Product Description

'The standard introduction to the subject of the Vikings in England.' Journal of the British Archaeological Association.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #84427 in Books
• Published on: 2004-03-03
• Format: Illustrated
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 254 pages

From the Back Cover
From shortly before AD 800 until the Norman conquest, England was subject to raids from seafaring peoples from Scandinavia - the Vikings. They were not only raiders but also traders and settlers. During this period the English state was unified under a single ruler for the first time and Anglo-Saxon society underwent great changes.

Results from major excavations in both the countryside and in towns, such as London, Lincoln and York, mean that it is now possible to reassess the Viking contribution to the history of Late Anglo-Saxon England and to examine the creation of a new mixed Anglo-Scandinavian identity. In this updated and re-illustrated edition of his best-selling textbook (first published almost ten years ago), Julian Richards shows how far local developments responded to these events, and he uses the latest archaeological evidence (especially fieldwork in the Danelaw) to examine various aspects of Anglo-Scandinavian society - rural settlement and the economy, the growth of towns, trade and exchange, craft and industry, burial rituals and stone memorials.

About the Author
Dr Julian D. Richards is Senior Lecturer in Archaeology at the University of York and Director of the Archaeology Data Service. Following his degree in Archaeology and Anthropology from Peterhouse, Cambridge, he worked on the Coppergate excavation in York and then undertook research on Anglo-Saxon cremation burials. He has directed excavations of a Viking Age settlement in the Yorkshire Wolds and a Viking cemetery at Heath Wood, Ingleby. He is also the author of several books and articles on computer applications in archaeology and on early medieval archaeology.