RESEARCH for the Norse Encampment -Daily Life in the Viking Age circa 1000 AD at Vinland. The Viking Encampment living history program at Parks Canada L'Anse aux Meadows NHSC in Newfoudland

the Norse Encampment Living History for the Viking Age

The 'Norse Encampment' is the collective name given to a series of living history programs, which illustrate daily life in the Viking Age. Historic interpreters, employing replica objects, bring the past to life through typical activities of the Norse, and portraying historic styled characters. Throughout the series exceptional care was taken to ensure everything involved in a presentation was reflective of current archaeological research. One cornerstone of all the presentations was reference to the Vinland voyages by the Norse, circa 1000 AD.

	Encampment INDEX
	L'Anse aux Meadows NHSC
	Artifacts and Replicas
	A Teachers Guide
	Research
	Interpreting the Viking Age
	Experimental Iron Smelting
	Dark Ages Re-creation Company
	from the Wareham Forge
	LINKS

Research

In this section...

	Lessons from the Viking Age	This academic paper was written in early 1998 about various aspects of the Interpretive program developed for L' Anse aux Meadows NHS. The version available here was given at the 27th Annual Association for Living Historical Farms & Agricultural Museums (ALHFAM) Conference at University of Waterloo. This version deals with more of the practical aspects of the creation and operation of the Viking Encampment program.
	Knives from the Viking Age	This is a draft version (2007) of an ongoing research project to gather together artifact evidence from a number of sources into an overview of knives from the Viking Age. Although not a finished report, it may prove interesting to re-enactors and bladesmiths.
	World of the Norse	The World of the Norse was a stand alone exhibit created in 2001 for the Cranbrook Institute of Science. View a virtual tour of the three 'room settings' and hundreds of individual replicas that made up the exhibit
	Experimental IRON SMELTING	How did the Norse during the Viking Age make iron blooms from bog ore? Experimental Archaeology can give insight into the techniques used in Northern Europe to operate direct reduction iron smelting furnaces. Because of the extensive work in this area since 2001, Iron Smelting documentation is given its own section
	Continuing Adventures in Early Iron Production	An overview of experimental iron smelts, 2001 - 2008. Friends of the Medieval Studies Society of the Royal Ontario Museum 1st Annual Symposium March 2006. Revised for publication, December 2008 " This paper outlines the experiments ... undertaken to date, the results and lessons learned, and discusses some insights that may be of interest to the larger community of researchers."
	Iron Smelting in Vinland	Converting Archaeological Evidence to Practical Method. Presented at 'Forward Into the Past', Wilfred Laurier University, April, 2010 The full text of the revised version (V3 - June 2010) available as a PDF.
	“But if you don't get any IRON...”	Towards an effective method for small iron smelting furnaces. " This essay will concentrate on describing a proven working system, based on Migration Era models, which has repeatedly produced historic type iron blooms. " An article prepared for the journal EuroREA, scheduled for publication in the Spring 2011 issue.

Knives from the Viking Age

This is a draft version of an ongoing research project to gather together artifact evidence from a number of sources into an overview of knives from the Viking Age. Although not a finished report, it may prove interesting to re-enactors and bladesmiths.

Knives from the Viking Age

Readers are also referred to:

Hammered Out Bits

This ongoing blog collection contains many shorter 'articles in progress' discussing aspects of both iron smelting and metalworking from the Viking Age, as well as topics of interest to historic re-enactors in general. A separate index is also available (updated quarterly).

Did you find any of these articles useful? Help support the continuing research with a $1 donation via Paypal.

Educational Materials available from the Wareham Forge

FORGING the Viking Age

ISBN 978-0-9783284-2-9

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A special combination of practical work and historical background that will be of interest to historic blacksmiths and those involved in Early Medieval living history.

This 2 1/2 hour program documents the creation of a number of the forged metal objects created for the 1997 'Viking Encampment' Program at L'Anse aux Meadows NHSC for Parks Canada. The program contains commentary on objects from the Viking Age, details on how the pieces were produced and forging sequences.

DVD format

each program comes packaged in a plastic case

Check this segment : 'Cauldron Hanger Elements'

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ISBN 978-0-9783284-3-6

Of interest to working blacksmiths, the student of history or those attempting to re-create the Early Medieval period.

Experimental IRON SMELTING in the Viking Age - is a multi-platform CD-ROM documenting ongoing experiments re-creating both SMELTING and FORGING of the Norse metalsmiths. The greatly expanded version 2 now contains almost 2000 images, working plans, experiment notes and articles.

Multi-Platform CD-ROM format comes packaged in a jewel case

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Exploring the Viking Age in Denmark

ISBN 978-0-9783284

Of special interest to anyone interested in the the Viking Age, or is thinking of traveling to Denmark.

This DATA DVD disk contains over 400 large format images (most 1600 X 1200 dpi), each with notes. The publication also contains many commentaries on both the individual museums, but also travel around Denmark in general. The overall stress is on materials related to the Viking Age. Inside your computer, the contents are arranged like a giant self contained web site - some 1.7 gig of information all told! In a table top DVD player, you can view just the images in extra large size as a 'slide show'.

Multi-Platform DATA DVD format comes packaged in a jewel case

Darrell Markewitz
Interpretive Program Designer

The Wareham Forge
The Hamlet of Wareham, R.R. #2
Proton Station, Ontario
CANADA - N0C 1L0
(519) 923-9219 // info@warehamforge.ca

Who is Darrell Markewitz?