'Not Just a Bearded Man in a Boat'

The Yorkshire Museum’s ‘Viking North’ Exhibition

The 9th Century in Britain saw an invasion spreading like a plague down from the North, a ‘Great Heathen Army’ looting and ransacking through the disjointed Anglo-Saxon kingdoms to claim around half for themselves.

Known by many names—Danes, Norsemen, Heathens, Vikings—this was a time of transformation, changing identities and unification, culminating with the creation of England itself. But, with history fractured by raids, battles and the merging of cultures, do we know the true story of this ‘heathen army’, who restructured and altered the course of English history? Well, ‘Viking North’, the latest exhibition from the Yorkshire Museum, is here to find out.

‘Viking North’

The Yorkshire Museum (11 July 2025–2027)

This is the best collection of Viking finds to be shown outside of London, and the largest group on display in England; many of which are being shown together for the very first time, reflecting a collaboration between the Yorkshire Museum's collection and beyond.

‘I would like people to get a sense of the scale of the Viking North and the importance of the cultural and political change that it enacted ’ - Dr Adam Parker, curator of archaeology at York Museums Trust.

Aiming to tell the story of the power base of the Viking Age in the North of England, this narrative unfolds as you pass through atmospherically lit glass cases, browse the ‘dig deeper’ information cards for extra context, and immerse yourself in the ‘raven's eye view’ of a Viking camp. It might astonish you.

So we thought the best way to share our main insights from this exhibition was through the story woven within its objects—many of which were contributed through discoveries made by metal detectorists.

How has metal detecting contributed to the ‘Viking North’ exhibition?

Dr Adam Parker, curator of archaeology at York Museums Trust.

York Helmet (created 750–775 AD, deposited 860–870 AD)

The best preserved early medieval helmet in Britain, also known as the Coppergate Helmet.

In 793 AD, the Vikings struck St Cuthbert’s monastery on Lindisfarne, just off the coast of Northumberland, in Britain's first recorded Viking raid. This likely wasn’t Britain’s first encounter with these fast-moving sailors, but it was undoubtedly the assault which had the greatest effect, sending ripples of fear and resentment through the country as monks were slaughtered and enslaved, their precious religious treasures carted off as bounty.

‘heathen men wretchedly destroying God’s church on Lindisfarne, with plunder and slaughter’ - The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle

It’s this environment of fear which kicks off the tale of ‘Viking North’; the raids escalating into the campaign of the Viking Great Army down the country, plundering wealth, enslaving people and seizing land. Faced with the arrival of a seemingly unstoppable, devastating force, valuables were buried for safekeeping, symbols of the British elite hidden, kept from the hands of those who would wear them as trophies.

Here in York, an Anglo-Saxon warrior takes great care to hide his most precious possession—his helmet—tucking the cheek pieces and chainmail within its cavity and placing it upside down into the depths of a well, with all intentions of retrieving it once this threat passes. Only it didn’t. Centuries passed, the anaerobic conditions preserving its iron shell, interlacing animal nose guard, copper alloy band of Latin crossing its crest and all 1,947 wire rings making up the chainmail… until it was struck during the closing days of a 1982 excavation at Coppergate before worked started on the new shopping centre, the machine operator pausing to take a closer look at what he believed to be a stone in his path…

Aldwark Viking Camp Items (860s–880 AD)

A Viking Winter Camp discovered by metal detectorists.

Gradually the raids and looting of the Vikings upon Britain started to transition into something more akin to a permanent settlement, the first step being the establishment of temporary camps for the overwintering of the Viking Great Army—such as the one at Aldwark—before settling for good into the Kingdoms they seized, eventually defining their territory known as the Danelaw in a treaty with the Anglo-Saxons.

In 1996, two detectorists stumbled upon a previously unknown Viking Great Army winter camp, uncovering a range of weights, hacksilver, coins and iron tools over an area of 75 acres, which presented no discernible archaeological features. But it would be a discovery in 2003 of a concentration of objects alongside human bone, prompting a visit to the Yorkshire Museum, which revealed the true significance of what they had found.

Brought together for the first time are the various objects from this site, dispersed between museums and private lenders, revealing a rich lifestyle of craft, trade and entertainment within the winter camp; stolen metal work is cut up, melted down and reformed into new objects, clothes are mended, ships repaired and gaming pieces moved around Hnefatafl boards, as thousands of Vikings settled down for winter.

