1 00:00:02,220 --> 00:00:07,140 So far on Blood of the Vikings, I've discovered a story of Viking attacks and 2 00:00:07,140 --> 00:00:08,860 invasions across Britain and Ireland. 3 00:00:12,220 --> 00:00:17,200 Tonight, I travel in search of the evidence for Viking settlement along the 4 00:00:17,200 --> 00:00:18,620 road from Shetland to Dublin. 5 00:00:21,920 --> 00:00:23,960 What brought the Vikings here? 6 00:00:26,300 --> 00:00:28,820 And were their dealings with the natives peaceful? 7 00:00:29,850 --> 00:00:30,870 Or not. 8 00:01:11,180 --> 00:01:12,760 Western Norway in winter. 9 00:01:13,600 --> 00:01:15,640 It's dark and it's freezing. 10 00:01:16,660 --> 00:01:18,920 The terrain is rugged and unforgiving. 11 00:01:20,980 --> 00:01:24,120 Deep fjords lie below bare snow -capped mountains. 12 00:01:30,280 --> 00:01:35,080 At the edge of one fjord, on a thin strip of land sandwiched between water 13 00:01:35,080 --> 00:01:38,020 rock, I discovered the traces of ancient fields. 14 00:01:44,490 --> 00:01:48,350 A thousand years ago, eking a living from this land must have been a constant 15 00:01:48,350 --> 00:01:49,350 struggle. 16 00:01:56,570 --> 00:01:59,230 Many of the Vikings came from this part of western Norway. 17 00:01:59,530 --> 00:02:03,550 And when you come here and see just how little good land there is, then it's 18 00:02:03,550 --> 00:02:06,890 easy to understand why some of them may have sailed away to places like Orkney 19 00:02:06,890 --> 00:02:07,890 and Shetland. 20 00:02:14,000 --> 00:02:18,280 The first stop for seafaring Vikings heading west were the islands of 21 00:02:18,280 --> 00:02:20,320 and Orkney, the Northern Isles. 22 00:02:20,720 --> 00:02:23,700 And there's plenty of evidence that the Vikings came this way. 23 00:02:24,420 --> 00:02:28,960 Ruins at Jarlsop in Shetland show that Viking longhouses once stood here. 24 00:02:35,760 --> 00:02:41,340 This Viking treasure, a symbol of wealth and power, was discovered buried in 25 00:02:41,340 --> 00:02:42,340 Orkney. 26 00:02:44,970 --> 00:02:47,410 There's even rare evidence of Viking writing. 27 00:02:48,230 --> 00:02:52,430 On the walls of an ancient tomb in Orkney are the finest runic inscriptions 28 00:02:52,430 --> 00:02:53,690 outside Scandinavia. 29 00:02:54,470 --> 00:02:56,850 Graffiti of the sort you'd expect from Vikings. 30 00:02:57,410 --> 00:02:59,690 Boasting of treasure and women. 31 00:03:02,170 --> 00:03:04,870 And the locals still celebrate their Viking past. 32 00:03:05,270 --> 00:03:10,750 On Shetland each January, they gather for the festival of Upheliar and burn a 33 00:03:10,750 --> 00:03:11,750 Viking longship. 34 00:03:14,990 --> 00:03:19,070 We know that the Vikings came to Shetland and Orkney, but we don't know 35 00:03:19,070 --> 00:03:20,070 many. 36 00:03:20,110 --> 00:03:24,510 Did Viking immigrants dominate these islands, or did most of the natives 37 00:03:40,230 --> 00:03:44,540 To find out just how much Viking ancestry there is in Shetland... and in 38 00:03:44,540 --> 00:03:48,500 rest of Britain and Ireland. The BBC have teamed up with geneticists from 39 00:03:48,500 --> 00:03:49,540 University College London. 40 00:03:52,180 --> 00:03:57,240 So far, they've identified distinctive DNA markers on the Y chromosome in the 41 00:03:57,240 --> 00:04:00,100 Vikings' descendants, present -day Norwegian men. 42 00:04:00,720 --> 00:04:04,580 The hope is that they'll find these same markers in men from Orkney and 43 00:04:04,580 --> 00:04:05,580 Shetland. 44 00:04:08,660 --> 00:04:11,120 Professor David Goldstein is the project leader. 45 00:04:14,320 --> 00:04:18,380 I think the Scottish Islands are a very good place to start because we have such 46 00:04:18,380 --> 00:04:22,060 good evidence, archaeological evidence and place name evidence, of Viking 47 00:04:22,060 --> 00:04:25,540 activities in the Scottish Islands. So, in fact, it's really a good test. 48 00:04:25,860 --> 00:04:30,540 If there are genetic signatures from Scandinavia in the British Isles 49 00:04:30,740 --> 00:04:32,800 we ought to find them in the Scottish Islands. 50 00:04:34,040 --> 00:04:38,900 Dr Jim Wilson, part of David Goldstein's team, is in Shetland to collect DNA 51 00:04:38,900 --> 00:04:41,240 samples from members of the Family History Society. 52 00:04:42,380 --> 00:04:46,320 Based on how many of them are found to have Norwegian ancestry, it should be 53 00:04:46,320 --> 00:04:50,220 possible to estimate the scale of Viking settlement over 1 ,000 years ago. 54 00:04:52,140 --> 00:04:56,560 Right. We have two consent forms to fill in. What's your name? 55 00:04:56,940 --> 00:04:58,320 George Jacobson. 56 00:04:58,660 --> 00:05:03,120 I think curiosity is the main thing. We're just interested to see if there is 57 00:05:03,120 --> 00:05:06,720 any particular link with the Vikings or not. 58 00:05:07,540 --> 00:05:08,840 We really don't know. 59 00:05:09,280 --> 00:05:10,340 We're just... 60 00:05:10,800 --> 00:05:14,660 Interested to see what you're going to come up with. I just open the swab tube 61 00:05:14,660 --> 00:05:19,320 and you rub the cotton bud up and down on the inside of your cheek, five times 62 00:05:19,320 --> 00:05:20,199 on each cheek. 63 00:05:20,200 --> 00:05:23,240 And in the meantime, I'll put this preservative in the tube. Okay. 64 00:05:25,200 --> 00:05:29,720 I think it's an excellent idea altogether because it offers really 65 00:05:29,720 --> 00:05:36,340 proof as to genealogy and it can extend so much further back than the 66 00:05:36,340 --> 00:05:37,980 Newton records and that sort of thing. 67 00:05:40,820 --> 00:05:44,620 They're sampling 100 men in both Shetland and Orkney. 68 00:05:45,400 --> 00:05:49,740 In order to lessen the distorting effects of recent population movement on 69 00:05:49,740 --> 00:05:54,620 ancient genetic patterns, recruits must be able to prove that their father and 70 00:05:54,620 --> 00:05:57,020 their father's father were born in the islands. 71 00:06:08,460 --> 00:06:10,220 Ten? Five in Shetland. 72 00:06:12,500 --> 00:06:14,860 Well, I'm a true Viking, definitely. 73 00:06:16,260 --> 00:06:22,660 Any true Shetlander would be proud to find that they were of Viking blood 74 00:06:22,660 --> 00:06:23,900 than Scottish blood. 75 00:06:24,600 --> 00:06:25,600 Any more? 76 00:06:26,440 --> 00:06:29,980 Sampling's going on at over 30 locations across Britain and Ireland. 77 00:06:30,480 --> 00:06:34,840 It's the first time that such a large -scale genetics project has been used to 78 00:06:34,840 --> 00:06:36,240 trace the movements of Vikings. 79 00:06:37,370 --> 00:06:41,250 The Northern Isles will be a crucial test case for showing how well the 80 00:06:41,250 --> 00:06:42,250 technique works. 81 00:06:46,970 --> 00:06:51,890 One question that genetics can't answer, and that archaeologists argue about, is 82 00:06:51,890 --> 00:06:55,470 what happened to the Picts, the people who were living in the Northern Isles at 83 00:06:55,470 --> 00:06:56,610 the time that the Vikings arrived? 84 00:06:59,970 --> 00:07:04,330 Did the Christian Picts stay on and live side by side with the new pagan 85 00:07:04,330 --> 00:07:05,330 settler? 