An Archaeologist Sailed the Seas Using Only Viking Tech. Here’s What He Learned

Vikings were formidable Scandinavian warriors and sailors who, from around 800 to 1050 CE, raided, traded, and settled throughout northern Europe, Iceland, Greenland, and even as far as North America. Most of what scholars know about Viking maritime networks, however, has to do with their start and end points. After all, they could have taken any number of routes in between. To shed light on this gap, an archaeologist decided to follow in the Vikings’ footsteps—or, more accurately, their wake. In order to reconstruct their seafaring itineraries, Lund University archaeologist Greer Jarrett sailed functional Viking-like boats along the Norwegian coast in a series of experimental voyages. By experiencing these journeys firsthand, the archaeologist hoped to understand where it would have made most sense for Viking sailors to seek shelter along the way to their destination. In this way, he identified four natural harbors that could have served as pitstops hundreds of years ago. “A lot of ... Read full article.