ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses Scandinavian gold-foil figures small human like figures hammered or cut out of thin foil from the early part of the Scandinavian Late Iron Age from a relational perspective. Earlier interpretations largely approach them as symbols and representations, which downplays their practical or per formative role and results in static or embalmed objects. The chapter discusses the affective dimensions of the figures, as well as some of the myriad rhizomatic relations that were generated through the processes of manufacture, manipulation, and visual encounter. The chapter argues that during the Late Iron Age in Scandinavia certain human beings and gold-foil figures were ontological equivalents, and that gold-foil figures go far beyond our contemporary understanding of representations. Feminists in archaeology have long since pointed to the delimiting ontological and epistemic norms that underlie and prefigure archaeological practice in all forms.
