Vikings

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Vikings
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Norse Culture in Scandinavia

• Patchwork of petty states
• Economy based on
• Agriculture
• Livestock
• Raids

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Norse as Vikings

• By 800- severe overpopulation
• Landless sons began to seek their fortunes
  elsewhere
• Helped by Norse ships
• Raided towns, monasteries, but not randomly
• Good intelligence systems

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Viking Raids

• By mid 9th century- had established bases to raid
  from
• Brutality
• Helped establish manorial system
• Towns, kingdoms paid bribes to avoid being sacked
• Far reaching

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Norse Religion

• Pre Christian Religion-- polytheistic
• First mission to the Norse ca 820
• First conversion ca 960
• Even then slow progress of Christianity amongst
  the people of Scandinavia

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Norse Society

• Warrior elite
• Large slave population
• Women had some status

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Norse in the North Atlantic

• Helluland
• Markland
• Vinland

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Helluland
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Markland
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Vinland
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Confirmation in the 1960s

• Helge Ingstad
• Discovery of the remains of sod houses at LAnse
  aux Meadows
• Confirmation the settlement was Norse
• Iron rivets
• Spindle whorl

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Artifacts from LAnse aux Meadows
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Norse in Greenland

• Settlements there lasted much longer than in
  Newfoundland
• Eastern Settlement- most populous
• Western Settlement- much smaller
• Norse in Greenland disappeared in the 14th
  century-- no one knows why or where

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Norse Greenland
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Norse-Native Canadian Contact

• Much more contact between Norse and the
  Skraelings than previous thought
• Evidence of Norse coins and goods in North
  America
• Evidence of first hand contact between the two
  cultures

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Maine Penny
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Portion of Norse Scale
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Bishop of Baffin