Before the Vikings // Evolution of the Viking Longship #1 (10,000 BC-750 AD)

[Music] in the late 19th century two norwegian farmers made an astonishing discovery [Music] the people of vestfold's sangerford region had long been aware of the myths and legends surrounding their homeland tales of high kings and ancient treasures to be found within the great burial mounds and hilltop cairns that dotted the landscape yet guardian spirits were said to haunt the region too warding off all but the hardiest of grave robbers and keeping their secrets interred within over the long centuries since the age of heroes [Music] finally one day in 1880 the sons of the owner of the gochdad farm undeterred by the legends surrounding their father's property and encouraged by a new age of scientific inquiry began digging in the frozen earth little did they know it at the time but what they found there hidden for centuries would change the western world forever there lying just underneath the surface protected by the unusually preservative clay of southern norway lay the bow of a magnificently preserved sea vessel the very first of its kind to be found in the modern world realizing the magnitude of what they had unearthed the two men called in professional help in the form of archaeologist nicolae nicolasa by the middle of the 19th century a revolutionary new set of scientific methods had swept through the western world completely transforming the ways in which people viewed the past no longer was history simply the domain of elderly academics pouring over dusty old tomes it was now something that could be discovered could be seen and could be held the discovery and excavation of ancient mayan cities in the 1830s had sparked off a new found interest in the past and later finds such as heinrich schliemann's famous excavations of the city of troy in the 1860s previously thought to be little more than myth inspired a new generation of archaeologists the world over [Music] in scandinavia however the movement initially had made little impact there were no great cities of old to be uncovered in the north and no accompanying flurry of activity by academics north america had its ancient cities so did southern europe and the middle east but for scandinavians the past remained largely a place of myth and legend with almost no physical evidence to show of it at all ancient tombs scattered throughout the region hinted at the time before but for the most part the ancient mounds remained closed the majority already having been opened and any treasures within looted centuries before the sagas and stories written down in iceland in the 13th century remained just that stories until 1880 when nicolason arrived at the site that year he could scarcely believe what he was looking at magnificently preserved by the clay of southern norway sleek dragon-headed prowl poking out of the exposed earth alongside magnificent curved planks of wood what lay there in the sandra ford was an intact viking longship straight out of the sargus nicolason was staring directly into the ancient primordial past constructed largely of oak and measuring 23 meters long and five wide the ship was a multi-purpose vessel intended for warfare trade and transportation of people and cargo further excavations uncovered a literal treasure trove of fines along with the ship lay the remains of a powerfully built man in his 40s or 50s though his identity remains unknown carbon dating of the ship later placed it in the 890s during the reign of harold fairhair the ruler usually regarded as the first king of norway it seems probable that the man interred in the grave was a regional yal potentially one who had placed his service to fair hair during his unification wars [Music] in addition to the ship itself the site was furnished with an array of grave goods three smaller boats a tent a sledge riding equipment horses dogs and even a peacock hinting at a powerful and well-traveled individual though the goxstad ship wasn't in fact the first to be found in the age of archaeology boar in 1852 taking that distinction it was certainly the most magnificently preserved the largest and in time would become the most famous of all sparking off a newfound fascination with the viking age all over the western world the goxtad ship proved once and for all that the north had its wonders too though scandinavia lacked the vast cities and temple complexes of the mediterranean it had its own fair share of incredible artifacts and as time would tell it had much more to give [Music] a replica of the goxdad ship was created in 1892 successfully going on to sail to north america and be displayed at the chicago world fair the impression the vessel had on the public imagination was so great that it inspired generations of researchers to delve into the scandinavian and germanic past the hunt was on to find similar ships of its kind of course the goxstad ship didn't exist in a vacuum it was the culmination of thousands of years of technological innovation artistic expression and unique cultural identity though its display at the chicago world fair reminded the world that the norwegian explorer leif eriksen had first discovered america 500 years before columbus the basic design of the gokhstad ship wasn't too dissimilar to those first used by leaf's ancient ancestors thousands of years before it had been expertly cut from selectively chosen trees using only the finest of axes in order to preserve the natural hardiness of the tree it was clinker built a technique whereby planks are placed not side by side but on top of each other with an overlap of around an inch and stuck together with nails this was a technique honed over millennia building ships in such a way not only keeps them afloat but protects them from the elements on the open ocean the vessel sat low