Stand face to face with a Viking A millennium has passed since their heyday, but the Vikings continue to fascinate and spark interest all over the world. A museum in Stockholm specially dedicated to these famous seafarers invites visitors to take a step into and experience this dramatic and eventful historical epoch. By Pia Petersson | Photos: The Viking Museum
Who were the Vikings, and why have they come to be so well-known worldwide? Were they essentially brutal, vicious looters, or is there more to their story? The Viking Museum tries to answer these and many more questions regarding their life and times. In the exhibitions, visitors get to meet the Vikings through objects, sceneries and films. “For instance, we’ve done a DNA reconstruction of a man who lived in the town 68 | Issue 134 | March 2020
of Sigtuna during the Viking Age, using the same methods that the police utilise to identify victims of crime. Through the analysis, we found out his hair colour, his eye colour, that he had freckles, how tall he was and when he died. We’ve even been able to uncover what he ate, which revealed that he was a vegetarian,” begins Tora Larsdotter Andersson, archaeologist and marketing coordinator at the museum. And right there, the bubble is burst with regards to one commonly al-
leged ‘fact’ concerning the bloodthirstiness of Vikings, at least partially.
Guided tours galore The museum is relatively new, having opened in 2017, but it has already attracted a formidable work force that enlightens and informs visitors about the Viking Age. A majority of the guides at the museum – of course dressed in appropriate Viking outfits – are archaeologists who also have some additional specialised expertise. “This means that the guided tours are a bit different depending on who the guide is. Some will talk a lot about the archaeologist as a criminologist and about what the skeleton can reveal about a person.