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2010-03-05T14:46:00.001+01:00

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Treasures from Orkney Viking burial grave to go on show at York Jorvik

2010-03-03T14:51:00.001+01:00

An iron sword, gaming pieces and an arsenal of arrows from a set of antler bone carvings found next to corpses in Viking graves will be revealed by archaeologists in York this May.

The Jorvik Viking Centre has obtained the burial hoard from The Orkney Museum, which has held the remains since they were discovered alongside the bodies of an elderly woman, middle-aged man and a child on the island town of Scar in 1991.

Designed to follow the souls of the dead into the afterlife in a Viking boat grave, they were almost lost forever.

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Vikings show their cultured side at open day

2010-02-23T14:51:00.002+01:00

The more cultured side of the marauding Vikings was on show at Wiltshire Heritage Museum in Devizes on Sunday.

The museum staged one of its popular family days and some 430 people enjoyed meeting members of the Temesvikings re-enactment group from London.

Museum education officer Ali Rushent said: “They set up a fur-lined tent and did a series of mini talks with members of the public who came along.

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A heritage to treasure

2010-02-23T14:51:00.001+01:00

For the first time, a regional museum is showing its medieval and Viking treasures at the British Museum. Steve Pratt discovers the story of England’s capital of the North and unearths an unusual recipient of a Blue Peter badge.

THE gallery at the British Museum is crammed with extraordinary objects of national and worldwide significance, as keeper of prehistory and Europe Jonathan Williams calls them.

There’s the York Helmet, the most outstanding Anglo-Saxon find to survive in Europe, and the Middleham Jewel, regarded as one of the finest pieces of Gothic jewellery found in this country. In another display case is the 1,000-year-old Gilling sword, one of the best preserved Viking swords ever found.

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Jorvik centre reopens

2010-02-22T19:43:00.000+01:00

The Jorvik Viking Centre in York has reopened to the public following a £1m refurbishment.

An entirely new gallery has been added and the replica of a Viking-age village has been upgraded. A number of new artefacts, discovered during diggings at the city's Coppergate district, have also gone on show.

Sarah Maltby, director of attractions at York Archaeological Trust, which operates the site, said: "The main thrust of the refurbishment this time is to make a reassessment of the archaeology at Coppergate from which the centre grew over 25 years ago.

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Anglo-Saxon and Viking Summer School Courses at Oxford

2010-02-13T17:29:00.000+01:00

The Oxford Experience Summer School, which is held at Christ Church, Oxford offers over 50 different courses during the five weeks from 4 July to 7 August 2010.

These courses include:

The Golden Age of Anglo-Saxon England - 25 to 31 July 2010
(see further details)

King Alfred and the Vikings - 1 to 7 August
(see further details)

You can find out about other Summer School courses in archaeology and history at the University of Oxford’s website.

Metal detectorist finds Viking brooch

2010-02-13T17:03:00.001+01:00

A METAL detectorist who had only recently taken up the hobby made a lucky find when he uncovered a Viking brooch, which is going on display at Salisbury Museum.

Sidney Boyce was using his metal detector near Longbridge Deverill when he found the bronze trefoil brooch, which he then took to the museum to be identified.

The find was reported to Katie Hinds, the finds liaison officer for Wiltshire, based at Salisbury Museum, who immediately recognised its significance.

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Experts Gather to Celebrate York's Viking History

2010-02-13T17:02:00.001+01:00

Academics from around the Viking world will gather in York on Saturday 13th February 2010 for an entertaining and illuminating look at the past, present and future of Viking studies.

The two-day conference - “A celebration of Iconic Collections and Excavations from the Viking World” - will open the 2010 JORVIK Viking Festival and forms part of JORVIK Viking Centre's 25th anniversary celebrations. It will celebrate some of the most important developments and iconic artefacts uncovered in the last quarter-century of research into the Viking era.

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Viking brooch found in Longbridge Deverill, 3 miles south of Warminster.

2010-02-13T16:59:00.001+01:00

A Viking brooch discovered in Longbridge Deverill, three miles south of Warminster, has gone on display in Salisbury Museum. The bronze trefoil brooch was discovered at the end of last year by Sidney Boyce from Salisbury using a metal detector.

The find is extremely rare for this part of England. It dates from between 850 and 1050 AD and is in the Viking Borre style, each arm being decorated with a cat-like animal head.

Katie Hinds, finds liaison officer for Wiltshire, said “It is very unusual to find a brooch like this - similar items have been found in East Anglia but they are copies."

