Crossing cultural boundaries : introduction / Johan Callmer, Ingrid Gustin and Mats Roslund -- Societies east and west of the Baltic Sea : prehistoric culture contacts revisited / Marika Magi -- Riding to the afterworld : burying with horses and riding equipment in Estonia and the Baltic Rim / Valter Lang -- A site of intersection : Staraya Ladoga, eastern silver, and long-distance communication networks in early medieval Europe / Soren M. Sindbaek -- Creating a cultural expression : on Rus' identity and material culture / Charlotte Hedenstierna-Jonson -- "Varangian Christianity" and the veneration of Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian saints in early Rus' / John H. Lind -- The rise of the dominion of the ar-Rus in the northern parts of Eastern Europe, seventh to ninth centuries A.D. : a case of culture construction / Johan Callmer -- Bringing "the periphery" into focus : social interaction between Baltic Finns and the Svear in the Viking age and Crusade period (c. 800 to 1200) / Mats Roslund -- Contacts, identity, and hybridity : objects from western Finland in the Birka graves / Ingrid Gustin -- Swords from the Carolingian Empire to the Baltic Sea and beyond / Anne Stalsberg -- Dirham hoards from the Gulf of Finland region / Tuukka Talvio.