Monday, December 11, 2017
Saturday, December 9, 2017
Haggis Originally Brought To Scotland By Vikings, An Award Winning Scottish Butcher Argues
Iceland Magazine
Good God!
If Vikings were eating this stuff they were even tougher than we suspected after 30 years of reading every scrap of the original Sagas, Shorter Tales, and Fragments of Old Poems we could get our hands on!
Icelandic “Slátur” A Scottish butcher argues the Scottish national dish, Haggis, was originally brought to Scotland by Vikings, making it a descendant of the Viking delicacy still eaten in Iceland, slátur. Photo/Arnþór Birkisson.
A Scottish butcher who has spent the past few years researching Haggis recipes argues it dates back to the Viking invaders of the British Isles the UK newspaper The Telegraph reports. The paper argues the research of award-winning Scottish butcher Joe Callaghan, who has spent the last three years studying haggis shows “Scotland’s national dish is an ‘imposter’… invented by Vikings”. Callaghan also argues the original Scottish ingredient is deer, not sheep.
The "natonal dish of Scotand", invented by Vikings
Haggis is a dish very similar to the Icelandic delicacy slátur: A sausage made by stuffing a sheep's stomach with diced innards of sheep, liver as well as lungs and heart, mixed with a oatmeal, onion, pieces of sheep suet (solid white fat) as well as seasoning. Haggis is considered the “national dish” of Scotland, occupying an important place in Scottish culture and national identity.
Read more: Food of the Vikings: How to make authentic Icelandic delicacy Slátur (Slaughter)
The origins of Haggis are not definitely known, but many scots have assumed it must be of Scottish origin. The oldest known recipe of Haggis dates to around 1430, a cookbook published in Lancashire, Liber Cure Cocorum, which mentions “hagws of a schepe”. But the inhabitants of Lancashire, and of course Scotland, originally learned to cook Haggis from the Vikings who invaded, conquered and colonized large parts of the British isles in the 9th and 10th centuries.
Haggis simply means minced meat
The Telegraph points out several noted food writers and chefs have argued haggis is most likely Norse in origin. Among the proof is the argument that the word haggis actually comes from the Old Norse word haggw, which means to hack into pieces. The modern Icelandic noun hakk, which means something which has been minced (used for minced meat, for example), and the verb "höggva" are derived from the same root.
Read more: The Vikings left their mark on the European map: Here is our guide to help you find them
“Scotland’s national dish, as it is widely known, is an imposter. The real national dish is staggis, and always has been,” The Telegraph quotes Callaghan, who has developed a deer-based haggis recipe he calls “staggis”: “Deer is an indigenous species in Scotland,” he said. “The Vikings brought haggis to Scotland, we are sure of this. My recipe is based on the original Viking recipe, made with venison plucks, which I have tweaked a bit so it’s unique to me."
Scotland's National Dish Is An Imposter And Was Invented By Vikings, Claims Master Butcher
Good God!
If Vikings were eating this stuff they were even tougher than we suspected after 30 years of reading every scrap of the original Sagas, Shorter Tales, and Fragments of Old Poems we could get our hands on!
Icelandic “Slátur” A Scottish butcher argues the Scottish national dish, Haggis, was originally brought to Scotland by Vikings, making it a descendant of the Viking delicacy still eaten in Iceland, slátur. Photo/Arnþór Birkisson.
A Scottish butcher who has spent the past few years researching Haggis recipes argues it dates back to the Viking invaders of the British Isles the UK newspaper The Telegraph reports. The paper argues the research of award-winning Scottish butcher Joe Callaghan, who has spent the last three years studying haggis shows “Scotland’s national dish is an ‘imposter’… invented by Vikings”. Callaghan also argues the original Scottish ingredient is deer, not sheep.
The "natonal dish of Scotand", invented by Vikings
Haggis is a dish very similar to the Icelandic delicacy slátur: A sausage made by stuffing a sheep's stomach with diced innards of sheep, liver as well as lungs and heart, mixed with a oatmeal, onion, pieces of sheep suet (solid white fat) as well as seasoning. Haggis is considered the “national dish” of Scotland, occupying an important place in Scottish culture and national identity.