86 00:07:07,790 --> 00:07:10,610 Or did the Vikings' arrival trigger a bloodbath? 87 00:07:13,610 --> 00:07:18,090 Shetland archivist Brian Smith believes the evidence points to just one answer. 88 00:07:18,670 --> 00:07:23,270 He's looked at all the place names in Shetland and Orkney and discovered that 89 00:07:23,270 --> 00:07:25,990 % of them are of Scandinavian origin. 90 00:07:30,610 --> 00:07:33,130 If the Vikings had... 91 00:07:33,440 --> 00:07:38,080 coexisted amiably with the Pictish population of Shetland. If they'd 92 00:07:38,080 --> 00:07:43,280 them, if they'd killed the men and married the women, there would be 93 00:07:43,280 --> 00:07:44,780 place names in the islands today. 94 00:07:45,380 --> 00:07:50,580 My only conclusion from the fact that there are no such names is that the 95 00:07:50,580 --> 00:07:54,040 Vikings annihilated the native population of the islands. 96 00:07:58,820 --> 00:08:03,300 In search of evidence to support his theory, Brian's examined the way place 97 00:08:03,300 --> 00:08:05,980 names have changed in countries where there's been colonisation. 98 00:08:08,020 --> 00:08:10,320 Sometimes names survive. 99 00:08:10,600 --> 00:08:15,880 The United States of America is, of course, a place where the indigenous 100 00:08:15,880 --> 00:08:18,400 population did leave some of its names. 101 00:08:18,800 --> 00:08:23,840 The conclusion that we must reach, then, is that something ominous, something 102 00:08:23,840 --> 00:08:28,260 awful happened in Shetland and in Orkney to prevent that happening. 103 00:08:28,970 --> 00:08:33,010 He believes that 19th -century events in a corner of the British Empire mirror 104 00:08:33,010 --> 00:08:35,250 the Vikings' colonisation of the Northern Isles. 105 00:08:36,010 --> 00:08:42,770 The parallel that I like to draw is with Tasmania in the southern 106 00:08:42,770 --> 00:08:44,530 hemisphere, where... 107 00:08:45,000 --> 00:08:51,000 Over a relatively short period, the colonising white settlers got rid of the 108 00:08:51,000 --> 00:08:52,000 local population. 109 00:08:52,420 --> 00:08:56,700 Exactly the same thing happened to the place names. They virtually disappeared 110 00:08:56,700 --> 00:09:03,120 in a very short period. We don't have native Tasmanian place names today in 111 00:09:03,120 --> 00:09:07,520 same way we don't have native Pictish place names in Orkney and Shetland. 112 00:09:08,840 --> 00:09:11,340 But is this view supported by archaeology? 113 00:09:12,140 --> 00:09:15,940 The Picts are an elusive people who lived in northern Scotland and the 114 00:09:15,940 --> 00:09:17,800 Isles over a thousand years ago. 115 00:09:18,540 --> 00:09:23,720 They left a few clues behind them, in artefacts, carved stone, and in the 116 00:09:23,720 --> 00:09:24,760 remains of their buildings. 117 00:09:31,560 --> 00:09:36,580 Most Pictish houses are divided into small cells, but around the beginning of 118 00:09:36,580 --> 00:09:38,860 the Viking Age, buildings like these vanish. 119 00:09:39,440 --> 00:09:44,260 to be replaced by open -plan rectangular longhouses of a distinctly Scandinavian 120 00:09:44,260 --> 00:09:45,260 type. 121 00:09:45,420 --> 00:09:50,240 On the face of it, more support for the idea that the pits were wiped out by the 122 00:09:50,240 --> 00:09:51,240 Vikings. 123 00:09:58,600 --> 00:10:02,820 However, more recent discoveries in Orkney are now challenging this view. 124 00:10:04,020 --> 00:10:09,520 25 years ago, Olwyn Owen's first archaeological excavation as a student, 125 00:10:09,520 --> 00:10:13,060 the Brock of Birthday, where there'd once been an important Pictish 126 00:10:14,300 --> 00:10:19,580 Pictish buildings were replaced by Viking longhouses, and within these, the 127 00:10:19,580 --> 00:10:23,520 archaeologists came across something which would change ideas about what 128 00:10:23,520 --> 00:10:25,020 happened when the Vikings arrived. 129 00:10:26,380 --> 00:10:31,500 In the lower levels of the north houses, they began to find Pictish artefacts 130 00:10:31,500 --> 00:10:34,040 mixed with north artefacts. 131 00:10:35,530 --> 00:10:38,790 Obviously there had been a Pictish settlement here and there was an 132 00:10:38,790 --> 00:10:42,990 intermingling of the cultural material from Picts and North. 133 00:10:43,820 --> 00:10:48,120 and I think perhaps some of the earlier archaeologists were a bit surprised and 134 00:10:48,120 --> 00:10:52,000 maybe even disappointed. They probably hoped they'd find a nice thick layer of 135 00:10:52,000 --> 00:10:58,020 burnt debris and maybe some blood and gore to distinguish between the Pictish 136 00:10:58,020 --> 00:11:01,840 levels and the North levels, but that isn't how it was at all. 137 00:11:02,060 --> 00:11:06,740 And that was the first time, I think, that someone had been able to say so 138 00:11:06,740 --> 00:11:10,180 clearly that there was no evidence of mass slaughter. 139 00:11:16,240 --> 00:11:21,240 So the discovery of Pictish goods within Norse houses could suggest that at 140 00:11:21,240 --> 00:11:25,720 least some Vikings traded with the Picts. But not everyone is convinced. 141 00:11:26,280 --> 00:11:32,740 The fact that we find Pictish artefacts in Viking houses needn't necessarily 142 00:11:32,740 --> 00:11:36,960 mean that there was peaceful coexistence between the two peoples. 143 00:11:37,220 --> 00:11:41,560 It can also suggest that the Vikings took the... 144 00:11:42,320 --> 00:11:48,000 Artifacts took the material from the houses of the previous population who 145 00:11:48,000 --> 00:11:50,480 by then, in my opinion, been slaughtered. 146 00:11:55,720 --> 00:12:00,440 It's difficult to imagine the sudden arrival of predatory Vikings intent on 147 00:12:00,440 --> 00:12:03,060 grabbing land being anything other than violent. 148 00:12:04,040 --> 00:12:07,600 But suppose contact developed gradually over a period of time. 149 00:12:08,520 --> 00:12:13,100 Some archaeologists are now suggesting that this is exactly what happened, and 150 00:12:13,100 --> 00:12:17,320 that consequently, the first contact with Norway may have been long before 151 00:12:17,320 --> 00:12:21,020 Viking Age officially began, and may not have involved massacre. 152 00:12:23,820 --> 00:12:30,740 A closer look at the reports of the first Viking 153 00:12:30,740 --> 00:12:35,960 raid on Lindisfarne in England in 793 seemed to back this up. 154 00:12:38,990 --> 00:12:43,550 The monk, Orquin of York, who wrote about the raid, poured scorn on his 155 00:12:43,550 --> 00:12:47,870 Christians for what he saw as inappropriate familiarity towards the 156 00:12:47,870 --> 00:12:48,870 Vikings. 157 00:12:52,010 --> 00:12:57,290 Consider the luxurious dress and behaviour of their leaders and people. 158 00:12:57,790 --> 00:13:02,670 See how you have wanted to copy the pagan way of cutting hair and beards. 159 00:13:03,340 --> 00:13:08,960 Are these the people whose terror threatens us, yet you want to copy their 160 00:13:12,880 --> 00:13:17,740 So maybe the attack was not by an unknown force, but by a people who'd 161 00:13:17,740 --> 00:13:19,060 frequent visitors to Britain. 