Viking Age England

by Julian D Richards

  The people of York probably dyed their own textiles as well, and a variety of dye plants such as madder and woad are characteristic of Viking Age deposits. Their clothing was probably a mass of colour, with evidence for reds, greens, blues, yellows and blacks. White linen, woven from vegetable fibres, was probably preferred for undergarments and bedlinen. Smooth glass ‘linen-smoothers’ used for the finishing of linen cloth have been found in Lincoln, London, Thetford, Winchester and York.

  There is very little particularly Scandinavian about the Coppergate textiles, however. The majority of textiles have more in common with those of Anglo-Saxon England and Carolingian Europe than with Scandinavia, and the tools of textile production remain typically Anglo-Saxon (Walton Rogers 1997). There are none of the black clay conical whorls which are common throughout Scandinavia. The Coppergate spindlewhorls are regional types which belong in a local northern Anglo-Saxon tradition; the wool comb can be matched by one from Cottam. Most of the textiles are local products, although there are some fine broken chevron twills, probably imported from Frisia, one of which had been dyed with lichen purple. A group of patterned linens, including a honeycomb weave, may have originated in the Rhineland, and may have been brought to York by Frisian merchants following the wine trade route (Walton 1989). The only clear Viking textile is a tenth-century woollen sock made in a technique known as nålebinding, or needle-binding which looks like close-textured crochet work, although this is more likely to have arrived on the foot of its owner, rather than in a batch of imported socks (plate 12). A similar example is known from a textile fragment from a Viking burial at Heath Wood, Ingleby (Derbyshire).

  Silks are known from a number of Viking Age towns, including York, Lincoln, Dublin and London. These must have been imported, most probably by Scandinavians operating the trade route along the Russian rivers to the silk road. At Coppergate, tabby-weave silks appear to have been cut up and sewn on site, probably for silk head-dresses, possibly in a Scandinavian fashion.

  In summary, the origins of industrial production can be observed in many crafts during the Viking Age. The thriving towns of lowland England represented a tremendous commercial opportunity, with a concentration of demand for cheaply-produced metalwork, trinkets and other consumer goods. Within their walls, groups of craftworkers and merchants would act together, or in sequence, on certain materials, forming chains of interlinked crafts. In York we can observe a local, rural Anglo-Saxon textile industry moving into the town in the mid-ninth century and, over the following centuries, taking up new technology as it became available.

  The role of Scandinavian settlers and traders in this upsurge in industrial production is not straightforward. In York the introduction of Anglo-Saxon rather than Scandinavian textile tools into the town prompts the evocative suggestion that this traditionally female industry may have remained in the hands of local Anglo-Saxon women, drawn into the town, whilst the impact of Scandinavians was on crafts which were traditionally male, such as metalworking. Some York crafts show production for a number of tastes, with antler and bone objects, for example, being produced in both Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Scandinavian styles. In other cases we can observe the development of new integrated fashions. In jewellery manufacture Scandinavianstyle animal ornament was executed on Anglo-Saxon disc brooches; Scandinavian oval brooches were not made in York.

  Some industrialisation was underway before the Scandinavian settlement. The development of the pottery industry, for instance, had already begun in eastern England. Glazing is not restricted to Danelaw sites, and is not found at all of them. Nevertheless, wheel-thrown pottery was introduced into most parts of England during the Viking Age. The potential for increased sales provided the incentive for experimentation in new methods which enabled mass production. The significance of the introduction of the kick wheel, and other innovations such as single-flue kilns and glazing, is that they required capital investment and a full-time commitment to pottery production. This was only worthwhile if there was a large demand and a marketing infrastructure, including markets, a transport system, and a means of exchange.

  Urban demand and marketing opportunities increased throughout the late ninth and tenth centuries. Changes in land ownership may have permitted new ways of obtaining raw materials, breaking the ties of Anglo-Saxon society and allowing craftsmen to operate more for personal profit. In the countryside prosperous farmers celebrated their wealth by purchasing Scandinavian-style consumer goods. Although the Vikings may not have started the tenth-century ‘Industrial Revolution’ they did provide both the stimulus and the mechanism for it to happen.

