Gone Medieval - Vikings in Northern Britain

Episode Date: May 18, 2021

Archeological evidence of the Vikings as far north as Northumbria has practically been non-existent...until now. In an exclusive for Gone Medieval, Dr Cat Jarman is joined by Dr Jane Kershaw as they discuss their discoveries from a brand-new Viking site in Northumberland, fifteen years after metal detectorists started carefully documenting their finds in the area. Hear why Halfdan and the Viking Great Army ended up in this part of the country and find out what they've left behind. Jane is a professor of Archaeology at the University of Oxford, specialising in the Early Medieval period and Viking-Age; Scandinavian settlements in Britain; and Viking silver, gender and cultural identity. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

From long-loss Viking ships and kings buried in unexpected places to tales of murder, power, faith, and the lives of ordinary people across medieval Europe and beyond. Join me, Matt Lewis, Dr. Eleanor Jarniger, and some of the world's leading historians as we bring history's most fascinating stories to life, only on history hit. With your subscription, you'll unlock hundreds of hours of exclusive documentaries

with a brand-new release every week exploring everything from the ancient world, to World War II. Just visit historyhit.com forward slash subscribe. Hello and welcome to today's episode of Gone Medieval from History Hit. My name is Dr. Kat Jarman. And today I've got some very special exclusive content for you because right now I am in the far northeast of England. I'm in Northumberland. Warming up after a particularly freezing day digging holes in the field. And I'm here because I'm part of a team that has started investigating a brand new Viking site that has just been identified. And in today's podcast, I'm very excited to be able to share

for the very first time and exclusively for Gone Medieval the lowdown on this brand new discovery. And with me now, I have the archaeologist in charge of the project, my brilliant colleague, Dr Jane Kershaw. Jane is an assistant professor at the University of Oxford. So thanks so much for agreeing to share this with us, Jane. Thanks for having me. Now, Jane specialises in the Viking Age, and especially in Viking Age metal work. And as we'll hear in a moment, metal artefacts were actually key to finding the site in the first place. And we're going to go back to that very specific site in this new discovery in a moment, but we just need to start out with some of their background information about the site.

So I thought we could start with the particular group of Vikings that we're talking about here, namely the so-called Great Army or Great Heathen Army. And in case our listeners aren't really that familiar with the Great Army, Jane, can you just tell us briefly about who these people were? Yeah, absolutely. So they are first recorded as arriving in England in 865. So this is after a period of 70 years or so of Viking raiding. But in this year, a great army arrives.

They're a motley collection of career warriors, mostly from Scandinavia, maybe some people coming from the continent, possibly from Ireland as well. and they travel round England, subduing the various Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. They take East Anglia, they go and they capture York, they're capturing parts of Mercia as well, and this activity is taking place in the late 860s and 70s, and we have historical documents that tell us where they overwinter. And it's these winter campsites that archaeologists have been investigating

and that we're learning a lot more about. I should say at this point that the work that I've been doing in the last decade or so is looking at some of these camps, so I've got a special interest. And one of those camps is the site called Repton in Derbyshire, and that's probably the camp that we know the most about, because we have the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle record of it, and then the archaeologist backed it up. Another site for 872 is a site called Torxie in Lincolnshire. And they've been really, really important because they match the historical record with the archaeology. But crucially, this far north, we don't really have any evidence of any of those camps, do we?

No, the archaeological evidence has been non-existent for Vikings this far north. We are well north of the time. But we pick up the story in Repton, after the Vikings have been there in 8-7, 3, and where do they go next? The historical sources say that actually the Great Army splits at this point. most of what the sources call the host, which is the army, go south and settle in the south of England, especially East Anglia, but a part of the army goes north and it heads to the River Tyne. Yes, and I should say at this moment as well, if you want to find out more about the Great Army, you can also check out more about their activities in the south of England,

culminating in the legendary Battle of Eddington. Check out the new documentary on that topic on History Hit, where Dan Snow and I went on a road trip across the country to search for evidence of the Great Army. Let's go back to the North again. So the historical records do mention them that the Great Army, or at least part of the Great Army, goes north and goes actually into Northumbria.