Read more: Food of the Vikings: How to make authentic Icelandic delicacy Slátur (Slaughter)
The origins of Haggis are not definitely known, but many scots have assumed it must be of Scottish origin. The oldest known recipe of Haggis dates to around 1430, a cookbook published in Lancashire, Liber Cure Cocorum, which mentions “hagws of a schepe”. But the inhabitants of Lancashire, and of course Scotland, originally learned to cook Haggis from the Vikings who invaded, conquered and colonized large parts of the British isles in the 9th and 10th centuries.
Haggis simply means minced meat
The Telegraph points out several noted food writers and chefs have argued haggis is most likely Norse in origin. Among the proof is the argument that the word haggis actually comes from the Old Norse word haggw, which means to hack into pieces. The modern Icelandic noun hakk, which means something which has been minced (used for minced meat, for example), and the verb "höggva" are derived from the same root.
Read more: The Vikings left their mark on the European map: Here is our guide to help you find them
“Scotland’s national dish, as it is widely known, is an imposter. The real national dish is staggis, and always has been,” The Telegraph quotes Callaghan, who has developed a deer-based haggis recipe he calls “staggis”: “Deer is an indigenous species in Scotland,” he said. “The Vikings brought haggis to Scotland, we are sure of this. My recipe is based on the original Viking recipe, made with venison plucks, which I have tweaked a bit so it’s unique to me."
Scotland's National Dish Is An Imposter And Was Invented By Vikings, Claims Master Butcher
Saturday, October 28, 2017
Thinking About Buying A Sword?
You get what you pay for.
Here's Albion, the people who make these swords.
If you spend the money, handle them with care, these swords are not a "sword like object".
They're for real.
Here's Albion, the people who make these swords.
If you spend the money, handle them with care, these swords are not a "sword like object".
They're for real.
Saturday, October 14, 2017
Viking Fort Reveals Secrets of Danish King's Elaborate Military Network
Live Science
By |
The discovery of a Viking-age fortress in Denmark has shed new light on a network of military sites built by the 10th-century Danish king Harald Bluetooth, according to archaeologists.
Bluetooth — for whom the eponymous digital network technology is named — is credited with building several large, circular fortresses, or "ring forts," around Denmark in the 970s and 980s, as he unified the unruly Viking clans of the region into a centralized kingdom.
Until a few years ago, the sites of four such ring forts were known, and in the decades since they were found, debate has raged among Danish historians about these structures' purpose. [See More Photos of the Viking-Age Fortress in Denmark]
continue reading
By |
The discovery of a Viking-age fortress in Denmark has shed new light on a network of military sites built by the 10th-century Danish king Harald Bluetooth, according to archaeologists.
Bluetooth — for whom the eponymous digital network technology is named — is credited with building several large, circular fortresses, or "ring forts," around Denmark in the 970s and 980s, as he unified the unruly Viking clans of the region into a centralized kingdom.
Until a few years ago, the sites of four such ring forts were known, and in the decades since they were found, debate has raged among Danish historians about these structures' purpose. [See More Photos of the Viking-Age Fortress in Denmark]
continue reading
Tuesday, June 20, 2017
Brewing Viking Beer - With Stones
From the Viking Archeology Blog
When archaeologist Geir Grønnesby dug test pits at 24 different farms in central Norway, he nearly always found thick layers of fire-cracked stones dating from the Viking Age and earlier. Carbon-14 dating of this evidence tells us that ago, Norwegians brewed beer using stones.
Some of the best archaeological finds come from rubbish heaps. Throughout mid-Norway, these rubbish heaps often contain cracked stones that have been used to brew beer [Credit: Åge Hojem, NTNU University
Museum]
There’s nothing archaeologists like better than piles of centuries-old rubbish. Ancient bones and stones from trash heaps can tell complex stories. And in central Norway, at least, the story seems to be that Vikings and their descendants brewed beer by tossing hot rocks into wooden kettles.
“There are a lot of these stones, and they are found at most of the farmyards on old, named farms,” says Geir Grønnesby, an archaeologist at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology’s University Museum.
Grønnesby is fascinated by the history of Norwegian farm settlements, and with good reason. Much of the story of how Norwegian farms were settled and developed over the millennia remains a mystery.
There’s a simple reason for this: most archaeological digs are from construction projects, because developers are required to check for cultural artefacts before beginning construction. It is rare that a developer would build a road or other big development through a farm, which means they are rarely dug up by archaeologists.
