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In the 11th century a large warship, the Skuldelev II, measuring 30 metres long, was deliberately sunk in the Roskilde Fjord, Denmark, in order to create a barrier across the harbour entrance. The ship was excavated in the 1960s and housed in a purpose built museum. In the 1990s scientific analysis of the wood revealed that the ship had been constructed from oak grown in the Dublin area.
The evidence of Skuldelev II points to the central position which Dublin occupied in the Viking network of raiding and trading. The Irish Sea linked Ireland with Scotland, Wales, north west England and the Isle of Man, and Dublin grew into an important urban market, comparable with York, although smaller in scale.
Clusters of material excavated at headland sites have indicated a Viking presence in the west of Scotland, Wales and Cumbria as well as around Dublin. Such sites had proved attractive to earlier inhabitants and finds at Neolithic settlements on Anglesey suggest that the people who lived there were engaged in trading activity across the Irish Sea. In a number of cases the Vikings appear to have reused existing sites, such as Roman or Anglo Saxon fortifications.
Viking archaeology in Ireland is frequently overlaid by Anglo Norman and there is very little evidence of Viking influence on archaeology around Dublin. Similarly, there is little evidence of Scandinavian rural settlement in Ireland, in contrast to sites in Scotland and north west England. Longphuirts or fortified ship landings were constructed as raiding bases along rivers, such as the River Liffey in Dublin, and at Woodstown, Co Waterford.
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Some of these bases were in use for a short time only and the river channels have since changed or disappeared but others clearly contributed to the development of more permanent trading centres such as Dublin.
In an age when violence, pillage and plunder were endemic in society across north and west Europe the design and construction of Viking ships gave them the edge and the raiders used river entrances to penetrate inland where rich pickings could be seized from monasteries and other unprotected sites. A distinguishing feature of the pagan Viking raids was their disrespect for the Christian religion and frequent desecration of churches and shrines. The Inchmarnoch “hostage stone”, found on an island off the west coast of Scotland, depicts three Viking warriors leading a chained captive to a ship. The captive appears to be a monk or priest carrying a shrine and is presumably being led away into slavery.
Slavery was a major activity and source of wealth among the Viking raiders and the flow of slaves increased significantly as trading opportunities with the east opened up. However, finds such as collections of weights and hacksilver at Woodstown, Co Waterford and at Llanbedrgoch on Anglesey, together with the Cuerdale hoard from Lancashire, deposited c905 AD and containing coinage from the east, point to a more extensive international trading network
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Whilst the reputation of the early Viking raids undoubtedly struck terror among local inhabitants, archaeological and place name evidence suggests that in some areas the Scandinavians chose to negotiate with local communities to establish their territory, infiltrating rather than overriding existing settlements and even using some of their booty to purchase land.
Incoming Scandinavian groups appear to have responded to the local environment and its existing culture in different ways. Evidence from graves such as Cumwhitton in Cumbria suggests that, whilst they continued to value their Scandinavian heritage, the Vikings also made use of local artefacts and developed distinctive styles. This is seen in monuments such as the Gosforth cross and in the strange hogback stones which marked the graves of high status individuals in Scotland and the Wirral.
Archaeological and linguistic evidence points to varied settlement patterns across Britain and Ireland as the Vikings made their transition from raiders to more settled traders, landowners and townspeople, and exploited local geographic and political conditions. Whilst rural settlements were established in Scotland and the Isle of Man and were particularly dense in the Wirral and Cumbria, in Ireland the Vikings appear to have favoured developing coastal trading centres, although these must have been supported by a rural hinterland. There is clearly more to discover.
Jennifer Hunt
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