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Ten Facts About the Vikings

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Ten Facts About the Vikings TEN FACTS ABOUT THE VIKINGS 1. They travelled along eastern trade routes at least as far as Istanbul and colonised Ireland, Normandy, Iceland, Greenland, and even reached Newfoundland – incredible when you think there were no aeroplanes! 2. Some of them had very unusual nicknames, like Harald Bluetooth, Ivar the Boneless and Sihtric the Squinty! 3. They have the reputation of ruthless warriors, but were probably not much more warlike than other peoples living at the same time. In Jorvik they settled and established a thriving commercial capital. 4. Political links between Scandinavia and Britain, started in the Viking Age, came to an end as late as 1469 when Orkney & Shetland were ceded by the Norwegian king to the Scots. 5. Viking became a personal name in 10-11th century England – a man called Viking is named as the moneyer on a later Anglo-Saxon coin. 6. Anglo-Saxon writers in Southern England found it convenient to blame Vikings for some of the things which their own kings did in the course of taking over the other, previously independent, Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. 7. Even when he was still at war with invading Viking armies, Kind Alfred entertained visiting Norwegian merchants, and had their stories of trading voyages written down. 8. Vikings take their name from the area known as Viki in Oslo Fjord – presumably an area renowned for its pirate raiders. 9. By 1000 the Scandinavian kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden had been created as smaller chiefdoms were merged; Christianity had also become established, and soon after his death in 1030 King Olaf of Norway had become St Olaf, with churches dedicated to him in York, London, and other English towns. 10. The last great Scandinavian king in the Viking tradition was Harald Hardraada of Norway, who had served in the bodyguard of Byzantium emperors, and was eventually killed when invading England. He died at Stamford Bridge, 8 miles from York, in 1066. JORVIK: FACTS AND FIGURES The original JORVIK Viking Centre opened in York in 1984. JORVIK has attracted over 16 million visitors over the past 25 years and is one of the most popular paid-for visitor attractions in the UK. The concept followed the discovery of Viking-age artefacts when the site of the new Coppergate shopping centre was being prepared. Archaeologists from the York Archaeological Trust spent five years excavating the Coppergate Dig, between 1976 and 1981. 2001: The centre underwent an extensive five-month, £5 million redevelopment programme to recreate the Viking-age city of Jorvik, even bigger and better than ever before. JORVIK reopened in April 2001 and the key differences to the attraction were: o the presentation of a city-wide view of the Viking-age city of York as it was in AD975 (previously AD948), o the introduction of a suspended ride to fly visitors around the city, o knowledgeable ‘Viking’ interactives on-hand to meet and talk to visitors, o artefacts to became the key focus, using display techniques never before seen in the attractions industry, o everything displayed was backed up by a further 20 years of archaeological research and was in the exact position in which it was found. 2010: The JORVIK Viking Centre reopened on 13 February 2010 following a £1million refurbishment to bring archaeology back to the forefront of the attraction. The new-look centre includes: o a brand new glass-floored gallery—Discover Coppergate—incorporating an underfoot recreation of the original Coppergate excavation, enabling visitors to see exactly how the Viking-age remains were discovered, o Displays of never-before-seen objects discovered during the Coppergate excavation that give new and fascinating insights into Viking-age life. o Seven new state of the art animatronics who interact with visitors in Old Norse. o A new Viking-age house and back yard, based on evidence of an amber worker’s house discovered during the Coppergate excavation. York Archaeological Trust owns the centre and is an independent educational charity based in York [Registered charity in England & Wales (No. 509060) and Scotland (No. SCO42846)]. ATTRACTION WALK-THROUGH JORVIK Viking Centre gives visitors the opportunity to travel back through time more than one thousand years to a reconstruction of the city of York on the exact spot where it stood in Viking times. Discover Coppergate Under your feet you will see the reconstructed excavation exposing timber-framed and wattle houses, objects discarded by residents, and work in progress by the team of professional archaeologists who worked here. You will also see, up-close, 1,000-year-old timbers and artefacts. Find out how these fascinating objects were unearthed, conserved and researched. Audio-visual presentations explain where the Vikings came from, how they travelled here, why they settled and how they