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Silver and the Origins of the Viking Age

Descripción del proyecto

Un estudio numismático sobre la expansión de los guerreros escandinavos

En la época vikinga (750-1050), los guerreros marítimos de Escandinavia empezaron a sitiar y colonizar gran parte de Eurasia. Sin embargo, ¿dónde, cuándo y por qué empezó la época vikinga? El proyecto SILVER, financiado con fondos europeos, llevará a cabo la primera investigación a gran escala, sistemática y basada en datos empíricos sobre la plata de la época vikinga temprana en Escandinavia. La plata, el principal material documentado de los botines vikingos, puede aportarnos información sobre el desarrollo temprano de la época vikinga. Dado que nunca se ha estudiado la plata para evaluar los orígenes de la época vikinga, a partir de una combinación de fuentes, el proyecto desarrollará un nuevo conjunto de datos sobre los «registros de plata» del siglo IX. Para llevar a cabo un estudio numismático y arqueológico en persona, el proyecto SILVER utilizará metodologías pioneras sobre el análisis arqueométrico.

Objetivo

This project will address one of the enduring questions of medieval studies - the origins of the Viking Age (c. 750-1050 AD) - through an interdisciplinary (archaeological, archaeometric and numismatic) study of silver from early Viking-Age Scandinavia.  In doing so, it will provide the first large-scale, systematic and empirically-based answers to the outstanding questions of where, when and why the Viking Age began, casting vital new light on what is widely recognised to be a pivotal episode of cultural expansion in Eurasia.

As the only surviving physical evidence from the spoils of Viking expansion, silver has unique potential to elucidate the early development of the Viking Age. Its geographic origins can reveal where Viking activity was concentrated (Western Europe vs. Baltic/ Russia); its uses can indicate why the Vikings were prepared to risk their lives acquiring it (social vs. monetary function); and its chronology can unlock the timings of the main periods of expansion (ninth century, as widely believed, vs. a century earlier). Yet, due to its poor characterisation and the lack of scientific approaches to its study, silver has never before been harnessed to address these fundamental topics.

This project will build an entirely new dataset of the ninth-century ‘silver record’ from a combination of access to museum collections and fresh artefact and coin identifications made by the project team. We will analyse this material in new ways. First-hand archaeological and numismatic study will be combined with pioneering methods in archaeometric analysis, the enormous potential of which for revealing Viking silver sources has recently been demonstrated by the PI. The PI has negotiated unprecedented permissions from national museums to extend scientific analyses to early Viking silver objects from across Northern Europe. There is now a tremendous opportunity to transform understanding of one of Europe’s most significant cultural movements.

Régimen de financiación

ERC-STG - Starting Grant

Institución de acogida

THE CHANCELLOR, MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
Aportación neta de la UEn
€ 1 068 115,12
Dirección
WELLINGTON SQUARE UNIVERSITY OFFICES
OX1 2JD Oxford
Reino Unido

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Región
South East (England) Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Oxfordshire
Tipo de actividad
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Enlaces
Coste total
€ 1 068 115,12

Beneficiarios (3)