enough in the water that it could beach pretty much anywhere traversing sea and river systems alike the sail could be taken down and stowed away either during battle or to successfully pass under low bridges for the scandinavians themselves these ships were more than simple wood and nails they were magical creatures sea beasts with monstrously carved faces that carried them away to distant lands they were the greatest assets of all the most effective military advantage over the rest of europe and could only have been the result of thousands of years of adaptation and evolution honed by a seafaring people over long millennia in the far-flung seaways and frozen archipelagos of the north as time would tell there is no singular example of a viking ship rather a variety of types developed in parallel over a long period for different purposes ninth century multipurpose vessels like the goxdad ship eventually gave way to specialized merchant craft capable of carrying large cargos to the ends of the earth as well as vast dracar war vessels fit for kings and simplified state-sponsored vessels made for the laid-gang peasant armies eventually dracar or dragon ships as they came to be known would grow to a colossal size carrying hundreds of men into battle fortified armoured hulls such as that of yale eric hakonson's ironbeard with a bane of their enemies ships such as olaf trigvasson's long serpent and harald hardrada's great dragon dwarfing smaller vessels dragon ships would conquer england for canute and again for william the conqueror yet the origins of this vessel exist long in the past in order to find them we have to go back ten thousand years into the past [Music] viking longships didn't appear into the world fully formed rather they were the result of a long series of societal progressions and technological innovations over many thousands of years though written sources for this epic 10 000 year period of pre-history in scandinavia are exceptionally rare given the extreme prejudice reserved for barbarians by the latin and greek-speaking people of the mediterranean and because of the extreme remoteness of the region we can turn however to archaeological evidence in order to do so we have to go far back in time to a mysterious era of cataclysm and wonder we have to go back to the end of the ice age the scandinavia of 10 000 years ago was an entirely unpopulated place a fertile eden as yet untouched by humans due to the huge inhospitable columns of ice which once held sway over the entire region as the ice gradually receded down through the centuries however new opportunities gradually began to reveal themselves and naturally between around 8000 and 6000 bc bands of nomadic hunter-gatherers began to move in roaming ever northwards in canoes in pursuit of game and new opportunities eventually settling as far north as modern-day norway's western coastline a location that absolutely demanded mastery over the sea by as early as 4000 bc despite the relative remoteness of scandinavia from the middle east and grasslands of the fertile crescent where agriculture was first intensively harnessed this new revolution in technology arrived in the north accompanied in time by waves of newcomers named for the distinctive pottery associated with their archaeological remnants thought to have originated on the north germanic plain the corded ware culture likely ancestors of today's scandinavians germans slavs english and friesians began pushing into scandinavia either replacing or merging with the existing hunter-gatherer population it's thought by many that these were proto-germanic speaking peoples a branch of the indo-europeans and as we shall see the direct ancestors of the vikings the world into which the corded where people entered was a brutal and unforgiving one the land up there was different from mainland europe southern scandinavia in particular was marshy and unsuitable for agriculture until modern times and required boats to traverse the myriad marshes and riverways southern denmark remained a sparsely populated natural buffer zone until the 19th century with farming communities forming further north and all over the danish islands further north still steep mountains rose from thin strips of fertile land leaving the natives little choice but to use the sea to travel until modern times overland travel was usually only attempted during the winter at a time when streams and bugs were frozen over making the journey less difficult though still arduous and often dangerous sea travel provided a much quicker and easier way to travel for those intrepid enough to do it and one that was accessible all year round even in sweden with its more accessible interior until modern times it took weeks or months to get from place to place the 11th century historian adam of bremen notes that it would take a month to travel from southern to eastern sweden by land though the same journey would take five days by ship in places like norway this was even more true overland travel being nearly impossible and exceptionally dangerous via boat however journeys were relatively simple all of the archaeological evidence suggests that these proto-scandinavians were obsessed with the sea this was an obsession that would continue for thousands of years to come and in many areas would remain the primary form of transport until the advent of cars in the 20th century the vessels that these early peoples braved the sea in were similar to the arctic umiak still used today in the far north of countries like canada and greenland depictions of boats in rock art can be found all over the region in practically every place where people lived eventually two distinct types of boats were used skin boats with a wooden shell covered in animal skin and log boats simply a hollowed-out trunk of wood these were