Yorkshire Museum
Little Vikings
Based on new archaeological research and new technology, the exhibition combines objects from Yorkshire Museum’s own collection, the Vale of York hoard and specially loaned national and regional items eg objects from Viking Army Camp at Aldwark Nth Yorkshire. Many of these items in gold and silver are valuable and prestigious, showing the power, wealth and skills of the Vikings who lived in Nth England.
York helmet, c760
Yorkshire Museum
The York Helmet is an impressive star in the Viking North Exhibition, possibly the best-preserved early medieval helmet in Britain. This iron cap with brass edging and a chain mail neckguard, beautifully decorated with tiny animals, displays how these helmets were made, used and stored. Latin across the two bands reads: “In the name of our Lord Jesus, the Holy Spirit and God; and to all we say Amen. Christ.” The helmet was a great status symbol for the owner, Oshere, a nobleman and a ?member of the Northumbrian royal family, the most powerful dynasty in England then.
The Ormside Bowl was discovered in 1823 in St James’ Churchyard in Great Ormside Cumbria, just where a Viking warrior grave was also discovered decades later. Was the bowl looted from York by the Viking warrior and then buried with him in his grave alongside his sword & shield boss? This gilded silver and bronze with glass bowl was the ?finest piece of silver work, with remarkable craftsmanship, surviving from Anglo-Saxon England.
The 2 shells are intricately decorated and fused, making a unique luxury item. It would have been treasured by its original owner for its beauty, quality and value. It is decorated with vine scrolls in the outer design, being a common Christian theme. This suggests that the delicate outer shell started life as a religious vessel. It was owned used by monks for religious services in a Northumbrian monastery, likely looted by Viking raiders, or given to them in tribute. A religious object could be adapted by Vikings as a drinking vessel (850-900). When an inner bowl was added, it was used at celebrations with friends.
The inner bowl was made later made from gilt-bronze and riveted with studs of blue glass and silver with an internal bowl and 16 circular pieces of glass in a ring of cloisons-partitions. The base plate of the internal bowl and features five further rivets, of which the central is missing.
The 2 shells are intricately decorated and fused, making a unique luxury item. It would have been treasured by its original owner for its beauty, quality and value. It is decorated with vine scrolls in the outer design, being a common Christian theme. This suggests that the delicate outer shell started life as a religious vessel. It was owned used by monks for religious services in a Northumbrian monastery, likely looted by Viking raiders, or given to them in tribute. A religious object could be adapted by Vikings as a drinking vessel (850-900). When an inner bowl was added, it was used at celebrations with friends.
The inner bowl was made later made from gilt-bronze and riveted with studs of blue glass and silver with an internal bowl and 16 circular pieces of glass in a ring of cloisons-partitions. The base plate of the internal bowl and features five further rivets, of which the central is missing.
Ormside Bowl, c775
Esmeralda's Cumbrian History
The bowl is a double-shelled cup made from 2 pieces joined with dome-headed rivets and beaded collars. The bowl’s interlaced cruciform surface is decorated with a chased repousse technique. The gilding on the bowl was added after the other decoration. The inner bowl could have been made in York where a matching blue-glass stud was found.
Bird and vine decorations
Instagram
The original outer shell was made of gilt-silver decorated with Anglo-Saxon style interlaced creatures in Continental vines. Note plants, fruit, animals and birds in decoration. The outer bowl decoration was done using the chase repousse method where the design was hit from the reverse side, creating it in relief outside of bowl. The rim had a strip of ungilded silver although this has now mostly been lost. This strip was first attached using some clips in the shape of animal heads. The frontal gaze of some creatures was a familiar occurrence in carvings of this type, with both naturalistic & grotesque decorations.
After seeing Christians wearing crosses around their necks, Vikings wore pendants in the shape of Thor’s hammer from their own pagan beliefs. And other religious symbolism. A collection of late C10th-mid C11th stone crossheads is currently on display in the monks’ dormitory at Durham Cathedral, found and reused at building materials or found during excavation of the 1891 Norman Chapter House (so note that Durham borders Yorkshire but is separate). The scenes depicted include the Baptism & Crucifixion of Christ, and an ordination scene.
memorial cross, found in 2nd century foundations
Durham Cathedral
Dr Parker, Viking North is telling new stories about the Vikings
BBC
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26 comments:
Viking North - now open!
Filled with magnificent objects, many unseen for generations and others which have never been on public display, this exhibition showcases the best collection of Viking finds to be shown outside London and tells the story of the Viking Age in the North of England from 866 to 1066.
Yorkshire Museum
Many thanks.
I had no idea that the British Museum and the London Museum had Viking relics, despite having been to both those museums. However I have seen the Roskilde ship and the Lewis Chessmen.
What will be _very_ exciting to see in Yorkshire is if the Northern accent and vocabulary were influenced, how Viking town names remain or not, and whether there are large items surviving (weapons, housing materials, ships etc).
