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A new study examining the chemical makeup of iron artifacts from the Viking age aims to uncover new insights into where they came from that could reveal previously unknown information about historic events.
Scientists from the University of Nottingham are leading the study that will examine 90 iron Viking-age artifacts. These are weapons that were used in battles at Fulford in North Yorkshire and Bebington Heath on the Wirral. Other material comes from the Viking camp at Torksey in Lincolnshire, and from the former Viking seaport of Meols.
Fulford was the location for a battle in AD 1066 between Norse invaders and the Anglo-Saxons, immediately before the better-known battle of Stamford Bridge. The archeological material consists of iron weapons found at a number of short-lived iron recycling sites that were abandoned by the Norse victors at Fulford when they were defeated at Stamford Bridge five days later. The iron material from Bebington Heath was recovered from the possible location of the AD 937 battle of Brunanburh, between Norse-Scottish and Anglo-Saxon armies. The material has been typologically assigned to the late Saxon/Viking period and shows parallels with the artifacts from Fulford. Torksey, Lincs, in the lower Trent Valley, was the site of the winter encampment of the Viking Great Army in AD 872-873 and iron working is documented at the site.
image credit: University of Nottingham
