Sails from the Roman port at Berenike, Egypt

A 1st-century AD midden deposit at Berenike, a major port on the trade route between the Roman Empire and India, has produced cotton textile fragments reinforced with a rectangular grid-pattern of cotton strips, interpreted as the remains of sails. Webbing fragments of cotton and linen, in some cases attached to stout cotton or linen cloth, may also have come from sails. The only published example of a Roman-Period sail is a linen sail of 1st-century BC-AD date from Thebes in Egypt, to which the Berenike fragments bear a close resemblance. The S-spun linen sails were presumably manufactured in Egypt. Most of the Berenike material, however, was of Z-spun cotton: an import, it is argued, of Indian origin. The construction of Mediterranean-type sails entirely from Indian materials has implications for the presence of Westerners on the Indian sub-continent.     

Viking-Age Sails: Form and Proportion

Archaeological ship-finds have shed much light on the design and construction of vessels from the Viking Age. However, the exact proportions of their sails remain unknown due to the lack of fully preserved sails, or other definite indicators of their proportions. Key Viking-Age ship-finds from Scandinavia—the Oseberg Ship, the Gokstad Ship and Skuldelev 3—have all revealed traces of rigging. In all three finds, the keelson—with the mast position—is preserved, together with fastenings for the sheets and the tack, indicating the breadth of the sail. The sail area can then be estimated based on practical experience of how large a sail the specific ship can carry, in conjunction with hull form and displacement. This article presents reconstructions of the form and dimensions of rigging and sail based on the archaeological finds, evidence from iconographic and written sources, and ethnographic parallels with traditional Nordic boats. When these sources are analysed, not only do the similarities become apparent, but so too does the relative disparity between the archaeological record and the other sources. Preferential selection in terms of which source is given the greatest merit is therefore required, as it is not possible to afford them all equal value.     

A 16th‐Century Ship‐Find from Amager Beach Park,Denmark: description and preliminary interpretation

When establishing the new Amager Beach Park near Copenhagen, Denmark, a small clinker‐built ship dating to the 16th century (dendro‐dated to 1560–70) was discovered. The Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde excavated the wreck in 2004, and parts of the ship were later taken to the museum and recorded in 3D. This article describes the excavation and the documentation, and presents the preliminary interpretation of the ship‐find. The ship is interpreted as a small cargo vessel, probably carrying two masts. Its hull‐form indicates that the vessel was specially designed for navigating the waters of the Sound between Denmark and Sweden. © 2010 The Author     

Bai Jiao 1—the excavation of a Song Dynasty shipwreck in the Dinghai area, Fujian Province, China, 1995

The ships that sail the Southern Sea and south of it are like houses. When their sails are spread they are like great clouds in the sky… The big ship with its heavy cargo has naught to fear of the great waves, but in shallow water it comes to grief (cited in Guy, 1992: 18).     

Notices of Remains of Ecclesiastical Architecture in Norfolk,Supposed to be of the Saxon Period

Documentary research shows that an unprovenanced, non-matching ‘pair’ of Viking oval brooches now in the British Museum are, in fact, from a grave in the Viking cemetery discovered in the nineteenth century at Pierowall, Westray, Orkney. Found in 1839, they had subsequently passed through the hands of a number of private collectors and dealers, sadly losing their grave associations and sustaining a little damage in the process. It is even more disturbing to note that eventually their provenance was lost (or suppressed?). Fortunately the ‘pair’ was never split up, which has facilitated their re-identification.     

Early medieval T⊘nsberg — dating problems and the results

According to the 13th century Icelandic Saga writer Snorre Sturlasson, there was a marketplace (in old Norwegian: Kaupstadir) in the T?nsberg area by the end of the 9th century. The origin of the medieval town of T?nsberg has therefore been much discussed in the light of this statement. Viking Age and early medieval settlements often lack material datable by archaeology alone. In T?nsberg radiocarbon dating has been used to distinguish between Viking Age deposits and medieval deposits, when stratigraphy alone does not state the differences. However, this dating method has produced various results and there is obvious need for a local calibration.     

The Scale and Impact of Viking Settlement in Northumbria

DISCOVERIES AT the Viking winter camp at Torksey indicate that the armies that invaded Anglo-Saxon England in the late 9th century were much larger than is often assumed, and that a literal reading of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle’s assessment of the size of Viking fleets may, after all, have been correct. Furthermore, study of the Torksey metalwork assemblage has allowed the identification of the archaeological signature of the Viking Great Army, and when applied to Cottam, it confirms the identification of an initial phase of raiding by an element of the Army, followed shortly thereafter by settlement represented by the development of a hybrid Anglo-Scandinavian culture. Taken together, over 25 categories of non-ferrous artefacts are diagnostic of Viking or Anglo-Scandinavian activity in Northumbria. Applying this model to sites, largely known only from metal-detecting, we can observe a common pattern. At the majority of sites, a large and fairly standardised middle Anglo-Saxon finds assemblage is succeeded by just a few Viking finds, which we attribute to raiding following Halfdan’s return to Northumbria with part of the Great Army in AD 876. At a smaller number of sites, assemblages of Anglo-Scandinavian finds relate to the establishment of settlements by the new landowners. The overall picture is of major settlement disruption and dislocation of existing land holdings and populations in the late-9th century. This demonstrates, for the first time from archaeological evidence, the scale and impact of Viking activity in Northumbria.     