  8

  TRADE AND EXCHANGE

  In recent years the role of the Vikings in stimulating international trade and peaceful commerce has been emphasised, and their warlike activities played down (Sawyer 1986). Analysis of the foreign goods imported into England, however, suggests that their role as traders, at least initially, may have been exaggerated. Although the variety of exotic goods does reflect a wide range of long-distance contacts, the proportion of imported goods in ninth- and tenth-century England is relatively small.

  We have already seen that the Vikings disrupted many of the Saxon trading sites (see chapter 4). In contrast to the large number of imports from the sixth to ninth centuries, imported goods are equally rare in tenth-century Ipswich, Norwich, London, Southampton, Winchester and York. London was affected by a recession in long-distance trade during the tenth century. In York only 500 of the 15,000 objects found at Coppergate were imported, and virtually the only tenth-century imported finds are a silk cap, a brooch from the Low Countries and a Badorf-type amphora. Significantly, there was not a single piece of Scandinavian pottery in some 55,000 pottery sherds found in Viking Age levels at Coppergate. The lifestyle of the inhabitants of York would not have been noticeably affected if international trading contacts ceased. In Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and East Anglia, local and regional trade was far more important than international trade. On the other hand, the prosperity of tenth-century Chester appears to have rested on its role as the pre-eminent English trading site in the north-west. The production of the Chester mint is likely to reflect the trading activities of private individuals and the transformation of silver bullion into coinage. Chester is the most common mint represented in English coins found in Dublin and its hinterland, and Chester-type ware has also been found in Dublin, as well as in Trondheim. Indeed, whilst sharing few archaeological parallels with York, Chester shares several with Dublin (Ward 1994).

  TRADED GOODS

  Traded goods can be difficult to recognise from archaeological evidence. The trading of slaves is documented in the sixth and seventh centuries, and continued into Viking Age England. The Vikings were well-attested slavers throughout Europe, although there are no direct archaeological traces in England. Chester may have been an important port for slaves from Dublin and the ringed pins recovered from the town may indicate the presence of Hiberno-Norse traders. From their port of entry slaves may have been sold on throughout England. During Viking raids it is likely that Anglo-Saxons may have been carried off as slaves, and that was probably the fate of some citizens of Southampton, captured in a raid in 980. The Church did not object to slavery as such and the Domesday Book reveals large scale ownership of slaves on church lands, but it was concerned to prevent slaves being exported overseas, lest they were unable to practise their religion. The slave trade was outlawed in 1102 but slavery was not prohibited (Pelteret 1981).

  12 Map of Viking Age trade routes in north-west Europe (after Graham-Campbell 1990)

  Organic commodities also leave little trace and even where remains of wool, cloth or grain are preserved it is difficult to distinguish imported from local goods. Nonetheless, on the basis of palaeo-environmental evidence from Coppergate, it is probable that considerable quantities of clubmoss were imported from Scandinavia (Kenward and Hall 1995); its use was presumably as a mordant for dyeing the textiles produced on the sites. On the other hand, only very smal
l quantities of fig and grape indicate imports from warmer climates.

