Viking Participation - Google Docs PDF

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Notes From the documentary on vikings which will help with the final assignment...

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THE VIKINGS UNCOVERED NOTES

Episode 1 The vikings WERE: 1. Warriors / Raiders 2. Traders 3. Builders 4. Masters at Blacksmith

The Vikings COME FROM: Scandinavia (Norway, Sweden & Denmark) & they lived on farmsteads INFO ON SCANDINAVIA: It is a maritime culture. It is surrounded by water (sea, rivers, fjords) For the land, it is rocky and forested. HOW DID THEY LIVE? 1. There were a few big towns, but they mostly lived in small and scattered settlements. They would live in longhouses, which was a communal structure. 2. ECONOMY: Their economy was rural (fishing, hunting, farming). 3. POLITICS: Vikings had social statuses. It was a slave society. Chieftans from Iceland would gather at the parliament every year in june. During these annual meetings they would settle feuds, they would make new laws or revise the old ones, they would sentence people who had broken all of the rules and if found guilty they would exile them. Groups of outlaws decided to venture on their own to discover new places. THE VIKING SOCIAL STRATIFICATION: Yarls (earls): Rules over a vast majority of free men Slaves (Scandinavian & Foreigners): Did the agricultural work, manual labour. 4. CULTURE: Most vikings were not illiterate, they would write in the runic alphabet but they did not write books. The would learn through oral communication, which were later written down by monks in the 13th century. 5.RELIGION: The vikings were pagan, even though the rest of Europe had converted to Christianity. Being pagan involves worshipping multiple gods (which was frowned upon by Christians where they only worship 1 god) SOME OF THE VIKING GODS: 1. Odin (Chief of all gods) 2. Thor (Warrior sky god) 3. Freya (Goddess of fertility) THE CHANGE IN THEIR SOCIETY & ECONOMY: They were very isolated from the rest of Europe up until 700 AD, when they started participating in a trade network. The vikings had an advantage in becoming a valuable player in this network, MARITIME TECHNOLOGY. The Vikings TRAVELLED TO: Parts of Europe, Asia & North America. CONCERNING THE TRAVEL TO AMERICA: Texts were written about the Vikings travelling to America, but the reliability of these texts were uncertain since it seemed to be a

blend of history and mythology & up until the 60s we had no physical evidence of this being true. MORE INFO CONCERNING THEIR TRAVELS: They started travelling somewhere around the eighth century & travelled for about 300 years. The craftsmanship of their boats is what helped them get to all of their destinations. THEIR PURPOSE: They would travel in order to raid areas where they could find objects, tokens of wealth to in turn trade in different markets. THEIR ITINERARY: They used the great rivers to travel to Russia and Asia. They went to Europe to the south, after they went west (British isles -> Iceland and Greenland) THEIR SHIPS: Called the Longship. Since these ships had a rounded hull and shallow keel, it made it easier to land on the shores. Made out of oak which is strong and flexible, which helps the boat withstand rough conditions. THEIR RAIDS: They were very violent during their raids. They would even raid places of worship; churches and monasteries. Their raids turned into establishing themselves in order to trade. They would establish campsites near the places they would raid. Women would also participate in the raids. → Warrior burials: For the great warriors, they would bury them with their weapons, jewelry. For those who died in battle, they would transport their remains to honour them on Viking territory & make a mass burial. L’ANSE AUX MEADOWS: It is a site that was discovered in the 60s, in Newfoundland. WHAT DID THEY FIND? The archaeologists found some foundations of Viking buildings, Viking metalwork (Iron nails & artefacts). WHAT IS THE SIGNIFICANCE? 1. Well, this means that Christopher Columbus was not the first who discovered America. 2. Since L’Anse Aux Meadows was the only Viking site discovered in North America, it raises new questions about the Vikings such as “Did they come back to North America?” and archaeologists believe there might be more remains from the Vikings existence in North America that still remain undiscovered. SPACE ARCHAEOLOGY: A branch of archaeology that uses high-resolution satellites in space to find precedently undiscovered sites. The satellites perceive the images in near infrared, which can see things that a normal image could not. The clues that the infrared can give that a normal image cannot is differences in vegetation which can tell us if there is an ancient building foundation somewhere underground. It makes the invisible visible. Why is it difficult to find Viking remains? Because they did not build massive monuments and they did not leave much behind. THE FIRST INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION: The Vikings started settling down and they became successful urban traders & manufacturers. In York, the Anglo-saxons and the vikings lived together. → From the Vikings in York, their fossilized excrements and remains from their meals, we know that their diet consisted mostly of protein; goose, chicken, fish. They also found in these remains, parasites, which would come out of every orifice of the human body.

Episode 2 Hvalsey Farmstead: It is located in Greenland. It was dominated by its church, which its remains are the most well preserved in the northeastern settlement. It is also the oldest Christian site. It is the last record from the norse world. The remains of this farmstead creates a debate on whether the colony that lived there prospered or failed. THE POPULATION: They lived here for 500 years, and their number started to decrease. This was normal at the time because during the cold seasons they could only really survive on hunting seals, so after a period of time they decided to move out of Greenland in order to chase a better or more comfortable lifestyle. Nonetheless, living on this farmstead was a success because they lived here for a long period of time, where they lived through nice lives. FINDING NORTH AMERICA: According to a saga, Leif Erickson accidentally stumbled upon North America due to bad weather conditions while sailing. They named the land they found Vinland, where they found vines and grapes. This land could possibly be Newfoundland & the coast around the Gulf of St. Lawrence. This claim was supported by the site found in L’Anse Aux Meadows. L’ANSE AUX MEADOWS: WHAT DID THEY FIND? 1. In total there are 8 buildings, divided into 4 complexes. Made from turf (natural lego) 2. 3 types of residential structures, which housed about 90 people. 1 longhouse, a smaller building (probably the house of workers) and even smaller buildings for slaves 3. A smelting furnace, which was built exactly like those in Europe by the vikings. 4. Slag: “stony waste matter separated from metals during the smelting or refining of ore.” 5. 100 nail fragments, which were used to repair their boats 6. Butter nuts SIGNIFICANCE OF THEIR FINDS: 1. The smelting furnace and the slags are all evidence of iron working, which is a KEY ELEMENT in identifying the site as norse because native people did not know how to make iron. 2. The butternuts do not naturally grow in Newfoundland which means they ventured farther into Canada, probably in Quebec or New Brunswick, where butternuts do grow. POINTE ROSEE: WHAT DID THEY FIND? 1. A boulder with a crack 2. Slags, a head of a nail 3. A layer of ash 4. Flat stones 5. Some sort of seed SIGNIFICANCE OF THEIR FINDS:

1. The boulder, slags and the head of a nail all represent the presence of iron working on this site 2. The layer of ash may indicate that there is floor layer 3. Flat stones indicate there was furnace 4. With the seed, they can radiocarbon date it & find a date for the site. The seed turned out to be from the 1700’s. Nonetheless, the archaeology from the site does not match that time period, the seed could have simply drifted towards the site. THE OVERALL SIGNIFICANCE OF POINTE ROSEE: 1. Along with L’Anse Aux Meadows, it changes the course of history. Christopher Columbus was in fact not the first person to discover North America. 2. It creates hope for experts to find other Viking settlements in North America 3. Gives insight with physical evidence in Viking history THE VIKINGS FROM “VINLAND” AND THE NATIVES: In their sagas, they reported meeting people there (they named them squealing). Since they outnumbered the vikings, and their relationship turned hostile, this is why the Vikings decided to leave Vinland. Vikings called it the land of hope because of the fields of wheat, the grape vines, the wildlife...