THE WORLD

IN THE VIKING AGE

Edited by Søren M. Sindbæk & Athena Trakadas

The Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde 2014

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 The World in the Viking Age
Edited by Søren M. Sindbæk & Athena Trakadas
© The Viking Ship Museum and the authors 2014
Danish translations: Tríona Nicholl & Athena Trakadas
Design and layout: Carl-H.K. Zakrisson & Tod Alan Sporl
Printed in Denmark by Narayana Press, Gylling
isbn: 978-87-85180-70-4
Published with support from:
Dronning Margrethes og Prins Henriks Fond
Augustinus Fonden
D/S Orients Fond
Additional photo credits
pp. 12-13: Werner Karrasch © Viking Ship Museum
in Roskilde.
pp. 38-39: The David Collection, Copenhagen,
Denmark. Inv. no. 27/2003.
pp. 66-67: © Istanbul University Yenikapı Shipwrecks
Project Archive.
pp. 92-93: © Trustees of the British Museum.
pp. 9, 19, 24, 44, 63, 70: © Viking Ship Museum
in Roskilde.

Publications by
The Viking Ship Museum
Vindeboder 12
dk-4000 Roskilde, Denmark

All dates in the volume are abbreviated

BCE / CE = Before Common Era / Common Era
AH = Anno Hegirae (in the year of the hijra)

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 anton englert · louise kæmpe henriksen · søren m. sindbæk · anne c. sørensen · athena trakadas
Foreword
Many of the sea routes that connect the
world were discovered long before mod-
ern history begins. At that time, known
in Northern Europe as the Viking Age,
unknown oceans across the world were
being transformed into familiar waters
where sailing ships travelled with ease
between nascent towns and harbours.
These ships, laden with cargo and with
seafarers who met foreign cultures,
created unexpected connections be-
tween people from the Arctic Circle to
the oceans south of the equator.
Some travel accounts have handed
down glimpses of these voyages to the
present day. However, it is archaeologi-
cal discoveries in particular which un-
cover the story of Viking-Age seafaring
and voyages of exploration. In recent
years, finds from ships, harbours and
trading towns around the world have
provided new insights into the changes
that took place among coastal socie-
ties, during a time known in many
places as a dark period between
antiquity and modern civilisation.
97004_verden i vikingetiden_.indd 3
This book was created together with
a special exhibition at the Viking Ship
Museum in Roskilde. The World in the
Viking Age reveals a world history con-
cerning ships, people and objects on
the move. It is a story that challenges
entrenched ideas about the past and
present, and about the skills and op-
portunities of previous generations.
The Viking Ship Museum’s unique ar-
chaeological collection of ships and
boats is world renowned as a part of
Scandinavian cultural heritage. The
fact that this maritime culture and
technology is also part of a global story
is less well known.
The book and exhibition have been
produced with help from researchers
from five continents. A close coopera-
tion with the research project Entrepot at
Aarhus University and the University of
York, Great Britain – an initiative fi-
nanced by the Danish Council for Inde-
pendent Research’s researchers career
programme, Sapere Aude – has been
particularly helpful in giving the exhi-
bition a strong foundation. This coop-
eration also included an international
research conference, which took place
in April 2013, contributing invaluable
knowledge to The World in the Viking
Age.1 Many of the new results that are
presented in the book and exhibition
are the culmination of the Entrepot pro-
ject’s exploration of maritime exchange
networks and urbanisation from the
North Atlantic to the Indian Ocean.
This exhibition project would not
have been possible without the gener-
ous support of the following founda-
tions: Dronning Margrethes og Prins
Henriks Fond, Augustinus Fonden, D/S
Orients Fond, and Knud Højgaards
Fond.
Finally, sincere thanks to Tinna
Damgård-Sørensen, director of the Vi-
king Ship Museum, for confidence in
the project, and fair wind throughout.
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 søren m. sindbæk OHTHERE’S WORLD
Introduction: The World
in the Viking Age 8 janet bately
Ohthere’s voyages
søren m. sindbæk
The making of the Viking Age 21
anton englert
Scandinavian ships and
seafaring 26
anton englert
Opening up the Northern Seas:
the Gokstad ship 30
sarah croix
The loom and the sail 32
dries tys
The Low Countries and
the Northern Seas 34
steven p. ashby & ashley coutu
Arctic resources and
urban networks 36
Overleaf: Gaia, a Norwegian-built reconstruction of the Gokstad ship, an archaeological find dating to the late 9th century
(Photo: Svein Olav Løberg, boat guild GAIA).
97004_verden i vikingetiden_.indd 4
ABHARA’S WORLD
dionisius a. agius
14 Abhara’s voyages 40
timothy power
The Abbasid Indian Ocean trade 46
stephanie wynne-jones
Africa’s emporia 50
jeremy green & athena trakadas
Ships of the Indian Ocean 54
tom vosmer
The Belitung shipwreck and
Jewel of Muscat 58
julian whitewright
Maritime rhythms of the
monsoon 62
jason hawkes &
stephanie wynne-jones
India in Africa 64
helle horsnæs
Changing hands: the Skovsholm
dirham hoard 65
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 THEODOSIOS’ WORLD NETWORKS Notes 126
jonathan shepard unn pedersen References 130
Theodosios’ voyages 68 Kaupang: Viking-Age expansion
to the North 96 Index 136
sauro gelichi
The sea of Venice: new cities mateusz bogucki List of authors 137
and the Adriatic Mediterranean Truso, silver and trade 98
economy 74
chris lowe
ufuk kocabas˛ The Inchmarnock ‘Hostage
Constantinople’s Byzantine harbour: Stone’ 100
the Yenikapı excavations 78
sven kalmring
athena trakadas Hedeby from the sea-side 102
A sea in transition: ships of the
Mediterranean 82 j.c. moesgaard & ole kastholm
Making new money:
.
Is˛ ıl özait-kocabas
özai ˛ the Hedeby coin 104
The Yenikapı 12 wreck: connecting
Constantinople 86 kristoffer damgaard
Aylah, “Palestine’s harbour
jonathan shepard & j.-c. cheynet on the China Sea” 106
The seals of Theodosios 88
sorna khakzad & athena trakadas
helle horsnæs The world in a grain of sand:
Theophilos’ coin: treasure Siraf 108
and image 90
stephanie wynne-jones,
alison crowther & mark horton
Zanzibar: a network society 111
john miksic
The Srivijaya Empire and its
maritime aspects 115
jun kimura
Seafaring in the Far East 118
søren m. sindbæk
Suzhou, China, and the Maritime
Silk Road 121
søren m. sindbæk &
athena trakadas
The journey of ideas 124

