Vikings were formidable Norse warriors and sailor who , from around 800 to 1050 CE , raided , traded , and settle throughout northerly Europe , Iceland , Greenland , and even as far as North America . Most of what scholars know about Viking marine connection , however , has to do with their first and end points . After all , they could have taken any act of routes in between . To shed igniter on this col , an archaeologist decide to follow in the Vikings ’ footsteps — or , more accurately , their wake .
In gild to reconstruct their navigation itineraries , Lund University archeologist Greer Jarrett sailed functional Viking - like boats along the Norse coast in a serial of observational voyages . By experiencing these journeys firsthand , the archeologist hoped to understand where it would have made most mother wit for Viking sailors to seek protection along the mode to their destination . In this way , he identified four natural harbors that could have attend as pitstops hundreds of age ago .
“ A slew of the sentence , we only lie with about the starting and ending points of the trade that took place during the Viking Age . Major port , such as Bergen and Trondheim in Norway , Ribe in Denmark , and Dublin in Ireland . The thing I am concerned in is what come about on the journeys between these major trading core , ” Jarrett excuse in astatement . “ My theory is that this decentralised electronic web of ports , located on small island and peninsula , was central to urinate trade effective during the Viking Age . ”
Archaeologist Greer Jarrett sailed along the Norwegian coast in small wooden boats to see where it would have made most sense for Vikings to take pitstops on their maritime journeys.© Lund University
Between September 2021 and July 2022 , Jarrett and his work party undertake 15 sailing trials and two about three - week - long trial voyages in seven dissimilar Nordic clinkerboats : traditional , modest , open , wooden sailboats whose use in Nordic regions see back almost 2,000 years . It was n’t always smooth sailing — once , the rod supporting the mainsail snapped over 15 miles ( 25 kilometers ) from the seashore , and they had to bind two oars together to secure the sail until they manage to pass to land . Overall , they covered 1,494 nautical miles .
The experimental archaeologist decided that possible “ havens ” along nautical travel plan should have allow for fresh water , shelter from fop and winds , and a dependable view of the sea . what is more , they had to be reachable in low-down visibility , boastful enough to host several boats , approachable and exitable from different direction , and place in a “ transition zone ” : coastal points between exposed regions and inner areas .
Along with these criteria , Jarrett ’s investigation integrated a digital Reconstruction Period of Viking Age sea levels , pre - establish noesis of large Viking maritime center of attention , and information about traditional 19th and early twentieth century sailing boat routes from boater and fishermen . The archaeologist also clarify that his body of work regards foresighted - mountain chain Viking outing rather than voyages for raiding and state of war purpose .
“ This study ’s emphasis on practical seafaring cognition and experience seek to counter the uncouth pedantic preconception towards terrestrial and textual sources and worldviews , ” he wrote in thestudy , published in the first place this calendar month in the Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory .
In this way he claim to have identified four potential Viking haven . These outside location along the Norwegian seashore each have varying degrees of pre - existing archeologic evidence indicating past human presence . presumptively , Jarrett is the first to suggest they may have also been pit stops along Viking maritime journeys .
“ The list of potential Viking Age havens , ” he excuse , indicating a diagram in the study , “ is specify as a working document , which can shape and be shaped by future archeological surveys and excavations . ”
It ’s deserving remembering that , even with digital reconstructions of the Viking - era seascape , data-based voyages can never provide grounds of Viking natural action to the degree of direct archeological grounds . Nevertheless , originative and hard-nosed approach such as Jarrett ’s stand as a admonisher that sometimes the resolution to a trouble necessitate a different perspective — literally . It remains to be see whether his employment will instigate future archaeologic survey .
ArchaeologySailingVikings
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