What exactly do they say? And we've got some names, haven't we? Yeah, we do. And it's interesting because a lot of different written sources all say the same thing, which is that a Viking leader called Haftan, So one of the leaders of the Great Army takes part of the troops there and they all agree, all the sources agree that he enters Northumbria on the Tyne.

So we're confident that along the Tyne somewhere is a Viking army base. But so far nobody's really worked at where that was. There is no evidence whatsoever. There have been suggestions based on likely positions like Tynemouth itself is a likely location because there were some Anglo-Saxon monasteries there. maybe that was a source of wealth for the Vikings. There was a natural harbour in that area, so it's been suggested that maybe they didn't sail that far down the time

and stayed near the coast, but really we have no physical evidence. So we know half down goes north, we know he comes here, but then what does he do? I mean, what else happens? And could you possibly say a little bit more about the context of this kingdom of Northumbria? You know, what else was here? What could he have wanted? He's already taken York. So the Viking army have taken York in the 860s. York is the centre of the Northumbrian Anglo-Saxon kingdom at that stage. There are other centres that become very important. So Bamba, further north on the coast,

and of course Lindisfarne, which the Vikings have earlier raided. And these monasteries I just mentioned around the mouth of the thine, a cluster of Anglo-Saxon monasteries also raided much earlier on around 800 by the Vikings. So this is an area that Vikings have previously attacked and extracted wealth out of. But when we joined them again in the 870s, they're still interested in raiding, but we're in a different phase of Viking activity where raiding is soon turning to settlement. Let's bring it back to the new discovery and the reason why we are up here and why we were shivering in a very rainy wet April field today. How did this new discovery come about? What was it that made you narrowing on this particular location? Because the history, the

historical sources just mentioned the time, but we're much further north than that. So we've travelled up the Northumbrian coast, or in the beautiful Coket Valley. And the site first came to light from the metal detector finds. And these metal detectors have been working the site for around 15 years. They've been carefully recording where they discovered their finds, reporting it to the National Portable Antiquity Scheme. And that has allowed us to identify this site as really significant in its regional context and that's what first drew us here. There was a lovely assemblage of Viking Age material, not stand out stuff, not kind of gold and silver that attracts a lot of attention, but actually more mundane pieces that nonetheless we tie now to Viking camps and the Great

Army. So we have a selection of lead gaming pieces, for instance. So pieces that would have been used as markers on boards that members of the Great Army. army are playing during their copious downtime in between raiding activities, whaling away their time in the same muddy field we were in today. There are lots of Anglo-Saxon dress accessories. Although they're Anglo-Saxon, they turn up at Viking camps, we're not really sure how they're being used, but these are fittings for belts and pins and things like that. And also the local coinage, which isn't actually a silver coinage, but which is copper alloy. So it's a very kind of low-denominational coinage. But it's a recurring feature at Viking campsites and we have it here. Yeah, so that's the key,

isn't it? This is essentially now we recognise as a kind of signature for these great army camps. And they don't happen before we start hearing about the Great Army sites and they don't really happen afterwards either. So, you know, if you go into the 900s, you don't get that same signature. You don't get the gaming pieces. They seem extremely specific. And we know, because we have them at somewhere like Repton, where we've got the historically documented evidence, you can use that evidence. and you can sort of take that elsewhere. So that all fitted really well, didn't it? It did. And the coinage is especially helpful because then we can say it's not an exact date

that it offers, but we can say this was coinage produced in the 850s, 860s. It points us towards a certain period of use. So it's not purely guesswork. You know, we have some dating evidence there. So we think this happens after 873. And you think it's quite soon after in the next year or two, probably? I do because the historical sources are clear that it's 875 that the Viking army, part of the army, heads to the Tyne. And there, the sources say, Haftan raided among the Picts and the Strathclyde Britons.

These are populations, so Scotland and north-west England and southern Scotland towards the west coast. These are populations further north than where we are now. So it makes sense that the Viking Great Army is on the Tyne. They're heading up further north to raid in these northern zones. And on the way, they pass the Coquette. So the Coquette is a river that goes from the North Sea and a bit further inland. And then the site is in that valley. So it's accessible from the coast.