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97004_verden i vikingetiden_.indd 6 20/03/14 09:39
97004_verden i vikingetiden_.indd 7 20/03/14 09:39
 søren m. sindbæk The Viking Age was ignited by the art
of building seaworthy sailing ships and
the skills to sail them on the open sea.
Introduction: The growth in seafaring, trade, piracy,
and exploration that began to gather
The World in momentum during the 8th century was
not limited to Europe’s northern seas,
the Viking Age though. It was echoed in other parts
of the world at the same time. If the
era that began with the great European
voyages of discovery at the end of
the 15th century is known as the Age
of Exploration, then the Viking Age
deserves equal claim to the same
moniker. From the South China Sea
to the North Atlantic, the centuries
leading up to the year 1000 were explo-
ration’s first great age – a time when
ships found routes to uncharted
waters, new lands were discovered,
and new ports sprang up along coasts.
Seafarers Three accounts of seafarers,
who sailed at roughly the same time
during the middle of the 9th century,
demonstrate how ships both connected
and changed the world during the
Viking Age. The first of the three, the
Map 1. The World in the Viking Age: Norwegian Ohthere, appeared as a
1 Hålogaland guest at the court of King Alfred the
2 Kaupang Great in England, when Viking raids
3 Ireland upon the English coast were at their
4 Hedeby peak. Ohthere told about his life as a
5 Truso chieftain in northern Norway and his
6 Venice sea voyages from the Arctic Ocean to
7 Constantinople Denmark. His story was so new and
8 Aylah strange to the English court that it was
9 Siraf committed to writing, making it the
10 Zanzibar oldest eyewitness account from Scan-
11 Borobudur dinavia. At the time of his travels,
12 Suzhou sailing ships had only been known in
8 INTRODUCTION
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Scandinavia for a few generations and
long sea voyages opened up a world of
new possibilities. Before the year 900,
Scandinavian seafarers would establish
colonies on Iceland and the North At-
lantic islands, from which they would
eventually travel further to Greenland
and North America.
Stories of new voyages and lands
also echoed around the port of Siraf
in the Persian Gulf. For the first time,
ships from the Middle East began to
sail all the way to China. In Southeast
Asia, these journeys transformed the
straits between Sumatra, Malaysia, and
Java into a new hot spot for trade and
cultural exchange. One of the explorers
whose name became famous was Cap-
tain Abhara, a shepherd from the high-
lands of Persia who ended as a long-
haul captain and navigator between
India and China. The experiences he
and other travellers came home with
gave rise to some of the most original
travel accounts known to history, with
tales ranging from the accurate to the
embellished, which were collected in
Siraf and other Persian Gulf ports.
Archaeological finds can also reveal
stories of voyages. Such was the case
of the Byzantine diplomat, Theodosios,
whose letter-seal has been found at
Ribe and Tissø in Denmark and at
Hedeby in northern Germany. From
840–842, he travelled from Constan-
tinople (modern Istanbul) over the
Adriatic Sea to Venice, and onwards
to the Frankish or Carolingian court at
Trier. The objective of the journey was
to gain allies in the Byzantine Empire’s
fight against Muslim pirates who had
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 1

