How did the Viking's live?
Have you ever wondered how Vikings lived? What were their homes like? What did they make? Let’s take a closer look at everyday life in Viking York, also known as Jorvik.
York has roots stretching all the way back to AD 71, when the Romans founded a fortress here called Eboracum. Later, Anglo-Saxons settled here and called the city Eoforwic. When the Vikings conquered the city, they changed the name to Jorvik. Like many towns and cities, York grew and changed over time as it became more and more important.
Thanks to archaeological discoveries, such as the Coppergate excavation, we know a great deal about what life was like in Viking-age York.
The Houses of Jorvik
A lot of what we know about Jorvik comes from excavations of four Viking-age building plots on Coppergate. Up until the middle of the 10th century, many buildings in this area of Viking-age York were single-storey structures. They were usually about 7 metres long and 4.5 metres wide – about the length of a large delivery van. Everything happened inside this single building, from cooking and sleeping to making and repairing everyday objects.
Although these houses were built during the Viking Age, their size and construction weren’t particularly Scandinavian. Instead, they seem to have followed building styles already used in Anglo-Saxon England. Similar houses may have stood elsewhere in Jorvik and have also been found at other English settlements from this period.
These houses were built using wooden posts placed into the ground to support a thatched roof. The walls used thin woven branches called wattle, woven between the posts. Some houses also had earth benches running along the walls, with more wattlework helping to hold them in place.
At the centre of each building was a large hearth. This would have been one of the most important parts of the home, providing warmth, light and a place to cook food. Around some hearths, people reused Roman tiles, building stones or pieces of wood to create a border.
The floors were simply made of earth. Over time, small amounts of rubbish, food waste and the occasional misplaced object built up in layers on the floor, becoming trampled into the earth as people walked over them. While this might sound messy to us, these layers of everyday life have helped archaeologists discover what people did inside their homes hundreds of years ago.
A Growing City
As Jorvik grew, so did its buildings. By the 960s and 970s, the earlier post-and-wattle houses were replaced by a new style of building with a small cellar or basement area underneath.
These cellared buildings were made using strong oak planks and helped people make better use of the limited space available in the busy town. The cellar could have been used for storage, helping families and craftspeople keep their belongings, tools and goods safe.
There is evidence that some buildings were arranged in two rows along parts of Coppergate, showing just how crowded and important this part of Jorvik had become. As more people arrived to live, trade and work in the city, space became increasingly valuable.
A City of Craftspeople
If you walked through Jorvik, one of the first things you’d notice would be the noise.
Under the Vikings, Jorvik became an important centre for making and selling goods. The evidence from Coppergate shows that many people worked in and around their homes.
Jorvik was in a great location for trade. The River Ouse and River Foss connected the city to the wider world, allowing raw materials to arrive from nearby countryside and from much further away. Skilled craftspeople then transformed these materials into everyday objects that people needed.
One example is the name Coppergate itself. It comes from Old Norse words meaning ‘the street of the cup-makers’. During excavations, archaeologists discovered hundreds of wooden cores left behind from making cups and bowls on a rotary pole-lathe.
These wooden vessels were the everyday tableware of the time, and the evidence suggests that cup-makers were producing them on a large scale. However, woodworking was just one of many trades taking place in 10th-century Coppergate.
Metalworking
Archaeologists found evidence of the entire metalworking process at Coppergate, from raw materials and tools through to finished objects. Metalworkers made iron objects such as knives, tools and dress accessories. They also created jewellery in gold and silver for anyone with particularly deep pockets, alongside more affordable versions made from lead and copper alloys. These workshops used materials from across the Viking world. Gold and silver arrived from places such as Europe and Ireland, copper and lead came from the Pennines, and tin was brought from Cornwall.
Even some of the tools used by craftspeople travelled long distances. Crucibles used for metalworking came from Lincolnshire, while some ingot moulds were made from stone that archaeologists can trace back to places such as Shetland and Scandinavia.
Coin Striking
During the Coppergate dig, we discovered two Viking-age coin dies. These were used by placing a piece of silver between two engraved metal stamps and striking them with a hammer to stamp a design onto a coin.
One of the dies was probably made in Jorvik during the 920s. It carries the words SKIPE TRIO, a shortened Latin version of the name Saint Peter, the patron saint of York Minster. It also shows a sword and a hammer. The hammer is thought to represent Thor, the Norse god of thunder.
Having both Christian and Norse symbols together on the same coin suggests that people in Jorvik may have been influenced by different beliefs at the same time. The city was changing, with Viking traditions and Christianity existing side by side.
The other coin die was also made in Jorvik and has an Anglo-Saxon design. It reads EDELSTAN REX TO BRI, meaning “Aethelstan, King of all Britain”. Aethelstan recaptured York from Viking rule in AD 927, showing how control of the city changed hands during this period.
You can see both the original coin dies in the JORVIK artefact gallery.
Buy a JORVIK coin when you book your JORVIK tickets and we’ll have it ready for you when you arrive.
Other Crafts and Trades
Leatherworking
Craftspeople in Jorvik made all kinds of everyday objects. We have found evidence of leatherworkers making and repairing shoes and crafting items such as belts, straps, decorated sheaths and sword scabbards. Large piles of leather off-cuts found at Coppergate show where this work took place. We have also discovered the tools they used, including iron punches, awls (used for making holes in leather) and creasers (used to add decorative lines).
Metalworkers probably made these tools, showing how closely different crafts were connected. A blacksmith might make the tools a leatherworker needed, while a leatherworker could repair the blacksmith’s shoes or equipment. In Jorvik, different trades relied on each other to keep the city working.
