VIKING VOYAGES
The Viking Age lasted from about 800 to 1050 AD. During this period the Norsemen were the lords of the seas.
The Norsemen were excellent shipwrights and sailors. Their ships were fast and well built, and suited for long sea voyages. This enabled them to make journeys over most of the northern hemisphere.
The Scandinavia the Vikings sailed west over the North Sea to British Isles and from there over the Atlantic to Iceland, Greenland and North America. Others sailed south down the coast of Europe and entered and Mediterranean, and still others sailed east down the great rivers of Russia to the Black Sea and Caspian Sea.
WARRIOR - MERCHANT - FARMER
Plunder and conquest were not the only reasons why the Viking took to the seas. Many of them journeyed abroad in order to trade, and others to find a new country in which to settle.
The Norsemen plundered churches and monasteries and also whole towns.
The Vikings were also merchants. They sold their goods in towns and marketplaces, and established trading colonies in Ireland and Russia.
Many Norsemen settled down as farmers in the lands they had invaded. They settled in Iceland and Greenland and were the first Europeans in North America.
VIKING SOCIETY
At the beginning of the Viking Age Norway consisted of a number of smaller chiefdoms, but was later gradually united under a single king.
Viking society was divided into classes, with great economic and social differences between them. The ships exhibited here were built for members of the upper class.
The yeomen farmers formed the backbone of society. They were free men with the right to bear arms and to participate in meetings of the "ting" , or assembly.
The slaves were the lowest rank in society. They were the property of their owners and had no legal rights. Many of them were foreigners who had taken prisoners during Viking raids.
THE HOMELAND OF THE VIKINGS
The Vikings came from Scandinavia, from the countries that are now Norway, Sweden and Denmark. These countries show great variation in their landscape, climate, and agricultural conditions.
In good farming country, crops and animal husbandry were the main means of livelihood, while in other parts people relied more on hunting and fishing, which were profitable activities. Furs, bird down, and walrus ivory were highly prized
commodities in the rest of Europe.
Considerable quantities of iron were also produced in Norwegian mountain hamlets, and found a market both at home and abroad.
THE GRAVES
In the Viking Age it was customary to bury the dead in boats.
In the ships exhibited the dead were placed in a burial chamber which was erected in the stern of the ship. They were buried with a good supply of food and drink, horses and dogs, and both useful and decorative objects.
When the ships were excavated, the graves were found to have been robbed, and the jewelry, weapons, gold and silver were no longer there. The objects made of wood and cloth were preserved, because the ships had been buried in blue clay and covered with stones, clay and turf.
THE SHIP FINDS
The three Viking ships, from Oseberg, Gokstad and Tune, were all found in burial mounds in the Oslo Fjord area. They were
excavated between 1867 and 1904.
They were built during the 9th Century AD, and later used as burial ships for wealthy men and women. In the Oseberg ship lay a woman and her slave girl, who had been buried in about 850 AD. Each of the other ships held a man. They were both buried in about 900 AD.