Exactly. It's perhaps best named today for Walkworth Castle, which is a prominent local feature. But also on the coast itself, you have Coquette Arrath. island. A very small island today, it's a bird reserve, but a very convenient navigational waypoint. So if you were sailing up the coast, you come to this island, you can turn in at modern-day Amble, where we're sitting now, and you can row up the river. It fits into that pattern. We've got the objects that sort of scream Viking Great Army at us, and it makes sense as a location. We know that some of them aren't up here. But let's talk a little bit more in sort of like a general

terms about the site because that's another thing that we've been trying to understand in recent years. These campsites, these locations that were used by the Vikings, we know that they spend the winter there. So some of it is literally somewhere you can shelter and you can settle. They need to be defendable essentially. You need to be able to make sure you keep people safe. It used to be thought that these were fortifications because sometimes in the records they talk about fortifications. We don't have any evidence or any sign of fortifications here, do we? And instead, they are taking advantage of something else. The site is a naturally defensive site.

It's an area of high ground with quite steep falls on at least three sides. Easy access to the river, which is great for looking out and keeping an eye on potential enemies. And it also gives you access if you need to get out to the coast to get away. So we're not necessarily looking for built structures, the supports or ditches necessarily, but we're more looking for a prominent position in the landscape that takes advantage of the natural features. Because these sites are temporary sites. These are very short-lived, probably a year or so. Maybe they come back after a little while, but these are not permanent settlements. So we need to understand these is not sites that people are going to invest a great deal.

in terms of more permanent structures. So really, when we continue with our excavations, we're not really likely to find, we're not going to find buildings, we're not going to find anything major like that. I mean, what do you think we're going to find when we continue? I hope very much we'll find more finds, like more small finds, small pieces of mess at work,

which are so informative about this site. We might find some burials. One of the really interesting things about this site is that it is not just occupied in the Viking Age. There is evidence for earlier Anglo-Saxon activity, high-status-anglo-saxon activity. Whether this is something like a market site or more likely a cemetery is yet to be seen,

but there's clearly early Anglo-Saxon activity. And going back even earlier, there's Roman activity, which is really interesting this far north. We're well north of Hadrian's wall. There's late Roman activity, which you don't get a lot of in Northumberland, and it might be connected to the building of the Antonine Wall, even further north than where we are now. So this has a longer history, I guess, this site.

It's a site that the Vikings didn't necessarily have to identify for themselves as somewhere upon that they would have been attracted to an already high-status site. Have you heard of the teenage werewolf prosecuted in 1603? Did you know that the 17th century British government relied heavily on female spies? And do you want to know about chin chucking and thigh sex? Of course you do. I'm Suzanne Elipscomb, and my new podcast, not just the Tudors, is a deep dive into what I like to think of as the long 16th century. We'll be talking about everything from Aztecs to witches, Velesqueth to Shakespeare, Mughal India to the Mayflower.

Not in other words, just the Tudors, but most definitely also the Tudors. Subscribe to not just the tutors from History Hit wherever you get your podcasts So there could possibly even have been some earlier features And actually we were walking around today We were looking at some of our maps, drone images and LIDARs, images and so on And looking for some sites that

Perhaps somebody else Perhaps the Romans had built something there before We're a bit unshidden at the moment We've got to come back and investigate But it's quite possible that that could have been there Indeed and if we think about Talksy for instance They do actually have a Roman villa in the middle of that site, unclear about what would have been visible or in use at that stage,

but it was a site that was occupied in the Roman period, as well as then being occupied later by the Viking Great Army. And I suspect it's highly likely that we have Roman activity and going back even earlier Iron Age activity. It's a classic Iron Age fort source of site. And actually other sites like Thetford as well, for example, where we, again, there's another winter camp. We've not yet identified,

but that also has a very prominent Iron Age hill forts. So there are fortifications. Again, it's located by a river. So it fits that pattern extremely well, which is quite exciting. Yeah, increasingly as we add more and more of these sites to our repertoire, we can see recurring features. But if you go to this whole valley today, it's pretty quiet. There's not a lot.

