Kinder, Gentler Vikings? Not According to Their Slaves

National Geographic ^ | Monday, December 28, 2015 | Andrew Lawler

[SunkenCiv]

New clues suggest slaves were vital to the Viking way of life -- and argue against attempts to soften the raiders' brutish reputation...

Archaeologists are using recent finds and analyses of previous discoveries -- from iron collars in Ireland to possible plantation houses in Sweden -- to illuminate the role of slavery in creating and maintaining the Viking way of life.

"This was a slave economy," said Neil Price, an archaeologist at Sweden's Uppsala University who spoke at a recent meeting that brought together archaeologists who study slavery and colonization. "Slavery has received hardly any attention in the past 30 years, but now we have opportunities using archaeological tools to change this."

Small houses surround a great hall at a Viking site in Sweden called Sanda. Some archaeologists believe this may have been a Viking plantation with slaves as the labor force.

Scandinavian slavery still echoes in the English language today. The expression "to be held in thrall," meaning to be under someone's power, traces back to the Old Norse term for a slave: thrall.

Slavery in the region long predates the Vikings. There is evidence of vast economic disparity as early as the first century A.D., with some people living with animals in barns while others live nearby in large, prosperous homes. In 2009, archaeologist Frands Herschend at Uppsala detailed a burnt structure from this early era in which people and animals were immolated. The human bodies were left in the ruins rather than retrieved for burial.

[SunkenCiv]

Small houses surround a great hall at a Viking site in Sweden called Sanda. Some archaeologists believe this may have been a Viking plantation with slaves as the labor force. [illus. apparently by Tom Lovell for NG]

[SunkenCiv]

• Vikings May Have Been More Social Than Savage [2013]

[2ndDivisionVet]

So they were like nearly every other society until the twentieth century?

[Palio di Siena]

time for the vikings to rise up and make slaves out of the muslims invading scandinavia.

[KarlInOhio]

Archaeologists are using recent finds and analyses of previous discoveries -- from iron collars in Ireland to possible plantation houses in Sweden -- to illuminate the role of slavery in creating and maintaining the Viking way of life.

So that's how the Vikings got Brett Favre.

[GonzoII]

White people used to be slaves....I find that hard to believe!!!...../s

[SunkenCiv]

Well past time, in fact.

[Tax-chick]

Wow, it must have been uncomfortable for those black people in Sweden.

(/s)

[ExCTCitizen]

The Vikings (no not the NFL ones) were pretty amazing! They were the first people to create real estate fraud...calling Greenland GREENLAND...when it is covered in ICE..

[ExCTCitizen]

Go Packers!!

[JoeProBono]

[Tax-chick]

A live version of the Muppet Show’s Swedish Chef skit?

[JoeProBono]

[11th_VA]

I want my reparations ...

[SunkenCiv]

[chajin]

So they were like nearly every other society until the twentieth century?

Ditto.

[norwaypinesavage]

"real estate fraud...calling Greenland GREENLAND...when it is covered in ICE."

Greenland WAS green, during the last period of global warming when the Vikings settled there. It must have been those Saab SUVs that did it then.

[ZULU]

Don’t cloud bias with logic.

[bert]

those white cuffs are there to cover up the manacle marks

[Bigg Red]

Would love to see that, but it appears it is the mohammedans who will be enslaving their conquered subjects.