From the Masthead to the Map: an Experimental and Digital Approach to Viking Age Seafaring Itineraries

Abstract

The Viking Age (c. 800–c. 1050 ad) was characterised by a widespread rise in maritime mobility and interaction, as is made clear by an increasing range of evidence. However, this evidence provides limited information about the sailors and the sailing voyages that connected and transformed the Viking world. This paper presents an approach to reconstruct Viking Age maritime itineraries through the combined use of experimental and digital methods. This approach is grounded in a series of experimental voyages conducted by the author along the Norwegian coast onboard square-rigged, clinker boats built in the descendant Åfjord tradition. The experimental voyages are used to reconstruct the preferences and requirements of Viking Age sailors, helping to define practice-based criteria for evaluating which natural harbours and anchorages might have been favoured during this period. These criteria are complemented by digital reconstructions of historical topographies accounting for changes in relative sea-level since 800 ad. From this combined evaluation, a selection of four possible Viking Age havens is presented. The characteristics and locations of these havens are discussed in relation to contemporary power centres and later seafaring routes. The results suggest that Viking Age seafaring networks along the Norwegian coast may have been more decentralised than their medieval counterparts, and may have relied on relatively outlying nodes on small islands and headlands. The approach highlights the potential of critically combining experimental and digital methods and aims to promote maritime perspectives as an alternative to conventionally terrestrial academic approaches.