  The principal objects which may have been imported to England from Scandinavia for which evidence survives are those of walrus ivory, steatite or soapstone, and schist. In the tenth century a Norwegian ivory trader, Ohthere, visited Ælfred’s court, and described his journey from his home in northern Norway to the market places of southern Scandinavia at Hedeby and Kaupang, where he sold or exchanged the Arctic products he had collected. Walrus ivory is known from York and Lincoln, and an implement from Bramham (West Yorkshire) may have been imported through York, before being dispersed into its hinterland. The quantities, however, are very small, and may have been personal possessions of Viking settlers. Similarly, the soapstone bowls from Flaxengate and Coppergate are so worn that they look more like prized personal heirlooms rather than imported goods (plate 14). Soapstone was also quarried on Shetland and may have been imported from there in preference to Norway. Amber is more likely to have been collected on the east coast than imported from Denmark. Neither amber nor soapstone have so far been recorded from tenth- or eleventh-century London. Schist honestones, which must have come from southern Norway, are known from several sites with Danelaw links, including York, Lincoln, Northampton, Thetford and London. Even so, the trade may have been directed through the Low Countries in the hands of Frisian traders from Dorestad, rather than being imported direct from Scandinavia. In fact, England’s Viking Age imports demonstrate little change from her Middle Saxon trading partners, and continued links with Germany and northern France, although there is apparently a reduction in volume. The most visible items are quernstones and pottery, although it is assumed that the latter was being imported in association with the Rhenish wine trade. The wine was transported in amphorae and narrow barrels, like those depicted in the Bayeaux Tapestry, and which are found reused as well linings in Milk Street, London; but decorated pitchers and beakers were bought to accompany it, so that Rhenish wine might be served from Pingsdorf spouted pitchers and drunk from Pingsdorf beakers. Pingsdorf and Badorf ware has been recognised on some 20 sites, but are rarely found in large quantities. Fewer than 15 imported vessels were discarded on Coppergate in 150 years, in contrast to Anglian York where imported pottery was far more common. The distribution of Rhenish wares is not limited to the Danelaw, although there are a few sherds from Lincoln and Thetford, as well as those from York. Outside the Danelaw, in the south and east, French red-painted wares are more common than Rhenish products.

  Imported German Mayen-Niedermendig lava millstones may have followed the same route as the wine trade. Their importation was already well-established in Anglo-Saxon England. In the Viking Age they are known from towns such as Lincoln, Thetford and York, and rural sites such as St Neots and Springfield, although more isolated farmsteads, such as Ribblehead, were using the inferior millstone grit.

  The only imported item which perhaps reveals Scandinavian traders acting as middlemen is silk, for which the nearest production centre is in the east Mediterranean. The most likely route by which bales of Byzantine silk might have reached England is up the Russian river systems and then to Scandinavia and on to England. Silk has been identified on the Danelaw sites of York and Lincoln, and in a tenth-century pit from Milk Street, London. Some 23 fragments have been recovered from Coppergate, mostly from the period 930-70. A silk cap shares a distinctive weaving flaw with a fragment from Lincoln, suggesting that it might have been cut from the same bale of material (Walton 1989).

  Whilst international trade during the Viking Age appears to have been fairly limited, there was still a vigorous home market. Most goods which were traded internally within England were probably perishable agricultural products, and are almost impossible to identify. The remarkable national trade in pottery, however, gives some indication of the likely scale of trade (12). Even rural settlements such as Raunds and Wharram Percy were supplied with a full range of Late Saxon pottery. Some pottery may have been transported as containers and its spread may reflect the commodity trade; the distribution of Thetford ware within and from East Anglia, for example, may represent the movement of grain. Other pottery, such as lead-glazed Stamford ware (see chapter 7), appears to have been regarded as a luxury product in its own right.

  The trade in Stamford ware may well have started with specialist industrial pottery; glazed crucibles are the first Stamford ware pottery to appear on tenth-century metalworking sites in Lincoln, Thetford and York. Later, with the production of fine table wares in the same fabric, the trade expanded dramatically and Stamford ware pitchers are found throughout central England. By the eleventh century it accounts for almost 25 per cent of all pottery in Lincoln and York. The proportion of Stamford ware decreases gradually with distance away from the Stamford kilns. There is a central core, a circle with a radius of c.24km (15 miles), within which it is most common fabric, although local shelly and limestone wares still continue in use alongside it, and an outer area of up to 80km (50 miles) away where it is consistently present in smaller amounts. The local Stamford ware distribution may reflect local farmers coming to market, but outside its local base the pattern of trade of Stamford ware is a Viking one. Its appearance on virtually every Lincolnshire site implies an organised trade involving middlemen who specialised in the sale of pottery. The trade was maintained along coastal and riverine routes. Transport by water would have been slow but also safe; the rivers Welland and Ouse were navigable and Stamford ware finds cluster along the former line of the Wash and up the Lincolnshire coast, to Whitby and as far afield as Aberdeen and Perth. The trade was not maintained to the same extent southwards; there is no Stamford ware in London before the Norman Conquest for example.