lived, worked and traded with other civilizations across the world. Our Viking hosts will also help you to learn more. By discovering Coppergate yourself, you will be able to start to piece together the jigsaw of Jorvik and find out how York Archaeological Trust was able to reconstruct the city right here, on the site where it was first uncovered. Journey through the city of Jorvik The latest technology greets visitors as they board the six-seater, 21st century time capsules, each with an on-board control computer, personalised sound system and self- select commentary in six different languages for each individual. The smell of the fish market engulfs the time capsule as it journeys above the detritus of the River Foss towards the emerging Viking city. The city of Jorvik is home to Viking-age citizens who speak to you in Old Norse and tell you about what they are doing, such as Unni the wood worker and Sigurd the antler worker. Beneath the capsule, children play Hnefatafl - a chess-like board game - on the riverbank, while Sigurd the antler worker is absorbed in his work creating everyday objects such as combs and knives. As visitors approach the city limits they are met by smells emanating from a Viking farm. The view across the rooftops reveals the size and scale of Jorvik just as it was in the 10th century, a city as important in its day as London or Tokyo is now. Further on, a blast of heat and smoke indicates that a blacksmith is hard at work in one of the older wattle and daub single-storey houses, while next door, outside his newly re-built two-storey dwelling, a wood turner is creating the bowls and cups that give Coppergate its name – Kopr-Garter meaning ‘the street of the cup makers’. The city is undergoing a period of re-development; the capsules swoop past workmen taking a break from the arduous task of replacing the city’s crumbling buildings with stronger, oak beamed structures. A change of course and the visitors are taken back towards the River Foss, where a boat has just landed, carrying exotic cargo. A gossiping woman pays little attention to the time travellers as they cruise by, passing some rather revolting rubbish tips and a cess pit! ATTRACTION WALK-THROUGH Leaving these very real sights and smells behind, visitors are taken into the cellar of a building, used for storing barrels of beer and mead, and up into the family room, where several generations huddle around the hearth. The family sing songs and the smell of their dinner (probably meat and fish) wafts up into the capsule. After this, visitors emerge from the house, blinking into the brightness and bustle of Coppergate Market, the main shopping street in Viking York, where virtually anything can be bought or sold. The market is a riotous cacophony of traders bartering, couples arguing about what to have for supper and dogs fighting. Oblivious to the 21st century visitors gliding through their city, Viking residents and market traders go about their business; buying, selling and arguing over the range of goods on offer. Hygiene here is not a primary concern; the street is filthy with sewage and dog dirt, and the food does not look or smell particularly enticing. Away from the hurly burly of Coppergate the time travellers turn the corner to where another new building has been reconstructed based on evidence discovered of an amber workers house, who would have travelled to the Baltic areas to gather his raw product and returned to Jorvik to make jewellery and other items to sell at market in Coppergate. This is also evidenced by the huge brown bear skin which adorns his bed. This house displays some of the later building techniques as well as showing a full-sized backyard, complete with a Viking-age toilet. Feeling charged by their travels through time, visitors alight their time capsule and get set to investigate the lives of the Vikings 21st-century style through the centre’s interactive exhibitions… Investigate Coppergate Upon disembarking, visitors are greeted by the ‘Investigate Coppergate’ exhibition, where they come face to face with the most accurate image of Viking life. On display, are the only two human skeletons (one male and one female) from the Coppergate dig. Using newly commissioned studies, the female skeleton shows visitors how the Vikings of Jorvik lived, what diseases and afflictions they suffered from and even what she looked like. Working with archaeologists from Universities across Britain, this new research is brought to the public for the first time. Detailed examinations of what the Viking-Age citizens of Coppergate ate, is presented based on scientific analysis of what was left in pottery vessels found on site and through studies of the human poo (or coprolite) discovered in the excavation. A study on the remains of fish reveals that the fish eaten by the Vikings in York changed from mainly river based to marine fish as stocks depleted, pollution took hold of the rivers, and wider trade links developed.
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