Christian Cooijmans: Life and Logistics in the Viking Encampments of Northwestern Europe
Throughout their wide-ranging expeditions and endeavours, itinerant vikings are commonly characterised as having been tough-minded, tenacious, and physically tireless. Nevertheless, like any other medieval mariner, these companies would have needed to make landfall to regroup, resupply, and revitalise their constituent craft and crews. Even though their resulting encampments – which are both textually and archaeologically attested – would have been critical to the sustained viability of overseas viking endeavour, few comprehensive efforts have thus far been made to investigate their role(s) as functional and social spaces on a wider European level.
Presenting the preliminary findings of an ongoing, overarching survey of viking encampment across England, Ireland, and the Frankish realm, this talk will consolidate evidence from all three regions to scrutinise the logistical and social qualities of these sites, whilst highlighting their environmental, economic, and politico-military effect on enveloping host societies. In doing so, it suggests that these encampments represented much more than mere docile hideouts to intersperse bouts of conflict: whilst supporting their occupants as versatile stations of assembly, withdrawal, rest, and repair, they likewise seem to have played host to significant non-combatant communities engaged in craft production, trade, and cultural exchange.