I would love to see this exhibit. Maybe it's time to plan a trip back to England. That helmet doesn't look like it could be that old; it is really well preserved. It's interesting learning about Vikings. I wonder if way back I had some Viking ancestors. Mine were in Sweden and wouldn't have (probably) gone to England...but then it's so far back it's hard to say. Thanks for sharing this Hels.
What a fabulous exhibit with a remarkable history and so many previously unseen objects. I too missed the Viking relics on our visit to the British museum two years ago.
York is a splendid city to visit.
Erika
There were indeed Vikings in Sweden, but unless you have your DNA properly tested, you will have no idea what proportion of your ancestors were Scandinavian and when they left for the New World. It is well worth while :)
The helmet was discovered in 8 pieces in 1982 and it took a lot of research to protect and reestablish the original armour. It consists of an iron skull cap with brass edging and decorations, two iron cheek guards with brass edging, and protection for the neck. The nose brass band extends from back to front, where it narrows and continues downwards for nasal protection.
jabblog
I loved York the few times I was there as a tourist, and knew that York was founded by the Romans. But I had no idea that the town's complex history was very much influenced by the Vikings. They even made York their trading centre and capital city.
gluten Free
I have lectured on a lot of Western and Southern Europe over the years - Britain, Spain, Portugal, Holland, France, German, Italy etc - but I knew very little about Scandinavia, especially its Viking influences at home or abroad. I hope the Yorkshire collection comes to Australia in the next year or two.
How interesting the exhibition would be to see, Hels. Good history attached. When I had my DNA done the results were from the Vikings.
Much of the detail about Jorvik comes from the excavation of four Viking-age house plots in the street of Coppergate. Up to the mid 10th century the buildings in this area of Viking-age York were single-storey structures, typically at least 7m long by about 4.5m wide. Their size and construction is reminiscent of Anglo-Saxon buildings and is not typically Scandinavian.
Upright posts set into the ground at fairly short intervals along the wall lines supported a thatched roof. The walls themselves were made of wattle withies woven horizontally in and out of stakes set between these posts. Benches of earth contained within a revetment of wattlework sometimes ran along the side walls. Each building had a very large central hearth, with edges defined using re-used Roman tile, or building stones, or lengths of wood. The floors were simply made of earth, onto which debris accumulated and into which objects were trampled.
Margaret
I have seen every episode of The DNA Of Us on tv, and have never seen anyone with Scandinavian or Viking ancestors. You are very special!
Jorvik Viking Centre
Thank you. As much as I love gold, silver and brass, the notion of a Viking-age house would be amazing. Are they made from original Viking building materials?
The level of decoration on all these objects is stunning. Imagine living in a world where people cared about beauty in a helmet!
This was so fascinating which is why it was such a great read
kylie
the Vikings were always described as barbaric, ruthless and fierce raiders who invaded lands to loot and rape. But life must have changed once they married local women, built family homes, farmed land, got involved in crafts and made York a centre of trade.
Jo-Anne
thank you! You might like to read "Viking Britain: A History" by Thomas Williams, 2018.
I do like anything Viking, though not the raiding and pillaging. But others did that too.
They channelled all that fierce energy into art instead 😊😊
Although I have visited York many times I have not visited the Jorvik centre. I must remember to pre book next time I'm there.
River
just about every invading army, right up till today, used violence and rape in capturing land in another country. It was always unforgivable to kill civilians, burn their houses and destroy their sources of factories and food supplies.
The trouble is that most people found the Vikings more violent than any other military movement, including us moderns.
Fun60
me either. The joy of the Jorvik Centre is that it covers market scenes to domestic interiors, recreating Viking life as it would have been during some of York’s earliest history. I love jewellery, pottery, crosses and other small treasures but they don't tell of life as well as the Jorvik Centre does.
kylie
after all that fierce enegy had achieved its goal, I too would turned to art, family life, religion and a peaceful way of earning a living :)
Boa noite Helen. Eu não conheço esse museu e nem a sua história. A história dos vikings parece bem interessante.
Obrigado pela riqueza de informações. Eu ainda não tive a experiência de conhecer o Pantanal. Obrigado pela visita e comentário. Uma excelente noite de quinta-feira. Grande abraço do seu amigo do Brasil.
Luiz
The Vikings were invaders and settlers who came from Scandinavia and sailed on ships into Russia and Central Asia, as well as North America from c700 - 1100 AD. This may have been too early and too far away for South Americans (and Australians) to feel connected to Viking history.
faith, power and artistry!
roentare,
sorry I deleted half you comment by accident.
Viking raids on the British Isles had been a regular feature of life, but the 865 winter saw a fundamental shift that would change the political, economic and social landscape forever. Instead of making quick smash-and-grab summer raids for silver and slaves, Vikings now remained in England for the winter and became immersed in its communities. Some settled permanently, acquiring land and forming a new hybrid Anglo-Scandinavian culture.
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