Vikings of the Irish Sea

DAVID GRIFFITHS is Reader in Archaeology and a Fellow of Kellogg College, Oxford University.

‘The seas around Britain and Ireland provided the corridors through which people and ideas spread. In this highly original study of the Irish Sea, David Griffiths offers a vivid insight into the huge social and economic impact brought about by the Norse seafarers who flooded into the region between the 8th and 11th centuries. The mass of archaeological evidence, much of it recently discovered, is here skilfully analysed to offer a fresh, and often surprising, insight into the dynamics of this energetic maritime society.'

• TitleCopyrightContentsList of IllustrationsPrefaceChapter 1: Introduction VikingsThe Irish Sea‘The Irish Sea Province’The Irish Sea in the pre-Viking periodSources of evidence for the Viking period Chapter 2: Raids and Early Settlement in Ireland Longphort and dún: the Viking base on land‘Dark’ and ‘fair’ foreigners, and the ‘Gallgoídil’ Chapter 3: Exporting Violence and Seeking Landfall c. 850–c. 1050 Weakness and opportunity: Galloway and CumbriaFrom Dublin to BrunanburhThe later tenth and early eleventh centuries Chapter 4: Land-take and Landscape Estates and landholdingTerritory, boundaries and defenceMeetings and ‘things’Rural settlement archaeology Chapter 5: Burial: Changing Rites, New Places Regional surveys 1: IrelandRegional surveys 2: The Isle of ManRegional surveys 3: From the Solway Firth to WalesViking-period finds and burial in churchyards Chapter 6: Trade, Silver and Market Sites Hoards and currencySingle finds and market sites Chapter 7: Towns and Urbanisation Tenth- and eleventh-century DublinAnglo-Saxon urbanisation and tenth-century ChesterTrade in the Bristol Channel, and the later Hiberno-Norse towns Chapter 8: Assimilation and Cultural Change Burial and commemorationReligious conversion and Viking motifsAn Irish Sea metalwork tradition?Architecture: urban and ruralLanguage and inscriptionsHybridity and acculturation – the process of cultural change Chapter 9: ConclusionList of AbbreviationsNotesBibliography