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VIKING HERITAGENEWSLETTERNUMBER 2 • 1997

I N T H I S I S S U E

A new silver-hoard found on Gotland; again!It’s happened again! A new silver-hoard has been discovered on Gotland. The treasurewas found when a landowner was checking his fields and happened to kick an insignifi-cant lump of earth which was lying on the ground. This turned out to be not only earth, however, but inside was revealed a large clump of silver spirals and silver rods.

The farmer notified the antiquarian authorities, who soon were able to ascertain thatyet another hoard had been found. Investigation of the find location with ametal detector enabled them to identify the actual deposit site. This consis-ted of a collection of coins and silver spirals, which was set in plaster andtransported to the hospital to be X-rayed. The treasure is now underexcavation and will be displayed at Gotland’s Historical Museum. Itweighs about 3 kg. and consists of a couple of hundred coins butprimarily a amount of silver pieces and raw material.

The coins originate mainly from Germany, but there are somefrom Denmark, England, Italy, Bohemia, and the ByzantineEmpire. The earliest coin dates the hoard to 999 A.D.

No other place in northern Europe have so many hoards ofsilver from the Viking era been discovered as on Gotland. Untilnow over 700 precious-metal finds have been registered. Theseconsist primarily of silver treasures, spread evenly over theisland. In total there are about 145,000 coins, of whichabout 65,000 coins are Arabic, the remainder mainlyGerman and English coins. The enormous amount of silverclearly indicates the important mercantile position Gotlandenjoyed during the Viking era.

The silver-hoard contains besides coins a remarkable amount of twisted silverrods. Photo Jonas Ström, Gotland’s Historical Museum.

Editorial ............................2

Uppåkra – a political and religious centre ......3

The Ladby Ship – a Danish ship grave ........5

New light on Scandinavianfarmsteads in the VikingKingdom of York............8

Viking Festival inPlymouth, England ......10

Sebbersund – a Viking Town in NorthernJutland, Denmark ........11

The Saga of theBirmingham Vikings ....14

Anundshög – the largest burial mound in Sweden......................16

A visit to the Troitsky excavation in Novgorod ......................17

Viking Heritage Server & Database ..................18

Follow the Vikings! – take part in an excavation of a Viking age harbour ..................19

Some 700 hundredhoards have been foundon Gotland, spread allover the island.

Silver- and goldhordsBogs and lakes around A.D. 1700

At the conclusion of the first issue ofthe Viking Heritage Newsletter, Ideclared in no indefinite terms that ouraim was to produce more of the samewithin a reasonable length of time. Thegoal was set high, 4 issues per year. Iassumed then that a large part of thematerial, including illustrations, wouldcome from you, dear members ofViking Heritage. I envisioned too thatthe next issue would deal mainly withthe changes within the 50 highlightschosen by the European Council torepresent the world of the Vikings.

However, upon looking back, I canonly state that we have not nearly beenable to live up to those early expecta-tions. The main reason can be seen lar-gely in two elements. One is that weare far from collecting the amount ofmaterial we had hoped for. The other,and perhaps more embarrassing, is thatthose of us working on developingViking Heritage, are not anywhere nearachieving our ambitious goals. A largeportion of our time has been occupiedwith planning and commencing theestablishment of the Viking HeritageServer and Database.

This data base will, aside from func-tioning as a central data base where it ispossible to search with different con-cepts and happenings in the Vikingworld, increasingly become the mediaof the future for this newsletter. Thereare many advantages inherent withusing the electronic media in this con-text. It is particularly advantageous inkeeping abreast of new developmentsand being able to transmit them moreor less daily. We can, of course, cutdown on printing and postage costs nota minor consideration in our presenteconomic situation.

However, at the same time, we areaware that the printed word will still,in the long run, be the media whichmany prefer to use, and therefore weintend to continue transmitting infor-

mation and knowledge this way. Thechange that can be impending, howe-ver, is that we concentrate on produ-cing one or two printed publications ayear striving after a more comprehen-sive content and an attractive layout.Naturally we would like to hear yourviews on this suggestion.

For your information about who aremembers at present, this issue includesa membership list. It should be aninteresting starting-point for makingconnections to other persons or groupswho in some way work with the Vikingtheme. In our latest issue we requestedsome background information fromour members, in order to be able tocreate a diversified network revealingthe different aspects of the Vikingtheme and to initiate co-operation bet-ween individuals and groups.Unfortunately response has not beenoverwhelming and we would like toencourage you to add to our informa-tion wherever possible.

The main emphasis during the nextyear for Viking Heritage is placed ontwo areas in particular, aside fromefforts to increase our membershipwhich at present lies around 300.Partly it is to expand our data baseto a comprehensive data bankwith regards Viking history in allits shapes and phases. We are, inthis, very dependent on yourassistance by providing infor-mation and material. We arevery grateful if you couldsend us, short or long, noti-ces about current projects,arrangements, new finds etc.etc. Feel free to do this in themost convenient way, e-mail, fax, ormail. Illustrations accompanying sub-mitted material are always greatlyappreciated. As mentioned fur-ther on in the article, we intendto open the data base thiscoming autumn.

The other happening, beginningduring summer 1998, is that VikingHeritage in conjunction with GotlandCollege of Higher Education will com-mence an excavation of a Viking ageharbour, with the opportunity forinterested persons to participate. Formore information see the text insidethe newsletter.

This time the newsletter contains anumber of scientific articles concerninginteresting projects and investigationsin Denmark, Sweden and England.There is also a report from one of themany groups working with promotinghistory through theatre etc. This con-tribution serves to represent all thosegroups around the world who in diffe-rent ways bring our ancient history tolife, for schools, as well as the generalpublic. In addition there are a numberof short news-type articles. All in all wehope that this issue will provide aperiod of relaxing reading.

Dan CarlssonPresident

VIKING HERITAGE Newsletter 2 • 1997

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E D I TO R I A L

Iron Age settlement in southern Sweden

During 1996 members from severalinstitutes formed a group in order toinitiate a research project concerningthe Iron Age of the southernmost partof Sweden, including the county ofScania and the southern part of thecounty Halland. Members from theInstitute of Archaeology, University ofLund, Malmö Museum, the CentralBoard of Antiquities, branch office inLund and Hallands´ Museum,Halmstad take part in the project. Theaim of the project, entitled ”The socialstructure of southern Sweden duringthe Iron Age”, is to study the develop-ment of the society in a chronologicallybroad perspective from 500 BC until1000 AD.

Intensive research is aimed at theIron Age society of Denmark as well asthe central part of Sweden. In that per-spective the southern part of Sweden ispartly neglected. Due to intensiveexploitation a large number of rescueexcavations have taken place in sout-hern Sweden since the early 1970’s.However, information about most ofthese achievements is insufficient dueto the fact that resources for writingexcavation reports have been limited.Therefore, an important task of theproject is to make the informationabout the excavations of Iron Age sitesavailable for further analyses.