The Tune Viking Ship Reconsidered

The Tune Viking ship has been a riddle for more than 150 years, since being found within a burial in the Oslo fjord area in 1867. It was long thought that the ship's freeboard was too low for it to have crossed the North Sea. Advances in documentation methods and a detailed study of the preserved parts of the ship have provided new data, and this article outlines a new proposal for how the ship looked when it was built in the early 10th century AD. The Tune ship is reinterpreted as a seagoing vessel, in no way inferior to the Oseberg or Gokstad Viking ships.     

A Viking Ship Graffito from Kilclief,County Down,Ireland

Deep ploughing near Kilclief, County Down, near the site of an early monastery, disturbed a large quantity of buried stones. One of these displayed a Viking‐type ship with a furled sail. Decorative artwork on the stone suggests an 11th‐century date. The ship displays close similarities to Viking ship graffiti in Viking Dublin and in the Scandinavian homelands. This article describes the decorated stone and suggests that it represents an Irish ship constructed in the Viking style. Documentary sources indicate that ships were being granted by an Irish over‐king to a local king of this area at this time.     

Social status in the Merovingian and Viking periods in Norway from archaeological and historical sources

Generally, the social structure (stratification of the society) in the Merovingian and Viking periods in Norway has been studied by historians using mainly historical and linguistic material. However, prehistoric burials are supposed to reflect the social status of the deceased, and in the present study social status in the Merovingian and Viking periods in western, central and eastern Norway has been examined through 4629 grave finds recorded in the museums’ list—3796 were defined as men's grave finds and 833 as women's. On the basis of the composition of the grave material both the men's and women's graves could be divided into three groups: a large lower group with plain grave material, a small upper group with the richest finds, and an intermediate group. This grouping was supported by studies of the professionally excavated graves from 1956–1978 and indicated three distinctive social groups of free men and women. The grouping of the men's graves on the basis of weapon composition showed only a fair association with the weapon requirements and the social status indicated by the provincial laws from the early Middle Ages. However, studies of 177 precisely dated weapon graves demonstrated a closer association between the requirements of the laws and the weapon composition of the 10th century graves than of those from the 8th and 9th centuries. Accordingly, the grave finds from the Merovingian and Viking periods as well as the historical sources from the early Middle Ages reflect a society with marked differences in social status, the grave finds from the 10th century showing the best correspondence to the provincial laws.     

Bands of brothers: a re‐appraisal of the Viking Great Army and its implications for the Scandinavian colonization of England

Although the ninth‐century Viking Great Army has been subject to intensive historical and archaeological study, it remains an enigmatic entity. This article explores the evidence for the Great Army in England through the consideration of archaeological materials in addition to the organizational structures underpinning the formation of Viking ‘armies’. In light of this, I argue that the Great Army is better considered as a mobile society or polity rather than an armed force. Viewing the Great Army in this way influences not only the interpretation of evidence recovered in the field, but also our understanding of the Scandinavian settlement of northern and eastern England during the late ninth century.     

Building a copy of the Gokstad Faering

This is the story of the building of a replica Viking craft. Being only 22 ft (6.7 m) long and having 4 ft 6 in (1.37 m) beam, the Gokstad faering does not conform to our usual image of a Viking boat. However, the smaller craft shows all the construction details found in the larger ships. A close examination can help us to see some of the principles the Vikings applied to their boatbuilding.     

Classifying science and technology: two problems with the UNESCO system

Abstract

The Viking spacecraft to Mars have clearly revealed a planet to ponder. In some ways it appears Earth-like, in other ways it is similar to our Moon, and yet in many aspects it is unique. This was the conclusion of the Second International Colloquium on Mars, held at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, USA, 15–18 January 1979. The first colloquium was held five years earlier to discuss results of the highly successful Mariner 9 mission to Mars. Two Viking landers and two orbiters were sent to Mars in 1976. All four spacecraft lived a healthy life through a full 688-day Martian year transmitting a rich harvest of scientific data. In fact, three are still at work, although at a much slower pace than before.     

The Viking Age settlement pattern of Langholt,North Iceland: Results of the Skagafjörður Archaeological Settlement Survey

An archaeological survey of the Viking Age settlement pattern in the Langholt region of North Iceland suggests that being early in this sequence conferred tremendous advantages to the settlers of this previously uninhabited landscape. Many of the farms established during the settlement of Iceland (which began about a.d. 870) are in use today. However, accessing the Viking Age landscape is difficult. In Langholt the earliest layers of most farmsteads are buried under a thousand years of occupational debris, while the abandoned sites have been covered by extensive soil deposition. Here we report on our coring and test excavation results that outline Viking Age farmstead location, establishment date, and maximum size by the end of the Viking Age. There is a strong correlation between farmstead size and establishment date. This correlation suggests that during the rapid settlement of Iceland, the farmsteads established by earlier settlers were wealthier and that wealth endured.     

