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Late Viking Age amphibious military operationsExperimental archaeological trials with landings and combat formations The military operations conducted by Viking Age Scandinavian warriors were immediately recognised as being something extraordinary. Contemporary European writers detail the Norsemen’s attacks, raiding monasteries and rural and urban settlements, while today’s scholars frequently discuss how the Vikings were able to carry out these military operations with such precision and efficiency. Seaborne operations were a trademark of Scandinavian Viking warriors. Sea transport of an armed crew, along with supplies and other equipment needed for the campaigning army, enabled both small and large-scale military operations to be undertaken. These operations were often characterised by an element of surprise. A precondition for conducting the lightning seaborne attacks was the ability to plan and execute the different phases of an amphibious military operation. In this article, we investigate different aspects of amphibious military operations as mounted by Scandinavian warriors in the Late Viking Age (c. AD 900-1100). The investigation was structured ­using a modern doctrine for undertaking amphibious operations as employed by United States Armed Forces. This doctrine is, of course, not directly applicable when analysing amphibious operations conducted in the Late Viking Age. However, its description of the different phases involved in these operations provides a way of structuring an investigation to ­ensure that all relevant issues are considered when scrutinising the evidence for operations undertaken in the Late Viking Age. All the different phases described in the doctrine are analysed: from the initial planning to the embarkation of personnel, equipment and supplies, followed by rehearsals and the movement of the fleet, and finally the actions performed during the actual landing operation. It is, however, the latter, including the subsequent formation of fi, Late Viking Age amphibious military operationsExperimental archaeological trials with landings and combat formations The military operations conducted by Viking Age Scandinavian warriors were immediately recognised as being something extraordinary. Contemporary European writers detail the Norsemen’s attacks, raiding monasteries and rural and urban settlements, while today’s scholars frequently discuss how the Vikings were able to carry out these military operations with such precision and efficiency. Seaborne operations were a trademark of Scandinavian Viking warriors. Sea transport of an armed crew, along with supplies and other equipment needed for the campaigning army, enabled both small and large-scale military operations to be undertaken. These operations were often characterised by an element of surprise. A precondition for conducting the lightning seaborne attacks was the ability to plan and execute the different phases of an amphibious military operation. In this article, we investigate different aspects of amphibious military operations as mounted by Scandinavian warriors in the Late Viking Age (c. AD 900-1100). The investigation was structured ­using a modern doctrine for undertaking amphibious operations as employed by United States Armed Forces. This doctrine is, of course, not directly applicable when analysing amphibious operations conducted in the Late Viking Age. However, its description of the different phases involved in these operations provides a way of structuring an investigation to ­ensure that all relevant issues are considered when scrutinising the evidence for operations undertaken in the Late Viking Age. All the different phases described in the doctrine are analysed: from the initial planning to the embarkation of personnel, equipment and supplies, followed by rehearsals and the movement of the fleet, and finally the actions performed during the actual landing operation. It is, however, the latter, including the subsequent formation of fi

The archaeological approach to longhouses in current excavations and settlement research in Denmark is characterised by quite uniform questions related to the date and function of the longhouses but rarely towards the further interaction between the longhouse and its original inhabitants. This has lead to a two-fold aim of the thesis: To investigate the longhouse as an archaeological phenomenon and to explore the role of the longhouses in the Late Iron Age settlement at Strøby Toftegård. The over-all aim with the thesis has been to reengage with the longhouses and present a new perspective inspired by the recent theoretical discussions collected under assmeblage theory and New Materialism. The thesis consists of four individual articles and a synthesis. Each article investigate teh archaeological record of the longohuse from different angles: excavation adn documentation; typology; biography and social memory. The synthesis explores the wider perspectives of the longhouse as a home discussing Late Iron Age longhouses in relation to participants' tent camps at the Roskilde Festival today and present a general theory of home as a temporal phenomenon.

Artiklen handler om sæteren ved Argisbrekka, som han selv har udgravet. Her blev kvæget holdt om sommeren, køerne blev malkede og mælken forarbejdet. Ditlev Mahler (og andre) har vist, at sæterbruget var udbredt på Færøerne i vikingetiden og tidlig middelalder. Men sæterbruget forsvandt i løbet af 1100- og 1200-årene til fordel for indmark-udmarks systemet med agerbrug og kreaturhold i indmarken og stort fårehold i udmarken, hvilket stadigvæk er udbredt. Forfatteren diskuterer i artiklen forskellige forklaringer på denne omlægning.

