Age of Wolf and Wind: The Viking Age Settlement of Iceland with Dr. Davide Zori, Baylor Interdisciplinary Core

The Vikings continue to fascinate us because their compelling stories connect with universal human desires for exploration and adventure. In Age of Wolf and Wind: Voyages through the Viking World, I argue that recent advances in excavation and archaeological science, coupled with a re-evaluation of oral traditions and written sources, inspire the telling of new and engaging stories that further our understanding of the Viking Age. Drawing upon my fieldwork experience, I propose that the best method for weaving together these narratives is a balanced, interdisciplinary approach that integrates history, archaeology, and new scientific techniques. I suggest that the dialogues we create between these three separate data sets invariably result in an entanglement of confirmation (texts, archaeology, and science affirming the same story), contradiction (texts, archaeology, and science telling incompatible stories) and complementarity (texts, archaeology, and science contributing mutually enriching stories). This lecture presents the general arguments of the book before offering a case study of this approach from my research on Viking Age Iceland. I examine the Viking experience in Iceland through the discoveries and excavations of the Mosfell Archaeological Project (MAP) in Iceland’s Mosfell Valley. The research of MAP has led to the discovery of a Viking chieftain’s farmstead, including a longhouse, a pagan cremation site, a conversion-era stave church, and a Christian graveyard. Our work brings together the disciplines of archaeology, history, saga studies, osteology, zoology, paleobotany, genetics, isotope studies, place-names studies, environmental science, and historical architecture. The lecture seeks to demonstrate how critical engagement with the “three Cs” (confirmation, contradiction, and confirmation) that result from the combination of these disciplinary datasets allows for a richer understanding of this Viking Age community.

Dr. Zori teaches in the Baylor Interdisciplinary Core and is affiliated faculty of the Department of History. Zori's research concentrates on the medieval world with research foci on the Viking expansion into the North Atlantic and the widespread 8th-12th century phenomenon of Italian population movements onto defended hilltops . He employs a multidisciplinary approach to the Middle Ages, combining material culture and written evidence. He conducts archaeological fieldwork in Iceland addressing the interaction of the Norse settlers with new environments, the construction of a migrant society, and the subsequent evolution of endemic political systems. As the director of the San Giuliano Archaeological Research Project, he has been leading excavations of an Etruscan necropolis and a medieval castle complex in central Italy.

Privacy

Please read our policy on how we treat any personal information collected in relation to our events:
Data Protection Statement for Events