What information do we know about the Vikings from the artefacts discovered by archaeologists? ‘The Vikings built fast ships for raiding and war. These ships were known as ‘dragon-ships’ or ‘longships’. The Vikings were very civilised and needed a form of transport to assist in conquering new lands as well as raiding. The longships were crafted to be long, slender and light in order to carry the vessel whilst on land, sail along the rivers, shallow areas and at sea. Consequently, to crafting these longships, the Viking’s civilization expansion was made smoother apart from other factors that interfered with this, such as extreme weather conditions and the heighten of Christianity. The Vikings took great pride in disembarking on new …show more content…
‘Some of the brethren they slew, some they carried off with them in chains’ indicates that the Vikings slaughtered some of their victims and others they chained up to either be used as slaves or be slaughtered after the attack. The words ‘ravaged’, ‘pillaged’, ‘plundered’ are some of the many in this written passage that suggests that the Vikings had a barbarous reputation and did not care about the people who acquired residency in the land that the Vikings raided and civilized. The mention of Lindisfarne in this source indicates that the Vikings had the resources and equipment to travel, such as longships, and plenty of weaponry to accompany them while going into battle or raiding an …show more content…
The sword was the most commonly used weapon amongst the Vikings. Typical versions of the Vikings’ sword, had a double-edged blade, a quillon (the cross-guard of a sword), and a pommel (rounded knob which was located at the end of the hilt). The Vikings incorporated very elaborate and complex designs, which were occasionally covered partially with gold paint, and other valuable metals. In the early stages of the Viking age, they were incapable of producing the material needed. As a substitute for this, they used a combination of different materials, such as different types of iron from other objects that were extracted from