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York Jorvik Viking Centre re-opens with annual festival after £1 million revamp

2010-02-13T16:58:00.001+01:00

A Nordic animatronic community made by Disneyworld designers in Ohio, a capsule ride around Viking York and a ferocious battle between axe-wielding warriors will form the opening highlights of the third incarnation of the Jorvik Viking Centre when it opens tomorrow following a £1 million refurbishment.

An antler worker called Sigurd who severed his finger in a saw, two rugged builders, a feuding Viking couple and a rat are among the robotic figures created by US specialists Life Formation, based on archaeological evidence from digs around the grounds of the Centre. They will address visitors in Old Norse, voiced by students from York University.

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‘Time Team’ star Tony Robinson hails revamped Jorvik Centre as Viking Festival gets under way in York

2010-02-13T16:54:00.000+01:00

BLACKADDER actor Tony Robinson has officially opened the new-look Jorvik Viking Centre in York after a £1 million refit.

The showpiece of the nine-month renovation is the glass-floor gallery where visitors can marvel at a recreation of the Viking relics that were found on the Coppergate site, excavated between 1976 and 1981.

The exhibition, which charts the history of Norse colonies in the city, also features seven new life-like Viking animatronics which have been shipped in from specialists in the US.

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Book your place at 'Portable Antiquities: Archaeology, Collecting, Metal Detecting' Conference

2010-02-06T15:36:00.000+01:00

Registration is now open for the ‘Portable Antiquities: Archaeology, Collecting, Metal Detecting’ conference on 13th and 14th March 2010. This event is co-organised by the CBA and Newcastle University’s International Centre for Cultural and Heritage Studies, and takes place at Newcastle University and the Great North Museum: Hancock.

The papers at this conference offer perspectives from a range of different interest groups, look at recent research, present case studies from around the UK and beyond, and ultimately offer views about what the future may hold for portable antiquities management. Much debate is anticipated at this timely event.

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Viking treasure found in Shenstone

2010-02-05T12:20:00.000+01:00

AN ANCIENT silver ingot dating back more than 1,000 years has been discovered by a treasure hunter in Shenstone, it was revealed this week.

The artefact, measuring almost three inches (70mm) in length, was found at an undisclosed location in Shenstone parish in March last year.

Experts at the British Museum have now examined the find and disclosed that it is Viking in origin and contains around 95 per cent silver.

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Vikings and Death

2010-02-05T12:19:00.000+01:00

In the Viking Age people were buried in many different sort of places. Did the ancient Scandinavians chose a particular place for burial or were the burial sites randomly selected? Had the choice anything to do with ideas of the afterlife?

The seasons first Tuesday Talk at The Museum of Archaeology has an exciting topic! Archaeologist Eva Thäte will talk about vikings and death, Tuesday 9 February at 0630 pm.   – Viking Age burial rites are very diverse as were people’s choices of places for burial grounds. In the Late Iron Age (AD 500-1000), people in Scandinavia buried their deceased on high ground, in ancient burial mounds, in houses, close to water sites and near roads or boundaries, says Eva Thäte.

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Egil Skallagrimsson Keeps his Head

2010-02-05T12:18:00.000+01:00

Violent feuding, cunning witchcraft and poetic resolution make for a thrilling comedy drama commissioned for this February's JORVIK Viking Festival.

Egil Skallagrimsson Keeps his Head is a first theatrical commission for York Archaeological Trust to mark its anniversary JORVIK Viking Festival. The new comedy drama has been written and will be performed by award winning North Country Theatre on 17th and 18th February as part of the week's celebratory Viking Festival.

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Go shopping in the Viking Age

2010-02-03T13:39:00.001+01:00

The Viking Ship Museum invites children and adults on a shopping trip in the Viking Age during the winter holidays.

The Vikings were the first people in Scandinavian history to fit sails to their ships and acquire the ability to travel much further. When the Vikings returned home from an expedition or trading voyage, the ship was loaded with new and exciting goods and practices. Where could the Vikings purchase glass? How much did a walrus tooth cost? Did the Vikings trade in slaves?

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The Assembly Project awarded £850,000 to study Vikings and Early Medieval Europe

2010-01-31T18:25:00.002+01:00

Over £850,000 has been made by medieval scholars from the Universities of Durham, Oslo and Vienna and the University of the Highlands and Islands, Centre for Nordic Studies, Orkney, by the Humanities in Europe Research Awards Scheme. This will fund a three-year, international effort, known as The Assembly Project, is designed to explore the role of assemblies or things in the creation, consolidation and maintenance of collective identities, emergent polities and kingdoms in early medieval Northern Europe.

Orkney and Shetland are to be research sites for a major project looking at the way the Viking communities governed themselves and strengthened their groups.