162 00:13:21,340 --> 00:13:23,340 You have to remember where we are. 163 00:13:23,680 --> 00:13:27,800 Orkney and Shetland are so close to the west coast of Norway. 164 00:13:28,640 --> 00:13:34,100 So the idea that Vikings weren't travelling around in northern waters 165 00:13:34,100 --> 00:13:38,140 before the Viking Age proper is supposed to have started, I think is a very 166 00:13:38,140 --> 00:13:42,760 strange one. It seems to me highly likely that they were known in these 167 00:13:43,460 --> 00:13:45,060 They weren't so frightening. 168 00:13:45,260 --> 00:13:46,580 They weren't so alien. 169 00:13:49,980 --> 00:13:52,800 But will this idea ever be more than speculation? 170 00:13:54,820 --> 00:13:59,200 What archaeologists would really like to find in Britain... is some indisputable 171 00:13:59,200 --> 00:14:00,760 evidence of early Viking contact. 172 00:14:01,340 --> 00:14:06,240 And these bone combs, which date from the 7th century, may provide the very 173 00:14:06,240 --> 00:14:07,240 first clue. 174 00:14:07,640 --> 00:14:12,280 But only if scientists can tell whether they're red deer or reindeer. 175 00:14:15,640 --> 00:14:20,180 This distinction is critical, because while red deer are native to Scotland, 176 00:14:20,560 --> 00:14:24,920 reindeer only come from Scandinavia, the Viking homelands. 177 00:14:26,280 --> 00:14:30,960 Dr Lubas Mirnova has analysed hundreds of bone combs from Viking Age and 178 00:14:30,960 --> 00:14:35,260 medieval sites in Europe and has worked out ways of telling if they're made from 179 00:14:35,260 --> 00:14:36,280 red deer or reindeer. 180 00:14:37,460 --> 00:14:41,720 All antlers are porous in the centre, with a transition to compact solid 181 00:14:41,720 --> 00:14:44,280 material at the surface, the useful part. 182 00:14:44,740 --> 00:14:49,120 The transition is sharp in red deer antler and the porous material is rarely 183 00:14:49,120 --> 00:14:50,120 used. 184 00:14:50,460 --> 00:14:53,060 But in reindeer antler the transition is gradual. 185 00:14:53,630 --> 00:14:55,890 and this semi -porous material is often used. 186 00:14:57,130 --> 00:15:00,810 Reindeer combs also tend to look darker and rougher. 187 00:15:02,030 --> 00:15:06,750 We asked Luba to examine a group of combs from Pictish sites across Orkney. 188 00:15:07,150 --> 00:15:10,710 All of them were discovered in layers dated to the 600s. 189 00:15:11,170 --> 00:15:15,730 If any of them are from reindeer, then it's proof of early contact with the 190 00:15:15,730 --> 00:15:16,730 Vikings. 191 00:15:17,090 --> 00:15:20,190 Luba begins with an examination of the surfaces. 192 00:15:23,120 --> 00:15:25,940 So this is one of the typical pectish combs. 193 00:15:28,540 --> 00:15:35,220 It's well polished, it's light in colour, and the surface 194 00:15:35,220 --> 00:15:38,240 looks almost structureless. 195 00:15:39,000 --> 00:15:45,860 Extremely compact, solid material with very, very fine threads 196 00:15:45,860 --> 00:15:47,480 of fibres. 197 00:15:51,080 --> 00:15:52,700 This would be red deer. 198 00:15:55,360 --> 00:15:58,240 But there are several more Pictish combs to be tested. 199 00:16:01,780 --> 00:16:05,840 It's a different type of Pictish comb, double -sided Pictish comb. 200 00:16:06,080 --> 00:16:12,900 It's also very dark, very brown, very woody in appearance, very rough surface 201 00:16:12,900 --> 00:16:14,940 with little polish. 202 00:16:17,580 --> 00:16:20,080 Let's see if we can find any. 203 00:16:20,700 --> 00:16:21,700 Transition areas. 204 00:16:24,340 --> 00:16:29,060 Beneath the surface of the left edge of the comb, Luber has identified a semi 205 00:16:29,060 --> 00:16:30,060 -porous region. 206 00:16:30,760 --> 00:16:37,740 That is one of the rare examples when you are absolutely sure, 207 00:16:37,960 --> 00:16:44,380 or as absolutely sure as is possible to be, that you are dealing with reindeer 208 00:16:44,380 --> 00:16:45,380 antler. 209 00:16:48,760 --> 00:16:49,760 Luber's examination. 210 00:16:50,430 --> 00:16:53,990 They found that several of the Pictish combs are made of reindeer antler. 211 00:16:54,570 --> 00:16:59,650 This is the first tangible evidence for early contact, perhaps peaceful trading 212 00:16:59,650 --> 00:17:01,670 between Picts and Vikings. 213 00:17:02,370 --> 00:17:06,170 Although it doesn't prove that Viking contact was always peaceful. 214 00:17:17,200 --> 00:17:20,000 So what was the impact of the Vikings at this time? 215 00:17:20,660 --> 00:17:24,780 With no historical records in Scotland, we have to rely totally on 216 00:17:24,780 --> 00:17:25,780 archaeological evidence. 217 00:17:26,760 --> 00:17:31,140 Dr James Barrett hopes to find some answers at a newly discovered site on 218 00:17:31,140 --> 00:17:35,400 island of Westray in Orkney, where it appears that the Vikings took over one 219 00:17:35,400 --> 00:17:36,400 the original settlements. 220 00:17:37,200 --> 00:17:40,860 He's been searching for clues in ancient rubbish dumps or middens. 221 00:17:43,850 --> 00:17:48,670 So here we have about 50 centimetres of the Viking Age bin dominated by fish 222 00:17:48,670 --> 00:17:52,410 bone, these pieces sticking out all over the place, also a marine shell. 223 00:17:52,810 --> 00:17:59,670 But here we have a major break into this material, which has very 224 00:17:59,670 --> 00:18:04,430 little fish bone in it, a lot less shell, and the majority of the bone 225 00:18:04,430 --> 00:18:06,430 there is mammal bone, often in quite large pieces. 226 00:18:08,590 --> 00:18:11,930 It's incredible that you can see the point in time when the Vikings arrived. 227 00:18:12,670 --> 00:18:14,450 by just looking at the change in refuse. 228 00:18:19,890 --> 00:18:25,390 And close by on the shore, waves have exposed another midden and another side 229 00:18:25,390 --> 00:18:26,390 Viking life. 230 00:18:27,470 --> 00:18:29,510 It contains even more fish bone. 231 00:18:29,750 --> 00:18:31,290 It's just incredible, actually. 232 00:18:31,630 --> 00:18:35,910 You see a lot of shell. The shell is almost certainly bait, but in fact it's 233 00:18:35,910 --> 00:18:39,830 fish that are really important. What you have are lots of skull bone and then 234 00:18:39,830 --> 00:18:42,330 the vertebrae from the very front of the fish, ones like this. 235 00:18:42,810 --> 00:18:48,510 And this is a butchery pattern which we know from medieval depictions of dried 236 00:18:48,510 --> 00:18:49,850 or dried and salted fish. 237 00:18:50,390 --> 00:18:52,930 So they're chucking the heads away. There. 238 00:18:53,310 --> 00:18:55,290 and drying the rest of the fish. 239 00:18:55,490 --> 00:18:59,210 That's certainly the likelihood, yes. Now the question is, why is there this 240 00:18:59,210 --> 00:19:01,770 explosion in the use of marine resources? 