Working with Bone and Antler
Vikings were skilled at making use of the materials around them. In Jorvik, people shaped bone and antler into many useful objects, including combs, pins, strap-ends and handles for tools.
Combs were some of the most common objects found at Coppergate. Just like today, they were used to keep hair tidy, although they also helped deal with a less welcome problem: head lice! Archaeologists have found evidence of every stage of comb production, from antler off-cuts to finished combs. To make a comb, several plates were joined together with metal rivets before the teeth were carefully cut. Many were decorated with detailed patterns, showing that even everyday objects could be beautifully made.
Bone and antler were also used for more unusual objects. Archaeologists have found finger rings, gaming pieces, pins for clothing, strap-ends for belts, ice skates and handles for knives and other tools. One of the more unusual objects found at Coppergate is what we call a buzz bone. These small pieces of bone had holes drilled through them. When a twisted cord was threaded through and pulled from both ends, the bone would spin and create a humming or buzzing sound. They were a little bit like the fidget spinners of the Viking Age.
What the Soil Can Tell Us
Because York sits on waterlogged soil beside the Rivers Ouse and Foss, many objects became buried in wet, oxygen-poor soil. Without much oxygen, things rot much more slowly. Thanks to these unusual conditions, archaeologists have uncovered all sorts of objects and materials that would normally have disappeared hundreds of years ago.
We’ve found a variety of plant remains, including twigs, wood chips and straw from the buildings, as well as grasses and heather that were probably used as bedding (the Viking version of a mattress, folks). The soil even preserved everyday rubbish and waste from Viking-age York (but don’t worry – we’ll get to the gross bit later).
Together, these discoveries help us understand what grew here, what people ate, how they built their homes and even what everyday life was really like over 1,000 years ago.
Plant-Life in Jorvik
Among the earliest Viking-age buildings at Coppergate, archaeologists found straw, cereal chaff (the husks left behind after harvesting grain), twigs, oak and holly leaves, woodland moss and even the remains of cornfield weeds. One particularly helpful discovery was a woodland snail. Because this species normally lives in woodland, its presence suggests that people collected leaf litter and other woodland plants and brought them into the city to use as floor coverings.
Archaeologists also found evidence of insects from peatland habitats, even though very little peat itself survived. Peat is a dark, soil-like material made from partly decayed plants. During the Viking Age it could have been used as a fuel, so it may have helped keep homes warm.
There was also evidence of plants used for making dyes. Greenweed, despite its name, was actually used to create yellow dyes, while woad was an important source of blue. Ash from household hearths could also be used during the dyeing process. Archaeologists even found a patch of madder dye in the soil, left behind when dye-bath waste was dumped. Madder was used to create orange-red colours, and enough had survived for archaeologists to have a go at dyeing with it themselves – more than 1,000 years later!
Insects
We might not think about insects very often, but they can tell archaeologists a surprising amount about life in Viking-age York. Evidence of honeybees and beeswax has been found at Coppergate. The honey would have been eaten, while the beeswax had many uses, including helping leatherworkers lubricate their thread when stitching leather together. Large numbers of sheep lice and keds suggest that wool was being cleaned and processed nearby. Archaeologists also found human fleas and head lice, reminding us that keeping clean was much harder than it is today.
There were plenty of other insects too, including houseflies and woodworm beetles. Although Viking homes were probably damp by modern standards, people seem to have lived alongside these tiny visitors without paying them much attention. Interestingly, later buildings with wooden plank floors appear to have been cleaner and drier than the earlier houses, although insects were still very much part of everyday life.
Food and Waste
There’s no polite way of saying this, so let’s get it out of the way now—we’re going to talk about poo! As odd as it sounds, it has taught archaeologists an amazing amount about Viking life. Some of the most surprising discoveries at Coppergate came from preserved human coprolites (archaeological poo, fossilised in the ground). They might not look very exciting, but they can tell archaeologists an incredible amount about how people lived.
One famous example is the Lloyds Bank Coprolite, which you can see in the JORVIK artefact gallery. It revealed that its owner had parasitic worms, as well as a diet that included foods such as wheat and barley. Archaeologists have also found evidence of materials that may have been used instead of toilet paper, including woollen yarn and large branching mosses.
Other rubbish pits contained all sorts of everyday waste- one pit alone produced charred bread, around 200 fruit stones, eel and herring bones, feathers, bracket fungus and even preserved dog poo! The small number of insects in these pits suggests that rubbish built up quickly before people covered it over.
These discoveries in the soil also help us understand more about what people ate. Archaeologists have found evidence of rowan berries, bilberries, walnuts, dill, celery seed, cherries and edible oils made from hemp and linseed.
It might not sound glamorous, but ancient rubbish, insects and even preserved poo have helped archaeologists build one of the cleanest pictures of everyday life in Viking-age York.
A City Full of Life
When we think about the Vikings, it’s easy to imagine fierce warriors setting sail in longships. But life in Jorvik was about much more than raiding and battles. Archaeologists have uncovered evidence of busy homes, skilled craftspeople, hardworking traders and families going about their everyday lives. They have found workshops where people made cups, combs, shoes and jewellery, houses that changed as the city grew, and even rubbish that reveals what people ate over 1,000 years ago.
Thanks to the remarkable conditions beneath the streets of York, we’ve been able to learn a huge amount about everyday life in Viking-age Jorvik – including details that haven’t survived at many other Viking settlements. Every discovery, from a beautifully decorated comb to a well-used shoe or even a preserved coprolite, helps archaeologists piece together the story of the people who once lived here.