The Uppåkra siteIn the project a site at Uppåkra, situa-ted approximately 5 km south of Lund,is used as a catalyst because of its spe-cial structure and find material.

The site at Uppåkra was first recog-nized in 1934 in connection with

house construction. A minor excava-tion revealed occupation layers morethan 2 metres thick. The topmostoccupation layer could be dated to thetransition between the late Roman IronAge and the Migration Period. Part of awattle-and-daub house was investiga-ted.

Small rescue excavations starting inthe 1960’s have revealed occupationremains dated from the entire earlyIron Age and covering an area ofapproximately 1.1 x 0.6 km – the lar-gest occupation site known so far insouthern Sweden. Stray finds dating tothe late Iron Age have led to the conc-lusion that the site might have beenoccupied during most of the first mil-lennium AD.

Because of its size and finds Uppåkrahas been interpreted as the site of aregional centre for the southwesternpart of the county Scania, although ourknowledge about the structure andfunction of the settlement during thelate Iron Age was very limited. In orderto gather more information about thesite new investigation began in 1996.

Investigations in 1996-1997In 1996-1997 the entire area was sur-veyed by metal detector. The result hasbeen very impressive. So far more than2000 artefacts, mainly of bronze butalso of silver and gold, have been regis-tered. Most of these finds are dated tothe late Iron Age with the main partdated to the Vendel Period and Viking

Age (ca. 550-1000 AD). The use ofmetal detectors has revealed extensiveremains of activities from this period ofoccupation, which was previouslypoorly known. The finds are verticallylimited to the ploughzone, which indi-cated that most of the youngest occu-pation layers have been destroyed byploughing while thick layers dating tothe early Iron Age are still protected.

The artefacts are found throughoutthe site but with at least three clusters.The number and composition of findsshows the site not to be deviating froman ordinary Iron Age site. The impor-tance of the Uppåkra site in a southSwedish perspective can be exemplifiedby some ornament types in which theUppåkra finds double the number ofprevious finds in the county of Scania.Several weights as well as fragmentedArabic coins are indications of tradeduring the Viking Age. Ornaments,


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Uppåkra – a political and religiouscentre in the county of Scania,southernmost part of Sweden

By Lars Larsson, Institute of Archaeology, University of Lund

like a brooch with ena-mel inlays probably of

Irish origin, Arabiccoins, ingots of silver,gold and differentalloys as well as frag-

ments of glass beakers,are proof of distant

exchange. Fragments ofmoulds, sullage pieces,melted drops of bronzeand silver, and bronzematrices shows that orna-ments were made on the

site. The stratigraphy has been documen-

ted by auger at almost 200 holes cove-ring most of the site. They indicate acontinuous occupation layer coveringan area of 1 x 0.5 km. Within three orfour larger areas the occupation layersare more than 1 metre thick, at timesmore than 2 metres. There is a goodagreement between these areas and thehighest density of detector finds.

No other Iron Age site in southernSweden shows layers of a thicknesseven close to those in Uppåkra. Onmost sites plowing has totally destroyedthe thin occupation layer which onceexisted. The thick occupation layers,combined with the find material, marka sedentary settlement which differfrom almost all other Iron Age sites inthe region.

Another result of interest is that theoccupation layer excludes the areasaround two mounds located within thesite. This is also true of a third mound,the bottom of which was found duringa small excavation. The mounds seemto have played an important role in theorganisation of the settlement andmight be dated to the early Iron Age.

Viking Age UppåkraSeveral questions of importance relatedto the Viking Age settlement can beasked. Still we do not know muchabout the size of the Viking Age occu-pation. Viking Age artefacts are foundwithin the areas of thick occupationlayers, indicating a settlement of consi-derable size. However, so far we do notknow if all these concentrations weresimultaneously settled or if the settle-ment moved from one area to anotherduring the Viking Age. Some artefacts

such as a small lions´ head in gilded sil-ver, a small head of a boar as well asormanents of extremely high qualityare interpreted as belonging to the hig-hest social level of the society.

The size of the site, the number offinds and finds interpreted as markersof high social position support theinterpretation of Uppåkra as a centralplace of political power. Finds like astatuette of the god Oden and a goldfoil figure indicate the ritual characterof the site. In Uppåkra the political andreligious power is likely to have beencombined.

The location of the site on a rise –one of the highest places on a plain –close to Lund raises questions aboutthe relations between Uppåkra andLund. According to the composition ofcoins and ornaments Uppåkra predatesLund. The earliest dendrochronologicaldates of Lund are 990. When theDanish kingdom, joined by representa-tives of the Christian church, includedScania in an early Danish state, Lundwas founded as a manifestation of thisnew power. The geographically closeconnection between Lund andUppåkra might mark a symbolic rela-tion to the traditional centre while thedislocation signs the introduction of anew era.

Another question concerns the rela-tionship between the prehistoric siteand the Medieval village. The latter,Stora Uppåkra, is situated to the northof the prehistoric site. Except for somecoins the metal detector survey produ-ced no indications of settlement fromthe Medieval period within the prehis-toric site. However, the church is situa-ted a short distance south of the villagewithin an area of thick layers of prehis-toric occupation. This might indicatethat the original wooden church waspart of a Late Viking Age manor with

traditions to earlier periods. The first notation of Uppåkra in

written sources is from 1085. In KingCnut the Holy´s deed of gift to the cat-hedral in Lund, farms in SouthUppåkra and the other Uppåkra areincluded. This proves that twoUppåkra existed in the late 11th cen-tury. According to an analysis of theearliest land survey documents fromthe 18th century, fields on the borderbetween the lands of the villages arenamed Toftåkrarna, toft indicatingdeserted settlement (Riddersporre1996). This is the location of one ofthe largest concentrations of VikingAge finds combined with a thick occu-pation layer. The inhabitants of thatsettlement might have founded the twovillages of Uppåkra during a very latepart of the Viking Age.

Future researchFor the nearest future geophysical mea-surements are planned in order to get abetter understanding of the organisa-tion of the site. Excavations are alsoplanned in order to get a more detailedknowledge of the structure of the indi-vidual concentrations of occupationslayers. The investigation of Uppåkrawill hopefully continue for may yearsto come.

References

Riddersporre, M. Uppåkra – en diskus-sion med utgångspunkt i de äldsta lant-mäterikartorna. META 1996, no. 3.Stjernquist, B. Uppåkra, a CentralPlace in Skåne during the Iron Age.Lund Archaeological Review 1995.