241 00:19:02,190 --> 00:19:05,670 There's no apparent increase in the consumption of fish. 242 00:19:06,140 --> 00:19:08,220 based on the dietary evidence from the human bone. 243 00:19:08,440 --> 00:19:12,100 So what are they doing with all this food? The most likely explanation to my 244 00:19:12,100 --> 00:19:16,060 mind is that this material is going elsewhere, and really that it's part of 245 00:19:16,060 --> 00:19:19,440 commercial revolution that happens at the end of the Viking Age, the late 246 00:19:19,440 --> 00:19:23,140 Age, and into the Middle Ages, where trade in commodities becomes important. 247 00:19:31,260 --> 00:19:35,100 James's unusual sight tells a story about the entire Viking period. 248 00:19:35,820 --> 00:19:40,040 from how their arrival influenced diet to the establishment of big business. 249 00:19:40,940 --> 00:19:45,680 It seems that Orkney was an important Viking colony, but can we tell anything 250 00:19:45,680 --> 00:19:47,720 about what these new colonials were like? 251 00:19:55,820 --> 00:20:00,460 Burials can provide vital evidence, because, as part of their pagan rituals, 252 00:20:00,960 --> 00:20:04,340 Vikings were often buried with treasured possessions for the afterlife. 253 00:20:09,520 --> 00:20:13,720 A few years ago, an unusual discovery was made on the island of Sanday in 254 00:20:13,720 --> 00:20:14,720 Orkney. 255 00:20:15,060 --> 00:20:17,960 A farmer came across human bones on the beach. 256 00:20:18,700 --> 00:20:22,800 He thought they might be the remains of a sailor lost at sea, and so he left 257 00:20:22,800 --> 00:20:23,800 them there. 258 00:20:24,700 --> 00:20:30,240 He also noticed a curious metal object, like the top of an old car battery, and 259 00:20:30,240 --> 00:20:31,240 took it home. 260 00:20:31,960 --> 00:20:35,560 But he died before anyone realised the significance of what he'd found. 261 00:20:36,840 --> 00:20:38,040 Three years later... 262 00:20:38,270 --> 00:20:41,490 a colleague of Olwyn Owen's decided to investigate the farmers of Dory. 263 00:20:41,810 --> 00:20:48,190 She'd been told there were bones coming out of the cliff at Scar, so she went 264 00:20:48,190 --> 00:20:50,050 along and had a look for the bones. 265 00:20:51,370 --> 00:20:57,070 And when she got there, she found boat rivets as well, and she knew what Viking 266 00:20:57,070 --> 00:21:01,230 boat rivets looked like, and she realised that maybe there was more to 267 00:21:01,230 --> 00:21:02,230 grave than met the eye. 268 00:21:03,510 --> 00:21:06,010 Could the rivets be part of a Viking boat burial? 269 00:21:07,140 --> 00:21:09,080 Archaeologists would need to excavate the site. 270 00:21:09,420 --> 00:21:14,160 And soon, because within days, the first winter storms would hit the island. 271 00:21:14,620 --> 00:21:19,000 In the first few weeks of the excavation, the conditions were almost 272 00:21:19,000 --> 00:21:23,700 indescribable. They were dreadful. There were howling gales and winds and rain 273 00:21:23,700 --> 00:21:24,840 driving horizontally. 274 00:21:25,600 --> 00:21:29,800 We have some wonderful pictures of one of the diggers being almost overwhelmed 275 00:21:29,800 --> 00:21:33,480 by what looks like a tidal wave coming across the site. 276 00:21:33,780 --> 00:21:35,360 It really was terrible. 277 00:21:39,180 --> 00:21:42,280 For weeks, the digging team battled against the worsening weather. 278 00:21:44,360 --> 00:21:49,880 I was in Edinburgh and I got a telephone message to say that the outline of a 279 00:21:49,880 --> 00:21:56,460 boat shape in stones had appeared in the sand and it was marvellous. My heart 280 00:21:56,460 --> 00:22:00,600 was pounding. I believed then it was a boat, a boat burial. 281 00:22:02,760 --> 00:22:06,320 On hearing that they'd found the rare remains of a Viking boat... 282 00:22:06,760 --> 00:22:10,120 Olwyn hurried to the site to supervise excavation of what lay inside. 283 00:22:12,720 --> 00:22:18,200 There were three bodies, a man, a woman and a child. 284 00:22:18,440 --> 00:22:25,200 They also had with them a rich variety of grave goods, including some quite 285 00:22:25,200 --> 00:22:26,200 spectacular ones. 286 00:22:26,440 --> 00:22:31,140 And they're not just objects in museum cases, they're like a window into Viking 287 00:22:31,140 --> 00:22:32,140 life. 288 00:22:39,850 --> 00:22:44,590 In this incredible grave, the man was buried with a sword, two lead weights, a 289 00:22:44,590 --> 00:22:49,530 quiver of arrows, a bone comb and 22 carved whalebone gaming pieces. 290 00:22:52,350 --> 00:22:58,130 He didn't have any ordinary domestic tools or utensils as you'd expect. 291 00:22:58,990 --> 00:23:03,930 They may have been lost to the sea because his part of the grave had been 292 00:23:03,930 --> 00:23:05,550 badly damaged by sea erosion. 293 00:23:06,050 --> 00:23:11,150 But he did have the set of gaming pieces, which were lovely. So on the 294 00:23:11,150 --> 00:23:15,710 the finds that survived in the grave, he was a warrior with plenty of leisure 295 00:23:15,710 --> 00:23:16,710 time. 296 00:23:20,390 --> 00:23:24,650 The woman was buried with possessions that included a round spindle whorl and 297 00:23:24,650 --> 00:23:27,410 pair of shears, a needle case, 298 00:23:29,770 --> 00:23:31,070 A small sickle. 299 00:23:33,030 --> 00:23:34,250 And a bone comb. 300 00:23:37,370 --> 00:23:39,290 And something really special. 301 00:23:39,990 --> 00:23:44,670 The most exciting thing you'll find, in the ground at least, has to be the 302 00:23:44,670 --> 00:23:45,629 whalebone plaque. 303 00:23:45,630 --> 00:23:49,630 And the wonderful thing about the plaque was that it was lying face down in the 304 00:23:49,630 --> 00:23:51,630 sand at the bottom of the burial chamber. 305 00:23:52,590 --> 00:23:56,110 It took a couple of days before it could be lifted, and the back of the plaque 306 00:23:56,110 --> 00:24:01,210 is rather boring, and we had no idea how beautiful the front was going to be, or 307 00:24:01,210 --> 00:24:02,870 indeed if it was well preserved. 308 00:24:03,230 --> 00:24:08,310 And when it was turned over, you could hear this audible gasp of intake of 309 00:24:08,310 --> 00:24:15,090 breath. And it really was in superb 310 00:24:15,090 --> 00:24:19,290 condition. The moment it was turned over, you could see what a fantastic 311 00:24:19,290 --> 00:24:20,290 it was. 312 00:24:24,520 --> 00:24:28,560 The plaque may have been used as a sort of ironing board, but it's so 313 00:24:28,560 --> 00:24:32,080 beautifully decorated that it must surely have been a greatly treasured 314 00:24:32,080 --> 00:24:33,080 possession. 315 00:24:38,300 --> 00:24:42,320 And another discovery would show just how wealthy this woman was. 316 00:24:42,820 --> 00:24:45,360 A beautiful gilt bronze brooch. 317 00:24:46,820 --> 00:24:48,940 Her brooch is absolutely gorgeous. 318 00:24:49,160 --> 00:24:51,960 It's quite rare amongst Viking brooches. 319 00:24:52,340 --> 00:24:57,840 There's only about... ten or twelve from anywhere, and every part of the surface 320 00:24:57,840 --> 00:25:02,780 of the brooch was decorated with ornament and particularly prominent are 321 00:25:02,920 --> 00:25:08,540 almost like cat masks, little faces, and so it was a really, really luxurious 322 00:25:08,540 --> 00:25:12,500 and opulent object which she must have taken care of. 323 00:25:16,300 --> 00:25:21,100 But in the boat, amongst these signs of wealth and status, was the evidence of 324 00:25:21,100 --> 00:25:22,100 what may have been a tragedy. 