Yorkshire Philosophical Society

Event Information

Artefactual Geographies of the Viking World; reconstructing trade, communication and movement through the analysis of bone artefacts.

Dr Steve Ashby, Senior Lecturer, Department of Archaeology, University of York

We often view travel and trade in the Viking world through the study of high-value goods like silver, weaponry, or jewellery, but does this tell the whole story?  Recent developments in biomolecular science have opened up the opportunity to explore connectivity using more everyday items, and here we focus on one such item: the Viking hair comb. These objects were painstakingly produced by specialists using a particular material: deer antler. By studying the combs themselves, together with the materials from which they are made, we can throw new light on old questions about the timing and nature of contact between different parts of the Viking world. This lecture will take us from the mountains of Norway to the bustling trading towns of Denmark and Germany, and across the Atlantic to Greenland, with many stops along the way.

The winners of the Charles Wellbeloved and Herman Ramm awards to University of York Archaeology Department students will be announced at the beginning of the lecture.

7pm in the Tempest Anderson Lecture Theatre in the Yorkshire Museum

All welcome to this free event; although donations are welcome.

Image: Viking comb from Hedeby, northern Germany.  Image by Mariana Muñoz-Rodriguez