I Danmark er der de senere år foretaget en del analyser af jernet i redskaber og våben fra vikingetidsgrave, men der ikke analyseret meget jern fra yngre germansk jernalder og heller ikke meget jern fra redskaber fundet i bebyggelser. Set i det lys er analyserne af jernet på Vester Egesborg - på trods af deres beskedne antal - særdeles interessante. De 11 genstande er smedet af i alt 15 stykker jern og hentet fra fire grubehuse, en affaldsgrube og fra området langs kystlinjen. Analyseresultaterne viser en klar overvægt af ferritisk jern: ni jernstykker indeholder således kun ganske beskedne mængder kulstof og fosfor. Fire stykker er kulstofjern (de tre af dem er søm) med mellem 0,2 og 0,8 % kulstof og to stykker er fosforjern med ghoststrukturer. Det betyder, at billedet på Vester Egesborg ikke adskiller sig fra det, vi allerede har, af de jernkvaliteter, der blev anvendt i yngre germansk jernalder og vikingetid. Men det er karakteristisk for det undersøgte jern fra Vester Egesborg, at det kun indeholder få slagger: 10 stykker jern indeholdt således meget få slagger (værdien 1, efter det svenske Jernkontorets standard). Det gælder såvel det rene jern fra Østdanmark og Norge eller Sverige - som for kulstofjernet fra de samme områder. Det betyder, at udvindingen (processen, hvor jernet er fremstillet) har været vellykket - eller at smedningen (processen, hvor genstanden er fremstillet) har været omhyggelig med mange hammerslag - måske begge dele. Jernet på Vester Egesborg adskiller sig herved fra hovedparten af det jern, vi kender fra yngre germansk jernalder og vikingetid. Resultaterne af analysen af den kemiske sammensætning af jernets slaggeindeslutninger giver stor sandsynlighed for, at otte jernstykker er fremstillet af myremalm gravet op i Østdanmark, fem er fremstillet af malm fra Norge eller Sverige og et enkelt stykke af myremalm fra Vestjylland. Men da "Østdanmark" omfatter et ganske stort område, behøver jernet ikke at være fremstillet i nærområdet

The Royal Hall in Lejre: considerations of experiments on Viking-era painted wooden surfaces This text explores the possibilities of how the reconstruction of the building from Lejre, Mysselhøjgaard XLI, can contribute to our knowledge of the use of colours in the Viking Age. Two archaeological finds are central: the fragmented panels from the North Mound in Jelling and the plank from the church in Hørning. But painted wood from the ship-grave from Ladby, from the equestrian grave from Grimstrup and on the shield from Trelleborg are also considered. These finds provide a very modest insight into the technical knowledge and the skills available to the aristocracy of the Viking Age. Remarkably, between Sir Isaac Newton’s measurable division into spectral colours and Johan Wolfgang von Goethe’s recognition that it is on the border between light and dark that colour becomes colour, are the beginnings of a series of experiments on how and why the Vikings painted wood. The intention is not to copy the painting but to assess how the paint was made and how the colours were used: to interpret its possibilities, experiences and potentials – and to look at the use of colours in the Viking Age as a prerequisite for medieval colours. Therefore, it is important that the experiments include both controlled and contextual elements. The reconstruction in the Land of Legends may not only result in an impressive building, but also in a number of well-documented experiments that will contribute to the discussion of a new chapter in Denmark’s story of colour.