In other words, “most of the archaeological information we have about the Viking Age comes from graves, and most of the archaeological information about the Middle Ages comes from excavations in cities,” Grønnesby said. That’s a problem because “most people lived in the countryside.”
Essentially, he says, Norwegian farms are sitting on an enormous underground treasure trove that in places dates from the AD 600, the late Iron Age — and yet they are mostly untouched.
“So I started doing these small excavations to look for cultural layers in farmyards,” he said. “The oldest carbon-14 dates I found are from 600 AD, and all the dates are from this time or later. And when I found the stones, I had to write about them, since there were so many.”
A curious sociologist
Grønnesby is not the first to remark on fire-cracked stones on farms in central Norway. That distinction goes to a pioneering sociologist named Eilert Sundt, who recorded an encounter on a farm in 1851 in Hedmark.
As Sundt later wrote, he was walking and saw a farmer near a pile of strange-looking, smallish stones.
“What’s with these stones?” he asked the farmer, pointing to the pile. “They’re brewing stones,” the farmer told him. “Stones they used for cooking to brew beer — from the old days when they didn’t have iron pots.”
In his article, Sundt noted that most of the farms he visited had piles of burned or fire-cracked stones. Every time he asked about them, the answer was the same: they were from brewing, when the stones were heated until they were “glowing hot” and then plopped into wooden vessels to heat things up. The stones were so omnipresent, Sundt wrote, and so thick and compact in places that houses were built right on top of them.
Reports from archaeologists who examined farmsteads in more recent times also confirm this observation. When one archaeologist dug a test trench in the 1980s at a farm in Steinkjer, north of Trondheim, he found a cultural layer more than a metre thick, much of which was fire-cracked stone.
Grønnesby himself excavated more than 700 cubic metres of stone from a portion of a farmstead in Ranheim, also north of Trondheim. And when Grønnesby did his test sample of the 24 farms, 71 per cent either had cracked stone layers or probably did.
Rituals and the Reformation
It’s not so unusual that Vikings brewed beer using stones, Grønnesby said. Brewing with heated stones has also been reported from England, Finland and the Baltics. It’s a tradition that continues in Germany, where it’s possible even today to buy “stone-brewed beer”.
Grønnesby says the presence of great numbers of brewing stones on Norwegian farms underscores the cultural importance of beer itself.
“Beer drinking was an important part of social and religious institutions,” he said.
For example, the Gulating, a Norwegian parliamentary assembly that met from 900 to 1300 AD, regulated even the smallest details of beer brewing and drinking at that time.
The Gulating’s laws required three farmers to work together to brew beer, which then had to be blessed. An individual who failed to brew beer for three consecutive years had to give half his farm to the bishop and the other half to the King and then leave the country. Only very small farms were exempt from this strict regulation.
What’s equally interesting is when brewing stones disappear from cultural layers — at about 1500, right around the time of the Reformation.
“It could just be a strange coincidence,” Grønnesby said. “It could be religion. Or it could be that iron vessels were more widely available by then.”
From rubbish heaps to treasure troves
Each time a glowing hot brewing stone was plopped into a cold vat of fluid, it would crack. After several of these cycles, the stones would be too small to be useful and the brewers would toss them out onto a rubbish heap.
That means the thick layers of stones also contain other artefacts, like old spinning weights and loom weights, animal bones and beads. It is for this reason, as much as for the stones themselves, that the layers are important, Grønnesby said.
“Archaeologists are always finding these layers, but they used to look at them and scratch their heads, and (the layers) didn’t get the kind of recognition they deserve,” he said. “These layers represent archives from the Viking Age to medieval times, so we should excavate them more often.”
You can read about Grønnesby’s research in the recently published book, “The Agrarian Life of the North: 2000 BC to AD 1000: Studies in Rural Settlement and Farming in Norway”, edited by Frode Iversen & Håkan Petersson. Grønnesby’s chapter is entitled “Hot Rocks! Beer Brewing on Viking and Medieval Age Farms in Trøndelag.”
Author: Nancy Bazilchuk | Source: The Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) [June 16, 2017]
When archaeologist Geir Grønnesby dug test pits at 24 different farms in central Norway, he nearly always found thick layers of fire-cracked stones dating from the Viking Age and earlier. Carbon-14 dating of this evidence tells us that ago, Norwegians brewed beer using stones.
