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 the time, we only know about the starting and ending points of the trade that took place during the Viking Age. Major ports, such as Bergen and Trondheim in Norway, Ribe in Denmark, and Dublin in Ireland. The thing I am interested in is what happened on the journeys between these major trading centres,” Jarrett explained in a statement. “My hypothesis is that this decentralised network of ports, located on small islands and peninsulas, was central to making trade efficient during the Viking Age.”
Between September 2021 and July 2022, Jarrett and his crew undertook 15 sailing trials and two approximately three-week-long trial voyages in seven different Nordic clinker boats: traditional, small, open, wooden sailboats whose use in Nordic regions dates back almost 2,000 years. It wasn’t always smooth sailing—once, the pole supporting the mainsail snapped over 15 miles (25 kilometers) from the coast, and they had to tie two oars together to secure the sail until they managed to return to land. Overall, they covered 1,494 nautical miles.
The experimental archaeologist decided that possible “havens” along maritime itineraries should have provided fresh water, shelter from swells and winds, and a good view of the sea. Furthermore, they had to be reachable in low visibility, big enough to host several boats, approachable and exitable from different directions, and located in a “transition zone”: coastal points between exposed regions and inner areas.
Along with these criteria, Jarrett’s investigation integrated a digital reconstruction of Viking Age sea levels, pre-established knowledge of large Viking maritime centers, and information about traditional 19th and early 20th century sailboat routes from sailors and fishermen. The archaeologist also clarified that his work regards long-range Viking expeditions rather than voyages for raiding and war purposes.
“This study’s emphasis on practical seafaring knowledge and experience seeks to counter the common academic bias towards terrestrial and textual sources and worldviews,” he wrote in the study, published earlier this month in the Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory.
In this way he claims to have identified four potential Viking havens. These remote locations along the Norwegian coast each have varying degrees of pre-existing archaeological evidence indicating past human presence. Presumably, Jarrett is the first to suggest they may have also been pit stops along Viking maritime journeys.
“The list of possible Viking Age havens,” he explained, indicating a diagram in the study, “is intended as a working document, which can shape and be shaped by future archaeological surveys and excavations.”
It’s worth remembering that, even with digital reconstructions of the Viking-era seascape, experimental voyages can never provide evidence of Viking activity to the degree of direct archaeological evidence. Nevertheless, creative and practical approaches such as Jarrett’s stand as a reminder that sometimes the solution to a problem requires a different perspective—literally. It remains to be seen whether his work will inspire future archaeological surveys.