New project to investigate Viking-Age connectivity in northern Europe

Posted on Thursday 23 July 2026

A team from York (Steve Ashby, Jessica Hendy, and Sam Greeves) have been awarded an AHRC grant to investigate the dynamics of trade and travel across Viking Europe. They will be exploring the connections between towns and distant mountain outlands, by applying ZooMS analysis to bone/antler artefacts and manufacturing deposits.  

The project "RANGIFER: reindeer antler and outland connectivity in Viking-Age Europe" aims to foster new understanding of Viking-Age communication and connectivity, using rapid, minimally-destructive techniques never previously applied at scale in medieval archaeology. It will apply biomolecular techniques - palaeoproteomics - to investigate how reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) antler - a material available only thousands of miles north of Viking-Age towns - came to be used in objects widely dispersed across the Viking world.

We will analyse large quantities of hair combs and manufacturing debris, to determine the scale of use, extent of distribution, and means of movement of reindeer antler: were materials being shipped from the mountains for manufacturing elsewhere, or were combs themselves being made in the uplands? How can we understand this in the light of transformative recent work on hunting, trapping, travel and trade in the mountains?

In applying this minimally-destructive analytical technique, the project opens up unexploited potential in worked-bone artefacts, and the team will work with museums to ensure that this new information is fed back into public displays, as well as advising and supporting curators and conservators in future applications of this technique to their collections. 

RANGIFER is set to begin in October 2026. Please keep your eyes out for further news regarding appointments and project activities.