I-Y33765, it's distribution in Tjust, Småland, Sweden

Y-DNA analysis of four Swedish men, each of whom has earliest documented direct-line male ancestry during the seventeenth or eighteenth century, has showed they share the I-Y33765 SNP with three men whose previously known ancestry was from South Gloucestershire or North Somerset, England.    

The Swedish men have direct-line male ancestry from two adjoining hundreds in the landskap of Småland.  In the hundred of Tjust one family were in the coastal parish of Lofta circa 1776, another was resident in Locknevi parish circa 1631, while the third family lived in Äsktorp, Dalhem circa 1771; in the hundred of Kinda the fourth family lived in Oppeby parish (blue circles in map below). 

These four Swedish men each tested their Y-DNA independently at FamilyTree DNA, Houston, USA.  They were not chosen or selected for sampling and hence can be considered as a "self selected" but otherwise "random" sample.  Consequently because all four previously and independently report their direct male ancestry from a similar region of Småland it seems reasonable to suppose that this region represents the location in which their shared patriarch may have lived.

The following map shows the hundreds of the landskap of Småland in the 13^th century.  Based on the genetic and ancestral similarities of the four Swedish men the area of Kinda and Tjust should be considered a putative ”origin” for I-Y33765 during the Migration and Vendel Periods.  This “homeland” is indicated by the red ellipse which roughly equates to the area shown in the first map. 

During the Iron Age the central part of Tjust around Gamleby and Lofta was a landscape containing features indicative of a “central place” (Brink, 1999; 2008; 2016). In 2016, between Gamleby and Lofta, a Viking period “pole barrage” in the waters of Dynestadviken at a place called Stäket was surveyed and its timbers were radio-carbon dated to 1030 +/- 30ybp. During the late Viking period, the site was the most strategic part of the waterway between the bay of Gamlebyviken and the protected inner water or harbour around Dynestadsjön (see map above). The choice of place gives an indication that the defensive construction during this time is linked to strategy and the protection of the rich Iron Age homeland north of the pole barrage (Palm & Rönnby. 2018; Palm, Rönnby & Bolin, 2019).

According to Jonsson (2015) over 43,000 English coins dating from the Viking period have been found in Sweden.   Småland accounts for 197 (0.5%) English coins (Persson,1992, Palm et al., 2008). The terminus post quem (TPQ or “limit after which”) for the appearance of English coins in Småland is 978AD and the TPQ for their disappearance is 1080AD (Persson,1992).  In Tjust, within the putative homeland of Y33765, one Viking hoard containing 52 coins was discovered in 2008 at Hellerö, Västra Ed, Småland (see map above).  Five of the coins were English silver pennies with the most recent dating from 1029-35.  The coins were minted between 997–1035 at Winchester (2), Lewes and London (2) (Palm et al., 2008).

 Two of the remaining "King's Mounds" at Gunnerstad.  The ship burial mound was excavated in the autumn of 1957 in preparation for the construction of the E22 national highway.

 
On a broad ridge above the ancient settlement of Gamleby, at Gunnerstad are the "King's Mounds" or Kungshögarna which form a group of Iron Age burial mounds.  They are sited about 25m above Gamleby Viken. In 1667 the priest of Gamleby church, Sven Teodor Getsenius, reported that "Just a bit west from the church, at Gunnerstaby, are four round earthen mounds placed nearly in a square formation, also several small mounds between and around them. Here the pagan gods were once worshipped." 

At the time the mounds were built there is archaeological evidence of a village at Gunnerstad.  The mound sites were chosen to be prominent within this landscape and thereby radiate the power and significance of the ruling family.  They are the largest burial mounds in the harad of Tjust (Palm, 2017).

Gunnerstad mound excavation photograph dated 7th March 1958

In the autumn of 1957 one of these “King’s Mounds” was excavated prior to the construction of the E22 highway around Gamleby.   This mound was 22m in diameter and 2.25m high and during its investigation archaeologists found a ship burial in which a high status male was cremated surrounded by possessions and animals.  From its remains the boat was estimated to have been about 5m in length.  The Sutton Hoo ship was five times larger at 26m and the vessel discovered at Snape, Suffolk in 1862, which dates to the time of the Gunnerstad burial, was estimated to be14m. 

The items recovered from the Gunnerstad grave included ship rivets, fragments of a bronze helmet of Vendel type with nose guard and garnets, shield decorations, parts of a sword, fragments of a mail coat, bone combs, a whetstone, ceramic, glass and gold shards, 20-30 ivory game pieces, and three glass beakers from the Rhineland. These high value grave goods and the ship burial suggest the man was a local chieftain. The archaeologists also unearthed 38kg of burnt bones, the remains of the chieftain and a large number of animals with which he was buried.  These included dogs, horses, a pig, sheep, cattle, an elk and birds of prey.

The burial was dated to the beginning of the 6^th century AD (Palm, 2017) during the Vendel Period ("Vendeltiden", 550-793CE) so these Kungshögarna show that during these years Gunnerstad was home to a powerful family or tribal group associated with the Tjust “central place”.

Of the four mounds mentioned by Sven Teodor Getsenius in 1667 only two remain today.  The mound excavated in 1957 was lost under the route of the E22 highway and the fourth mound may have been levelled when new fields were being cleared in the 19^th century. The two remaining mounds have not been excavated (see photograph taken from E22 above). The one to the south is 18m in diameter and 4m high, while that to the north is 16m in diameter and 3m high.

References

Brink, S. (1999) Social order in the early Scandinavian landscape In: Settlement and Landscape, ed C.Fabech & J.Ringtved, Århus

Brink, S. (2008) People and Land in early Scandinavia In: Franks, Northmen and Slavs: Identities and State Formation in Early Medieval Europe ed Patrick J.Geary, Brepols

Brink, S. (2016) Trading Hubs or Political Centres of Power?  Maritime focal sites in Early Sweden In: Maritime Societies of the Viking and Medieval World, ed James H.Barrett & Sarah Jane Gibbon, Society of Medieval Archaeology Monograph 37

Jonsson, K. (2015) Viking Age coins found in Sweden, In: Small Things Wide Horizons, ed Lars Larsson, Fredrik Ekengren,Bertil Helgesson and Bengt Soderberg,  Archaeopress Archaeology, Archaeopress Publishing Ltd, Oxford

Palm, V. (2017) Ledning i fornlämningsbygd, Arkeologisk förundersökning invid RAÄ 64:1 samt 672:1, Gamleby socken, Västerviks kommun, Kalmar län, Småland, Vastervik Museum

Palm,V., Rönnby,J. (2018) Stäket vid Valstad, Gamleby socken, Stiftelsen Västerviks museum

Palm,V., Rönnby,J., Bolin,H. (2019) Stäket vid Valstad, Gamleby socken, Stiftelsen Västerviks museum, 18pp

 

Palm, V., Nilsson, N., Jonsson, K. (2008) Hellerö – ytterligare en silverskatt från Tjust, Småland, Myntstudier, November 17-33.

Persson,C. (1992) Engelska mynt i svenska skatter, C-uppsats I Arkeologi, Stockholms Universitet