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10 11

invaded Crete. The fact that Theodo-
sios sent messages to a far-off corner
of the world, which the Byzantine
emperor’s court had only learned the
existence of some few years earlier,
was perhaps due to a small group of
Scandinavians who had recently sailed
down the Russian river systems to Con-
stantinople – the first known voyage
along this route. This new continental
by-pass quickly gained great impor-
tance in Scandinavia and the Mediter-
ranean, and, of course, in the new
realm which emerged along the water-
ways: Russia.
The voyages of Ohthere, Abhara
and Theodosios range over half of the
globe, from China to the Persian Gulf,
from the Mediterranean to Northern
Europe and further to the outer-most
Arctic reaches of Scandinavia. Never-
theless, their worlds were so closely
connected that they could well have
had common acquaintances in the
places to which they travelled. Archae-
ological discoveries in recent years
have provided new insight into how
seafaring changed the world during the
Viking Age. Exactly how a long-haul
ship from the Indian Ocean may have
appeared in Abhara’s time has been
revealed after the discovery of a wreck
near the Indonesian island of Belitung;
a ship, laden with wares from China,
went down there just before the middle
of the 9th century.1 New finds from

INTRODUCTION 9

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 trading centres such as Aylah on the
Red Sea, Unguja Ukuu on Zanzibar, or
Abhara’s homeport of Siraf – towns
that developed concurrently – demon-
strate the complex cultures which
emerged at the nodal points of mari-
time travel. Traces of industries that
produced wares for maritime trade
have been found in Chinese cities, and
in Istanbul, Turkey, large-scale excava-
tions have uncovered one of Constan-
tinople’s harbours, with many wrecks
of the ships that made the Byzantine
Empire a world power at sea.
The centuries leading up to the year
1000 are widely known as the time in
which the ancient empires and their
urban cultures dwindled.2 However,
at the same time, new networks were
emerging, connecting coastlines all
around the world. These changes often
reflect tangible connections. When
Ohthere traded on his journeys in the
North Sea, he encountered Arabic sil-
ver coins from the Islamic caliphates
like those Abhara would have had in
his belt on the way to China, and in
Scandinavian trading towns he might
see glass beads from the same work-
shops that supplied Zanzibar. The age
when this happened is known across
the world by reference to a diversity of
ruling dynasties and empires. It was
the world of the Frankish and Byzan-
tine emperors, the Abbasid caliphs
of Baghdad, and the Tang Dynasty of
China. But more than this, it was an
age when adventurous seafaring wove
land and sea together in new ways.
It was the world in the Viking Age.
10 INTRODUCTION
97004_verden i vikingetiden_.indd 10
The world Long before our calendar
began, sailing ships had already found
their way from the Mediterranean to
India. Ships had sailed along most of
Europe’s coasts since the days of the
Roman Empire. By comparison, sailing
ships were a rather late development in
Scandinavia. For thousands of years,
small and large boats had been rowed
between coasts, but from the late 8th
century onwards, historical sources
and archaeological finds suggest that
something had occurred which made
the open seas navigable.
Sailing ships made it possible to
reach other worlds. However, there
was a great difference between the
world that could be reached by ships
in antiquity and that in the Viking Age.
During the 8th and 9th centuries, the
Islamic territories had expanded from
Afghanistan to Spain. Luxury goods
flooded into the lands surrounding the
Persian Gulf, and for the first time in
almost 1,000 years, the Mediterranean
was no longer the main centre of mari-
time trade.3 At the same time, under
the rule of the Tang Dynasty, China
turned its attention to the sea, and
ports sprang up along its coast. In
the 7th century, the Grand Canal was
created – which would connect south-
ern China with the Yellow River and
Beijing to the north – linking the
coastline with the heart of the empire
and making seafaring a profitable
business.4 In Europe, the Mediterranean
lands’ traditional domination of trade
and politics had been weakened by wars
and unrest. The Frankish (or Carolin-
gian) Empire in the West and the
Byzantine Empire in the East began
instead to develop relations with the
lands around the North and Black Seas.5
Beyond the borders of the old em-
pires of the Mediterranean, the Middle
East, India and China, sailing ships
were often greeted with hostility in
many parts of the ancient world.
In contrast, by the time of Ohthere,
Abhara, and Theodosios, many of
these places had become societies pro-
ducing wares that were in high demand
and where traders were welcome. In
East Africa, kingdoms were being es-
tablished and commodities such as
gold, slaves and ivory began to be ex-
ported from the new coastal towns.
On Java and Sumatra, rare items such
as camphor and spices were prepared
for export. In Scandinavia, production
of woollen cloth and high-quality iron
became important industries. Gradual
improvements in shipbuilding, navi-