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Ladby is situated on north east Funen,near the provincial town of Kertemindeand not far from Kerteminde Fjord andStorebaelt. During the 1930’s the landowner often found skeletal fragmentsin one of his fields, so he contactedchemist Poul Helweg Mikkelsen,Odense, who was the archaeologicalexpert on Funen at that time. In thegrave area there was a long elevation inthe terrain, and farm owner Eriksencame across stones in this mound - fur-thermore, stones which lay in rows.The chemist made a trial excavation inthe autumn of 1934, and found anumber of stones and gradually alsonails, and it became clear that the sitecontained a ship grave. The NationalMuseum was immediately contacted,and conservator Rosenberg was sent toinspect the find. Rosenberg could onlyconfirm Helweg Mikkelsen’s observa-tions, so a proper excavation was car-ried out from May till the autumn of1935.

Presumably the whole ship had beencovered by a roof of wood. Remains ofsuch were found over the entire frontof the ship (bow) and fragments overpart of the back end (stern). 11 horsesand 4 dogs, as well as a few antiquitieswere found in the bow section. In thestern section, everything seemed tohave been ransacked.

Over 600 articles or article fragmentswere found in the ship grave. Thematerial consisted of, among otherthings, a dog harness with leads for 4dogs, which corresponded to the num-ber of dog skeletons found. The har-ness consisted of a hand piece where

the leads to the individual dogs weregathered. The hand piece was made ofbronze, still showing the remains ofgold plating, and decorated with ani-mal figures. The prize piece of the findis an ornamented, solid silver bucklewhich comes from a sword belt or ordi-nary belt. Leaf patterns are cast on boththe buckle and belt holder. The buckleis from the 9th century and is Frankish.

In addition, there are 4 sets of horseharness (however not all were com-plete). There were bits, reins, strap fit-tings and dividers, stirrups, decorativebuttons of tin and bronze, a spur aswell as a decorative strap, possibly froma saddle. Three silver-plated pieces ofiron were also found, maybe all parts ofa whip handle - this interpretation ishowever, by no means unequivocal.One piece ends in a bulb with an ani-mal figure. There weren’t very manyremains of the presumably wide rangeof textiles in the grave. Both coarse andfine fabrics were found, showing diffe-rent weaving techniques. A number ofthe fabrics had been embellished withembroidery and trimmings of gold andsilver thread, like Birka material.

Forty-five iron arrowheads lay just

over the rail on the starboard sidebehind midship and there are severalexamples of, that the top part of arrowshafts are preserved and wound on withthread. A hand-protector from a shield,of the type known from Birka graves,and mint coins from the first third ofthe 10th century, were also found.

Of kitchen articles, mention can bemade of a wooden tub in 60-70 frag-ments spread over a large part of thestern and at completely different levels.The staves were strengthened withsheet iron, with narrow iron bandsaround the tub. Fragments of a bronzebowl were, in the same way, widelyspread. Similar finds are known fromDanish 10th century graves, and inBirka the type is known from the firstthird of the 10th century, so there istalk of import from the British Isles.

The spread fragments of a silver platelay behind the middle of the ship. Ithad a 1 cm wide edge, decorated with aband of interwoven pattern and gilt. Towhile away the time of the dead, therewas a board-game - although all thatwas left were four corner fittings.Something quite special was a woodenboard with painted ornaments found


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The Ladby Ship - a Danish shipgrave from the Viking period

By Bodil Holm Sörensen, Kerteminde egns Museer, Strandgade 7, 5300 Kerteminde, Denmarktele. +45-65321667, fax +45-65324707

Ladby is situated on north east Funen, near the provincial town of

Kerteminde and not far from Kerteminde Fjord and Storebaelt. During the

1930’s the land owner often found skeletal fragments in one of his fields, so

he contacted chemist Poul Helweg Mikkelsen, Odense, who was the archa-

eological expert on Funen at that time. In the grave area there was a long

elevation in the terrain, and farm owner Eriksen came across stones in this

mound - furthermore, stones which lay in rows...

The ship-museum is built like a bunker, covered by earth, by that given an impression of the original shape of the grave. DrawingBodil Holm Sørensen.

on the ship’s port side. The colourssoon faded, but not before it had beencopied

Already during the excavations, thefind was interpreted as a grave for achief. This view still applies, althoughwith slight variations. The strikingthing is that no human skeleton(s) havebeen found, and that a lot of the gravegoods that have been found, werespread over a large area and very frag-mented. In addition, there was a lackof the equipment one would expect tofind some remains of, such as swords.

All this leads one to assume that thegrave has been plundered. The reasonfor this is more complicated. Did thefollowing generations wish to re-burythe deceased chief according to currentChristian ideals? If so, why were thekitchen articles broken? Did a rival -and successful- lineage wish to showtheir superiority by dishonouring afamily whose importance was waning,and in doing so, proclaim their ownability and power?

We don’t know who the deceasedwas. The grave is similar to the ship-chamber grave found in Hedeby, andH. Hellmuth Andersen has put for-ward the theory that the Ladby grave’sprincipal character was a member ofone of the Danish royal dynasties, andWamers suggests the grave is a manifes-tation of ”chief ideology”.

It was decided as early as the summerof 1935, that the ship should not bemoved from the site and that a conc-rete vault be built over it. This solutionhad not been previously practised, solittle was known about the consequen-ces for the preservation of the ship’simpression, and after only a few yearsproblems arose. Spraying with differentchemicals was attempted, but no solu-tion was found to the fundamentalproblem. This is, that the ship still liesas found, meaning that ground waterrises as a result of capillary action.

Moisture problems became so bad inthe mid 80’s that something had to bedone, and a ventilation unit was instal-led. Time proved that the expectations

for the ventilation unit’s effect wereoverly optimistic, as there are still pro-blems with moisture and accompany-ing growth of micro-organisms. Nowwe have reached the stage where somet-hing radical must be done, if the ship’simpression is to be preserved.

And how can that be accomplished?Yes, the contact between the ship’simpression and the underlying groundmust quite simply be broken. The met-hod is not finally decided, but will pre-sumably consist of boring a row of pipeelements in under the impression andpulling a hose back through each ofthem. The pipes will be filled withconcrete, and when this has set, theground will be carefully dug out underthe impression and more concrete willbe sprayed up under the pipes, whichwill finally be sealed with moisture-proof paint. The method has not beenused previously on ancient monu-ments, so a full-scale experiment willbe carried out on an area beside themound, so we have a chance to evalu-ate whether the method is as good as itseems. At the time of writing, we arejust starting an archaeological test eva-cuation on the experimental area - wewould hate to destroy other culturalmonuments in the effort to preserveone.

In 1985, a small display was con-

structed depicting the Kerteminde areain Viking times (place names, runicstones and archaeological finds) and ofcourse the ship grave. Ladby’s shipmuseum has been selected as Funen’sViking centre, and in time the museummust be extended. Most of the findsfrom the grave will be displayed, andthere will be copies of a large numberof articles so one can see how they wereoriginally shaped. Among the themesto be dealt with will be death cults andreligion in the Viking period.

