Archaeology of the Viking Age: A Review

The Vikings lived across Scandinavia, from Sweden to Iceland, during the late 8th to

11th centuries. Modern studies often focus on their warfare and violent conquering, and though

that was a large part of their culture, they also had other, more civilized, mundane facets to their

lives. Those that seek to explore these parts of Viking culture often look to Viking sagas, early

medieval histories of the Vikings, and archaeological digs for evidence of their daily activities,

religious celebrations, and other cultural events. Archaeological material in particular can give a

unique insight into the lives of common people and disenfranchised groups, by allowing modern

historians to see real artifacts unbiased by previous historians or leaders.

Several of the articles discussed here spent a considerable amount of time explaining the

previous archaeological methods, discoveries, and academic culture surrounding their topic. For

instance, in her 2009 article, “Gender, Material Culture, and Identity in the Viking Diaspora,”1

professor at the University of Cambridge Marie Louise Stig Sørensen writes several pages about

the history of gendered archaeology, specifically the way that it has intersected with the

feminism of the time in which it was conducted. In the 1970-80s, gendered archaeology worked

to establish a history of power for women. It worked to show that women often held influential

roles and showed great leadership, and that women had and could take over men’s roles. In order

to prove this, the archaeologists compared male and female graves and the artifacts contained

within them. According to Sørensen, there is an “intricate relationship between material culture

and social and psychological experiences and conceptualizations of gender.”2

Later, in the 1990s, archaeological studies looked at women’s belongings as being

important in their own right, instead regarding only male object’s used by women as “powerful.”
1
Marie Louise Stig Sørensen, “Gender, Material Culture, and Identity in the Viking Diaspora,” Viking
and Medieval Scandinavia 5 (2009): 253-269.
2
Sørensen, 257.
“Even when women’s place was inside, within the domestic sphere, this did not necessarily mean

she has no value,” Sørensen asserts, “on the contrary being the head of the domestic sphere could

be the basis of powerful positions.”3 The third stage of gendered archaeology of the Vikings, in

the late 1990s, saw archaeologists and historians examining the use of objects, and their

importance in the lifestyles of women. According to this later school of gendered archaeology,

“material culture can be understood as a medium of performance,”4 in which objects are used to

perform gendered actions. These gendered actions are often vital to the survival of a society,

such as the production of clothing or childcare. Following this, she gives a brief history of

gendered archaeology, and presents her analysis of how she came to her conclusions on gender

in the Viking diaspora through archaeology. Throughout this article, materials found during

archaeological digs are a large source of the evidence for Sørensen’s points.

This use of archaeological evidence to analyze a historical culture is seen throughout the

academic discipline of Viking history. In the 2012 article “What the Vikings did for fun? Sports

and pastimes in medieval northern Europe,”5 Lesek Gardeła, a Postdoctoral Researcher at the

National Museum of Denmark, details various recreational activities that the Vikings participated

in. He finds evidence for this often-overlooked section of Viking history in archaeological finds

and anecdotes from Viking sagas (stories and histories written by the Viking people). The paper

begins with an introduction of the time period and sets the background for how these activities

were conducted—mostly outdoors due to the space confines of Viking housing, and specific to

the season.6 One of the struggles the author encountered while writing on this topic was the lack

of information from the time on the affairs of women and children. Sagas mainly focused on

3
Sørensen, 260.
4
Sørensen, 262.
5
Lesek Gardeła, “What the Vikings did for fun? Sports and pastimes in medieval northern Europe,”
World Archaeology 44, no. 2 (2012): 234-247.
6
Gardeła, 235.
men, so to learn about other sections of the population Gardeła turned to evidence uncovered in

modern times, which is where archaeology enters.7 Gardeła analyzed toys found in Viking

villages to lend evidence to children’s activities, though it is hard to draw concrete conclusions

about any specific games they might’ve played. Similarly to Sørensen’s look into gender in the

Viking age, Gardeła looks at a group that is left out of traditional inquiries into Viking culture

and pieces together a specific part of their story through archaeology and some analysis of sagas.