325 00:25:22,990 --> 00:25:28,630 While the woman was elderly, in her 70s, the man was aged about 30 and the child 326 00:25:28,630 --> 00:25:29,690 was only about 10. 327 00:25:30,570 --> 00:25:33,970 We'll never know what happened to these Viking settlers in their new land. 328 00:25:37,030 --> 00:25:39,770 And new finds keep coming up on this tiny island. 329 00:25:40,310 --> 00:25:45,010 A particularly surprising one was made by the landlord of the local pub when he 330 00:25:45,010 --> 00:25:46,370 was repairing a neighbour's wall. 331 00:25:47,170 --> 00:25:50,710 I was just building the wall and picked up the stone. 332 00:25:51,920 --> 00:25:53,880 And I thought it was something unusual. 333 00:25:54,340 --> 00:26:00,040 And I gave it to the kids then to take up to the school, to the headmaster, to 334 00:26:00,040 --> 00:26:01,040 have a look at. 335 00:26:03,900 --> 00:26:06,320 Robbie had discovered a Viking rune stone. 336 00:26:07,500 --> 00:26:12,200 Translated, it revealed the name of Arskatla, the man who probably carved 337 00:26:14,260 --> 00:26:17,460 Such a rare discovery aroused national interest. 338 00:26:19,190 --> 00:26:25,770 We kept it under our bed for a while, but then the Crown claimed it was 339 00:26:25,770 --> 00:26:30,470 trove, so then we had to end up having to hand it over to the museum. 340 00:26:31,150 --> 00:26:36,670 But we got the local community council to back us, and we got it back in to 341 00:26:36,670 --> 00:26:37,670 Sandy. 342 00:26:38,690 --> 00:26:43,390 A lot of people do drop in by to see it, and it's nice to have it in the island. 343 00:26:48,240 --> 00:26:53,380 So, having taken Orkney and Shetland so convincingly and settled there, where 344 00:26:53,380 --> 00:26:54,560 would the Vikings go next? 345 00:26:55,080 --> 00:27:00,180 Well, mainland Scotland might seem like the obvious choice, but archaeology, our 346 00:27:00,180 --> 00:27:03,880 main source of information for this period of Dark Age history, has provided 347 00:27:03,880 --> 00:27:06,360 remarkably little evidence of the Vikings being there. 348 00:27:16,490 --> 00:27:21,810 But 200 miles southwest of Orkney, on South Uist in the Outer Hebrides, new 349 00:27:21,810 --> 00:27:24,170 evidence of Viking settlement is starting to emerge. 350 00:27:26,430 --> 00:27:31,530 Neil Sharples has discovered the remains of a large building, long and narrow 351 00:27:31,530 --> 00:27:34,530 with a central hearth, a Viking longhouse. 352 00:27:39,710 --> 00:27:44,810 We're actually standing on top of the main hearth. And you can see here where 353 00:27:44,810 --> 00:27:45,810 Elaine's working, 354 00:27:46,330 --> 00:27:50,530 orange layers that are coming up in this charcoal this is the burning peat and 355 00:27:50,530 --> 00:27:54,630 that defines the hearth area and is that quite long and thin as well yeah we've 356 00:27:54,630 --> 00:27:58,190 got six pieces of it exposed that way yeah and it goes on behind us you can 357 00:27:58,190 --> 00:28:02,850 behind us the top of it is exposed here and again this is a very sort of 358 00:28:02,850 --> 00:28:07,030 distinctive feature of the viking house and it gives you some idea of sort of um 359 00:28:07,030 --> 00:28:10,850 communal living conditions so people would come into houses and sit around 360 00:28:10,850 --> 00:28:13,700 hearth And they would tell the sagas. It would be formed by people talking 361 00:28:13,700 --> 00:28:15,820 around these long central hearths. 362 00:28:17,660 --> 00:28:21,780 The size of the hearth and the building that it lies in suggest that this was 363 00:28:21,780 --> 00:28:23,500 the most important house in the settlement. 364 00:28:24,660 --> 00:28:28,860 But a closer look at the way it was built shows that it was not a standard 365 00:28:28,860 --> 00:28:29,860 Viking longhouse. 366 00:28:31,740 --> 00:28:35,140 One of the interesting things about this house, as you immediately notice as we 367 00:28:35,140 --> 00:28:37,640 came into it, was that it's subterranean. 368 00:28:38,140 --> 00:28:40,660 Now, originally the wall probably stood... 369 00:28:41,000 --> 00:28:44,720 you know about this height and then the roof rafters would come in here and i 370 00:28:44,720 --> 00:28:48,600 suspect this about here would be the original ground level and it's all been 371 00:28:48,600 --> 00:28:52,940 into and the walls have been placed against it all you'd see is the roof 372 00:28:52,940 --> 00:28:59,460 out above it building sunken houses was a tradition native to the outer hebrides 373 00:28:59,460 --> 00:29:05,380 but buildings like this are also found in iceland so it appears that the 374 00:29:05,380 --> 00:29:09,240 took these traditions from the hebrides to their colonies in the north atlantic 375 00:29:14,320 --> 00:29:19,080 There's an enormous range of artefacts from the site, including rare pieces of 376 00:29:19,080 --> 00:29:20,080 Viking artwork. 377 00:29:21,780 --> 00:29:26,800 And yet, it's this unattractive, very crude attempt at pottery that tells us 378 00:29:26,800 --> 00:29:28,200 more about these Viking settlers. 379 00:29:28,760 --> 00:29:31,460 Because Vikings traditionally didn't make pottery. 380 00:29:31,700 --> 00:29:36,900 Instead, they used vessels carved from soapstone, a soft stone found in Norway 381 00:29:36,900 --> 00:29:38,300 and also Shetland. 382 00:29:44,170 --> 00:29:48,830 The discovery of pottery strongly suggests they were taking up new ideas 383 00:29:48,830 --> 00:29:49,930 native Hebrideans. 384 00:29:51,230 --> 00:29:56,190 This shirt here, this is what we would call platterware, and it's a kind of 385 00:29:56,190 --> 00:30:00,890 baking plate. Very distinctive, you have this grass -marked surface, which is 386 00:30:00,890 --> 00:30:06,050 how they produced it. They lay a flat slab of pottery on some kind of 387 00:30:06,050 --> 00:30:07,790 matting, and then they... 388 00:30:08,110 --> 00:30:10,510 puncture holes and press it down with their fingertips. 389 00:30:10,770 --> 00:30:14,310 On this surface, you can see the fingernails where they pressed it down, 390 00:30:14,310 --> 00:30:17,890 little puncture marks, and then they produced some kind of baking plate. 391 00:30:18,310 --> 00:30:20,810 That's the impression of a Viking fingernail there, is it? 392 00:30:21,010 --> 00:30:22,870 Yeah, that's it, Viking fingernails. 393 00:30:26,170 --> 00:30:30,950 But alongside these attempts at a new and unfamiliar technology, the Viking 394 00:30:30,950 --> 00:30:35,990 craftsmen were still making their traditional Scandinavian goods, and with 395 00:30:35,990 --> 00:30:36,990 skill. 