Ricostruire gli eventi bellici da una prospettiva archeologica: la battaglia di Stamford Bridge

Researchers used to consider the battle of Stamford Bridge (September 25th 1066) the last event of the Viking Age. Notwithstanding the importance of this statement, one should remind that it was part of a series of fights that pushed to radical changes in the history of Anglo-Saxon England: in less than a month we record the battle of Fulford (September 20th 1066) and the battle of Hastings (October 14th 1066). The leaders involved in the battle were Harald Hardrada, king of the Norse army and Harold Godwinson, the last Anglo-Saxon king of England. This paper aims to develop a methodology to reconstruct the battle from an archaeological perspective. It is focused on the analysis of several types of sources on a GIS platform. So far, neither written sources nor archaeological data returned crucial evidence about the exact location of the battle-site. Despite these odds, this research will highlight the possible path the Anglo-Saxon army travelled along to reach the village of Stamford Bridge – near York – from London. Finally, there will be proposed three potential locations of the battle-site.