Paper short abstract:

In this paper I will explore how image making accesses world making through a discussion of a Scandinavian archaeological material called "guldgubbar". "Guldgubbar" are tiny figures made of thin gold foil and they belong to a part of the Scandinavian Late Iron Age (AD 550-1050).

Paper long abstract:

Gold foil figures are only known from Scandinavia. They date to c. AD 550-800, that is, to the period before the more well-known Viking Age (AD 800-1050). Gold foil figures are tiny (c. 1-2.5cm) and they weigh less than one gram. Despite their small size, the figures may be very detailed in their execution. A few may further be highly stylized, and some figures have been manipulated (e.g. crumpled up). The thin gold foils may show human-like single figures, couples, and from one place of discovery, also animals. In Swedish the figures are called "guldgubbar". This notion entered into books in the eighteenth century, and it has persisted ever since. Despite a great variety and being a multi-facetted material in terms of execution, size, gold content, treatment, geographical location, and dating, all figures are treated as one and the same material: "guldgubbar". In line with this categorisation, researchers have sought to find the real function of the "guldgubbar", what they represent, and express the view that the symbolic system of the figures has not yet been solved. While these images may well represent, and have symbolic values, such interpretations follow traditional archaeological epistemic and ontological norms that reduce complexity and seek closure. In this presentation, I instead start from the assumption that the "guldgubbar", can be seen as to be continuously in the making, where Karen Barad's concept of intra-action and her agential realist ontology are especially helpful to illuminate the open-ended and generative character of the figures.