While women and children may be greatly underrepresented in the study of Viking

history, there is perhaps one group whose welfare is considered even less: animals. In

“Chronospecificities: Period-Specific Ideas About Animals in Viking Age Scandinavian

Culture,”8 Danish archaeologist Bo Jensen uses archaeology, sagas, and historical accounts to

determine how the representation of animals as a symbol in Viking culture affected the treatment

of real animals. In particular, he looked at a collection of amulets he owned, the animals

represented on them, and those animals’ reputation and mythological importance. He uses

cultural archaeology and zooarchaeology (the study of animal remains) to establish facts about

animal symbols and the treatment of real animals, respectively.

There were a large number of snakes in the collection of amulets, despite them not

playing a prevalent role in daily Viking life.9 In the article, Jensen presents fascinating tales of

how an animal such as the snake could be linked to something as fanciful as dwarves and piracy.

As he says, the Old Norse language sorts snakes, worms, and maggots into one group

linguistically, and Viking myth says that dwarves originated from maggots. Jensen brings in

other research that connects dwarf’s relationship to the gods to an emerging type of capitalism in

7
Gardeła, 235-236.
8
Bo Jensen, “Chronospecificities: Period-Specific Ideas About Animals in Viking Age Scandinavian
Culture,” Society & Animals 21 (2013): 208-221.
9
Jensen, 213.
the Viking age. This new economy allowed capitalists to separate their product from the labor

that produced it, in a similar way that the gods used dwarves. These capitalists often took the

form of trader-pirates in port cities where, as the author notes, most of the snake amulets were

found. These trader-pirates both devalued and dehumanized labor through their cruel practices

towards their own workers, and by engaging in theft from other ships. They often equated

production to “dwarves work” (and dwarves equal snakes), so when they stole labor and goods,

they didn’t have to acknowledge their source and could only personally gain from the goods’

value, as the gods did with dwarves. As Jensen asserts, “the fact that goods could be alienated

from production was crucial in trader-pirate ideology.”10 The connections that are drawn from

the locations in which snake amulets were discovered, early capitalism, pirates, and mythological

creatures is a prime example of the discoveries that archaeology of the Viking era can lead to.

This article concludes with an analysis of how animal symbolism affected real animals

that lived in the Viking era. The author uses zooarchaeology to examine the remains of dogs in

Viking era Dublin and then compares and contrasts them with depictions of dogs and human’s

treatment of dogs from the sagas. There are many killer dogs depicted in these stories, and many

of the canine remains from Dublin show signs of abuse by humans.11 Jensen brings his work as a

teacher of the subject into his work as well and writes about how other educators can use

material like this to engage their students in their own discussions, instead of simply leaving it to

the experts. He argues, “far too often Viking Age studies descend into one of three grand

narratives (glorious pirates, pagan vandals, arts and crafts), and they leave all evidence behind

along the way.”12 Jensen brings up mundane facets of life (but ones that can inspire passion in

10
Jensen, 215.
11
Jensen, 217.
12
Jensen 218.
students), such as the treatment of dogs, to elicit opinions and engagement from his students and

to show that research on the daily parts of Viking culture can be interesting and important.

Research Fellow at the University of Glasgow Sandra Billington’s 2008 article “The

Midsummer Solstice As It Was, Or Was Not, Observed in Pagan Germany, Scandinavia and

Anglo-Saxon England”13 takes a different approach than the other articles discussed here, in that

it cites sagas more than archaeological evidence, in order to disprove the prevalent myth that

ancient Northern Europeans celebrated the summer solstice. She begins by explaining how this

misconception came to be so widely accepted as fact, and then presents evidence as to why she

believes pagan Northern European societies did not celebrate a midsummer festival. She

analyzes sagas from the time period, as well as other’s research, to draw conclusions about

Viking and other Northern European cultures. While Billington does not focus on only Vikings,

she does include them in her research. She cites other scholars in the field, both that she agrees

with and disagrees with, and brings them into conversation with one another.

