VIKINGS
The Vikings are Scandinavian celebrities. The lure of their culture is still attracting many admirers and their legend still lives on. Because of their popularity, even the History channel is currently running a new semi-historic drama series about this wild brood. The legend of Vikings as brutal warriors is widespread, but few people know about their society and culture. The exhibition “Vikings” at The Field Museum show that the tales of violence are only a small part of the Viking world. Through new archaeological discoveries and hundreds of rare Scandinavian artifacts on display I was able to gain fascinating insights into their domestic life, religious ceremonies, and symbolic death rituals.
Viking is a term used by modern scholars to refer to the Nordic-speaking peoples from southern Scandinavia who raided Europe and the British Isles roughly between A.D. 793-1066. There never really was a single "Viking" culture; only a loose assortment of shared ideas, economies, religious beliefs, and especially a common Germanic language known today as Old Norse. In that sense Viking culture was simply only one stage in the development of modern Scandinavian culture.
Vikings were far more than the warriors of popular stereotype; they were also skilled craftsman, innovative farmers, poets, politicians, and loyal family members who were proud and conscious of their social status. Their activities stimulated political changes in Europe and Russia; created lasting new societies in Iceland and Greenland; and led to the discovery of North America 500 years before Columbus.
During the Viking Age, from A.D. 750-1050, Viking influence covered a huge expanse, reaching from the Caspian Sea in the east and the Mediterranean in the south, throughout Northern Europe, across the Atlantic, and touched the homelands of diverse native groups in Eastern North America.
One of the most extensive sources of information about the Vikings comes from archeology. The earliest archeological
Viking is a term used by modern scholars to refer to the Nordic-speaking peoples from southern Scandinavia who raided Europe and the British Isles roughly between A.D. 793-1066. There never really was a single "Viking" culture; only a loose assortment of shared ideas, economies, religious beliefs, and especially a common Germanic language known today as Old Norse. In that sense Viking culture was simply only one stage in the development of modern Scandinavian culture.
Vikings were far more than the warriors of popular stereotype; they were also skilled craftsman, innovative farmers, poets, politicians, and loyal family members who were proud and conscious of their social status. Their activities stimulated political changes in Europe and Russia; created lasting new societies in Iceland and Greenland; and led to the discovery of North America 500 years before Columbus.
During the Viking Age, from A.D. 750-1050, Viking influence covered a huge expanse, reaching from the Caspian Sea in the east and the Mediterranean in the south, throughout Northern Europe, across the Atlantic, and touched the homelands of diverse native groups in Eastern North America.
One of the most extensive sources of information about the Vikings comes from archeology. The earliest archeological