From the grave finds, it is difficult toget a good impression of how the shiplooked in her prime, so we have startedto work on making a replica. This is incollaboration with the NationalMuseum’s Marine ArchaeologicalResearch Centre, where the grave hasrecently been part of a research project,and where the necessary technical andcraftsmanship expertise is available. Atpresent, a ship-builder is working on a1:10 cardboard model of the ship, andlater a wooden model will be made tothe same scale. The model work mayseem overwhelming, but it is necessaryto have solved all possible questionsand problems before attempting con-struction of a full-scale model.

The Ladby ship is thus an old find,only now receiving the frame of refe-rence it deserves.


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Picture page 6 The ship burial can beseen on ints original spot. At the entranceof the small museum there is a brief exhi-bit about Viking finds from the area.Photo Kerteminde Museum.

A view over the area. The ship burial was found close to the river, in the centre of thepicture. Photo Kerteminde Museum.


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Viking armies captured York on AllSaints’ Day 866 AD, and shortly afterthe Great Army colonised the town’shinterland in the first of a series of par-titions of land between Danes andEnglish. The Anglo-Saxon Chroniclerecords that in 876 the Danish leaderHealfdene “shared out the lands of theNorthumbrians, and they proceeded toplough and support themselves”.

Two decades of intensive urban exca-vation with the historic city have nowgiven archaeologists a vivid picture oflife within the Viking capital but weknow much less about rural settlementin its hinterland. Place name evidence,and village names ending in -by and -thorpe, as well as settlement namesincorporating Scandinavian personalnames, have been used as evidence ofdense Viking colonisation in someareas, particularly in the YorkshireDales and Wolds. Unfortunately, thefirst recorded usage of most of thesenames is not until William theConqueror’s Domesday Book of 1086.Excavated rural settlements of theperiod are few and far between and it iswidely assumed that most lie underne-ath modern villages. Where settlementshave subsequently been abandoned,however, it has proved possible to carryout archaeological fieldwork.

The Yorkshire Wolds are rollingchalk uplands to the east of York. AtWharram Percy, a major series of exca-vations pioneered by Maurice Beresfordand John Hurst initially focussed onthe desertion of the medieval village.During the latter stages of the project ithas become clear that Wharram wasextensively occupied during the Anglo-Saxon period, and that a high statusindividual of Scandinavian originsoccupied the area which was to becomethe South Manor house. A Borre stylebelt slide and strap end found at theSouth Manor were probably manufac-tured in Scandinavia and arrived in theWolds with a Scandinavian settler.Indeed, it has been suggested that the

planned layout of the medieval villageat Wharram Percy originated in the10th century, at the same time as asmall timber chapel was erected in thevalley.

More recently, a team from YorkUniversity’s Department ofArchaeology has been investigating asite at Cottam, some eight miles due

east of Wharram, with funding fromthe British Academy. Crop marks hadlong indicated the presence of a settle-ment enclosure, apparently sittingastride an Iron Age or Romano-Britishtrackway. However, the settlement wasundated until we were able to verify theconnection between the enclosure andlarge numbers of copper alloy objects

New light on Scandinavian farm-steads in the Viking Kingdom of York

By Julian D Richards, Department of Archaeology, University of York, King’s Manor, York, Y01 2EP, UK, email: [email protected]

Photo: J. D. Richards

which had been recovered from thearea by metal detector users. Thesefinds, ranging in date from the 8th toearly 10th centuries, included nume-rous Northumbrian low denominationcopper alloy coins, or stycas, as well aslarge numbers of dress pins and strapends. The Scandinavian style objectsincluded a Jellinge-style brooch as wellas two small pyramidal bells. It appearsthat these finds had been focussed intwo clusters. The southern concentra-tion coincided almost exactly with asub-rectangular enclosure; the northernconcentration was less obviously linkedwith settlement traces until a magneto-meter survey revealed the presence of anumber of sub-rectangular fields lyingeither side of a trackway. It appears thatthe ditches demarcating these fieldshad generally been too shallow to influ-ence the growth of the crops.

Dating of the metal objects revealedthat the 8th and 9th century finds werepredominately in the southern group;whereas the later 9th and 10th centuryfinds were predominately in the nor-thern group. This idea of localised sett-lement shift was supported by fieldwalking which indicated that Torkseyware, a type of pottery popular fromthe late 9th century onwards, was onlyfound in the area of the northern enc-losure. Further confirmation was achie-ved by sample excavation within theareas of the finds concentrations.These revealed a number of fragmen-tary post-hole buildings, with the aban-

donment of the southern focus datedby a coin of Aethelberht of Wessex,dated 858-866 AD, discarded in a pitin which a weathered female skull hadalso been placed. Settlement then shif-ted to a new site c.250m to the northwhere in the late 9th century a massivetimber gateway and associated bankand ditch was erected in front of a newfarmstead. Pottery from the new farm-stead indicates that it had connectionswith urban markets in York, as well asto the south of the River Humber, inLincolnshire.

However, the new farmstead wasrelatively short-lived. Evidence suggeststhat it was abandoned within the space

of fifty years, and that settlement nowmoved again, possibly to the site of thedeserted medieval village at Cowlam,which is less than 1km to the west.Excavations carried out here in the1960s focussed on the footings ofmedieval chalk buildings but re-exami-nation of the results has revealed thepresence of earlier timber halls and thedistinctive Torksey ware pottery.

In conclusion, examination of theshifting settlement pattern aroundCottam and Cowlam now allows us topropose the following settlement sequ-ence. In the 8th century AD an Anglo-Saxon farmstead was established nextto a trackway which had continued tofunction as a communications routesince at least the late Iron Age. This sitewas occupied until the mid 9th centurywhen disruption, possibly associatedwith the Scandinavian takeover ofYork, forced the construction of a newgated farmstead. By the 10th century,however, settlement moved again andnow the tofts and crofts of the latermedieval village were established, alongsimilar lines to those seen at WharramPercy and other Wolds settlements. Ithas long been accepted that the layoutof towns such as York was establishedduring the Viking Age. The country-side is now beginning to reveala similar pattern, with villageafter village first being laidout during the 10th cen-tury, during theScandinavian partition.


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Cottam Site BM Metal detector and1993/95 excavationfinds. Arc/Info 7.0;Richards 1997; findsdatabase: T. Austin, C. Buckley & J. Kenny.

Photo: J. D. Richards


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During the 4th week of July,Plymouth, England commemorated anunusual event. For the year of 997 theAnglo-Saxon Chronicles states: ”LYD-FORDE, Llydanforde, Saxon, of theNoyse of the Water, Town and Castlein Devonshire, standing upon RiverTamar Whereunto an Army of theDanes pierced in the time of KingEthelrede, and burned it, spolinge thePeople”. The event the Chronicle tellsabout was an Viking raid on the royalmint in Lydford. This was a mint esta-blished 975-978 by Edward theMartyr. At Lydford the ”Lydford pen-nies” were produced. These pennieswere used to pay the Danageld andmost of the remaning coins can be seenin Stockholm, Sweden. The Vikingsalso burned the neighbouringBenedictine Abbey in Tavistock.

