into the landscape. Graves are understood to be documents written in sand, soil and dead bodies, and as ideals and networks changed and new persons aspire to power, the documents are erased by shovels and new ones created. By discerning history as a precise description of the past from collective memory, as a story about a glorious past used to strengthen self-image, the monumental lies of the Big Brother of Gulli are revealed.