The Jorvik Viking Centre, York
A reconstructed Journey into
Scandinavian Yorkshire and a glimpse of Scandinavian objects which tell its
story
Coppergate
The Jorvik Viking Centre is
the place to contemplate the Anglo-Saxon-Scandinavian world of our ancestors in
Jórvik,
but also reflecting the wider community stretching to Kirkdale. It is both a museum
and a virtual journey through the Scandinavian world. The Jorvik Centre is easily found on Coppergate in York.
The visit
starts with a reconstruction of the archaeological excavation of Coppergate before a journey through the sights and smells
of Scandinavian Jórvik in about 960 CE.
Galleries then display artefacts from Coppergate with
explanations to understand the world of Jórvik
in the tenth century CE.
The journey
passes through the Scandinavian tenements of Coppergate
with wattle and daub walls, of one storey, with a beaten earth floor.
The
reconstruction provides a glimpse of the shoreline of the river Foss where
goods were unloaded, and an exploration of slavery, which played an important
role in Scandinavian society.
It
recaptures industry in the Scandinavian world, including rural activities and
working with wool.
York
provides multiple windows into our ancestral world. The Yorkshire Museum in York
provides rich displays of Yorkshire’s history from neolithic through to Roman
and Anglo-Saxon times.
or
Go Straight to Chapter 3 –
Scandinavian Kirkdale