The article concludes that the midsummer festival only came about after pagan sun

worship had been abolished and people had converted to Christianity or accepted the Roman

calendar, therefore disproving the myth of a pagan midsummer festival.

Finally, in “‘Tangled up in Blue’: The Death, Dress and Identity of an Early Viking-Age

Female Settler from Ketilsstaðir, Iceland,”14 Michele Hayeur Smith and Kevin Smith of Brown

University and Karin Frei of the National Museum of Denmark analyze the remains of a 10th

century woman found in a grave in north-eastern Iceland in order to learn about her way of life.

13
Sandra Billington, “The Midsummer Solstice As It Was, Or Was Not, Observed in Pagan Germany,
Scandinavia and Anglo-Saxon England,” Folklore 17, no. 4 (2008): 253-269.
14
Michele Hayeur Smith, Kevin P Smith, and Karin M Frei, “‘Tangled up in Blue’: The Death, Dress and
Identity of an Early Viking-Age Female Settler from Ketilsstaðir, Iceland,” Medieval Archaeology 63,
no.1 (2019): 95-127.
They found that her dress contained precious materials that indicated a high class15 and

connected parts of her outfit to how she presented gender16 as a woman, much like what was

discussed in Sørensen’s paper. Additionally, the broaches that she wore over her chest had horse

motifs and strong connections to Norse mythology,17 similar to the amulets discussed by Bo

Jensen. As the authors argue, “we regard dress and other material aspects of visual appearance as

elements of symbolic systems used to convey social messages about cultural affiliation and

identity.”18 Hayeur Smith, et al. use the visual clues from the Viking woman’s corpse to

construct an image of what her life and the society around her may have been like. Because the

corpse being discussed was found at a grave site, it can also lead to insights about burials,

mourning, and funeral rituals in Viking society. Additionally, the study found more beads, and of

a wider variety, than was usual for the period and location.19 The variety of beads, metals, and

minerals buried with the woman can lead to insights about international trade in that period and

location.

All of these articles further the scholarly discussion of Viking culture outside of the

context of warriors, each in their own way. Most use archaeology and examine artifacts from the

time period in order to accurately study it. One line from Jensen’s article on animal symbolism

breaks down the kind of archaeology discussed here: “much of our understanding of the Viking

Age comes from texts, but texts will only tell us how a small group of literate elites thought.

Objects can tell us how much larger groups acted.”20 Groups that are often ignored in writing, such

as poor people, women, and children, still led full and important lives, and it is necessary to recognize

15
Hayeur, Smith, and Frei, 104.
16
Hayeur, Smith, and Frei, 100.
17
Hayeur, Smith, and Frei, 102.
18
Hayeur, Smith, and Frei, 96.
19
Hayeur, Smith, and Frei, 103-104.
20
Jensen, 212 (emphasis added).
them, which can often only be done through analysis of archaeological findings. This type of work can

be seen in Sørensen’s and Smith’s study of female gravesites and Gardeła’s work with the

archaeology of women and children. Insights can be gained by examining sagas and other historical

writings, but material objects from the time period can give us even greater insights into the daily

lives of people in that society.

Billington, Sandra. “The Midsummer Solstice As It Was, Or Was Not, Observed in Pagan
Germany, Scandinavia and Anglo-Saxon England.” Folklore 17, no. 4 (2008): 387-426.

MacDonald, Susan Peck. “The Erasure of Language.” College Composition and

Gardeła, Leszek. “What the Vikings did for fun? Sports and pastimes in medieval northern
Europe.” World Archaeology 44, no. 2 (2012): 234-247.

Jensen, Bo. “Chronospecificities: Period-Specific Ideas About Animals in Viking Age

Smith, Michele Hayeur, Kevin P Smith, and Karin M Frei. “‘Tangled up in Blue’: The Death,
Dress and Identity of an Early Viking-Age Female Settler from Ketilsstaðir, Iceland.”
Medieval Archaeology 63, no. 1 (2019): 95-127.

Sørensen, Marie Louise Stig. “Gender, Material Culture, and Identity in the Viking Diaspora.”
Viking and Medieval Scandinavia 5 (2009): 253-269.