396 00:30:38,860 --> 00:30:42,400 You can see here, you've got an almost complete antler. And you can see this 397 00:30:42,400 --> 00:30:47,540 segment here is actually a bit of the main beam of the antler. And they've 398 00:30:47,540 --> 00:30:49,140 chopped it off, sawn it off. 399 00:30:49,380 --> 00:30:53,160 And this is the sort of beginning of the process of working down a piece of 400 00:30:53,160 --> 00:30:57,100 antler to make their composite comb, which you see here. Very nice comb 401 00:30:57,260 --> 00:31:01,280 And they sort of chop it down to get sort of bluffly rectangular pieces like 402 00:31:01,280 --> 00:31:05,420 this. And these are eventually going to be worked down to these little pieces 403 00:31:05,420 --> 00:31:07,380 here. And this piece here... 404 00:31:07,790 --> 00:31:13,590 is almost the very final stage of the piece that will slot in there, and it 405 00:31:13,590 --> 00:31:18,870 be riveted by putting a spacer plate on there, and then they will cut the teeth 406 00:31:18,870 --> 00:31:20,750 after it's all been riveted together. 407 00:31:25,150 --> 00:31:30,250 In a nearby barn, Neil's team have been sorting fragments of fishbone sieved 408 00:31:30,250 --> 00:31:31,610 from the soil around the settlement. 409 00:31:33,770 --> 00:31:35,550 If you look at this tray here, 410 00:31:36,620 --> 00:31:42,080 What we've got here are the residues from the very fine sieving. And if you 411 00:31:42,080 --> 00:31:46,460 at some of the stuff here, some of these vertebrae have turned out to be from 412 00:31:46,460 --> 00:31:50,920 herring. And it seems as though there's a very substantial herring fishing. 413 00:31:52,440 --> 00:31:56,360 this kind of herring fishing requires organization you know several families 414 00:31:56,360 --> 00:32:00,060 coming together pulling their resources several boats go out and you might catch 415 00:32:00,060 --> 00:32:05,020 absolutely nothing for a week and then suddenly the herring will come and 416 00:32:05,020 --> 00:32:10,620 have thousands millions perhaps of herring coming out and so what do you do 417 00:32:10,620 --> 00:32:13,760 them you can't eat them all yourself there's only so many herring a man can 418 00:32:13,760 --> 00:32:19,080 so you've got to start trading if you're herring fishing i think then you're 419 00:32:19,080 --> 00:32:20,080 trading 420 00:32:24,240 --> 00:32:29,520 This site, protected for centuries by its very isolation, is one of the 421 00:32:29,520 --> 00:32:32,180 rural Viking settlements ever found in Britain. 422 00:32:36,800 --> 00:32:41,840 On the Hebrides, as in Orkney and Shetland, archaeology is showing another 423 00:32:41,840 --> 00:32:46,460 to the Vikings, a settler adapting to live in a new land. 424 00:32:48,100 --> 00:32:52,160 The northern and western isles of Scotland provided the Vikings with good 425 00:32:52,160 --> 00:32:53,570 farming, And good fishing. 426 00:32:54,090 --> 00:32:58,390 But was that all they came for? Or was there another reason why these islands 427 00:32:58,390 --> 00:32:59,750 were so important to them? 428 00:33:00,390 --> 00:33:05,390 Maybe they provided the ideal staging post on the route to a much bigger 429 00:33:14,150 --> 00:33:19,750 The next stage on the sea road was the short fail to Ireland, a country full of 430 00:33:19,750 --> 00:33:22,110 whelpy monasteries that the Vikings knew very well. 431 00:33:22,860 --> 00:33:25,980 They had, after all, ravaged the country with their early raids. 432 00:33:27,020 --> 00:33:29,800 But was Ireland seen only as a source of plunder? 433 00:33:30,880 --> 00:33:35,680 Here, we don't have to rely on archaeology alone, as the Irish annals 434 00:33:35,680 --> 00:33:38,420 with the best records of Viking activity from this time. 435 00:33:41,280 --> 00:33:46,660 The world's leading expert on the annals is Professor Donica O 'Corain, and he 436 00:33:46,660 --> 00:33:49,660 believes they tell us when Viking settlement of Ireland began. 437 00:33:53,290 --> 00:33:55,990 There are two entries in the annals. 438 00:33:56,510 --> 00:33:59,890 One is about the Vikings on Lough Neagh in 1840. 439 00:34:00,350 --> 00:34:07,250 And the first entry in the following year is, Heathens still on 440 00:34:07,250 --> 00:34:08,250 Lough Neagh. 441 00:34:08,330 --> 00:34:14,969 And for the winter, between 1840 and 1841, the entry in the annals says, 442 00:34:15,170 --> 00:34:17,210 Heathens still in Dublin. 443 00:34:17,750 --> 00:34:24,639 So we know that the Irish annalists note that they're... staying over and 444 00:34:24,639 --> 00:34:27,340 not going home as they should in the winter. 445 00:34:28,020 --> 00:34:30,159 And this is the beginning of settlement. 446 00:34:32,560 --> 00:34:37,159 The annals report that the Vikings in Ireland made their camps in long forks, 447 00:34:37,219 --> 00:34:39,580 fortified bases close to rivers. 448 00:34:40,060 --> 00:34:44,000 But finding any archaeological remains of these early settlements has proved 449 00:34:44,000 --> 00:34:45,000 difficult. 450 00:34:48,239 --> 00:34:50,860 Now, though... 451 00:34:51,159 --> 00:34:54,380 Ned Kelly believes that he's found the first good evidence for an Irish 452 00:34:54,380 --> 00:34:55,380 longfort. 453 00:34:55,719 --> 00:35:00,480 He was drawn here to Atlungcard on the River Shannon after hearing about the 454 00:35:00,480 --> 00:35:02,400 discovery of Viking Age artefacts. 455 00:35:04,180 --> 00:35:10,040 When I came here first, I didn't know what the site was and it puzzled me 456 00:35:10,040 --> 00:35:14,460 because it didn't look like any typical Irish archaeological monument. 457 00:35:15,840 --> 00:35:17,460 that I'd seen before. 458 00:35:17,780 --> 00:35:23,620 We have a raised area here and that was originally surrounded by a ditch and a 459 00:35:23,620 --> 00:35:29,300 bank outside it. So this would be a citadel and outside of that we have a D 460 00:35:29,300 --> 00:35:34,620 -shaped enclosure which is running from this little stream, curving round to the 461 00:35:34,620 --> 00:35:35,399 river again. 462 00:35:35,400 --> 00:35:39,260 And as you can see, you have a fairly impenetrable marsh. 463 00:35:39,930 --> 00:35:44,270 on this side. And that's particularly interesting because the references to 464 00:35:44,270 --> 00:35:48,250 forts describe the Scandinavians building D -shaped enclosures with their 465 00:35:48,250 --> 00:35:50,770 to a river and surrounded by marshy ground. 466 00:35:51,350 --> 00:35:52,750 So it fits in perfectly. 467 00:35:54,450 --> 00:35:57,050 But Ned's conviction is not shared by everyone. 468 00:35:57,650 --> 00:36:02,550 I think the initial reaction was quite scathing. People said, oh, you know, 469 00:36:02,550 --> 00:36:03,630 these things don't exist. 470 00:36:03,890 --> 00:36:04,990 What's a lung fort anyway? 471 00:36:06,270 --> 00:36:08,830 And my response to that was, well, you know, 472 00:36:09,680 --> 00:36:13,180 if these sites aren't long forts, what are they? 473 00:36:14,120 --> 00:36:18,760 I'm convinced that's what this site is and that there are many others like it 474 00:36:18,760 --> 00:36:19,760 be found still. 475 00:36:21,860 --> 00:36:23,300 And I agree with Ned. 476 00:36:24,700 --> 00:36:28,540 All of the bits of evidence that I've been shown seem to point in one 477 00:36:28,880 --> 00:36:33,900 Its position, right next to the river, defended on one side by an earthwork 478 00:36:33,900 --> 00:36:37,580 and enclosure with a marsh beyond it. The 10th century finds that were found 479 00:36:37,580 --> 00:36:38,580 within the enclosure. 