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Sweden celebrates the 800th birthday of Birger jarl

2010-01-31T18:25:00.001+01:00

A jubilee celebration is being held for the 800th anniversary of the birth of Birger jarl, one of Sweden' most important medieval statesmen. Among the events planned for this year is the excavation of the tomb belonging to his son, King Magnus III.

The anniversary of the birth of Birger jarl will be inaugurated on 6 February at Bjälbo in Östergötland, where Birger Jarl was born 800 years ago. More than 130 specially invited guests and media representatives will be participating in vespers in the church, followed by dinner at Stadshotellet in Skänninge. The participants will include representatives of the three regions responsible for the Jubilee – Eastern Götaland, Western Götaland and Stockholm.

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Viking settlement unearthed by OPW

2010-01-28T19:59:00.000+01:00

DUBLIN’S NORTHSIDE is revealing its own Viking past with the first evidence of 11th-century Dubliners choosing to settle on the north shore of the Liffey emerging in the past week.

Clear signs of a late-11th century – ie Viking – house have been found at a site in the Smithfield area owned by the Office of Public Works (OPW). Excavation works, commissioned and funded by the OPW, have been under way at Hammond Lane, off Church Street, since last year.

Some 17th- and 18th-century artefacts have been found since then, while evidence of a “substantial Viking house” was uncovered there last week, said excavation director Colm Moriarty.

National Museum director Pat Wallace said the great significance of the find lay in the location of the house north of the Liffey.

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Up Helly Aa in pictures: Viking festival in Lerwick, Shetland Islands

2010-01-28T19:58:00.002+01:00

Members of the Viking Jarl Squad march with burning torches during the annual Up Helly Aa Festival, Lerwick, Shetland Islands. Up Helly Aa celebrates the influence of the Scandinavian Vikings in the Shetland Islands and has employed this theme since 1870. Up Helly Aa is held on the last Tuesday in January every year, whatever the weather

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Delving into the history of 'things'

2010-01-28T19:58:00.001+01:00

Orkney and Shetland are set to become research sites for a major project looking at the way Viking communities governed themselves and strengthened their groups.

Around £118,000 has been awarded to the Centre for Nordic Studies for research on administrative organisation and Norse “things” — governing assembly sites — in areas of Viking settlement and colonisation.

The centre — supported by UHI, the prospective university of the Highlands and Islands — is involved in a three-year project with Oslo, Vienna and Durham universities. Centre director,

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Viking Society Student Conference 2010

2010-01-28T19:57:00.000+01:00

Viking Society Student Conference 2010
Published by Chris Abram on January 28, 2010 12:42 pm under Conferences

The Viking Society is holding its annual student conference in London on 13 February. Everybody is welcome to attend–whether a student or not or a Society member or not.

The theme of this year’s conference is Skaldic Poetry.

The conference will be held in the Gustave Tuck Lecture Theatre, University College London. (South Junction of the main building, at the top of the stairs. Registration and refreshments will be in the Jeremy Bentham Room.)

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Medieval Shipwrecks under threat from Shipworms

2010-01-24T11:03:00.000+01:00

Shipworms, commonly referred to as 'termites of the sea', are launching an attack on the Baltic Sea, putting large maritime archaeological sites at risk. Researchers from the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, currently participating in the EU-funded WRECKPROTECT project to investigate which artefacts are at risk, speculate that climate change is responsible for this threatening tide of shipworms.

The WRECKPROTECT ('Strategies for the protection of shipwrecks in the Baltic Sea against forthcoming attack by wood degrading marine borers. A synthesis and information project based on the effects of climatic changes') project has received over EUR 750,000 in financial support under the 'Environment' Theme of the Seventh Framework Programme.

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Jorvik Centre unveils new life-like animatronics

2010-01-21T14:07:00.001+01:00

A FRESH horde of Vikings have descended on York thanks to a £1 million refurbishment to the Jorvik Centre.

The life-like animatronics will be unveiled at the centre’s relaunch on February 13.

The six “Vikings” have travelled 4,000 miles from Life Formations in Ohio, in the USA.

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York's annual Viking Festival to mark Jorvik Centre's 25th anniversary

2010-01-21T14:06:00.001+01:00

ORGANISERS hope this year's Viking Festival will be the biggest and best ever – and it will start with the official reopening of the new Jorvik Centre.

Marking the 25th anniversary of the Viking Centre, in Coppergate, which is currently closed while it prepares for a relaunch, the festival will be held from February 13 to 25 and coincide with half-term.

The Coppergate Camp is set to be the epicentre of Viking activity, with other Viking escapades scheduled for elsewhere in York.

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