‘This is a site in which the Great Viking Army stayed during winter, there are no permanent structures of the site so normal archaeological practices can’t find it…there is a material signature of what a great army camp looks like…and it is entirely found by metal detectorists’ - Dr Adam Parker, curator of archaeology at York Museums Trust.

The Material Signature of a Viking Great Army Winter Camp:

• Hackmetal

• Lead and Copper Alloy Weights

• Stycas commonly found at Northumbrian sites

• Anglian Silver Pennies outside of their normal circulation areas

• Anglian and Irish dress accessories, sometimes pierced or cut for re-use

• Lead gaming pieces

Thor’s Hammer Pendant (850–1000 AD)

A last-minute addition, and a unique example of Viking integration into Britain.

The establishment of the Danelaw in the late 9th century ushered in a period of relative peace in Anglo-Saxon, Viking relations—with only the occasional raids and clashes. The Vikings had claimed much of north-eastern England for themselves under this truce, and it was a time of coexistence. The fruitful trading and international connections brought by the Vikings developed many towns into booming trading centres, but this coexistence went both ways, and the Vikings weren’t immune to the influences of the societies they found themselves existing amongst.

This Thor’s Hammer pendant is the perfect example of cultures blending together; a metal detecting find acquired by the Yorkshire Museum less than a month before the exhibition's opening, now appearing for the first time on public display. It’s not the type of artefact to appear often at the beginning of the Viking Age; instead, it’s a practice which is adopted from Christianity. The Pagan Vikings, somewhat influenced by the Christian Anglo-Saxons, seeing the crosses worn around their necks as an expression of faith and important marker of identity, soon crafted their own—the pagan symbol of Thor’s Hammer—this one uniquely inlaid with a tiny gold version of the symbol, giving the artefact double impact.

The Vale of York Hoard (buried 927–928 AD)

The most important Viking discovery in England in more than 150 years, and direct evidence of Viking raids.

By the 10th century, the Anglo-Saxons had had enough of the Danelaw; their new King Athelstan started an aggressive conquest of the Viking North, bringing England back under Anglo-Saxon control, and for the first time uniting it as a single realm under one ruler. Flipping the Viking invasion on its head, the Vikings are now experiencing the same fear felt by the Anglo-Saxons a century earlier, and responding in the same way—by burying their valuables deep into the earth.

Over 1,000 years later, a father-and-son metal detecting team stumbles across these treasures in a field near Harrogate, pulling a silver bowl from the earth and instantly recognising its significance, as more treasure is revealed to be contained inside. They do exactly the right thing, stop and report the find, preserving the delicate archaeology within.

Inside the bowl are around 700 pieces of Viking loot, almost 70 pieces of jewellery and bullion, 617 silver coins and the gilt-silver bowl itself, which bears Frankish decoration and was likely raided from a wealthy French monastery. This isn’t the only example of raided bounty in the hoard: there are Dirhams from Iran, Afghanistan and Uzbekistan chopped into bullion, a neck ring and hinged brooch from Russia, an arm ring and brooch from Ireland and 4 Carolingian coins from Europe—all alongside a vast amount of Anglo-Saxon coinage, including a coin depicting Athelstan as the ‘King of all Britons’ imparting the significant context for this hoards deposition.

The items within this hoard reveal many things, but most eye-opening are the adaptability of the Vikings within Britain, adopting a mixed economy of both bullion and local coinage to harness the most effective trade with a huge variety of different people, and the vast amount of wealth they brought into Britain to do this trade with.

The Vale of York Hoard, discovered in North Yorkshire by David and Andrew Whelan, January 2007.

Raiders or Economy Builders?

Stereotypically, we know the Vikings as raiders, heathen armies and bearded men in longships wreaking devastation from shore to shore. But ‘Viking North’ highlights a new narrative.

‘We’ve got the opportunity here to tell some new and different stories’ - Dr Adam Parker, curator of archaeology at York Museums Trust.

Britain’s Viking Age is a messy period in history, with conquests and devastation from both sides. The Vikings may have started it, but it wasn’t just oppression and slavery they brought to Britain’s shores; they also brought wealth, economy and international trade, mixing with local cultures and even adopting new practices. Arguably, by the time the Viking Age came to an end, Britain was better off, and united as one realm—England—instead of fragmented kingdoms; brought together to ward off an enemy who might not have been as sinister as they first appeared off the coast of Lindisfarne.

It’s a vibrant story, and one which couldn’t be told better than right here in the North—the place where it all went down over 1,000 years ago.