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The Sir David Wilson Lecture 2024 will be given by Neil Price (University of Uppsala) entitled 'Viking Ages, Norse Worlds, Interdisciplinary Challenges.'

Abstract

The so-called Viking Age, conventionally dated c.750-1050 CE, is almost unique among historians’ artificial divisions of the past in being named after a minority with whom hardly anyone of the time would have readily identified, or arguably even recognised. Never an ethnonym, víkingr was essentially a job description, not necessarily pejorative, certainly not permanent, or even applied only to Scandinavians. Most importantly, it could never have described the majority population, most of whom were farmers who never went anywhere or did much harm to anyone. The conceptual challenges that this represents to scholars of ‘Viking Studies’, not least at the multiple contemporary intersections of identity and perspective, are considerable and much debated. Further contextualisation comes with the overdue acknowledgment that the Norse diaspora extended much further than has been previously accepted, in complex interactions with far-reaching implications. In January 2024, after open competition across all subjects, fifteen new centres of excellence were established by the Swedish Research Council, governmentally funded to address issues deemed to be of national importance. This talk explores the mission of one of them, the Uppsala Centre for the World in the Viking Age, considering the diverse realities of the early medieval Norse experience, in turn illuminating the prominent but problematic place that the ‘Vikings’ hold in the public heritage of the Nordic countries.

This in-personÌýevent is a joint meeting with the Earlier Middle Ages seminar, followed by a launch party for the seminar series in theÌýSixth Floor Staff Common RoomÌýat the ×î×¼µÄÁùºÏ²ÊÂÛ̳ Institute of Archaeology.

The Medieval Seminar Series is sponsored by the World Archaeology Section at the ×î×¼µÄÁùºÏ²ÊÂÛ̳ Institute of Archaeology and the British Museum.Ìý

• The programme for the 2024-25ÌýInstitute of Archaeology/British Museum Medieval Seminar Series is available here»

Seminar Series Convenors:

• Sue Brunning (British Museum)
• Andrew Reynolds (Institute of Archaeology)

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