“Eastern” ornaments of the 11th‐13th centuries in the Sami areas: Origins and routes

Ornaments of east‐European origin found at Viking Age and Early Medieval sites in northern Scandinavia have been analysed by many Scandinavian scholars. In the Scandinavian context, the presence of these import items has given rise to many theories concerning inter‐ethnic relations and the function of these ornaments as markers of ethnicity. In this paper, the Soviet scholar N. A. Makarov offers an analyses of where these “eastern” ornaments could have been produced and what their distribution patterns in these areas may reveal about the origins of and contact routes between various peoples.     

The Mediterranean Lateen Sail in Late Antiquity

The Mediterranean lateen sailing rig has been studied since the early-to-mid-20th century. Recently-published depictions of sailing vessels rigged with lateen and settee sails, dating to the late-antique period, allow some of the principle characteristics of that rig to be established. This allows comparison with lateen- or settee-rigged vessels from both earlier and later periods. The sailing rigs depicted on other vessels can be identified and the level of technical continuity between the late-antique and medieval Mediterranean addressed. Finally it is possible to assess the extent to which the lateen sail was established in the Mediterranean by late antiquity.
© 2009 The Author     

A survey of British metamorphic hone stones of the 9th to 15th centuries AD in the light of potassium-argon and natural remanent magnetization studies

Hone stone trade and use during the period of Scandinavian-English interaction (9th–15th centuries AD) was dominated by two metamorphic petrological types represented by the “Norwegian Ragstone” (NR) a quartz-mica schist, and the “Purple Phyllite” (PP) a quartz-mica phyllite, and finds are abundant throughout the Viking world. Petrology associates the NR type with the known quarries at Eidsborg, southern Norway, and this has been endorsed by isotopic evidence. The source of the PP type remains unknown, but has been postulated to be a second facies of Eidsberg material, or even a Variscan phyllite from Belgium. It was the purpose of this study to further refine the possible source area of the PP material. Age data now indicate a “Caledonian” source for the PP type. Within Europe the superposition of metamorphic belts has led to the occurrence of both schist and phyllitic metamorphic lithologies. Petrological criteria therefore rarely provide evidence of the source of such rocks. The zonation of Europe by metamorphic belts does, however, allow isotopic age studies to be used as an aid to provenancing. The PP hones exhibit a range of mineralogy which may indicate a variety of sources, although no archaeological sites capable of producing such a quantity of material have been identified within the Viking world. The evidence, however, indicates a source in the Norwegian Caledonides.     

Reflections on the Balance of Traditional Sailing Vessels

The balance of sailing vessels makes an important contribution to sailing characteristics, but its measurement is far from trivial. Traditionally, balance has been determined from the geometric centres of hulls and sails, but experimental results show that this approach is highly inaccurate. Designers overcome this difficulty by the use of a heuristic concept of 'lead', but the geometric methodology can be misleading in retrospective analysis of ancient sailing vessels. It can result in doubtful conclusions about sailing capabilities and incorrect deductions about the type of rig that was used and the reasons for specific mast positions.
© 2008 The Author     

Potassium-argon ages of schist honestones from the viking age sites at Kaupang (Norway), Aggersborg (Denmark), Hedeby (West Germany) and Wolin (Poland), and their archaeological implications

Viking age honestones from four large sites in northern Europe have been made from two different types of quartz-muscovite schist: one dark grey, very fine-grained schist, and a light grey, fine-grained schist. In order to determine the provenance of these schist hones, KAr ages have been determined on 16 selected representative hones. The dark grey schist hones yield Caledonian ages of 403–446 Ma. and consideration of petrographic evidence leads to the conclusion that the hones were quarried in the Caledonian area (presumably) of Western Norway. The light grey schist hones are Precambrian, with KAr ages of 931–946 Ma, and are presumed to originate from Telemark, South Norway. The amount and homogeneity of these honestone groups from different parts of the Viking world indicates the existence of large quarries, and demonstrates that production and trade were more wide-ranging than had hitherto been assumed.     

Stable isotopes as indicators of change in the food procurement and food preference of Viking Age and Early Christian populations on Gotland (Sweden)

Archaeological samples of human and faunal remains dating from the Viking (9–11th century AD) and Early Christian (11–12th century AD) periods of Gotland, Sweden were assayed through stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis in order to investigate whether changes in subsistence occurred between these periods, particularly regarding the importance of seafood. The study was concerned with how the dietary regime of the Baltic trading port and farming settlement at Ridanäs, Gotland was affected by the widespread environmental and sociocultural transformations that characterized the end of the Viking Age. More generally, the research considers how changes in both food procurement and preference may account for observed differences in the dietary regimes of individuals from the Viking Age and the Early Christian period.