Some of the best archaeological finds come from rubbish heaps. Throughout mid-Norway, these rubbish heaps often contain cracked stones that have been used to brew beer [Credit: Åge Hojem, NTNU University
Museum]
There’s nothing archaeologists like better than piles of centuries-old rubbish. Ancient bones and stones from trash heaps can tell complex stories. And in central Norway, at least, the story seems to be that Vikings and their descendants brewed beer by tossing hot rocks into wooden kettles.
“There are a lot of these stones, and they are found at most of the farmyards on old, named farms,” says Geir Grønnesby, an archaeologist at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology’s University Museum.
Grønnesby is fascinated by the history of Norwegian farm settlements, and with good reason. Much of the story of how Norwegian farms were settled and developed over the millennia remains a mystery.
There’s a simple reason for this: most archaeological digs are from construction projects, because developers are required to check for cultural artefacts before beginning construction. It is rare that a developer would build a road or other big development through a farm, which means they are rarely dug up by archaeologists.
In other words, “most of the archaeological information we have about the Viking Age comes from graves, and most of the archaeological information about the Middle Ages comes from excavations in cities,” Grønnesby said. That’s a problem because “most people lived in the countryside.”
Essentially, he says, Norwegian farms are sitting on an enormous underground treasure trove that in places dates from the AD 600, the late Iron Age — and yet they are mostly untouched.
“So I started doing these small excavations to look for cultural layers in farmyards,” he said. “The oldest carbon-14 dates I found are from 600 AD, and all the dates are from this time or later. And when I found the stones, I had to write about them, since there were so many.”
A curious sociologist
Grønnesby is not the first to remark on fire-cracked stones on farms in central Norway. That distinction goes to a pioneering sociologist named Eilert Sundt, who recorded an encounter on a farm in 1851 in Hedmark.
As Sundt later wrote, he was walking and saw a farmer near a pile of strange-looking, smallish stones.
“What’s with these stones?” he asked the farmer, pointing to the pile. “They’re brewing stones,” the farmer told him. “Stones they used for cooking to brew beer — from the old days when they didn’t have iron pots.”
In his article, Sundt noted that most of the farms he visited had piles of burned or fire-cracked stones. Every time he asked about them, the answer was the same: they were from brewing, when the stones were heated until they were “glowing hot” and then plopped into wooden vessels to heat things up. The stones were so omnipresent, Sundt wrote, and so thick and compact in places that houses were built right on top of them.
Reports from archaeologists who examined farmsteads in more recent times also confirm this observation. When one archaeologist dug a test trench in the 1980s at a farm in Steinkjer, north of Trondheim, he found a cultural layer more than a metre thick, much of which was fire-cracked stone.
Grønnesby himself excavated more than 700 cubic metres of stone from a portion of a farmstead in Ranheim, also north of Trondheim. And when Grønnesby did his test sample of the 24 farms, 71 per cent either had cracked stone layers or probably did.
Rituals and the Reformation
It’s not so unusual that Vikings brewed beer using stones, Grønnesby said. Brewing with heated stones has also been reported from England, Finland and the Baltics. It’s a tradition that continues in Germany, where it’s possible even today to buy “stone-brewed beer”.
Grønnesby says the presence of great numbers of brewing stones on Norwegian farms underscores the cultural importance of beer itself.
“Beer drinking was an important part of social and religious institutions,” he said.
For example, the Gulating, a Norwegian parliamentary assembly that met from 900 to 1300 AD, regulated even the smallest details of beer brewing and drinking at that time.
The Gulating’s laws required three farmers to work together to brew beer, which then had to be blessed. An individual who failed to brew beer for three consecutive years had to give half his farm to the bishop and the other half to the King and then leave the country. Only very small farms were exempt from this strict regulation.
What’s equally interesting is when brewing stones disappear from cultural layers — at about 1500, right around the time of the Reformation.
“It could just be a strange coincidence,” Grønnesby said. “It could be religion. Or it could be that iron vessels were more widely available by then.”
