Research clusters
The project is split into two major research clusters, each of which is developing and exploring its own research agendas with the aim of addressing these questions from various perspectives.
Boat Grave Culture
The first component of the Viking Phenomenon project is called Boat Grave Culture. At the heart of this strand is one of Sweden's greatest archaeological treasures, the largest cemetery of ship burials ever found, the classic site of Valsgärde in Uppland. A crucial counterpart to the work on Valsgärde is the exploration of the extraordinary remains of a Scandinavian raiding party from Salme, Estonia.
Valsgärde
A team of researchers will now complete the analysis of the Viking-Age boat graves along with specialist work on the boats themselves.
Salme
At Salme in Estonia, an extraordinary pair of graves were excavated between 2008 and 2012.
Viking economics
The second main component of the Viking Phenomenon project explores Viking Economics. In contrast to the widespread exploration of the silver trade, a genuine study of raiding economics has never been undertaken - and yet they must, almost inevitably, have provided a prime motor for the developing social processes that embody our definition of the entire time period.