Jorvik was the Viking name for the English city of York and the kingdom centered there. Jump to: navigation, search The name Viking is a borrowed word from the native Scandinavian term for the Norse warriors who raided the coasts of Scandinavia, the British Isles, and other parts of Europe from the late 8th century to the 11th century. ... Jump to: navigation, search Royal motto (French): Dieu et mon droit (Translated: God and my right) Englands location within the UK Official language English de facto Capital London de facto Largest city London Area - Total Ranked 1st UK 130,395 km² Population - Total (mid-2004) - Density Ranked 1st UK... York is a city in northern England, at the confluence of the Rivers Ouse and Foss. ...

History

York had been founded as the Roman legionary fortress of Eboracum and revived as the Anglo-Saxon trading port of Eoforwic. It was first captured in November 866 by a large army of Swedish-led Danish Vikings, called the "Great Heathen Army" by Anglo-Saxon chroniclers, which had landed in East Anglia and made their way north, aided by a supply of horses with which King Edmund of East Anglia bought them off and by civil in-fighting between royal candidates in the Anglian Kingdom of Northumbria. Declaring a truce, the rivals for the throne of Northumbria joined forces but failed to retake the city in March 867, and with their deaths the kingdom Deira came under Viking control, and the Northumbrian royal court fled north to refuge in Bernicia. A Viking attempt against Mercia the same season failed and in 869 their efforts against Wessex were fruitless in the face of opposition from Kings Ethelred and Alfred the Great. Jump to: navigation, search Events Fujiwara no Yoshifusa becomes regent of Japan, starting the Fujiwara regentship. ... Norfolk and Suffolk, the core area of East Anglia. ... Edmund the Martyr (circa 840 - November 20, 870) was a King of East Anglia. ... Northumbria is primarily the name of an Anglian or Anglo-Saxon kingdom which was formed in Great Britain at the beginning of the 7th century, and of the earldom which succeeded the kingdom. ... Deira (from Brythonic Deifr, meaning waters) was a kingdom in England during the 6th century AD. It later merged with the kingdom of Bernicia (Brythonic, Brynaich) to the north to form the kingdom of Northumbria. ... Bernicia (Brythonic, Brynaich) was a kingdom of the Angles in northern England during the 6th and 7th centuries AD. It later merged with the kingdom of Deira to form the kingdom of Northumbria. ... Mercia, sometimes spelled Mierce, was one of the kingdoms of the Anglo-Saxon heptarchy, in what is now England, in the region of the Midlands, with its heart in the valley of the River Trent and its tributary streams. ... Wessex was one of the seven major Anglo-Saxon kingdoms (the Heptarchy) that preceded the Kingdom of England. ... See: Ethelred of Wessex, king of Wessex c. ... Statue of Alfred the Great at Winchester Alfred (849? – 26 October 899) or Ælfred was king of the southern Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex from 871 to 899. ...

Jorvik became the capital of a flourishing small kingdom when the war-leader, Guthrum, headed for East Anglia, while Halfdan Wide-Embrace of Sjaelland and Uppsala took the York throne in AD 876. The kingdom covered the three Ridings of Yorkshire and extending into Westmorland and Lancashire, often employing Anglian local kinglets. This page refers to a Riding as a unit in local government. ... The White Yorkshire rose. ... Westmorland is one of the 39 traditional counties of England. ... Lancashire (archaically, the County of Lancaster) is a county palatine of England, lying on the Irish Sea. ...

The area of the palace built by the Viking rulers was known as the Konungsgårthr and is today known as King's Square. New streets, lined by regular building fronts for timber houses were added to an enlarging city between AD 900 and 935, dates arrived at by tree-ring chronology carried out on remaining posts preserved in anaerobic clay subsoil. The Viking kingdom was absorbed into England in 954, without cramping its economic success: by ca 1000, the urban boom brought Viking Jorvik to a population total second only to that of London within the British Isles. William the Conqueror brought the independence of Jorvik to an end and established garrisoned castles in the city. Jump to: navigation, search Events King Malcolm I of Scotland is killed in battle against Highlanders. ... // Events World Population 300 million. ... The clock tower of the Palace of Westminster, which contains Big Ben London is the capital city of the United Kingdom and of England. ... The British Isles consist of Great Britain, Ireland and a number of much smaller surrounding islands. ... William I ( 1027 – September 9, 1087), was King of England from 1066 to 1087. ...

