About the project

In December 2015, the Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsrådet) made an unprecedented investment in early medieval research, awarding 50 million Swedish kronor to Professor Neil Price of Uppsala University for a ten-year initiative entitled The Viking Phenomenon.

The project finishes at the end of 2026, and has functioned as an umbrella programme that shelters several sub-strands of research. It brings together an international team of archaeological researchers, focussing their attention on the critical century from 750 to 850 CE, and the decades either side: the time during which the foundations of the early Viking Age were laid.

Among the key issues that we consider are those relating to raiding, slavery, military ideologies, and the nature of long-distance, international contacts and trade as they developed during the Late Iron Age. The development and exploitation of mercantile networks has long been considered as a defining characteristic of the Viking Age, but to what extent were these connections built on earlier interactions? Clear evidence for links with the East, including as far away as the Asian steppe and Tang China can already be found in graves from the preceding Vendel period (c. 550 – 750 CE), but the nature of those contacts has never been adequately explored.

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 questiosn from various perspectives.

• Boat Grave Culture >
• Viking Economics >
  

It is important to understand that the project will not provide 'the Answer' to 'the Question' of the Viking Age, but rather a particular set of responses to the questions that we think to ask. Other scholars might choose quite different lines of approach, and this is to be welcomed. Our project is a living one, situated in our own times, as it must be.

With a new understanding of the Viking phenomenon as its objective, the project has laid the foundations for the new centre of excellence for
The World in the Viking Age (WIVA), also funded by the Vetenskapsrådet as Sweden's leading research cluster for the study of this critical time period in the nation's history. The Vikings are still today the most visible signal of Scandinavian heritage, and this research programme will be deeply embedded with contemporary concerns, presenting the exploration of this long-lasting legacy for the widest possible public.