Algade 9 in AalborgDevelopment of the settlement from the Viking Age to the present dayIn 2007, a half-timbered house dating from 1574 was demolished in the centre of Aalborg. In advance of the subsequent construction project, the Historical Museum of Northern Jutland excavated a 135 m2 area at the site. The cultural layers were up to 4 m in thickness and the dating frame extended from the Viking Age to 1574. There proved to have been settlement on the site throughout this entire period, and one of the main results of the excavation was, consequently, a sequence of in all 19 buildings dating from the end of the 10th century to 1574.The site represents one of the best assem­blages of urban buildings from the Viking Age and Middle Ages. The site was almost continually occupied by dwelling houses throughout the entire Middle Ages. The excavation findings therefore reflect developments in house morphology and internal organisation from the Viking Age until the early Renaissance. This article presents the excavation findings relating to the houses at the site.The site was excavated stratigraphically and the excavated surface was recorded at 13 survey levels: The excavation plans presented in this article are digitalised, redrawn versions and interpretational levels. At one point, the excavation was very pressed for time and the houses from the period c. 1225-1350 in particular were affected by being excavated very rapidly. Machine excavation was, however, not employed.For several of the earlier houses, up to two-thirds of the building lay within the excavation trench. It was therefore possible, in most cases, to investigate large parts of the houses’ floor areas, and thereby demonstrate their internal organisation and layout.The preservation conditions for organ­ic material were good in the 4 m thick cultural layers at the site. Samples were therefore taken for dendrochronology from all suitable timbers and samples were taken for plant macro-remain analysis from the exca

On board Viking Age longshipsAnalysing crew organisation and communicationBy analysing the relations between man, ship and sea it is possible to gain a fundamental understanding of the sea voyages undertaken by Scandinavians during the Viking Age. This article examines crew organisation and communication on board Viking Age longships. Archaeological and written sources relating to Viking Age Scandinavian seafaring are scrutinised and combined with experience gained from sailing trials and voyages employing full-scale reconstructions of Viking Age longships: Conditions on board Viking Age longships and the seamanship of the period are investigated afresh (figs. 1-3).It is argued that sailing and rowing experiments are important components in the analysis of archaeological finds of ships and ship-related materials. These experiments function as catalysts for processes that may lead to new interpretations of the source material (fig. 4). The practical approach represented by participating as crew on a reconstruction of an archaeologically-found ship offers possibilities for examining aspects like the flexibility of the hull, the seaworthiness and speed of the vessel under different weather conditions and logistical limitations, as well as human factors such as the physical abilities and nautical skills required of the crew. This article presents examples of how sailing trials and voyages with the Viking Ship Museum’s Skuldelev 2 reconstruction The Sea Stallion from Glendalough have led to a new understanding of the hull flexibility and strength of Viking Age longships. It is also argued that studies of crew organisation and communication on board The Sea Stallion from Glendalough provide a fundamental insight into conditions on board Viking Age longships (figs. 5-8).A middleman is proposed as a key element in the communication on board a longship. The middleman is located close to the mast and is responsible for relaying commands and messages from the skipper, situated

Tekster udgivet i forbindelse med seminaret Vikingetid i Danmark afholdt på Københavns Universitet 22. februar 2013

The acquisition of maritime skills in the Viking AgeThe acquisition of maritime skills in the Viking Age can be examined through application of the social constructivist theory with respect to communities of practice. A community of practice is maintained via skill transfer. The process begins already in childhood and leads to the gradual inclusion of these marginal participants as fully valid members. By way of their role play and rule games, based in part on observations of adult practice, children acquire basic skills and develop a knowledge of the community’s sensus communis.The aim of this article is not to describe the players in the community of practice, i.e. the children and adults of the Viking Age, but to examine the relationship between them in a practice structure. The child and the adult are perceived as mutual preconditions. They are, seen in relation to a common practice, parts of the same community. It is the learning process, from marginal participant via legitimate peripheral participant to fully valid member, which defines and maintains this community of practice.Model ships which can be dated to the Viking Age have been found in several locations across Northern Europe (fig. 1). These are employed in this article to examine the skill-transfer processes inherent in Viking Age communities of practice. Some of the model ships can be interpreted as children’s toys and are very detailed in their execution, with holes for a mast, a side rudder and oars (fig. 2). Other miniature artefacts, such as anchors and weather vanes, can similarly be argued to have comprised part of the fittings of these toy ships.In order to gain a more detailed insight into the process of skill acquisition in maritime communities of practice, a selection of sailors’ memories from their childhood in the Danish maritime town of Marstal in the late 19th and early 20th century are drawn upon (fig. 3). This is exclusively to demonstrate how children learn through play.The model sh