Special Topic: Viking-Age Scandinavia - ARC00103H

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Module summary

The Viking Age is most commonly imagined as a period of piracy and violence. We tend to think of ‘vikings’ as outsiders, raiding and colonising Europe and the North Atlantic. But how did the period look in their home, back in Scandinavia? This was an important period of political, social and economic transformation, and this module will explore it via recent archaeological research.

Related modules

A directed option - students must pick a Special Topic module and have a choice of which to take

Module will run

Occurrence	Teaching period
A	Semester 2 2025-26

Module aims

Special Topics focus upon the archaeology of a well defined time, space or theme and the modules seek to allow students, in small groups, to focus upon primary source material and to apply to it the theoretical and thematic perspectives learned over your first and second years. The aim is to facilitate the acquisition of deeper knowledge of one aspect of the past than has been possible in more general courses.

Specifically this module aims:

• To examine the diversity of evidence for life in Viking-Age Scandinavia, from the arctic north to the islands of the Baltic;
• To develop a critical perspective of the region’s connectivity via a small number of important urban settlements.
• To communicate an awareness of the key transformations of the Viking Age, and the evidence we use to understand them.

Module learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• Demonstrate a broad and comparative knowledge of the archaeology of Viking-Age Scandinavia
• Exhibit a firm understanding of the history of research into the archaeology of Viking-Age Scandinavia
• Critically discuss and assess key theories, methods and debates in the study of Viking-Age Scandinavia
• Critically evaluate primary data and evidence
• Communicate an in-depth, logical and structured argument, supported by archaeological evidence and case studies.

Module content

The most common imagining of the Viking Age is as a period of barbarism and violence, piracy and larceny, slave-taking and extortion. But how did the period look in the home of the ‘vikings’ themselves? This was a formative period of Scandinavian state development: it saw the growth of towns, the expansion of overseas trade, and the rise of royal power. In this module, we will explore these diverse elements of Scandinavia’s social and economic environment, and attempt to reconcile them. We will attempt to recognise some of the diversity across the region: Scandinavia was not a single unified state at war with the rest of Europe, but host to a range of complex and dynamic social milieux, negotiating diverse responses to the problems of inhabiting their world.

The module will cover a range of key research themes in the archaeology of Viking-Age Scandinavia, from its origins in the Post-Roman Iron-Age to the 11th century. Drawing on case studies from settlement and burial archaeology, we will discuss evidence ranging from portable artefacts to monumental architecture, focusing on everyday life in Viking-age Scandinavia, including settlement and economy, craft and production, belief and cosmology.

Indicative assessment

Task	% of module mark
Oral presentation/seminar/exam	100.0

Special assessment rules

None

Indicative reassessment

Task	% of module mark
Oral presentation/seminar/exam	100.0

Module feedback

Formative: oral feedback from module leaders in class

Summative: written feedback within the University's turnaround policy

Indicative reading

Ashby, S.P. & S.M. Sindbaek. 2019. Crafts and Social Networks in Viking Towns. Oxford: Oxbow Books

Price, T.D. 2015. Ancient Scandinavia. An Archaeological History from the First Humans to the Vikings. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Richards, J.D. 2005. The Vikings: a very short introduction. Oxford : Oxford University Press.