prized items integral to their way of life elements of both would eventually contribute to the boat building tradition of the north [Music] by around 2700 bc an unusually warm climate period was about to lead to a truly remarkable age at the time scandinavia's climate may have been comparable to that of present day central germany and thus permitted a relatively dense population along with good opportunities for farming it even thought that grapes were grown in scandinavia during this time the inevitable increase in population that followed in turn led certain ambitious individuals to look outside of their homelands for opportunities as chance would have it these would come from the south unbeknownst to the scandinavians from the very same region that agriculture first stemmed thousands of years before and had now brought to fruition a remarkable network of city building civilizations the very first world economic system that of the bronze age by 1800 bc imported bronze itself an alloy of tin and copper begins to appear in the archaeological evidence sparking off an extraordinary revolution in culture and society [Music] fines usually appear in the form of swords and status symbols such as the trund home chariot from denmark the appearance of tin copper and bronze none of which occur naturally in scandinavia along with amber a uniquely baltic commodity appearing in the rest of europe suggests a vast intercontinental trade network the very first of its kind in history [Music] this influx of bronze coincided with the rise of aristocratic elites no doubt using amber to become rich and powerful before leaving their fortunes to their descendants no towns or large villages existed yet with each of these regional kings living in singular long houses with other buildings and farms clustered around them just like other indo-european people from britain to india they interred their dead rulers in mounds often along with vast amounts of grave goods king bjorn's barrow in sweden for example named for a later viking king contains more gold than any other mound in scandinavia more than any during the viking age at this early time during the bronze age the gold that these rulers adorned themselves with was often associated with the sun suggesting a potential precursor religion to the sky gods of later norse mythology [Music] for the northern world the coming of the bronze age brought with it an era of thriving trade and expansion the law of wealth ushering in monumental changes in the next stage of maritime development by 1500 bc it's thought that these aristocratic elites may have voyaged far and wide making regular trading expeditions or even raids to britain ireland possibly even france spain and the mediterranean the evidence of the nordic bronze age is rich and abundant though no actual boats have been found yet references to them are everywhere scandinavia as arguably some of the most impressive examples of bronze age art in europe only surpassed by the likes of the myceneans in greece thousands of rock carvings all over denmark sweden and norway can be found all obsessed with boats swords and chariots an ever-present fixture in the descendants of indo-europeans this increase in long-distance trade made the establishment of a hierarchical society possible leaders could monopolize the distribution of brahms thus increasing their own status which they did over the span of centuries no actual ships have been found yet though ritualistic ships akin to stone circles are found everywhere the use of real ships in burials much later was probably a continuation of this tradition which continued for centuries to come finally in the 4th century bc we find our first written evidence of northern europe when the greek mariner pythius of masilia made a journey to the north sea though the book he subsequently wrote on the oceans has unfortunately been lost fragments do remain in the works of others in the greek world the origin of amber had long been debated but pythius expedition confirmed its baltic origins though it remains unclear precisely where pythius traveled to and to what extent he got to know the locals he apparently left a brief description of the inhabitants of the baltic having a taste for ale and mead and briefly talked of their farming methods by the time pythius arrived in the north in the 4th century the previously all-powerful bronze age elites had collapsed leaving in their wake a multitude of smaller regional powers in 1921 an astonishing find was discovered in a marshy bog known as short spring on the danish island of oles dating to around the same time as pythius travels a near-complete late bronze age early iron age war canoe was found it closely resembles the depictions in the stone art petroglyphs from the bronze age thus suggesting that they weren't only depictions and really existed perhaps most astonishing of all was the fact that the hurt spring boat like the gauche dad of 1500 years later was klinker built it was an almost perfect amalgamation of the log and skin boats two traditions coming together to create something spectacular thus the first long ships can trace their origin back to between 500 and 300 bc when the danish short spring boat was built and subsequently sunk as a votive offering to the gods at around 17 meters long and 1.8 meters wide it could hold a crew of around 20 men the vessel seems to have been purposely sacrificed to the bog as an offering perhaps after the unsuccessful conclusion of an invasion of the island along with the boat were found the weapons of over a hundred men 138 iron tipped spears 31 bone-tipped spears 11 iron swords 60 to 80 shields and 20 coats of mail were found suggesting an invasion force of at least four vessels in other words a small army the bronze age was over but a new one was about to dawn