Zanette T. Glørstad and Kjetil Loftsgarden, eds. Viking Age Transformations: Trade, Craft and Resources in Western Scandinavia (Culture, Environment and Adaptations in the North. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, 2017, xii and 289pp., 71 b/w illustr., hbk, ISBN 9781472470775)

2021 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 285-287
Author(s):  
Martin Rundkvist
Keyword(s):  
Viking Age ◽  
The North ◽  
Culture Environment

scholarly journals A Viking-age inhumation from Crow Taing, Sanday, Orkney

2018 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-99
Author(s):  
Lindsay Dunbar ◽  
Mike Roy
Keyword(s):  
New Record ◽  
Radiocarbon Dating ◽  
Skeletal Remains ◽  
The Body ◽  
Viking Age ◽  
North East ◽  
The North ◽  
South West ◽  
Surrounding Landscape ◽  
Burial Rite

The islands of Orkney have long been associated with examples of Viking-age activity and often yield unique and well preserved records from the Viking and Late Norse periods. Investigations on the island of Sanday in Orkney, as part of a call off contract for human remains between Historic Environment Scotland and AOC Archaeology Group, have revealed the presence of an inhumation in association with an iron knife. Further investigation reveals that the burial is that of an adolescent skeleton (12–17 years). The north-east/south-west alignment of the body, in a flexed position, and its association with an iron knife indicates a pre-Christian burial rite, in line with a 9th or 10th century AD date, which corresponds with radiocarbon dating carried out on the skeletal remains. This burial contributes a new record to the wealth of evidence from around this period within the surrounding landscape on the island of Sanday.

Vikings

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nancy L. Wicker
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
North Atlantic ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Viking Age ◽  
Historical Sources ◽  
European Continent ◽  
Early Medieval Period ◽  
The North ◽  
12Th Century ◽  
America South

The Viking Age spans the period from approximately 750 to 1100 ce in the Nordic countries of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. The name “Viking” is used to refer to the inhabitants of Scandinavia and its colonies during the early medieval period, even though the name originally most likely referred only to sea-pirates from Scandinavia. Much of the research on the Vikings has focused on three great narratives of the Viking Age: expansion through raids, trade, and settlement; the beginnings of political unification of the three Scandinavian nations; and the Christianization of these kingdoms. The Viking incursions into the British Isles began late in the 8th century, and in the 9th century, Vikings pushed farther west to the North Atlantic and North America, south along the coast of the European continent, and east to Russia and the East and beyond, even into Central Asia. By the 12th century, Scandinavia is Christianized and the Viking Age is over. This list of works focuses on Material Culture and the Historical Sources—Western Europe of the Viking Age rather than the medieval literature (12th and 13th centuries) of Scandinavia and Iceland, except for brief mention of Eddic literature that may contain information from earlier times and has been influential for the study of the Vikings.

scholarly journals Finds of Combat Knives in the North-West of Russia (Izhora Plateau, Pskov Region)

2018 ◽  
pp. 264-274
Author(s):  
И. В. Стасюк ◽  
А. В. Михайлов ◽  
С. А. Салмин
Keyword(s):  
Viking Age ◽  
North West ◽  
The North ◽  
Pskov Region

Находки боевых ножей эпохи викингов на территории Руси и Скандинавии редки и связаны с кругом «дружинных» древностей X в. До настоящего времени были известны 13 экземпляров этого оружия. В статье вводится в научный оборот информация о 7 боевых ножах из могильников Малли и Селище, рассматривается место боевых ножей в североевропейской паноплии. The finds of combat knives of the Viking age on the territory of Russia and Scandinavia are rare and are associated with the “squad” antiquities of the 10 century Only 13 objects of this type have been known up to now. The article introduces scientific circulation the information about 7 combat knives from Malli and Selische cemeteries. The place of combat knives in the North European weaponry is considered.

Silver, Butter, Cloth

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Multidisciplinary Approach ◽  
Current Debate ◽  
Original Research ◽  
Economic Systems ◽  
Viking Age ◽  
Archaeological Data ◽  
The North ◽  
Wide Scale ◽  
Social Economies

This book advances current debate about the nature and complexity of Viking economic systems. It explores how silver and other commodities were used in monetary and social economies across the Scandinavian world of the Viking Age (c.AD 800–1100) before and alongside the wide-scale introduction of coinage. Through a multidisciplinary approach that unites archaeological, numismatic, and metallurgical analyses, it examines the uses and sources of silver in both monetary and social transactions, addressing topics such as silver fragmentation, hoarding, and coin production and reuse. It also goes beyond silver, giving the first detailed consideration of the monetary role of butter, cloth, and gold in the Viking economy. Indeed, the book is instrumental in developing methodologies to identify such commodity-monies in the archaeological record. The use of silver and other commodities within Viking economies is a dynamic field of study, fuelled by important recent discoveries across the Viking world. The fourteen contributions to this book, by a truly international group of scholars, draw on newly available archaeological data from eastern Europe, Scandinavia, the North Atlantic, and the British Isles and Ireland, to present the latest, original research. Together, they deepen understanding of Viking monetary and social economies and advance new definitions of ‘economy’, ‘currency’, and ‘value’ in the ninth to eleventh centuries.

Sailing Directions of the North Atlantic Viking Age (from about the year 860 to 1400)

1997 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-64 ◽  
Author(s):  
Søren Thirslund
Keyword(s):  
Mediterranean Sea ◽  
Fresh Water ◽  
North Atlantic ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Viking Age ◽  
The North ◽  
The World ◽  
The North Atlantic ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
New Settlements

As long as man has ventured to go to sea, sailing directions have existed. Man's survival depended upon knowing the best fishing and hunting places and how to find these were secrets, told only to family or friends.Later, sailing directions covered areas in the world where trade or new settlements had begun and, as early as 500 years B.C., some of these sailing directions were written down. They covered the Mediterranean Sea and part of western Europe and they were called PERIPLUS meaning ‘sailing around’. They contained almost the same information as sailing directions today, namely: harbours, anchorages, currents, possibilities for fresh water, provisions and other supplies.

Developments around the Baltic and the North Sea in the Viking Age

1996 ◽  
Vol 100 (3) ◽  
pp. 639
Author(s):  
Peter S. Wells ◽  
Bjorn Ambrosiani ◽  
Helen Clarke
Keyword(s):  
North Sea ◽  
Viking Age ◽  
The North ◽  
The North Sea ◽  
The Baltic

Fish Trade in Medieval North Atlantic Societies

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Val Dufeu
Keyword(s):  
North Atlantic ◽  
Settlement Patterns ◽  
Political Change ◽  
Viking Age ◽  
Social Changes ◽  
Environmental Models ◽  
The North ◽  
The North Atlantic ◽  
Fish Trade ◽  
Written Sources

Val Dufeu here reconstructs settlement patterns of fishing communities in Viking Age Iceland and proposes socio-economic and environmental models relevant to any study of the Vikings or the North Atlantic. She integrates written sources, geoarchaeological data, and zooarchaeological data to examine how fishing propelled political change in the North Atlantic. The evolution of survival fishing to internal fish markets to overseas fish trade mirrors wider social changes in the Vikings’ world.

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