480 00:36:39,100 --> 00:36:43,220 All of these things seem to come together to point to the fact that this 481 00:36:43,220 --> 00:36:44,500 a Viking long fort. 482 00:36:47,760 --> 00:36:50,980 The annals suggest that the most important fort is in Dublin. 483 00:36:52,620 --> 00:36:56,260 And it's here that we find the highest concentration of Viking dead. 484 00:37:03,040 --> 00:37:08,860 Between the mid -1800s and the 1930s, workmen in Dublin uncovered up to 100 485 00:37:08,860 --> 00:37:10,100 Viking burials. 486 00:37:14,260 --> 00:37:17,500 Most of them were found before the development of modern archaeological 487 00:37:17,500 --> 00:37:22,360 recording, and it's taken years for Stephen Harrison at the National Museum 488 00:37:22,360 --> 00:37:24,720 Ireland to sort out all the artefacts. 489 00:37:27,720 --> 00:37:31,520 There's a distinct contrast with Viking graves from the Northern Isles. 490 00:37:33,740 --> 00:37:38,780 Those from around Dublin contained many swords, the largest collection of Viking 491 00:37:38,780 --> 00:37:40,540 weaponry outside Scandinavia. 492 00:37:44,200 --> 00:37:48,460 This is the most beautiful sword, isn't it? It is one of the most special ones 493 00:37:48,460 --> 00:37:49,399 in the whole collection. 494 00:37:49,400 --> 00:37:53,960 This is definitely right up there, I think. It's certainly one of my 495 00:37:53,960 --> 00:37:57,100 if nothing else. But it's not the only one. There are actually five very 496 00:37:57,100 --> 00:37:58,460 elaborately decorated swords. 497 00:37:58,820 --> 00:38:02,400 They were all found in the railway cuttings at Kilmainham in 1845. 498 00:38:03,100 --> 00:38:07,120 As, indeed, was this rather more plain sword, which is rather more typical, I'm 499 00:38:07,120 --> 00:38:09,220 afraid, of Viking swords. 500 00:38:09,760 --> 00:38:12,640 In this era, this is much less highly decorated and rather more functional. 501 00:38:12,960 --> 00:38:14,220 But why is it bent in two? 502 00:38:14,620 --> 00:38:18,840 This is a ritual which in Scandinavia is normally associated with cremation. You 503 00:38:18,840 --> 00:38:23,020 very often find the artefacts buried have actually been subjected to an 504 00:38:23,020 --> 00:38:25,380 heat and then bent or damaged in some way. 505 00:38:27,200 --> 00:38:29,240 We don't know what this practice meant. 506 00:38:29,560 --> 00:38:34,160 It may have been the symbolic killing of the weapon or simply done to prevent it 507 00:38:34,160 --> 00:38:35,980 being reused by a grave robber. 508 00:38:37,840 --> 00:38:40,820 Do you have any real favourite artefacts amongst these collections? 509 00:38:42,580 --> 00:38:44,200 This amber brooch here. 510 00:38:45,600 --> 00:38:50,160 If you look at it, you can see that it has actually been cut from a larger 511 00:38:50,160 --> 00:38:54,580 object. You can see that the edges are quite definite here and here, but here 512 00:38:54,580 --> 00:38:57,140 and there, the edges are actually very rough. 513 00:38:57,480 --> 00:38:59,860 But the whole thing has then been converted into a brooch. 514 00:39:00,500 --> 00:39:03,780 So we don't actually know what object it was cut from, but it was certainly 515 00:39:03,780 --> 00:39:06,180 being used as a brooch at the time it was placed in the Viking grave. 516 00:39:06,830 --> 00:39:09,310 But what about identifying the objects themselves? 517 00:39:09,590 --> 00:39:12,750 I mean, can you always tell exactly what they are? I mean, what, for example, is 518 00:39:12,750 --> 00:39:14,790 that rather strange -looking thing? 519 00:39:15,390 --> 00:39:19,090 Well, we actually do know what this is. This is actually a glass linen smoother. 520 00:39:19,570 --> 00:39:23,130 And if you turn it round this way, you can actually see the marks on the point 521 00:39:23,130 --> 00:39:24,550 when the glass is still fluid. 522 00:39:25,250 --> 00:39:28,010 It actually came from a woman's grave at Kilmainham. 523 00:39:28,610 --> 00:39:32,050 It was found in a small gravel pit in the area in 1848. 524 00:39:34,010 --> 00:39:35,010 Taken together. 525 00:39:35,130 --> 00:39:38,590 These discoveries tell us that Dublin must have been a major centre of Viking 526 00:39:38,590 --> 00:39:43,310 power. We're made even more aware and more conscious of the wealth of Viking 527 00:39:43,310 --> 00:39:47,450 graves in Dublin, which are a reflection of the wealth of Dublin and its status 528 00:39:47,450 --> 00:39:48,990 and its importance in the 9th century. 529 00:39:51,510 --> 00:39:55,470 In the years that followed, the Vikings would strengthen their presence in 530 00:39:55,470 --> 00:39:59,450 Dublin, which takes its name from the black pool where they first moored their 531 00:39:59,450 --> 00:40:00,450 ships. 532 00:40:01,540 --> 00:40:07,120 Under the Vikings, the long fort expanded to become Ireland's first town, 533 00:40:07,120 --> 00:40:09,920 streets still followed by those of today's booming city. 534 00:40:12,540 --> 00:40:17,740 And these Viking roots are still celebrated by Dubliners, if not always 535 00:40:17,740 --> 00:40:18,740 most authentic way. 536 00:40:19,580 --> 00:40:22,800 Before we go, I've got to teach you how to do the Viking roar. Vikings were 537 00:40:22,800 --> 00:40:23,800 great vocal men. 538 00:40:24,120 --> 00:40:26,320 The Viking roar comes from down here somewhere. 539 00:40:27,200 --> 00:40:30,000 And it goes something like this. Put your hands above your head. 540 00:40:31,940 --> 00:40:34,740 On the count of three. One, two, three. 541 00:40:36,100 --> 00:40:39,620 It was a bit half -hearted. Come on, try it again. 542 00:40:39,920 --> 00:40:41,720 One, two, three. 543 00:41:07,920 --> 00:41:12,260 Evidence for the wealth of the Irish Vikings is found not only in their 544 00:41:12,440 --> 00:41:15,220 but in what they buried across the whole of Ireland. 545 00:41:17,240 --> 00:41:18,240 Silver. 546 00:41:19,540 --> 00:41:24,440 Treasure that was hidden over a thousand years ago and never reclaimed. 547 00:41:28,720 --> 00:41:33,060 Archaeologist Dr John Sheehan has been trying to explain why the Vikings buried 548 00:41:33,060 --> 00:41:34,540 so much silver in Ireland. 549 00:41:36,270 --> 00:41:42,010 We have huge quantities of silver and silver hoards compared to those found in 550 00:41:42,010 --> 00:41:45,250 Britain, and indeed compared to those found in some of the Scandinavian 551 00:41:45,250 --> 00:41:49,850 countries. For instance, we have a lot more hoards than are found in Norway. 552 00:41:50,390 --> 00:41:56,010 In total, to date, there are 140 recorded silver hoards in Ireland. 553 00:41:56,450 --> 00:41:59,070 So why is there so much more silver in Ireland, then? 554 00:42:00,010 --> 00:42:04,590 The reason really is to do with the nature of Viking settlement in Ireland. 555 00:42:05,450 --> 00:42:09,670 If you look at Scotland, or indeed England, it tended to be farming 556 00:42:10,010 --> 00:42:16,470 In Ireland, the Vikings settle in towns, and towns survive through economic 557 00:42:16,470 --> 00:42:21,710 activities. Trade, in other words. And the Irish Viking towns grow very 558 00:42:21,790 --> 00:42:24,310 and silver is an expression of that wealth. 