Blog Post
Vypovziv: A Viking Age outpost in Ukraine
In July 2018 a group of University of Nottingham students from the School of English went on an archaeological expedition to Vypovziv, Ukraine. The group was led by Dr Cat Jarman from the University of Bristol whose work on Viking camps at Repton has yielded spectacular results. As a result, Dr Jarman’s work with the Repton winter camp is particularly relevant to the project and allows sites such as Vypovziv to be compared more easily with its English counterparts. (c) William Pidzamecky The village of Vypovziv is located two hours north of Chernihiv and is the site of a Viking Age Rus outpost. The outpost served as a control point along the Desna river route as well as a toll/re-supply station for travellers and merchants coming along the river to or from Kyiv during the later 9th through to the late 10th century. The Viking outpost is located on top of a tall ridge that stands out in the low marshy landscape and would have bisected the Desna River. The site included a fortified area with a palisade and a surrounding open settlement. The site included a fortified area with a palisade and a surrounding open settlement. Vypovziv, and sites like it, shares many similarities such as layout, location, and types of artefacts to winter camps in England such as Torksey and Repton, where Dr Cat Jarman is currently conducting archaeological fieldwork. Vypovziv, Repton, and Torksey all had some form of defence to protect them, were located in naturally strategic positions near rivers which provided easy access by boat, and at one stage in their lifespan became administrative and/or commercial centres. All three sites had a mixture of inhabitants, including women and children, and were specifically created by Scandinavian immigrants. The main difference between them is the initial motivation for their founding, Vypovziv was established as a point of control along a trade route while sites such as Repton and Torksey began life as a base for the Great Viking Army invading England. The Nottingham team were given a previously unexcavated section within the boundaries of what would have been the settlement area of the outpost just down the ridge from the fortified area. The artefacts found ranged in date from the late 9th century to the 12th century and included tools such as needles and awls, imported and local glass beads, imported jewellery, and various pieces of pottery, one making its way from the Byzantine Empire. The last day produced perhaps the most interesting finds, two ovens demarcating two separate dwellings. The team looks forward to returning next July to continue their exciting work. The expedition was made possible by funding secured by William Pidzamecky through the Cascade Grants Programme. The group joined the archaeological team from the University of Chernihiv, led by Dr Vyacheslav Skorohod, which has been excavating at the site for over a decade.
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Viking Names
Barkby
Barkby, in the East Goscote Hundred of Leicestershire, is a Scandinavian compound from the Old Norse male personal name Bark, from either Barki (genitive singular Barka), or Barkr, Bǫrkr (genitive singular Barkar) combined with Old Norse by ‘a farmstead, a village’. A late form of the name, Mikeberkby, is prefixed by the Old Norse element mikill ‘great’ to distinguish it from its neighbouring daughter settlement Barkby Thorpe.
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Collection
Viking Designs
In this collection you can view and download designs based on some of the objects in the Viking Objects collection. The drawings have been made by Adam Parsons of Blueaxe Reproductions. They are open-access and available to use under Creative Commons CC-BY-4.0. They are available to download and print out as jpg, pdf or eps files.
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Viking Names
Svein
The Old Norse male name Sveinn was one of the commonest in Scandinavia, particularly in Denmark and Sweden, where it is recorded in many runic inscriptions. It occurs as the first element in the Lincolnshire place-name of Swinethorpe. Early forms of this name confirm that it is nothing to do with swine, but rather contains this name. The name continued in use in both Lincolnshire and Yorkshire well into the thirteenth century. It was famously the name of the father of King Knútr, later king of all England. Sveinn was known as ‘Forkbeard’ and died in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, in 1014 according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.
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Viking Objects
Reproduction Bird Pendant
A reproduction bird pendant based on one found at Langford, Nottinghamshire. The nearest parallel to this type of brooch is one from Yaroslavl in Russia. The bird symbol, very similar to the one depicted on this pendant, was used by the Rurik dynasty which had started the conquest of Slavic lands in the mid 9th century and later formed the polity of Rus’. With some exceptions, pendants were generally worn by women as an accessory to Scandinavian dress.
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Viking Objects
Reproduction Hacksilver
These white metal reproductions of Viking Age hacksilver are typical of hacksilver finds. The Scandinavians had a bullion economy in the Viking Age and paid for goods by weight of silver rather than by using coins with a set monetary value. Arm rings are one example of wearable wealth that could be cut up to pay for goods when needed.
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Viking Objects
Reproduction Wooden and Bone Spoons
Most ordinary people in the Viking Age would have used spoons made of bone or wood. These are typical examples of the types of spoons that people would have had. Wealthier people would have had copper alloy or silver spoons.
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Viking Objects
Reproduction Wooden Bowls
Many everyday utensils would have been made from bone or wood. These photographs feature examples of wooden bowls.
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Viking Names
Screveton
Screveton, in the Bingham Wapentake of Nottinghamshire, is made up of two Old English elements, scir-gerefa ‘sheriff’ and tun ‘farm, settlement’. However, the modern pronunciation (as if ‘sk-‘) is due to the influence of Scandinavian-speakers. Old English words beginning in sc- (usually sh- in Modern English, like ‘ship’) often have Scandinavian equivalents spelled (and pronounced) sk- (like Old Norse skip and Modern Danish skib for the same thing). Many modern English words beginning in sk- derive from Old Norse.
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Viking Objects
Reproduction Lead Gaming Pieces
Reproduction lead gaming pieces of a type commonly found across the East Midlands, including at the Torksey Viking camp. The reproductions are tin alloy while the originals were made of lead. These gaming pieces would have been used to play hnefatafl or Nine Men’s Morris, both of which are games known to have been played by Scandinavians throughout the Viking diaspora. It has also been suggested that these might have been weights.
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Viking Names
Fiskerton
Fiskerton, in the Thurgarton Wapentake of Nottinghamshire, is from the Old English elements fiscere ‘fisher’ and tun ‘farm, settlement’. The pronunciation has however been influenced by Scandinavian-speakers (compare Old Norse fiskari with the same meaning). There is also a Fiskerton in Lincolnshire, which has undergone the same process.