At the Crossroads of Space and Time: Graves, Changing Society and Ideology on Saaremaa (Ösel), 9th-13th Centuries AD

Edited by Prof. Valter Lang. Partly translated by Triinu Mets.
Saaremaa (known also as Ösel in Swedish and German) is the second largest island in the Baltic Sea. In most cases the name Saaremaa embraces also the nearby island of Muhu and the surrounding small islands and islets (see section 3.1.). The total area of the islands is 2,969 sq km, thus about the same as that of Gotland.
German crusaders conquered Saaremaa, as they did with the rest of Estonia, in the beginning of the 13th century. Although written records from that period are scarce, there is more material concerning Saaremaa from this period than for other parts of Estonia. In these writings it becomes obvious what a different role the islands were playing in events of the 13th and 14th centuries – mainly the greater political independence the islanders enjoyed then.
The aim of the present study is to define in more detail the Osilian political organisation in the Viking and Late Iron Age and its transition into a feudal society in the post-conquest period. The sources for the study are mainly the ancient graves and burial traditions, the developmental changes of which will be discussed in the following chapters. The research is thus largely based on archaeological data, into which I have tried to integrate historical and human geographic information.