The Beginning of the Viking Age in the West

Irene Baug,Dagfinn Skre,Øystein J Jansen,Tom Heldal

doi:10.1007/s11457-018-9221-3

Irene Baug, Dagfinn Skre + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.1007/s11457-018-9221-3

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Abstract

During the Viking Age, Arctic Scandinavia was a source of exquisite furs, down, walrus ivory, and other commodities that met with high demand in England and on the Continent. Hitherto, the earliest firm evidence of this trade has been Ohthere’s account c. 890, but in light of this paper’s findings, its history may be pushed further back in time. Geological analyses of whetstones retrieved in eighth- to early ninth-century Ribe, south-western Jylland, in present-day western Denmark, demonstrate that the majority were quarried near the aristocratic manor Lade (‘loading/storing place’) in Trøndelag, present-day central Norway, some 1100 km by sea to the north. Because of their high numbers and durability, whetstones retrieved in Ribe and other urban sites may be regarded as a proxy for long-distance seaborne trade from the Arctic. The peak in this trade on the threshold of the Viking Age invites a reconsideration of the coinciding and conflicting interests of Scandinavian long-distance traders, kings, and Vikings. It is argued that coalitions and conflicts that arose from these interests, and new constraints and opportunities that emerged for these three types of agents, provide keys to understanding why and where Vikings raided overseas up to the mid-ninth century.

Highlights

Around AD 800, Scandinavians began setting off on Viking raids across the North Sea, an activity that continued over more than two centuries
We present results from the provenancing of whetstones, demonstrating that this trade was ongoing since the early eighth century and that traded commodities originated in Arctic Scandinavia
The present study demonstrates with a high level of confidence that whetstones of very fine-grained schist from Ribe were quarried in the Mostadmarka area in Trøndelag (Table 4). We suspect that these results apply for whetstones in varieties of this latter type of schist found in other eighth to eleventh century sites in Scandinavia and the North Sea zone

Summary

Introduction

Around AD 800, Scandinavians began setting off on Viking raids across the North Sea, an activity that continued over more than two centuries. Historians and archaeologists have done admirable work in identifying the economic, political, and cultural aspects of Scandinavian societies that were necessary longue-durée conditions for the Viking incursions. Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo, P.O. Box 6762, St. Olavs Plass, 0130 Oslo, Norway. Geological Survey of Norway, P.O. Box 6315, Torgarden, 7491 Trondheim, Norway 4 The University Museum, University of Bergen, P.O. Box 7800, 5007 Bergen, Norway

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