From rubbish heaps to treasure troves
Each time a glowing hot brewing stone was plopped into a cold vat of fluid, it would crack. After several of these cycles, the stones would be too small to be useful and the brewers would toss them out onto a rubbish heap.
That means the thick layers of stones also contain other artefacts, like old spinning weights and loom weights, animal bones and beads. It is for this reason, as much as for the stones themselves, that the layers are important, Grønnesby said.
“Archaeologists are always finding these layers, but they used to look at them and scratch their heads, and (the layers) didn’t get the kind of recognition they deserve,” he said. “These layers represent archives from the Viking Age to medieval times, so we should excavate them more often.”
You can read about Grønnesby’s research in the recently published book, “The Agrarian Life of the North: 2000 BC to AD 1000: Studies in Rural Settlement and Farming in Norway”, edited by Frode Iversen & Håkan Petersson. Grønnesby’s chapter is entitled “Hot Rocks! Beer Brewing on Viking and Medieval Age Farms in Trøndelag.”
Author: Nancy Bazilchuk | Source: The Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) [June 16, 2017]
Friday, May 26, 2017
Historians Reveal Amazing Details About Huge Viking Camp Found In Lincolnshire
lincolnshirelive
By Paul Whitelam | Posted: May 19, 2017
Torksey AD 872/873
A 1,100-year-old camp the Viking Great Army at Torksey has been brought to life in stunning virtual reality based on the latest research.
Heralded as the most realistic immersive experience ever created of the Viking world, the exhibition at the Yorkshire Museum in York runs from May 19 to November 5.
Three dimensional images and soundscape reveal what life was like in the camp of the Viking army on the banks of the River Trent at Torksey, near Gainsborough, in the winter of AD 872-873, as thousands of Vikings prepared to conquer vast swathes of England.
READ MORE: WOW! 700-year-old silver penny could be yours for just £60
New research by the University of York and the University of Sheffield has been used to create the incredible views of life in the camp for the Viking: Rediscover the Legend exhibition.
The Vikings spent the winter melting down stolen loot, repairing their longships, playing games, fishing, and trading goods and slaves.
The exact location and scale of the camp has been debated for many years, but now research by the two universities is beginning to reveal the truth.
It is now thought to have been at least 55 hectares in size, bigger than many towns and cities of the time, including York.
And the thinking is that thousands, not hundreds, of Viking warriors, women and children lived here in tents.
READ MORE: Your guide to where you can see all 36 statues in the Lincoln Knights' Trail
There have also been more than a thousand finds by metal detectorists and archaeologists, including more than 300 coins.
They include more than 100 Arabic silver coins which would have come to the area through established Viking trade routes.
More than 50 pieces of chopped up silver, including brooch fragments and ingots have been found along with rare hack-gold.
Evidence has been found that these items were being processed at the camp – chopped up to be melted down.
Other finds include the 300 gaming pieces, iron tools, spindle whorls, needles and fishing weights.
All the scenes in the exhibition are based on real objects found by archaeologists and metal detectorists at Torksey.
In 865 AD a large Viking force landed in East Anglia. It is described in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, our main contemporary documentary source, as the 'Great Army' as it was much larger than previous raiding parties.
The force seized the Northumbrian capital of York in 867 and went on to wage war against the Anglo Saxon Kingdoms of Mercia and Wessex.
In 871 the army was reinforced from Scandinavia and over the next decade their warfare transformed the political and cultural landscape of Britain.
In 872 AD the army chose Torksey, 13km from Lincoln as a suitable defensive and strategic position for their winter base.
Using landscape analysis, the research has been able to reveal the topography of the camp.
With the River Trent to the west and surrounding land prone to flooding to this day, its strength as a defensive position becomes clear.
Funding for the research has been provided by the British Academy, the Society of Antiquaries of London, and the Robert Kiln Trust.
Professor Julian Richards, from the Department of Archaeology at the University of York, of Meet the Ancestors fame, said: "These extraordinary images offer a fascinating snap shot of life at a time of great upheaval in Britain.
"The Vikings had previously often raided exposed coastal monasteries and returned to Scandinavia in winter, but in the later ninth century they came in larger numbers, and decided to stay.
"This sent a very clear message that they now planned not only to loot and raid – but to control and conquer."
Dr Gareth Beale from York's Digital Creativity Labs added: "The new research by the University of York and Sheffield has been used to create the most realistic images of the camp to date, based on real findings.