the next boat to be discovered would date 700 years into the future very much into the next period of history now influenced by the roman world to the south the age of migrations the vikings were by no means the first bands of scandinavians to look outwards from their frosted homelands to raid and settle [Music] they were simply the latest in a long line of adventurers refugees and migrants to flee or voluntarily leave the area in search of a new life [Music] the 6th century gothic historian jordanas called the region the womb of nations due to the sheer amount of peoples who claimed dissent from it though some of these claims such as those of the goths may have been little more than myth and legend others such as the angles and the jutes as evidenced by a wealth of archaeological data were genuine the very first of these migrations may have taken place as early as 650 bc undertaken in the wake of the collapse of the bronze age aristocracy and as a result of subtle climactic changes between 850 and 760 bc which introduced wetter colder and more extreme weather and thus the inevitable food shortages that came with it but how exactly did the bronze age kings lose their power from around 500 bc a revolutionary new democratizing technology would sweep through the region one that could be harnessed by any ambitious regional warlord seeking to go their own way this technology would come from the most unlikely of places and to those who found it must have seemed like a gift from the gods [Music] it came from a place they would return to for a thousand years to come to return offerings and sacrifices from around 500 bc bog iron began to be harnessed a hardier cheaper and infinitely more accessible ore that naturally accumulates in bogs and marshes all throughout scandinavia the newfound self-sufficiency of regional warlords thus caused the decline of the long-distance trade systems that had sustained the bronze age elites no longer did they have a monopoly over metal and as a result their status and power collapsed five centuries will pass before there is evidence for the re-emergence of a social elite in the intervening period chaos and war hell sway it is within this context that the hurt spring boat was sacrificed to a bog as the years went by a wider availability of metal tools led to agricultural expansion and again a rising population now led by competing chieftains and warlords by the second century bc the population of scandinavia had risen to such an extent that mass migrations of people began to spill out in search of new homelands presumably upon new and improved york spring vessels though little evidence from this period remains the first migration that we have direct evidence for occurred during the second century bc the reason being it infringed upon the literate roman world of the south a series of food shortages led the two tonys and kimbri people to push south in search of new pastures far from a peaceful process the migration sparked off a succession of wars and conflicts that would lead these warrior lords to the very gates of rome itself in the process destabilizing roman society to such an extent that it set into motion events that would transform the state from a republic to an empire was just a hint of the shape of things to come this pattern of overpopulation leading to migration movements would happen again and again down through the centuries a slew of germanic tribes that later invaded the empire would claim scandinavian routes the goths believed that they had originated in gotterland in southern sweden the burgundians thought that their roots lay on bourne home island in the baltic and the vandals traced their heritage to southern scandinavia too the dukes and the angles certainly did as backed up by archaeological and linguistic evidence in short the viking migration was really just the last phase of an extended period of population movements encompassing the entirety of the first millennium a.d in the meantime those cultures that remained in scandinavia continued to become ever more socially stratified with archaeological evidence suggesting that by the time the kimberley moved south a warrior elite was again in charge of much of the region though with different prerequisites for power than their bronze age predecessors gone was the inherited divine right of kings now came sheer strength of arms it was during this time that scandinavia took on the characteristics that led to the viking age a newfound self-sufficiency and easily accessible tools led to agricultural expansion and a rising population and in turn an increasingly war-like society ruled by the strongest contenders by the first century ad the germanic peoples of northern europe shared a common border with the roman empire as much as trade items trickled up from the south so too came new tactics and technologies which eventually transformed the world beyond the frontier those tribes living closest to the empire began to equip themselves with roman weapons in turn neighbouring leaders would amass retinues of warriors to defend themselves leading young men to seek renown from the strongest contender thus increasing the importance of war and plunder in society and eventually leading to the formation of large confederations of peoples there may have been direct links to the roman world by sea but more likely was the role of intermediaries germanic tribes living between both cultural spheres trading items back and forth and passing on ideas roman artifacts are common in southern denmark though they are not evenly distributed throughout the country suggesting that only the elites seemed to have them the best example of this being the king's hall at goodmay on the island of finn where a horde of over 1 000 roman coins have been found though scandinavia was ultimately inspired