Technology in Ancient Civilizations: the Vikings

Technology in Ancient Civilizations: the Vikings

The Vikings where located in Scandinavia: Norway, Sweden and Denmark. They sailed around the North Atlantic, Baltic region and briefly to North America, raiding, trading, and spreading their influence to places as diverse as Ireland, Greenland, Normandie, etc, during the Viking Age between 750 and 1100 C.D. The Vikings were great seamen. They were able to cross the continent without the aid of a compass and they were fearsome warriors. Viking expeditions were a mixture of raiding for booty, trading for goods, and eventually searching for land to settle on. The Vikings were agriculturalists and when they settled in Iceland and Greenland if was to grow crops and raise animals.

The earliest targets for Viking raiding were monasteries, since they were filled with treasures and the monks are not very good fighters. Eventually the Vikings turned to trade and settlement. Their raids and trading missions were about gaining wealth. They were not colonizers interested in creating Viking states or empires. The Viking region was tied together by trade, they established trade and manufacturing in different parts of Scandinavia and Northern Great Britain. The Vikings when to North America as well, but they did not colonize.

The Vikings traded tools, weapons, jewellery, building materials, and so on. Dublin was one of the largest trading points. The success and influence of the Vikings was really about settlements and the exchange of goods and in the process, the exchange of cultures.  

The Vikings produced the following technological developments:

1. Tent: The Viking tent was plain, practical, and brilliant. Tent frames were discovered on a buried, ninth-century Viking ship in Gokstad in Sandar, Sandefjord, Vestfold, Norway.

2. SunStone: Relying on a sunstone during conditions that precluded the use of a sun compass, Vikings might have drifted north or south. But on the next sunny day, they could have employed their sun compass to correct their course. Using the instruments to complement one another allowed the Vikings to sail in all sorts of weather and under both favorable and unfavorable conditions. 

3. Sun Compass: The Vikings’ sun compass was a simple but ingenious navigational devicethat allowed them to sail great distances. 

4. Ski: When not pillaging, looting, raping, and killing, Vikings took time to enjoy skiing. Throughout the Middle Ages, Scandinavian hunters, farmers, and warriors often used skis. 

5. Shields: The Viking shield was like no other medieval buckler. In size, it was 75–90 centimeters (30–35 in). Used as a defense in combat, the shield also protected the Vikings from winds and waves during their sea voyages.

6. Magnetic Compass: Using the mineral magnetite (aka lodestone), which is abundant throughout Scandinavia, the Vikings invented one of the first magnetic compasses. 

7. LongBoat: A marvel of engineering, the Viking longboat was unparalleled in the medieval world. The Vikings enjoyed advantages in war, trade, and exploration thanks to their ships’ flexible, durable designs and their ability to sail in many different directions according to the wind. 

8. Keel: Roman and Celtic designs provided the bases for the earliest Viking ships. These vessels were propelled by oars rather than paddles. In choppy waters, such ships tended to capsize. They were also slow, so trips were usually brief and followed the course of the shoreline.

9. Comb: Despite their penchant for waging guerrilla warfare, it seems that the Vikings were vain about their appearance. When they sailed off in search of plunder, they took with them the combs they created from deer antlers.

10. Battle Axe: this tool was modified over the years and became a battle-axe unique among medieval warriors. The blade became larger and broader. A hook was added to the lower end of the blade. In battle, the hook could be used to catch an enemy by the foot or the rim of his shield. The axe handle became longer, allowing Vikings to strike their foes from a greater distance.

The Vikings left us great advances, and after the Protestant Reform became modern era’s most successful society.