It can be considered strange to com-memorate burning and pillaging, butthe theme of the Festival was thechange in relations between Englandand Scandinavia that has taken placesince then. It was the friendship andgood faith between Britain andScandinavia that was in focus. Thehighlight of the Festival was the unvei-

ling of a Rune-stone on Thursday the24th made by the Danish sculptorMagnus Krogh Andersen at the Hoe inPlymouth. The stone was a gift fromthe five Scandinavian countries andwas unveiled in the presence of theambassadors of the Scandinavian coun-tries, the Mayor of Plymouth and otherdignitaries. Magnus Magnusson alsoheld a excellent speech about the his-tory of the Vikings in Britain. Theevent at the Hoe finished with a re-enacted battle between the Vikings andthe Saxons. It was performed by theVikings of Middle England and re-enactors from Scandinavia.

All during the week Viking campswhere set up at Mount Edgcumb Parkand along the river Tamar. There visi-tors could see Viking handicraft,Vikings, battles and different happe-nings. Three ships where also present.It was the two Viking Age replicas,Krampmacken from Gotland andHeimløsa Rus from Finland, and ahalf-scale replica, the Sea Wylfing, ofthe 7th century Anglo-Saxon Sutton-Hoo ship. Heimløsa Rus was on a voy-age from Finland to the Mediterraneanand stopped for two weeks inPlymouth on the way. The ships sailedin Plymouth strait and rowed up theTamar River and visited different places

where people could see them and comeaboard. The week was ended with a bigAnglo-Saxon banquet in Tavistok. Theweek was a success and was coveredboth by local and national press andTV.

Vikings 97, A Viking Festival in Plymouth, England

By flying reporter, Gustaf Svedjemo,Viking Heritage

Krampmacken and Sea Wylting on the River Tamar. Photo: G. Svedjemo.

The new Runestone at the hotel inPlymouth. Photo: G. Svedjemo.

Viking woman at the camp at MountEdgecumb park. Photo: G. Svedjemo.


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On the sandy tongue of land, on whichsouthern Sebbersund in the northernpart of Jutland and close to the Lim-fjorden is located, existed in the Vikingperiod a big settlement with a church.On the cape there was not room forfarming of any significance, so it wastrading, handicrafts and fishing thatformed the basis of the settlement. Thetown grew large after the standards ofthe period and, at its hight, covered anarea of around 65,000 sq metres. Thearea is separated in three differentparts.

Workshop areaThe workshop area with its marketplace lies in the middle of the settle-ment. So far we know that there wereironsmiths, bronzefounders, silver- andgoldsmiths there, but surely othercraftsmen were found in the workshoparea. Common for the craftsmen wasthat their products were sold in front ofthe workshops.

It is certain that this site originallybegan as a marketplace. The mountain

next to thesettlement canbe seen fromthe surroun-ding NibeBredning andwould havebeen known to all from theEastern Limfjord area. Itwas therefore an excellentmeeting place.

Different types of craftsmen wouldhave visited the marketplace and intime settled here, generating thegrowth of the site into a town.

Settlement siteIn the summer of 1990 one couldobserve, from the top of the mountain,an area of patches in the cornfield.These patches are evidence of wherethe Vikings built pithouses on the cape.

Pithouses are small working/livinghuts, where - as the name suggests - thefloor was dug out of the ground andthe hut covered with a sloping roof.

Most of the houses are round and

approx. 3 metres in diameter, but squ-are pithouses were also found. Whenthe pithouses were vacated, the pits

were used as waste depots. Thereforeone can see from the corn where thehouses were, due to better growingconditions on those spots. Because ofthe summer drought in 1992, onecould count around 150 pithouses,visible on the surface.

Church and churchyardOn the southernmost part of the settle-ment, there was a wooden church inthe middle of a churchyard. Thechurch was rectangular, with a smallerchapel towards the east. Altogether itwas 13 metres long and between 4 and6 metres wide. The church was con-structed with posts dug into the earthin a line with the wall.

Surronding the church was the chur-chyard, stretching out approx. 40 x 40metres. The churchyard is estimated tohold around 1000 graves. The dead areall buried in east-west orientated graveswith their heads towards the west, andnearly all have a pillow of turf undertheir necks. This pillow would haveallowed the head to be in a nearly verti-cal position, so that the Christian belie-ver could witness the Second Comingof Christ, believed to come from theeast.

As is usual with Christian graves, thedead were buried without burial giftsor personal belongings. Therefore thegraves are difficult to date. There hasonly been found a half coin in one ofthe graves, and that could not be dated.

A little less than half of the dead havebeen buried in coffins. The rest haveprobably been wrapped in organicmaterial. It looks like the coffins wereThis is how the church might have

looked like. Drawings P. Birkedal.

Sebbersund - a Viking Town inNorthern Jutland, Denmark


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made of the material one had on handor which was easy to acquire. Many ofthe coffins were made of ship planks.The bows of smaller boats were alsoused as coffins, as were hollowed outtrunks (logboats). Some childrens cof-fins were made of troughs, eitherbakers’ dough tubs or slaughter-troughsused in butchering.

One grave is standing out from allthe others by the fact that it was madefrom rocks and boulders. The sides andlid were of cleaved granite rock, whileat the grave’s western end there was pla-ced a big block of chalk with a spacecarved out for the head. Mortar wasused, to keep earth from sieving in. Inthis stone grave lay a very well preser-ved skeleton of a man, not more than150 cm tall. This person was evidentlyof high standing and with connectionswith the church in Sebbersund.Interesting is that a Carbon 14 analysesdates the man to the 9th century.

The wooden church was replaced byan Roman stone church on the northend of Saint Nikolajs’ Mountain. Wedo not know very much about thischurch.

What Sebbersund was whenthe Vikings were thereThe settlement at Sebbersund was alarge, important trade settlement,where imports from Norway andEngland were both traded andrepacked for transportation to otherareas around the Eastern Limfjord.

At the marketplace, various crafts-men worked, and their crafts were tra-ded to inhabitants of the surroundingcountryside, close to the fjord. The rawmaterial used for the large scale manu-facturing of iron products was evi-dently imported from Norway.

While the town was growing larger,in the years around 1000 AD, a changeof religion took place in Denmark.Unfortunately, we do not know whenthe first church was built atSebbersund, nor do we know when thestone church replaced the woodenchurch.

The Roman church at the top of themountain was dedicated to SaintNikolaj, patron of commerce, naviga-tion and fishing. This fits in well withthe Viking settlement, where trade andfishing evidently had a large role. Thesmall boats from the graves in the chur-chyard would have been very suitableas fishing boats on the Nibe andHalkaer Bredning waterways. The sett-lement may have been the most impor-tant trading place in the EasternLimfjord.