  The distribution of other Viking Age pottery, such as Cheddar, Stafford and Late Saxon Shelly wares, is also restricted to certain areas, although our understanding of what such distributions mean is still in its infancy. Some patterns, such as the Thames-valley distribution of the Oxford shelly wares, may reflect distribution by river, but in other cases we may be plotting the areas of influence of various Viking and Anglo-Saxon groups. In Oxford, for example, it has been suggested that parts of the town tended to trade with certain areas, or displayed cultural preferences in the types of pottery used.

  One essential commodity which must have been traded widely within Viking Age England is salt. By this period an elaborate network of packhorse and cart routes had developed associated with the Droitwich salt industry. Upwich was first documented in 962, and Middlewich soon afterwards. During the tenth century there was a proliferation of industrial activity as each site developed its own brine wells (Hurst 1997).

  SHIPS AND SHIPPING

  Despite the importance of land routes plied by packhorses and carts, most trade in bulk commodities would have depended upon river and sea transport. Our image of Viking Age shipping is dominated by the dragon-headed longship. In fact there was a wide variety of craft, each with different functions. A table of harbour dues for Billingsgate c.1000 distinguishes between three classes of vessel: a small ship, which was charged ½d; a larger ship with sails, charged 1d; and a barque or merchantman, charged 4d.

  The first group probably included simple log-boats, like that excavated at Clapton (Greater London). Such boats were fairly workmanlike affairs, normally hollowed out of half of a split oak trunk, following a north-European tradition going back to prehistoric dugouts. Indeed, it has often been assumed that they were pre-Roman, until scientific dating methods proved otherwise. Tree-ring dating of the Clapton boat showed it was carved from a tree chopped down in the tenth century. The Clapton log-boat was 3.75m long by 0.65m wide; a replica could carry up to four people. It was propelled by paddle, with a bulkhead in the centre acting as a seat for the rower (Marsden et al. 1989). Four such boats have now been recovered in the London area from the river Lea, plus a curved oak rib from the Thames Exchange site which could have come from a small planked boat, or a light dugout with extended sides. Nine eleventh-century logboats h
ave been recovered from the rivers Mersey and Irwell, indicating the degree of river traffic during the Viking Age. Most may have been used primarily for ferrying, fishing, fowling, and reed-gathering, but the range in length, 2.75-4.65m, suggests that some, such as examples from Irlam and Warrington, may have functioned as bulk-cargo carriers over short distances (McGrail 1978; McGrail and Switsur 1979).

  The second group, of small vessels with sails, would have been more suitable for longer river journeys or short sea crossings. The Graveney boat is an example of an excavated boat belonging to this category (Fenwick 1978). She was a clinker-built merchant vessel, constructed c.927, 14m long and with a beam of 3.9m, which could have carried some 6-7 tons of cargo. Residues of hops may represent a cargo from Kent being carried up the Thames Estuary, whilst her ballast of unfinished lava millstones may reflect North Sea crossings. At some point in her career the keel had been repaired after having been badly cracked, perhaps from beaching with a heavy cargo on board. The Graveney boat was finally abandoned c.950 more than 1km from the sea in a creek alongside an improvised jetty of upright posts. Fragments of up to four similar ships have been found on the London waterfront; one find, from the Vintry site, suggested the vessel had been rigged for sailing.