by rome in actuality it would be the fall of the empire that would lead it to its biggest opportunities this is the dawn of the age of migrations seeing the raiding and the settlement of britain and for a time france and even spain this is also the period where the next stage in the evolution of the longship can be seen as usual discovered in a peat bog this time at nidom in denmark first excavated in 1921 the naidum ship is a sturdy clinker-built vessel capable of sea travel though no sails are evident yet it does represent a significant improvement in design from the huert spring vessel it was interred in around 350 a.d meaning it was in vessels such as these that the angles and the jutes crossed over the sea to seize lands in britannia and even further afield the naidam ship was suitable for ocean travel though it wouldn't have been easy many a vessel would have been lost at sea this was a dangerous time but as ever fortune favored the bolt it remains a curious fact that no sails are found on scandinavian vessels until at least the 7th century we know that the celtic peoples of britain and gaul used sails as did mediterranean people for thousands of years the historian tacitus talks of germanic peoples using such sails and later evidence suggests that saxons did but he specifies that the swedes did not simply rowing their boats this was also the case for the angles and the jutes we can't be sure later in the fifth and sixth centuries a tribe from jutland called the heralds raided as far afield as aquitaine and northern spain it remains curious if the angles jutes and the heralds still were not using sailing ships by this time the jutish and anglian attacks on britain didn't occur at random even before the fall of the empire rage seemed to have been commonplace with an attack on the lower ride recorded in ad287 and others continuing throughout this period [Music] by the late 4th century however the arrival of the huns in europe a group of turkic nomads who would eventually forge a short-lived empire to rival rome itself brought with it yet more opportunities for the still peripheral scandinavians [Music] by the late 5th century vast hordes of wealth are found throughout scandinavia such as in shorehome in sweden though it remains to be seen whether this was the result of returning mercenaries from attila's armies or the result of raids conducted against the hemorrhaging territories of both the romans and the huns [Music] though this was a time of collapse for much of europe it was a golden age for scandinavia a heroic age of legends reflected in later epic poetry and tradition in 528 freesia was raided by a king of the gayats haigalak famous from the epic poem beowulf yet apparently a genuine historical figure recorded in numerous near contemporary sources including gregory of tors another ultimately unsuccessful raid is hinted at in 570 from the finsburg fragment from this time onwards magnificent fines all over scandinavia now become commonplace such as those of the vendel culture found in the swedish uplands these ornately carved helmets speak of a powerful warrior aristocracy and they share many similarities with the sutton who helmet of east anglia [Music] this was a time when powerful kingdoms were beginning to form an era of violent wars and merging together of tribes half remembered from the sagas and later stories that grew up around them by the 7th century scandinavia had largely been taken over by a handful of groups the danes the norse the swedes and the gayats it is around this time that we also find the very first direct evidence of a sail in a stone carving from jutland's eastern coast [Music] this was a revolutionary new technology that combined with the pre-existing ship building techniques and innate maritime skills of scandinavia in time it would create some of the most effective seafarers in history [Music] the secret was the addition of the keel a sturdy piece of wood in the middle of the ship which allowed the implementation of a sail the caval sun's ship of around 700 a.d wasn't found with a sail but it was capable of holding one by the 7th and 8th centuries trade goods appear in abundance throughout scandinavia byzantine coins luxury items from ireland egypt and even a buddha from india swedish merchants were already ranging far and wide pushing deep into the river systems of eastern europe [Music] by around 750 they were certainly using sails next it would be the turn of the west [Music] you

Channel: History Time

Views: 1,069,978

Keywords: iMovie, dragon boats, viking longship, long ship, vikings, before the vikings, operation odysseus, odysseus, goktad ship, nordic bronze age, corded ware people, vendel culture, oseburg ship, hjortspring ship, nydam ship

Id: tEROvgTrjuU

Length: 42min 7sec (2527 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 24 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/JuicyLittleGOOF]

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLcroOUap-Nyl4Ub2F9csAfCX0sYRHyDSz

Here is a great playlist made by the youtuber Survive The Jive regarding the boat cult of ancient Scandinavia, and no not all videos in this playlist are his hahaha!

I find this cultural phenomenon interesting as the boat cult in Scandinavia predated the arrival of Indo-Europeans, but it became a big part of the Corded ware populations in those regions. The stone axes by the Corded Ware sometimes were shaped to look like boats.

u/GSDRex as I posted this I immediately thought of you and your boat stories, I think you will like this video and playlist!

[u/pannous]

I would have loved the documentary even more if connections to ‘contemporary’ 4500BC Mesopotamian boatmanship were drawn, especially the Ubaid. Also the first Kuwaiti sailboat could’ve been mentioned together was the secondary products revolution.