Previously, the dawn of the Viking Age has been dated to a June 793 raid by Norwegian Vikings on Lindisfarne. But a new study, led by Dr Steve Ashby of the University of York, UK, shows that Vikings were traveling from Norway to the vital trading center in Ribe on Denmark’s west coast as early as 725.
“Long voyages were underway early in the 8th century AD, with the establishment of a marketplace in Ribe,” Dr Ashby said.
“What were to become history’s Viking expeditions can be directly linked to the development of Ribe as a town and commercial center.”
Dr Ashby and his colleagues from the University of Cape Town and Aarhus University studied bone/antler objects and fragments of manufacturing waste from the archaeological remains of Ribe’s old marketplace. A number of samples turned out to be reindeer antler, which is not local to Denmark, and was probably brought in from Norway.
“The antlers are proof that Vikings visited Ribe, the oldest town in Scandinavia, well before their infamous pillaging. Those trips gave the Vikings the seafaring skills that would be used some 70 years later to strike England.”
Deer antlers were central to one of the key industries of the Viking Age: the manufacture of hair combs.
Access to antler was fundamental to this specialist craft, and it may have been difficult for a professional combmaker to find sufficient quantities locally, so some form of organized supply network is likely.
The new study shows that the early Vikings from Norway had access to large quantities of reindeer antlers and sold them to craftworkers in Southern Scandinavia.
“This shows us that merchants and other travelers from the north were visiting Ribe long before the start of the Viking Age as we know it. Even in its early stages, the town was attracting visitors from afar. We have long wondered whether Ribe, and places like it, kick-started the Viking expansion in trade, travel and warfare, but it has been difficult to prove,” said Dr Ashby, who is the first author on the paper in the European Journal of Archaeology.
“Now for the first time, we can confidently say that people in the more remote parts of Scandinavia were visiting places like Ribe, presumably for commercial gain, from a very early stage. It’s a vital contribution to the question of what caused the Viking Age: it looks as though towns and maritime trade may have been the engine driving all this change.”
May 11, 2015 by Sci-News.com