Why the settlement disappearedAt some time around the beginning ofthe twelfth century, the Limfjord passa-geway was closed towards the West andNorth and then became a fjord. With

The workshop area is clearly visible in the form of dark round or square areas showing the location of pithouses. Photo P. Birkedal.

this closure, important seaways wereblocked towards Norway, England andthe West coast of Europe. The fjordbecame less salty and the fishing chan-ged. Therefore the importance ofSebbersund as a trading and fishingpost diminished.

What makes this settlementso interesting?Most of the trading settlements fromViking period remain as towns to thepresent day. Therefore the archaeologi-cal information on many of the earliersettlements in Denmark is to be foundthree or four metres under the nowexisting street level. However, inSebbersund, the evidence has beenundisturbed since the twelfth centuryand can be fully excavated.

The wooden church and churchyardare exceptional in Danish history, inthat it is the first time we have had thechance to excavate a stave churchwhich has not been disturbed by astone church of later date. The chur-chyard gives us the possibility to studypeople’s lenght, life spans, child morta-lity rates, small and large bodily defectsand about some of the first Christiansin Denmark. The churchyard gives us agood picture of Danes during the yearsfrom approx. 1000 to 1100 AD.


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By Peter BirkedalAalborg Historical MuseumBox 1805DK 9100 AalborgDenmark

The churchyard consists of more than a 1000 graves. The open space is were the churchhave been standing. Drawing P. Birkedal.

Some examples of brooches found and manufactured at Sebbesund. Photo P. Birkedal.


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Since 1989, ‘The BirminghamVikings’, also known as ‘Dahrg deBelne’ and led by society Jarl JohnSheard and his wife Roz, have been thelocal group of the oldest and largestDark Age re-enactment Society inEngland - ‘The Norse Film andPageant Society’ - now also known sim-ply as ‘The Vikings’. The BirminghamVikings are based both at the Sheards’home in Yardley, Birmingham and atBells Farm, a Grade II* listedTudor/Elizabethan building in Druids’Heath, Birmingham.

The ubiquitous Birmingham Vikingswere formed to provide education andentertainment for adults and youngpeople based on the historical period ofthe Vikings, Saxons, Normans and

Celts. Put simply, we recreate the reallife world of the Dark Ages with cos-tume, acting, crafts and demonstrationsof combat and life skills of the period.We are a non-profit making organisa-tion linked to a registered charity andundertake extensive work with schoolsand the public, both locally in theMidlands and central England andnationally, with a strong educationalelement and an emphasis on childrenand the family. As a non-profit group,we are of course always delighted tohear from potential sponsors! Ourwork has for many years involved bothauthentic ‘living history’ displays andexciting battle reenactments, often atmajor shows at historic locations suchas castles and stately homes, including

work for English Heritage - and for1997 we already have seven bookingsfor events at their sites.

The group attracts members with awide range of interests and includescraftsmen and women, academic rese-archers, a qualified teacher, an archivephotographer, drama specialists, andwarriors to provide ferocious lookingbattle re-enactments as well as authen-tic ‘living history’ displays and activi-ties. You don’t have to start off as anexpert, though! Training is available inall the skills necessary to make a goodre-enactor, so all you need to be prepa-red to do is to put in the work, studyand research necessary to be an authen-tic Viking in whichever walk of life youchoose - and acquire or make whatevercostume and equipment you need!

Researchers ensure costumes, equip-ment, craft and life skills are as accurateas possible, while the craftsmen andcraftswomen take the academic rese-arch a stage further, reproducing clot-hing and other artifacts, practising and

The Saga of the Birmingham VikingsBy Stuart Williams

Mention the Vikings to most people and they think of burly long-haired

louts wearing helmets with horns, eyes bulging, nostrils flaring, minds set

on a bit of rape and pillage, so it may surprise a few people to learn of the

Vikings who live in Birmingham, in the Midlands of central England.

An idyllic but smocky campfire scene as The Birmingham Vikings (portraying Saxons on this occassion) prepare a breakfast of oat cakesand honey. Photo by Stuart Williams 1996.


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experimenting with techniques so thatthe public can see as authentically aspossible how the Saxons and Vikingsactually lived their lives. To this end,individual members also research andcreate a ‘character’ whom they playwhile working with the public, forexample, Ulf Johanson, warrior, hunterand fisherman; Ragnhild, wife of OlafHaroldson, Jarl of Dahrg de Belne;Thorfinn Gunnarsen (sometimesknown as Thorfinn the Boastful!),Danish warrior, mercenary and story-teller; Fearn, Celtic wife of Sigurd theTrader, and so on. Joining and actingas a family is positively encouraged.Portraying the conflicts and accomoda-tions made between Christian andPagan religions of the period also invol-ves us in further research, the results ofwhich are shown in, for example, thebanter between Jarl Olaf Haroldson (aChristian convert) and ThorfinnGunnarsen (a staunch Norse Pagandedicated to Thor).

A new venture for 1996 is our ownWorld Wide Web site on the Internet,allowing ‘surfers’ around the world tosee information on our group and takeadvantage of our links to Viking infor-mation resources worldwide through‘The Bifrost Project!’ We can be foundat: http://web.ukonline.co.uk/mem-bers/thorfinn/bifrost/dahrg/index.html

Over the years we have built up animpressive array of equipment and arti-facts, many created using crafts skillswithin the group, with larger propsneeded by the group purchased fromfees and donations from local shows.We transport these nationwide andmany of the group’s public appearancesinvolve setting up our own ‘village’with craftsmen and women interactingwith visitors to the site, acting out sce-nes from history. In this way, we bothentertain and educate people with thetrue story of the Vikings!

Many of the shows we organise ortake part in also involve spectacularclashes of sword and shield as ‘Saxons’and ‘Vikings’ fight it out for each smallpiece of England. Despite very fero-cious looking encounters on the battle-field, there are very few injuries, as thegroup’s ‘Warriors’ are trained to highsafety standards before being allowed toperform in public.

It’s not all research, craft work andbattles, though, as with any other ‘club’

The Birmingham Vikingsenjoy meeting with other like-minded Dark Age re-enact-ment groups, gathered aroundthe camp fire after a show, orin the local pub, sharing asong and tales of heroism orthe deeds of the Gods! Wealso hold banquets during theyear when members arehonoured when societyawards are given.

Our educational wing ‘TheViking Experience’ was foun-ded in 1991. Directed by aprofessional teacher, it provi-des exhibitions at popularmuseum sites, teacher trainingfor Education Authoritiesincluding Walsall, Tamworthand Birmingham, and extre-mely popular school visitsacross the Midlands. Makingeducation fun and sparkingthe imagination, our serviceshelp children in many not soobvious ways - includingenhancing cultural identity,inspiring racial and religiousharmony, encouraging creati-vity and providing a unique way of hel-ping children with special needs.

