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:''This is about a Viking-age trading center in Sweden. For other meanings see Birka (disambiguation).'' During the Viking Age, Birka (''Birca'' in medieval sources), on the island of Björkö (literally: "Birch Island") in present day Sweden, was an important trading center which handled goods from Scandinavia as well as Central and Eastern Europe and the Orient. Björkö is located in Lake Mälaren, 30 kilometers west of contemporary Stockholm, in the municipality of Ekerö. The archaeological sites of Birka and Hovgården, on the neighbouring island of Adelsö, make up an archaeological complex which illustrates the elaborate trading networks of Viking Scandinavia and their influence on the subsequent history of Europe. Generally regarded as Sweden's oldest town,〔2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, article "Sweden".〕 Birka (along with Hovgården) has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1993. A silver ring from a Viking-era grave in Birka is the first ring with Arabic inscription from that era found in Scandinavia.〔http://www.cnn.com/2015/03/19/europe/sweden-viking-arabic-ring/〕 ==History== Established in the middle of the 8th century〔Helle, K. et al., ''Norsk Byhistorie'', Pax forlag, Oslo 2006, ISBN 978-82-530-2882-8.〕 and thus being one of the earliest urban settlements in Scandinavia, Birka was the Baltic link in the river and portage route through Ladoga (Aldeigja) and Novgorod (Holmsgard) to the Byzantine Empire and the Abbasid Califate.〔2006 Encyclopædia Britannica. Article "Birca".〕 Birka was also important as the site of the first known Christian congregation in Sweden, founded in 831 by Saint Ansgar. Sources are mainly archeological remains. No texts survive from this area, though the written text ''Vita Ansgari'' ("The life of Ansgar") by Rimbert (c. 865) describes the missionary work of Ansgar around 830 at Birka, and ''Gesta Hammaburgensis Ecclesiae Pontificum'' (Deeds of Bishops of the Hamburg Church) by Adam of Bremen in 1075 describes the archbishop Unni, who died at Birka in 936. St Ansgar's work was the first attempt to convert the inhabitants from the Norse religion to Christianity, and it was unsuccessful. Both Rimbert and Adam were German clergymen writing in Latin. There are no known Norse sources mentioning the name of the settlement, or even the settlement itself, and the original Norse name of Birka is unknown. ''Birca'' is the Latinised form given in the sources and ''Birka'' its contemporary, unhistorical Swedish form. The Latin name is probably derived from an Old Norse word "birk" which probably meant a market place. Related to this was the ''Bjärköa law'' (bjärköarätt) which regulated the life on market places in Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Both terms in different forms are very common in Scandinavian place names still today leading to speculation that all references to Birca especially by Adam of Bremen were not about the same location. Both publications are silent on Birca's size, layout and appearance. Based on Rimbert's account, Birca was significant because it had a port and it was the place for the regional ting. Adam only mentions the port, but otherwise Birca seems to have been significant to him because it had been the bridgehead of Ansgar's Christian mission and because archbishop Unni had been buried there. ''Vita Ansgari'' and ''Gesta'' are sometimes ambiguous, which has caused some controversy as to whether Birca and the Björkö settlement were the same location. Many other locations have been suggested through the years.〔Some of them being Linköping, Köpingsvik and even Saltvik in Åland.〕 However, Björkö is the only location that can show remains of a town of Birca's significance, which is why the vast majority of scholars regard Björkö as the location of Birca.〔Harrison, Dick, ''Sveriges historia -- medeltiden'' (Falköping, 2002), p.51〕 Birka was abandoned during the later half of the 10th century. Based on the coin finds, the city seems to have silenced around 960.〔Lindqvist, Herman. ''Historien om Sverige. Islossning till kungarike.'' 1996. See page 165.〕 Roughly around the same time, the nearby settlement of Sigtuna supplanted Birka as the main trading centre in the Mälaren area. The reasons for Birka's decline are disputed. A contributing factor may have been the post-glacial rebound, which lowered the water level of Mälaren changing it from an arm of the sea into a lake and cut Birka off from the nearest (southern) access to the Baltic Sea. The Baltic island of Gotland was also in a better strategic position for Russian-Byzantine trade, and was gaining eminence as a mercantile stronghold.〔〔2006 Encyclopædia Britannica. Article "Birka".〕 Historian Neil Kent has speculated that the area may have been the victim of an enemy assault.〔 The Varangian trade stations in Russia suffered a serious decline at roughly the same date. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Birka」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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