KS2 / KS3 History: Viking trade

NEIL OLIVER:'The Vikings travelled far and wide. Not just to raid, plunder and find land, but also to trade, to buy and sell goods. And this took them to new, exotic places far from home.'

NEIL OLIVER:'When I started investigating the Vikings, I didn't think I'd have to travel, 1,500 miles south of Scandinavia. But here I am, in an ancient city that links Europe to Asia. Istanbul. In Viking times, this was the greatest city on Earth, 'and it was called Constantinople.'

NEIL OLIVER:'And for those Vikings, it was the end of a long and dangerous journey from the North. Because, within its walls, were some of the richest markets in the world.'

NEIL OLIVER:For a Viking, this would have been all but overwhelming. Because this is on a completely different scale from anything he would have witnessed before.

NEIL OLIVER:'Instead of hundreds of people, here it would have been thousands, or even tens of thousands, and from all over the world.'

NEIL OLIVER:And then there are all the exotic sights, and sounds, and smells. It's all but an assault on the senses. And this, this above all, was what they would have fought so hard to get access to the marketplace.

NEIL OLIVER:Hey.

SHOP OWNER:Yes.

NEIL OLIVER:You speak English?

SHOP OWNER:I speak English, my friend. Can I help you?

NEIL OLIVER:Can I have a hundred grams of the red spice?

SHOP OWNER:This one's hundred grams.

NEIL OLIVER:Okay.

SHOP OWNER:Something else?

NEIL OLIVER:No that's all. How much?

NEIL OLIVER:'Once here, they could buy finely woven silk, worth its weight in gold. In exchange for the goods they had brought with them from the North precious amber, arctic furs and slaves.'

NEIL OLIVER:Any Viking who had spent three months or more in the city was entitled to buy silk up to the value of two slaves.

NEIL OLIVER:'That silk was so valuable that when the Vikings took it home it made them rich beyond their wildest dreams.'

NEIL OLIVER:'But some of the Vikings never went home. They stayed, and made Constantinople their home. One of them even left his mark on the city, in one of the most historic and holy places on the planet.'

NEIL OLIVER:This is the Hagia Sophia. Most of what you're looking at was built in the 6th Century. Which means that by the time the Vikings turned up, that building was already old. Think of the impact it must have had on them, when they arrived from their dark age world. Some of them, at least, said that when they were inside they didn't know if they were on Earth, or in Heaven itself. But to find any evidence of the Vikings, you have to go inside.

NEIL OLIVER:'The Hagia Sophia was built as a Christian church, but later turned into a Muslim mosque. All around me are remnants of over a thousand years of Christian and Muslim worship. In one tiny corner, is proof that a Viking once came to this place.'

NEIL OLIVER:These dark lines, etched into the marble, are Viking runes ancient Viking writing. They're almost indecipherable. The only bit that's in any way clear, is part of someone's name, a man's name. Halfdan. And the rest of it is assumed to read, "was here." So you've got "Halfdan was here." or "made these runes".

NEIL OLIVER:'Halfdan may have been part of the bodyguard of the Byzantine Emperor the great ruler of Constantinople, or he may have been just a trader. These few lines show us how far the Vikings had travelled from their homeland.'

NEIL OLIVER:'If, and when, the Vikings did return home. They took with them the valuable goods they had traded the silks, spices and silver.'

NEIL OLIVER:'Birka is a small island, near Sweden's capital city, Stockholm. And no one lives here today, but in Viking times it was one of the most important towns in Scandinavia. It's to places like this that the returning Vikings brought their goods from Constantinople, to sell them in the market.'

NEIL OLIVER:In Birka, we should glimpse traces of everyday life. Not the lives of the warrior class, but ordinary, working people. Because what's preserved in Birka is more than just a town, it's an entire culture.

NEIL OLIVER:'Merchants came here from all over Scandinavia, so Birka market would have been very busy. Full of people buying and selling goods.'

NEIL OLIVER:Is it fair to say that Birka was a completely new kind of settlement?

Charlotte Hedenstierna Jonson:It is a totally new kind of settlement. A new way of life. People from all over the known world probably came here to do trade.

NEIL OLIVER:So Birka's like a department store, where you can get clothes, you can get jewellery, you can get furnishings for your home.

CHARLOTTE HEDENSTIERNA JONSON:Weaponry, food, or imported food I should say. Spices, textiles.

NEIL OLIVER:What kind of things do you find? You know, is it rich? Is it rich pickings out where the people lived?

CHARLOTTE HEDENSTIERNA JONSON:Yeah. It's very rich pickings.

NEIL OLIVER:Gold and silver?

CHARLOTTE HEDENSTIERNA JONSON:No, not today. Now, this is an iron weight.

NEIL OLIVER:Okay. What is the significance of finding a weight here?

CHARLOTTE HEDENSTIERNA JONSON:It's a very good example of what they actually did here, that the trade is at the heart of everything. Silver is the main currency. And it's the silver weight that's interesting.

NEIL OLIVER:Oh, so this isn't for weighing the goods themselves, this is how you make sure someone's paid the right price.

CHARLOTTE HEDENSTIERNA JONSON:Exactly.

NEIL OLIVER:'Items from all over the world were traded here, nd in nearby Stockholm there's an amazing collection of treasure that shows us just where they came from.'

NEIL OLIVER:Look at these three marvels. They are known collectively as the Helgo treasure. They were all found together in one house. First of all, there's a Bishop's crosier, which is the headpiece that would be on top of a staff carried by a Bishop as a mark of his office and status. Everything about its decoration is typically Irish. Next, here we have a ladle.

NEIL OLIVER:It would've been used in religious ceremonies, specifically for baptism. It's to pour water over the head of someone who's being welcomed into the Christian church. It's made of bronze and it's probably from North Africa. The crosier and ladle are priceless objects. But there was something found beside them that I find even more extraordinary.

NEIL OLIVER:It's a bronze Buddha. This was probably made in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, maybe Pakistan or Afghanistan. And it has made its way here, passing through many hands. Going through Constantinople, through Russia, and eventually finding its way to Helgo.

NEIL OLIVER:'It's incredible that these objects came from places as far away as Africa, Ireland and India and all ended up here, in one Viking home in Scandinavia.'

NEIL OLIVER:Think how far the Vikings have come. It's only a hundred, maybe a hundred and fifty years since those first raids. But by now those Vikings have stretched their hands across the face of the known world. The Vikings have arrived.