"Rear cover notes: "The Vikings were uncivilized, premature Scandinavians, looting and plundering. That is what many of us would say. The Viking spirit might have been a national characteristic. But there was a driving force behind it called commerce and politics. the Vikings had an organized society, a state in the making. It is time the Vikings were rehabilitated. Swedish Vikings on Helgö and Birka paves the way. Like a detective the a ..."
"This book contains six articles by different authors. Two deal with unique finds of distant origin: a Buddha figurine and the head of a richly decorated enameled crozier. The Helgo Buddha displays close parallels with the Buddha figures from the Swat Valley in North-West India, where it must have been made as early as the sixth century AD. Like the Tang Dynasty silk discovered through excavations at Birka, it gradually found its way ..."