Spheres of power and local dialects of Style II animal art in Vendel Period Zealand and Scania. Tissø, Lejre, Uppåkra, AD 570–770

Abstract This study aims to study the shifting relationships between elite manor sites on Zealand and in West Scania by means of regional differences in the Vendel Period animal art of c. AD 570–770. The study area includes the manors at Tissø, Lejre and Uppåkra. The material base consists of 77 largely recently found pieces of metalwork. First a four-phase seriation chronology for beast heads with explicit verbal definitions is established and juxtaposed with an independent typology for the beasts’ body designs. Then these are followed across the study area over the eight generations of the study period. In c. 570–610 and 730–770 the animal art shows clear symbolic distancing between parts of the area: in Style B and late Style D. In the interval between of more than a century, Style C and early Style D, animal art is much more uniform. Other material culture however shows symbolic distancing then.