There's beautiful villages, there's lovely bridges. We found a lovely pub at yesterday where we could sit outside, did have, you know, maybe have a drink. But there's not really anything else there. So obviously we talked about the river, the fact that they're going north. But, you know, was there anything else here for them? Was this a destination itself apart from that? Or was it more of a sort of strategic choice to come up to a place like this? It is strategic and a really important future of this site is that it is not enemy territory. These lands had been owned by the Anglo-Saxon monastery, the community of Lindisfarne, but they were taken over by an Anglo-Saxon

king who was then killed by the Vikings in York. And when he died, his lands would have passed over to the Viking rulers in principle, whether in reality there were client kings involved, ruling day-to-day is open to question. But it means that the Vikings who rode into the River Coquitt were in charge of this area. So it was in a way a safe haven and it could have been a really convenient and safe base from which to plan attacks further north and northwest. And that's something that we can really visualize, I think, when you go out there in the landscape and things like how you travel. So obviously we've talked about the river and the fact, as you will know, I'm slightly obsessed with how the Vikings used rivers in different parts

of the world and in other parts of Europe like it in Eastern Europe. The rivers are absolutely key to what the Vikings are doing. And here too, we can imagine that if they are going raiding in land, we know that this is a force that goes in part on land, but also by boats. So they have boats, they have ships that are going to be very valuable. And then we were discussing earlier on today, what do you do with those shifts? If you're raiding in land, why are you going to keep them? And could that be the sort of function of a site like this as well? Definitely. I think that's a critical part. You need someone. to keep your ship safe, somewhere where you can repair them, mend the sail if necessary,

and where the crew can rest, but also where you have them at the ready. So if you need them and you need to get away quickly, you can do that. So a safe place where you can easily manoeuvre a fleet is vital. But what's interesting about this side is that not only do you have the access to the rivers and then the coast, but you also have a Roman road infrastructure that can take you inland. So you can go on a road that's known as the Devil's Causeway. You can go into northeast, Northumbria, as far as Berwick-upon-Tweed. But it can also take you to the Lower Time Valley, where it connects to other Roman roads to take you further inland and further west. So you have both overland routes and riverine routes. So it's just perfect strategic. So

if you're somebody like Halfdan, who's got ambitions to do, to do something. So it's what, actually, let's stop on Matli, what is he trying to do, do you think? It's a good question. I mean, the sources say that Haftan is intent on pillaging and raiding this area on attacking the churches and monasteries. Now, we sort of have to take that with a pinch of salt because these are sources that want to claim they are the victims of Viking raids. But we do get the sense from the sources that Haftan is quite a character. And this is in the context of a cast of really big characters. Any Viking leader is going to be quite a character at this stage, but Haftan seems quite special. He's someone that leads troops up into Scotland. We know that he

fights in Scotland at Dola and Athol for up to a year, quite a long time. He then comes back. He settles in Yorkshire with his army, but the settled life is not for him. He's keen to keep on raiding to try to continue this campaign of warfare and he tries to muster his men to do this. They don't want any part of it and in the end he leaves the Tyne again with just three ships, the sources say, and he goes to Ireland where he's involved in the killing of his nephew and shortly after that he himself is killed. So he doesn't survive that much longer but he's someone who is a warrior up until the end and doesn't seem to want to settle down and plow the land like the rest of his followers. I can we just touch on that one source that says something

about him leaving the country because that's quite an interesting one because it actually gives a bit of a reason for what happened with him and why people didn't want anything to do with half-time anymore. Indeed. So this is an early 12th century source. It's a little bit after our period. So again, grain of salt required. But it says that Hafdan was attacked by mental insanity and by the severest bodily odour. And that was why none of his followers wanted to go with him. So he's leaving the time stinking, not able to gain any more loyalty or support from the people that have followed him thus far. And so he heads off to Ireland in disgrace and smelling really bad. Poor Haftan. Poor Haftan.