‘The Viking Experience’ has recentlyproduced a booklet of backgroundinformation and craft projects based onthe Viking lifestyle. The booklet is inresponse to the needs of teachers andyouth workers. Since 1991 ‘TheViking Experience’ has been bringinghistory to life for many children acrossthe country. The talks by a specialistteacher in Viking or Saxon costumelead on to children trying on costumeand handling reproduction artifacts.The visits are often rounded off with‘craft workshops’ enabling children tomake their own reproduction artifactsfrom modern low cost materials. Withbackground information, together witha series of tried and tested projects on aViking theme, ‘Craft Projects for theJunior Viking’ may also be just thething for parents looking for holidayactivities for their children. Furtherdetails can be obtained from the con-tacts at the end of this article.

Why should you become a Dark Agere-enactor and join The BirminghamVikings? If you are a fan of theVikings, are fascinated by their history,

want to study them in very practical -and fun - way and wish to revive thespirit of honour, loyalty and good fel-lowship of the Norsemen (andwomen!) and make it part of your life,you can do this quite simply. Step backinto the past and set sail with TheBirmingham Vikings!

Contacts:John and Roz Sheard, The

Birmingham Vikings, 43 Croft Road,Yardley, Birmingham, B26 1SQ,England, United Kingdom.Telephone: 01922 784 6408 (+441922 784 6408 outside the UnitedKingdom).

Email:[email protected]

World Wide Web Site:http://web.ukonline.co.uk/mem-

bers/thorfinn/bifrost/dahrg/index.html

Sigurd the Trader (Simon Wellman, left)and Ulf (Shane Matthews, right) wel-come visitors to Bells Farm, Birmingham.Photo by Stuart Williams 1996.


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Anundshög is one of the most promi-nent ancient monuments in Sweden. Avisitor will find an exciting combina-tion of Viking monuments and attrac-tive rural surroundings. There are indi-vidual information boards with texts infour languages.

In the autumn of 1997 theDepartment of Archaeology ofStockholm University will carry out aminor excavation in the largest mound- Anundshög. The aim of this excava-tion is to get a better knowledge ofwhen the mound was built.Postgraduate students will also studyother aspects of the ancient monu-ments in the surroundings. Of signifi-cance is that the grave with richest dis-covery of ancient gold jewellery inSweden was excavated just about 1000meters away at Tuna.

The board of culture in Västeråsplans to open a summer café next toAnundshög in 1998. This will be donein co-operation with the BadelundaSociety of Local History. In connectionto this café there will be a small roomwith information about the Badelundadistrict but also about other importanthistorical monuments in the vicinity ofVästerås

1998 is a year of culture in Swedenbecause of Stockholm being theCultural Capital of Europe ´98. Thismeans that Anundshög will be a placefor special arrangements. During thesummer the well renowned theatregroup ”4:e teatern” will perform a spe-cially written play about the Vikingsand their gods. The place for the playwill be one of the two large boat-sha-ped monuments (ship-settings) besidethe mound. In the summertime it willalso be possible to make a Viking tourby bus from Stockholm to Anundshög.The tour will pass by various highlightsfrom the Viking era.

Anundshög - the largest burial mound in Sweden

By Jan Mellander, Västerås Community

Viking burialsin the form ofship settings atBadelunda.The largestbeing some 54metres long.Photo D.Carlsson.

Below:”Anundshög”,some 10 metreshigh and 60metres in dia-metre. PhotoD. Carlsson.


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While I was temporally working atViking Heritage I was asked to contri-bute with an article about an earliervisit to Novgorod and the Troitskyexcavation. In the summer of 1995 wewere 15 Archaeology students fromThe College of Higher Education atGotland, who had the opportunity totravel to Russia and take part in theTroitsky excavation in Novgorod. Thiswas in connection with a collaborationbetween The College of HigherEducation at Gotland in Sweden andthe Dept. of Archaeology, MoscowState University.

Briefly about the history ofNovgorod and Gorodische.Novgorod is one of the oldest cities inRussia. According to the literary sour-ces and to Russian folklore there wereinternal conflicts among the EasternSlavs around Novgorod. They were soviolent that they had to call upon aforeign prince who could unite theminto one strong state. Their choice wasRurik, a Scandinavian chieftain, who in862 became ruler of Novgorod, whichbecame known as Holmgard amongthe Scandinavian Vikings. Rurik waseventually succeeded in 879 by his sonIgor who reigned 912-945. In the13th and 14th centuries, Novgorodbecame a trade outpost of theHanseatic League and was a major cul-tural centre. (Engelmann, ”Russia,”Microsoft (R) Encarta 1995).

Novgorod is situated in WesternRussia divided into two banks by theVolchov river, the Sofia Bank to theWest and the Merchants Bank on theEast side. The name Novgorod means”new town”. Gorodische ”the oldtown” was an important trading andmilitary centre in the 9 th and 10 thcenturies. It is situated 2 km further upthe Volchov river in the region aroundthe Lake Ilmen.

The scholars have earlier in accor-dance with historic sources and the fact

that Gorodische isolder than Novgorod,assumed thatNovgorod was a repla-cement ofGorodische. In lateryears the archaeologi-cal excavations havebrought up materialwhich proves that thesettlements developedsimultaneouslythroughout the 10thcentury. The archaeo-logical material alsoshows that the population of the townsconsisted of Slavs, Balts, Finns andScandinavians (Brisbane 1992: 39 a.a.).

The Troitsky excavation.The Troitsky excavation was started in1973 in accordance with the townplanner’s schemes for the St Sofia’s sideof the town and it has been continuedever since. When we arrived inNovgorod in the end of July 1995 therewere full activity at the site and wewere immediately put to work. Themajority of us had not studied archaeo-

logy more than one year and had onlyone month’s experience of practicalfield work. With spades in our handswe set about the task although underthe supervision of the russian archaeo-logists.

We were accompanied by severalRussian youths who had taken theopportunity to earn some extra moneyduring the summer holidays. Theyexplained to us that they got paid foreach uncovered square and for extraor-dinary finds. The Russian archaeolo-gists were entirely devoted to measu-ring and documenting the finds.Unfortunately we did not receive very

A visit to the Troitsky excavation in Novgorod

Camilla Altahr-Cederberg, B.A.

View over the Troitsky excavation, Novgorod.


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much information from them regar-ding the excavation and the finds webrought up, since there were hardlynone of them that spoke any otherlanguage than Russian.

The cultural layers had been dividedinto three chronological levels 18-19thcenturies, 14-17th centuries and 10-13th centuries. We were placed at the10-13 th century level. The layers wereuncovered in units of 4 sq.m. and thestratum in layers of 20 cm. which werechecked with the help of a level. Thestate of the preserved objects was fasci-nating, the waterlogged soil had preser-ved wood, bones, leather, textiles andother organic materials. Some of theremains of the wood houses were

almost intact and the timbers were sui-table for dendrochronological analysis.One of the most spectacular finds inNovgorod are birch-bark letters. Sincethe 30’s there have been more than 750found. They cover all sides of life; fromlove letters to recording business trans-actions. We did find some birch barkrolls but we never found out whetherthey were letters or not.

