This thesis aims to produce a critical reanalysis of Norse activity during the Viking Age using Geographic Information Systems (GIS). By mapping and analyzing selected contemporary written and material evidence, this project seeks to quantify and qualify Norse activity, and to confirm and identify patterns of behavior, some of which may heretofore be unknown. The study of the Viking Age has traditionally integrated a variety of fields and disciplines, including – but not limited to - history, archaeology, linguistics, art history, and literature. However, the field often restricts itself by approaching the world of the vikings through regional and national divides. By limiting the geographic boundary of study, it holds that scholars will continue to view those who participated in Viking Age activity as ‘other’ to the native peoples these vikings interacted with. Such geographic constraints thus produces prescribed analysis of the Viking World at large. As such, this thesis will bridge the gap between different ethnographic studies of the vikings.
1. Can certain indicators be identified in order to understand geographical and chronological scope of the contemporary evidence?
2. How do the combined archaeological and textual materials provide a more nuanced understanding of Norse activity?
“Our perceptual system is not designed to perceive the passage of time, but it is designed to see the movement of objects through space. By converting time to motion, we can visualize the passage of time (as one does as one watches the hands on a clock move.) This same principle can operate not only on the scale of seconds, minutes, and hours, but also on the scale of years.”
- Cindy Bukach, 2007
Ireland, Britain, Spain France, Belgium, Netherlands, and Germany
Denmark and Norway
c. 777-920 AD
Ultimately, this thesis concludes that there appear to be two separate Norse groups active in Atlantic Europe during the early Viking Age. Publications regarding the metal evidence, burial and jewelry evidence, and the two-group theory are forthcoming.
If you have any questions about the Viking Age World map or my project, please feel free to get in touch!