Archaeological findings

From 1976 to 1981, the York Archaeological Trust conducted a five-year excavation in and around the street of Coppergate, which uncovered well-preserved remains of Jorvik's timber buildings, workshops, fences, animal pens, privies, pits and wells together with artefacts of the time, preserved in anoxic wet clay. The state of preservation of thousands of everyday objects is breath-taking: A shoemaker's wooden last, and even a minter's die for striking coinage were recovered. The lack of oxygen in the dense mud meant that decay bacteria were unable to break down embedded materials. Up to 9m of stratified deposits were encountered. Wood, leather, textiles, and plant and animal remains, which do not always survive for long periods underground, were recovered in large quantities, supplementing the more durable pottery, metalwork and bones. Importance and applicability Most of human history is not described by any written records. ... Timber Timber is a term used to describe wood throughout its processing from the time it is planned for use in industrial products to the time it is used as a structural material or in other industrial product, such as wood pulp for paper production. ... Building is either the act of creating an object assembled from more than one element, or the object itself; see also construction. ... In shoemaking, a last is a rounded oblong block used to approximate the form of the human foot used by a cobbler to help make or mend shoes. ... A mint is a facility which manufactures coins for currency. ... Stratigraphy, a branch of geology, is basically the study of rock layers and layering (stratification). ...

In the 10th century, Jorvik's trading connections reached to the Byzantine Empire and beyond: a cap made of silk survives, and coins from Samarkand were familiar enough and respected enough for a counterfeit to have passed in trade. Both these items were famously recovered a millennium later as well as a large human coprolite vulgarly known as the Lloyds Bank turd. Amber from the Baltic is often expected at a Viking site and at Jorvik an impractical and presumably symbolic axehead of amber was found. A cowrie shell indicates contact with the Red Sea or the Persian Gulf. Christian and pagan objects have survived side-by-side, usually taken as a sign that Christians were not in positions of authority. The Byzantine Empire is the term conventionally used to describe the Greek-speaking Roman Empire during the Middle Ages, centred at its capital in Constantinople. ... Samarkand (Samarqand or Самарқанд in Uzbek, in Persian سمرقند) (population 400,000) is the second-largest city in Uzbekistan, capital of Samarqand Province. ... Coprolites are fossilized feces, or animal dung. ... Cowry shells (also spelled cowrie), are marine snails of the genus Cypraea (family Cypraeidae), found chiefly in tropical regions, especially around the Maldives or the East Indies. ... Conshelf II in the Red Sea (Sudan) Location of the Red Sea The Red Sea (Arabic البحر الأحمر Baḥr al-Aḥmar, al-Baḥru l-’Aḥmar; Hebrew ים סוף Yam Suf; Tigrigna ቀይሕ ባሕሪ QeyH baHri) is a gulf or basin of the Indian Ocean between Africa and Asia. ... Map of the Persian Gulf. ...

The York Archaeological Trust took the decision to recreate the excavated part of Jorvik on the site, peopled with figures and sounds as well as pigsties, fish market and latrines to bring it fully to life using innovative interpretative methods. The Jorvik Viking Centre opened in April 1984 and proved to be a major visitor attraction. In 2001, the centre was refurbished and enlarged. Jump to: navigation, search 1984 is a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

External links

• Brenda Ralph Lewis & David Nash Ford, "York: Viking Times"
• Timeline of Anglo-Saxon England
• Jorvik Viking Centre
• York Archaeological Trust
• Welcome to Jorvik: links on on-line resources