There were also some time left overfor excursions and we had the opportu-nity to visit a Russian/Swedish excava-tion team at Gorodische under the lea-dership of ass. Prof. Ingmar Jansson.One evening we had the pleasure to lis-ten to a musician who played on musi-cal instruments reconstructed after the

Novgorod finds. After two weeks inNovgorod it was time to travel back toSweden and to continue our archaeolo-gical studies with all the new know-ledge and experience we had gained.

HERITAGE News

Viking Heritage’s latest project is todevelop and maintain an Internet sitewith a database of Viking information.The database will contain all types ofinformation that involves Vikings andthe Viking Age. There will be informa-tion on all the major and attendedViking Age locations around the world.An event calendar with constantly up-dated information on all major eventslike exhibitions, happenings, re-enact-ment, festivals, markets etc., will behosted. All the museums with VikingAge collections will be listed.Reconstructions of houses and ships aswell as handi-craft and Arts are otherthings that can be searched.Organisations and associations thatdeals with the Viking Age will also havetheir own category.An academic section with ongoingresearch and excavations will also beprovided. We hope that scholars andprofessionals at universities, museumsand other institutions will publish theirresearch on our Internet site. By doingso they can reach a world-wide audi-ence with a minimum of cost and time.

Mailing lists will also be provided sosubscribers can be informed on newthings and ask colleagues for advice onViking related issues.It will not only be professionals thatwill be able to interact on VikingHeritage Internet site. Viking enthusi-asts will also be able to publish theirwork and subscribe to mailing lists.The database will be searchable via theInternet. The advantages by having itsearchable via the Internet are many.Firstly, it will be accessible from anycomputer in the world with an Internetconnection. Secondly, it will always beup-to-date. Thirdly, the cost for thistype of world-wide distribution of largeamounts of data is low compared toother media.The database will be out on theInternet during the late summer orautumn of 1997. The address will be:

http://www.viking-heritage.seorhttp://ottes.got.kth.se.By this time we will have collected a

nucleus of information, but the data-base will keep growing as we gather

more information. As you understandthis is a major project that we haveundertaken and we heavily depend onour members and others to provide uswith information so the databasealways is expanding and up-to-date.Information can be sent to:Viking Heritage621 85 VisbySweden Email: [email protected]@gotlandica.seFax: +46 498292108Tel: +46 498292063, +46 498292062

The Viking Heritage Internet Site isdeveloped and maintained by archaeo-logists and is connected to the SwedishUniversity Net’s (Sunet) backbone. Thesite uses only limited commercial soft-ware and the rest is shareware/freewareto keep costs down. It is run onMacintosh machines. This makes iteasy to use and maintain without com-puter specialists but yet have verypowerful features and use the latest,affordable technology.

Viking Heritage Server & DatabaseBy Gustaf Svedjemo, Viking Heritage. Project manager

Bibliography

Kurt E. Engelmann, 1995”Russia,” Microsoft (R) Encarta

Mark A. Brisbane, 1992,The Archaeology of Novgorod,Russia.The society for medievalArchaeology, Vol. 13.


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Few periods in our recenthistory stimulate our imagi-nation to the same extent asthe Viking era and there isno other Scandinavian phe-nomena as widely knownthroughout the world as theVikings. Their life and wayof living fascinated evenMedieval scholars and therehave been a multitude ofexhibitions and publica-tions based on the Vikingsand their time.

Viking Heritage, in con-junction with Tidsresan,which arranges bus trips toplaces of cultural historicinterest, will conduct, com-mencing the summer of 98,an event on the Vikingtheme, with heavy emphasison knowledge and quality.The arrangement is a com-bination of a 2-day pro-gramme in the Stockholmarea and participation in anexciting archaeologicalexcavation of a Viking har-bour on Gotland.

The event begins in Stockholm onSaturday, July 11, with Tidsresan orga-nising a guided bus tour to the worldof the Vikings. Täby and Vallentunanorth of Stockholm offer one of therichest treasure-troves in Sweden interms of remains from the Viking days.There are numerous rune stones, housefoundations, grave fields, not to men-tion the renown Jarlabankes bro. Thetrip also includes a guided tour of theHistorical Museum and a Viking-inspi-red meal. On Sunday, July 12 there willbe a visit at Birka, Sweden’s first city.Local guides will accompany the tourguests.

The tour continues to Gotland on

July 13, and guestswill participate in thearchaeological dig atthe Viking harbour inFröjel all day Tuesdaythe 14th. The excava-tion is part of a rese-arch project to be car-ried out over severalyears aimed at intensi-fying knowledge of theViking harbours andtrade. You can chooseto dig for two or threeweek periods. You caneven choose to partici-pate in just one part ofthe programme, eitherthe excursion or thedigging.The excursion will beled by KristinaSvensson, archaeolo-gist and museum tea-cher, in co-operationwith the NationalHistorical Museum.The digging at theViking harbour will beled by associate profes-sor Dan Carlsson,Viking Heritage andthe Gotland Collegeof Higher Education.For more detailedinformation concer-

ning costs, practical arrangements, etc.;With regards the excursion days in

Stockholm; contact Kristina Svensson,Tidsresan, address Brahegatan 56, 11437 Stockholm, tele. +46-8 6676671,fax +46- 8 66274 70. Tidsresan arran-ges this and other cultural trips forgroups throughout the year.

With regards the archaeologicaldigs on Gotland; Contact DanCarlsson, Viking Heritage, 621 85Visby, tele. +46-498 292066, fax +46-498 292108, email dan.carlsson @ got-landica.se

Follow the Vikings! - take part in anexcavation of a Viking age harbour

By Dan Carlsson

The objectives of the network are:• To develop and maintain the Council of Europe’s Viking Routes pro-

ject.

• To co-operate with schools, universities etc in the field of educationand training in the study of the Vikings.

• To collect information of present Viking history activities, and to dis-tribute information about Vikings and their history.

• To create a fund for The Annual Viking Management Prize to the bestCultural Heritage Management of Viking History.

In promoting these aims, VIKING HERITAGE has begun an informa-tion service for its members with the newsletter Viking HeritageNewsletter. It will organize conferences and seminars and act as a moni-toring and advisory body on all issues relating to an enhanced understan-ding of the Viking history, operating at both international and nationallevels.

Visiting address: Viking Heritage, Skeppsbron 18, Visby, SwedenPostal address: Viking Heritage, S-621 85 Visby, Sweden

phone +46 498 292066, fax+46 498 292108email:[email protected]

Internet: http://bull.got.kth.se/~viking

VIKING HERITAGEa network for Viking-related knowledge

viking heritage - wastekeep.org

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