"These images are also believed to be the most realistic Virtual Reality ever created anywhere of the Viking world."
An image of the camp. From The Antiquaries Journal
The Virtual Reality scenes have been modelled by Gareth, working with Dr Guy Schofield and Dr Jonathan Hook, both from the Department of Theatre, Film and Television at the University of York, and the acoustic sound track was created by Dr Damian Murphy, Lewis Thresh and Kenneth Brown from the AudioLab in the Department of Electronic Engineering.
Dr Schofield said: "It's been a real cross-disciplinary project and exciting working with the archaeologists and museum professionals to create an authentic but entertaining visitor experience."
The research by Sheffield and York is beginning to reveal the true extent of the camp and the activities that took place there.
Prof Dawn Hadley, who leads the Sheffield side of the project, said: "Torksey was much more than just a handful of hardy warriors – this was a huge base, larger than most contemporary towns, complete with traders, families, feasting and entertainment.
"From the finds we know, for example, that they were repairing their boats here and melting down looted gold and silver to make ingots – or bars of metal they used to trade.
"Metal detectorists have also found more than 300 lead game pieces, suggesting the Vikings, including, women and children, were spending a lot of time playing games to pass the time, waiting for spring and the start of their next offensive.
"The visitor will be transported into this world and able to look around in a 360 degree landscape complete with conversations from the period."
Map produced for The Antiquaries Journal
In a paper published in The Antiquaries Journal, the researchers conclude: "In summary, our research at Torksey has revealed not only the location of the Viking winter camp, but something of its character as well.
"The sheer quantity and value of the metalwork assemblage forces a radical reappraisal of the scale of wealth amassed by the Viking Great Army.
"Plunder was being processed on a massive scale. There was intensive trade and exchange in goods and probably in slaves.
"The evidence from Torksey suggests a hybrid economy with monetary as well as bullion transactions and the minting of coins, reflecting something of the complexity of the multiple economic systems that co-existed during the Viking Age."
As for Torksey, after the Vikings moved out, it developed as an important Anglo-Saxon borough with a major wheel-thrown pottery industry.
The VR experience features alongside star objects from the British Museum and Yorkshire Museum's world class collections in the new exhibition which aims to give fresh perspective on how Vikings shaped every aspect of life in Britain.
It will include the most famous Viking hoards ever discovered in this country, including the Vale of York Viking Hoard, Cuerdale Hoard and the Bedale Hoard.
After York, the exhibition will go on tour to the University of Nottingham Museum, The Atkinson, Southport, Aberdeen Art Gallery and Norwich Castle Museum.
By Paul Whitelam | Posted: May 19, 2017
Torksey AD 872/873
A 1,100-year-old camp the Viking Great Army at Torksey has been brought to life in stunning virtual reality based on the latest research.
Heralded as the most realistic immersive experience ever created of the Viking world, the exhibition at the Yorkshire Museum in York runs from May 19 to November 5.
Three dimensional images and soundscape reveal what life was like in the camp of the Viking army on the banks of the River Trent at Torksey, near Gainsborough, in the winter of AD 872-873, as thousands of Vikings prepared to conquer vast swathes of England.
READ MORE: WOW! 700-year-old silver penny could be yours for just £60
New research by the University of York and the University of Sheffield has been used to create the incredible views of life in the camp for the Viking: Rediscover the Legend exhibition.
The Vikings spent the winter melting down stolen loot, repairing their longships, playing games, fishing, and trading goods and slaves.
The exact location and scale of the camp has been debated for many years, but now research by the two universities is beginning to reveal the truth.
It is now thought to have been at least 55 hectares in size, bigger than many towns and cities of the time, including York.
And the thinking is that thousands, not hundreds, of Viking warriors, women and children lived here in tents.
READ MORE: Your guide to where you can see all 36 statues in the Lincoln Knights' Trail
There have also been more than a thousand finds by metal detectorists and archaeologists, including more than 300 coins.
They include more than 100 Arabic silver coins which would have come to the area through established Viking trade routes.
More than 50 pieces of chopped up silver, including brooch fragments and ingots have been found along with rare hack-gold.
Evidence has been found that these items were being processed at the camp – chopped up to be melted down.