559 00:42:27,790 --> 00:42:31,190 Judging from these hordes, the Vikings were making fortunes. 560 00:42:31,820 --> 00:42:35,440 But the silver also reveals the true extent of their trading networks. 561 00:42:41,720 --> 00:42:45,500 It's coming from pretty far afield. Some of it certainly is coming from Anglo 562 00:42:45,500 --> 00:42:48,900 -Saxon England in the form of coin, which has then been melted down to 563 00:42:48,900 --> 00:42:49,900 ingots and ornaments. 564 00:42:50,120 --> 00:42:54,480 But there's also evidence to indicate that large quantities of it are coming 565 00:42:54,480 --> 00:42:59,540 from the Arabic world, and the silver has been imported into Scandinavia, up 566 00:42:59,540 --> 00:43:00,540 great Russian rivers. 567 00:43:00,840 --> 00:43:04,540 and from there it's been redistributed across Scandinavia and to the West. 568 00:43:06,400 --> 00:43:10,480 But what was it in Ireland that attracted so much Viking commerce? 569 00:43:12,440 --> 00:43:18,880 The usual trade items that the Irish dealt with throughout most 570 00:43:18,880 --> 00:43:23,120 periods would have been animal hides and wool, for instance. 571 00:43:24,020 --> 00:43:30,000 But there's also little doubt that a very significant proportion of the trade 572 00:43:30,430 --> 00:43:31,530 was in the form of slaves. 573 00:43:35,430 --> 00:43:40,170 There's a hint of the scale of this trade in the Annals of Ulster, from 871. 574 00:43:48,730 --> 00:43:52,770 The chronicler writes about the Viking rulers of Dublin returning from an 575 00:43:52,770 --> 00:43:53,870 expedition to Scotland. 576 00:43:58,800 --> 00:44:04,800 Im Lab and Im Mar came back to Dublin from Scotland with 200 ships and they 577 00:44:04,800 --> 00:44:11,060 brought with them in captivity to Ireland a great prey of Angles, Britons 578 00:44:11,060 --> 00:44:12,060 Picts. 579 00:44:14,520 --> 00:44:20,060 Now that must have been a very large hall of slaves and they were being 580 00:44:20,060 --> 00:44:24,320 back to Dublin because it must have been functioning primarily as a sort of a 581 00:44:24,320 --> 00:44:27,360 slave emporium within the Western Viking world. 582 00:44:27,820 --> 00:44:32,200 The Viking farmsteads are characterised by their huge size, and slave labour 583 00:44:32,200 --> 00:44:35,940 would have been needed to operate those to their maximum efficiency. 584 00:44:36,640 --> 00:44:40,860 The likelihood is that they were shipped on perhaps to Arabic Spain, but 585 00:44:40,860 --> 00:44:45,280 certainly over to Iceland, to the Viking farmsteads in Scotland, and probably 586 00:44:45,280 --> 00:44:47,100 back to Scandinavia itself. 587 00:44:49,380 --> 00:44:52,980 And there are even objects that could have been used in this trade. 588 00:44:54,320 --> 00:44:55,700 We have slave chains. 589 00:44:55,980 --> 00:45:00,740 They are large collars which are big enough to go around a person's neck and 590 00:45:00,740 --> 00:45:06,780 attached to them a long chain, exactly similar to the sort of slave chains 591 00:45:06,780 --> 00:45:10,220 are associated with 18th century African slavery, for instance. 592 00:45:18,700 --> 00:45:22,580 So could slavery have been the main attraction for the Vikings on their 593 00:45:22,580 --> 00:45:23,580 down the sea road? 594 00:45:24,300 --> 00:45:28,380 It seems that they'd take any opportunity to make money, whether it 595 00:45:28,380 --> 00:45:30,320 looting, farming or trading. 596 00:45:30,880 --> 00:45:34,560 And it didn't seem to matter whether the trade was in fish or slaves. 597 00:45:36,020 --> 00:45:40,320 In my journey through these islands, I feel like I've come closer than ever to 598 00:45:40,320 --> 00:45:41,320 the Vikings. 599 00:45:43,600 --> 00:45:47,400 But did they really settle here in large numbers? 600 00:45:49,220 --> 00:45:52,800 The answer may lie in the genetic make -up of today's population. 601 00:45:59,530 --> 00:46:03,130 Professor David Goldstein's team are still collecting samples from across 602 00:46:03,130 --> 00:46:04,130 Britain and Ireland. 603 00:46:04,530 --> 00:46:08,150 But they're starting the analysis with the data from Orkney and Shetland. 604 00:46:10,330 --> 00:46:14,730 When we carry out just a very simple analysis asking for those chromosomal 605 00:46:14,730 --> 00:46:18,810 we only find in Norway, how much of them do we see in the Scottish Islands? We 606 00:46:18,810 --> 00:46:19,910 actually see quite a lot. 607 00:46:20,130 --> 00:46:24,510 When we look at Shetland, when we look at Orkney, we see something just under 608 00:46:24,510 --> 00:46:26,150 % of the chromosomes. 609 00:46:26,670 --> 00:46:29,310 are found in Norway, but we can't find them in the indigenous population. 610 00:46:29,630 --> 00:46:33,830 So it looks actually quite likely that those chromosomal types have a Norwegian 611 00:46:33,830 --> 00:46:39,690 origin. So we right away see a clear indication of substantial Norwegian 612 00:46:39,690 --> 00:46:41,190 input into those islands. 613 00:46:41,720 --> 00:46:45,640 That's quite a hefty figure, isn't it, really? Is it for a first stage? It is a 614 00:46:45,640 --> 00:46:48,940 high figure, and in fact, probably in the end, when we've carried out a more 615 00:46:48,940 --> 00:46:52,780 complete statistical analysis, the figure will only go up, because those 616 00:46:52,780 --> 00:46:56,180 types that look pretty clearly to be Norwegian in origin. 617 00:46:56,740 --> 00:47:00,600 Other chromosomal types may turn out, in fact, to be Norwegian in origin, just 618 00:47:00,600 --> 00:47:01,600 you can't see it clearly. 619 00:47:03,580 --> 00:47:07,020 The preliminary results from the northern isles of Oakley and Shetland. 620 00:47:07,450 --> 00:47:11,730 provide for the first time clear evidence that people in Britain share 621 00:47:11,730 --> 00:47:12,730 with the Vikings. 622 00:47:14,810 --> 00:47:17,350 Fascinating. It was really good. I think it was really interesting. 623 00:47:17,810 --> 00:47:23,210 I would say that we definitely should be Scandinavian, more than Scots. 624 00:47:23,590 --> 00:47:25,230 Those are all Vikings that have. 625 00:47:26,860 --> 00:47:29,180 I think these results are really exciting. 626 00:47:29,440 --> 00:47:35,300 I'm quite surprised, actually, that you're getting such good results along 627 00:47:35,300 --> 00:47:39,640 sea road that the Vikings took from Scandinavia through Orkney and Shetland. 628 00:47:39,720 --> 00:47:46,120 You're getting what seems to me a significant genetic impact on the 629 00:47:46,120 --> 00:47:48,480 even at this distance in time. 630 00:47:51,820 --> 00:47:55,520 There's still lots of sample collecting and analysis to carry out before the 631 00:47:55,520 --> 00:47:57,860 precise meaning of these results becomes clear. 632 00:47:58,360 --> 00:48:03,220 But it now looks certain that some secrets of our Dark Age past will be 633 00:48:03,220 --> 00:48:04,500 by the blood of the Vikings.