Okay, so moving on. Moving just back to the new site and the new discovery, what's the significance of finding a site in Northumbria, do you think? I mean, do we need to? Is it important? And what can I really tell us? It is important. This is not an area of the country that has a lot of archaeological material for the early medieval periods of the Anglo-Saxon and the Viking Age.

And really, Viking history has no place here so far. We have these historical references but actually they've not been investigated, they've kind of been overlooked in favour of places in the country where we do have much richer archaeological evidence like Yorkshire and East Anglia. So I feel like this site is filling a gap in our knowledge and actually drawing attention to the very far reach

of the Viking Great Army. They're travelling up and down the country. Literally we're going to the far, far north of England here. And they're going from England into Scotland, so this is a link between what's happening in England. England what's happening in Scotland and that is also connected to what's happening in Ireland. So they're not separate movements. They're all interrelated. The same players are involved in all three areas. This really could be a very important puzzle piece in that big picture, which is exciting

and it's brilliant because we don't get new Viking sites very often. There really are quite a few and far between. And if it wasn't for the careful reporting of these fines over the years, you know, I think we have a contrast here with somewhere like Tauksie that has an awful lot of find recorded now many many man hours of metal detecting on the site it's different here it's not got the same hundreds or thousands of artefacts but it's been a slow and steady build and as a result we've been able to identify a fascinating site and it's as you said right at the beginning these aren't the really amazing big haws they're not golden silver they are really kind of boring to a lot of people everyday small objects but the fact that these tell that biggest story is essentially what's so

important about them. So hopefully we'll get more of those finds, more recorded, and then we can really fill in the picture. Go and check your scrap boxes, because it might be that you have material that you don't think is interesting, but we find fascinating. So that's really brilliant. So we've just done a bit of digging. We've just got started here. I think we've really understanding the landscape, was beginning to understand the landscape. Some of that is the movement of the river in the past, because at the moment, the way the river is flowing isn't necessarily the same as a thousand years ago. So what we need to do is try to work out what that river used to do and how that affects our site. I have to be completely honest in the last two days.

We found a few things, but no amazing discoveries just yet. And you and I dug a trench a little test bit that had absolutely nothing. Nothing at all in it, unfortunately. But we're not going to give up. So what's next for this site then? So we've been just test spitting at the moment. So putting in very small trenches just to assess how deep is. the archaeology, are there other features? We do have features, there's nothing that is very tangible at the moment. So we're coming back to the site, we're going to do a proper two-week dig in September, and we really need to understand what's happening with the river. So I think some coring is needed, some kind of identifying the different phases of the landscape,

how the land that has crops in it today would have been used in the past. So that's going to tell us then, hopefully much more about who was here, how long they were here, or what sort of resources they had access to how big the site was. Because actually the area we're talking about, it's quite big, isn't it? It's really substantial. I think our latest estimate was 42 or 43 hectares, which is comparable to the other sites that have been identified like Torxey and all dwarf in Yorkshire as well.

So it's definitely in the same league as that, which is interesting when we think about the sources and only part of the Viking army going north and the rest going south. But here the site is just as big as the campsites that have hosted the entire Viking army. So we could be talking about a pretty substantial, a pretty important site potentially. Yeah, where nobody knew to expect it. And that's what's so exciting. So literally a few years ago, absolutely no clue.

And then the objects just bring this to life entirely. That's really, really exciting. Obviously, I'm excited because I'm involved in the project myself. but this is definitely one to look out for. So we will keep you updated. We will, as I said, be digging more and Jane's going to be leading research going forward. So when there is some news,

we'll make sure we bring it to you here. And if you do want to find out more about the Great Army as well, listen to some of the other podcasts on Dan's No's History hit and check out the new documentary about the Great Army on our road trip through the country looking for some of these sites as well. Hope you enjoy this episode. this was Dr Jane Kirschol talking about the brand new Viking site in Northumberland.

Thank you so much for joining me, Jane. Thank you. It's been great. And don't forget to subscribe to Gone Medieval, and you can find it anywhere where you find your podcast. Click that subscribe button, pretty please, and tell all your friends and family to do the same. And we will be back next week with more. I'm Dr. Kat Jarman, and I will see you again soon.