Other finds include the 300 gaming pieces, iron tools, spindle whorls, needles and fishing weights.
All the scenes in the exhibition are based on real objects found by archaeologists and metal detectorists at Torksey.
In 865 AD a large Viking force landed in East Anglia. It is described in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, our main contemporary documentary source, as the 'Great Army' as it was much larger than previous raiding parties.
The force seized the Northumbrian capital of York in 867 and went on to wage war against the Anglo Saxon Kingdoms of Mercia and Wessex.
In 871 the army was reinforced from Scandinavia and over the next decade their warfare transformed the political and cultural landscape of Britain.
In 872 AD the army chose Torksey, 13km from Lincoln as a suitable defensive and strategic position for their winter base.
Using landscape analysis, the research has been able to reveal the topography of the camp.
With the River Trent to the west and surrounding land prone to flooding to this day, its strength as a defensive position becomes clear.
Funding for the research has been provided by the British Academy, the Society of Antiquaries of London, and the Robert Kiln Trust.
Professor Julian Richards, from the Department of Archaeology at the University of York, of Meet the Ancestors fame, said: "These extraordinary images offer a fascinating snap shot of life at a time of great upheaval in Britain.
"The Vikings had previously often raided exposed coastal monasteries and returned to Scandinavia in winter, but in the later ninth century they came in larger numbers, and decided to stay.
"This sent a very clear message that they now planned not only to loot and raid – but to control and conquer."
Dr Gareth Beale from York's Digital Creativity Labs added: "The new research by the University of York and Sheffield has been used to create the most realistic images of the camp to date, based on real findings.
"These images are also believed to be the most realistic Virtual Reality ever created anywhere of the Viking world."
An image of the camp. From The Antiquaries Journal
The Virtual Reality scenes have been modelled by Gareth, working with Dr Guy Schofield and Dr Jonathan Hook, both from the Department of Theatre, Film and Television at the University of York, and the acoustic sound track was created by Dr Damian Murphy, Lewis Thresh and Kenneth Brown from the AudioLab in the Department of Electronic Engineering.
Dr Schofield said: "It's been a real cross-disciplinary project and exciting working with the archaeologists and museum professionals to create an authentic but entertaining visitor experience."
The research by Sheffield and York is beginning to reveal the true extent of the camp and the activities that took place there.
Prof Dawn Hadley, who leads the Sheffield side of the project, said: "Torksey was much more than just a handful of hardy warriors – this was a huge base, larger than most contemporary towns, complete with traders, families, feasting and entertainment.
"From the finds we know, for example, that they were repairing their boats here and melting down looted gold and silver to make ingots – or bars of metal they used to trade.
"Metal detectorists have also found more than 300 lead game pieces, suggesting the Vikings, including, women and children, were spending a lot of time playing games to pass the time, waiting for spring and the start of their next offensive.
"The visitor will be transported into this world and able to look around in a 360 degree landscape complete with conversations from the period."
Map produced for The Antiquaries Journal
In a paper published in The Antiquaries Journal, the researchers conclude: "In summary, our research at Torksey has revealed not only the location of the Viking winter camp, but something of its character as well.
"The sheer quantity and value of the metalwork assemblage forces a radical reappraisal of the scale of wealth amassed by the Viking Great Army.
"Plunder was being processed on a massive scale. There was intensive trade and exchange in goods and probably in slaves.
"The evidence from Torksey suggests a hybrid economy with monetary as well as bullion transactions and the minting of coins, reflecting something of the complexity of the multiple economic systems that co-existed during the Viking Age."
As for Torksey, after the Vikings moved out, it developed as an important Anglo-Saxon borough with a major wheel-thrown pottery industry.
The VR experience features alongside star objects from the British Museum and Yorkshire Museum's world class collections in the new exhibition which aims to give fresh perspective on how Vikings shaped every aspect of life in Britain.
It will include the most famous Viking hoards ever discovered in this country, including the Vale of York Viking Hoard, Cuerdale Hoard and the Bedale Hoard.
After York, the exhibition will go on tour to the University of Nottingham Museum, The Atkinson, Southport, Aberdeen Art Gallery and Norwich Castle Museum.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
-
If you didn't like the services your Chieftain charged you a nominal fee to provide, you could contract with another Chieftain on the ot...