gation and geographical knowledge as
well as greater confidence at sea made
longer and safer voyages possible, also
in hard weather and difficult waters.
Seafaring over the open ocean was
based on the skills to navigate without
landmarks, which required many years’
experience at sea. This in turn was
based on great investment of time and
in materials, whether it was specially
selected trees for shipbuilding, high-
quality iron for rivets, nails, anchors
and chains, hand-woven sailcloth,
caulking or rope that must be acquired
in large quantities. Why did these in-
vestments make sense? Sea voyages did
not just give access to trade and riches:
warriors, diplomats and pirates all
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 used ships in the play for power. Ships
gave emigrating colonists hope for a
better life at the same time that they
ferried captured slaves into wretched-
ness. Pilgrims, craftsmen and scholars
travelled in search of new knowledge.
Others were driven by curiosity, like
Ohthere, who sailed to the Arctic Sea
of his own volition, “to find out how
far the land extended”. Seafaring
allowed one to go beyond the familiar.
It was this diversity that gave new
significance to maritime contacts dur-
ing the Viking Age.
Networks When sailing away from
home, travellers focused on some few,
well-known destinations. The world
became ‘small’, connected by routes
that had previously been navigated and
described. New towns were frequently
established at the points where these
routes intersected. They often lay in
locations where onward travel became
difficult or dangerous – where waters
changed character, routes merged,
large rivers met the sea or where
seasonal sea-routes were exchanged
for inland pathways.
The preconditions that brought
people together at these places did not
lie in the hinterland surrounding the
towns, but in long voyages over the sea.
Ships needed harbours with security
for men and materials, and markets
with enough goods to fill their cargo
holds. It needed to be possible to ac-
quire provisions and carry out repairs,
and to stay for a number of months if
necessary. Some wares came from far
inland after the sailing season had
97004_verden i vikingetiden_.indd 11
ended. These towns were therefore
busy all year round. They might lie
at great distances from each other.
To those who travelled for trade, it was
vital that other traders visited the same
ports. For seamen who had travelled
for months, it made little difference
if the journey was a few days longer if
a safe harbour and the best markets
were the end result.
Maritime towns – emporia – were
rarely the mid-points of a district or
a kingdom, but links in a network.6
They were often composed of modest
houses of wood and were seldom noted
for their temples, town walls or palaces.
Yet they housed an unmistakably
urban way of life. Here were market
streets with exotic wares and skilled
craftsmen, well versed in unusual
techniques. Here lived people with ac-
quaintances in faraway towns. Foreign
visitors moved freely and many lan-
guages could be heard. From a great
distance, the sight of all the masts of
the sailing ships would indicate that
these were unique and special places.
Emporia developed as gathering
and distribution centres for the great
cargos carried by ships. Many of the
objects that filled the hulls had been
literally unknown beyond their region
before seafaring made them available.
Ohthere brought walrus tusks as an
exotic gift for the king of England. Just
a few years later, the ivory of the Arctic
had become a highly desirable com-
modity, which was worked by artists
and craftsmen at many sites around
Europe. Heavy goods such as lumber,
barrels, stone vessels, mass-produced
ceramics or heavy quernstones were
transported over long distances that
would have been unpractical over land.
New economic tools such as coins,
weights and measuring systems came
into use among travellers who needed
to settle deals in a fast and unambigu-
ous manner. Ideas and belief systems
also travelled by sea. Mosques began to
appear in Africa and India, missionary
churches were built in Scandinavia,
and Buddhism and Hinduism became
popular on Java and Sumatra. Ships did
not just satisfy a demand for transport
– they changed the rules of the game
for the individual seafarer and for
their societies.
Viking-Age maritime networks and
the towns they encompassed are one
of archaeology’s great discoveries.
They have long been known along the
coasts of Northern Europe, where
large-scale excavations have provided
new information on many important
sites. More recently, archaeological
finds in the Mediterranean and around
the Indian Ocean have uncovered a
world that was previously only known
from passing references in travel ac-
counts. New techniques give archaeol-
ogists the possibility to trace the origin
of increasing numbers of artefacts
from these emporia and to understand
the widespread maritime network that
they represent. During the Viking
Age, seafaring connected different
cultures, allowed the diffusion of
widely varying trade goods, and ignited
cultural changes across the globe.
The exploration of this story is a new
voyage of archaeological discovery.
INTRODUCTION 11
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