The JORVIK Viking Centre is a museum

Museum

A museum is an institution that cares for a collection of artifacts and other objects of scientific, artistic, cultural, or historical importance and makes them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary. Most large museums are located in major cities...

 and visitor attraction in York

York

York is a walled city, situated at the confluence of the Rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. The city has a rich heritage and has provided the backdrop to major political events throughout much of its two millennia of existence...

, England. It was created by the York Archaeological Trust

York Archaeological Trust

The York Archaeological Trust for Excavation and Research Limited is an educational charity, established in 1972 in the City of York. It carries out archaeological investigations, fieldwork, excavation and research in York, Yorkshire and throughout Britain and beyond.It also created and now runs...

.

Background

Cravens, a firm of confectioners

Confectionery

Confectionery is the set of food items that are rich in sugar, any one or type of which is called a confection. Modern usage may include substances rich in artificial sweeteners as well...

 founded in 1803, relocated from their factory in Coppergate, a street in central York, in 1966. Between 1976 and 1981, after the factory was eventually demolished, and prior to the building of the Coppergate Shopping Centre

Coppergate Shopping Centre

Coppergate Shopping Centre is a Shopping Centre in the centre of York in North Yorkshire, England.- History :Prior to the development of the shopping centre, archaeologists started digging on the site, which had been a sweet factory...

 (an open-air pedestrian shopping centre which now occupies the enlarged site), the York Archaeological Trust conducted extensive excavations in the area. Well-preserved remains of some of the timber

Lumber

Lumber or timber is wood in any of its stages from felling through readiness for use as structural material for construction, or wood pulp for paper production....

 building

Building

In architecture, construction, engineering, real estate development and technology the word building may refer to one of the following:...

s of the Viking

Viking

The term Viking is customarily used to refer to the Norse explorers, warriors, merchants, and pirates who raided, traded, explored and settled in wide areas of Europe, Asia and the North Atlantic islands from the late 8th to the mid-11th century.These Norsemen used their famed longships to...

 city of Jorvík were discovered, along with workshop

Workshop

A workshop is a room or building which provides both the area and tools that may be required for the manufacture or repair of manufactured goods...

s, fence

Fence

A fence is a freestanding structure designed to restrict or prevent movement across a boundary. It is generally distinguished from a wall by the lightness of its construction: a wall is usually restricted to such barriers made from solid brick or concrete, blocking vision as well as passage .Fences...

s, animal pens, privies

Outhouse

An outhouse is a small structure separate from a main building which often contained a simple toilet and may possibly also be used for housing animals and storage.- Terminology :...

, pits and well

Water well

A water well is an excavation or structure created in the ground by digging, driving, boring or drilling to access groundwater in underground aquifers. The well water is drawn by an electric submersible pump, a trash pump, a vertical turbine pump, a handpump or a mechanical pump...

s, together with durable materials and artefacts of the time, such as pottery

Pottery

Pottery is the material from which the potteryware is made, of which major types include earthenware, stoneware and porcelain. The place where such wares are made is also called a pottery . Pottery also refers to the art or craft of the potter or the manufacture of pottery...

, metalwork

Metalworking

Metalworking is the process of working with metals to create individual parts, assemblies, or large scale structures. The term covers a wide range of work from large ships and bridges to precise engine parts and delicate jewelry. It therefore includes a correspondingly wide range of skills,...

 and bone

Bone

Bones are rigid organs that constitute part of the endoskeleton of vertebrates. They support, and protect the various organs of the body, produce red and white blood cells and store minerals. Bone tissue is a type of dense connective tissue...

s. Unusually, wood

Wood

Wood is a hard, fibrous tissue found in many trees. It has been used for hundreds of thousands of years for both fuel and as a construction material. It is an organic material, a natural composite of cellulose fibers embedded in a matrix of lignin which resists compression...

, leather

Leather

Leather is a durable and flexible material created via the tanning of putrescible animal rawhide and skin, primarily cattlehide. It can be produced through different manufacturing processes, ranging from cottage industry to heavy industry.-Forms:...

, textile

Textile

A textile or cloth is a flexible woven material consisting of a network of natural or artificial fibres often referred to as thread or yarn. Yarn is produced by spinning raw fibres of wool, flax, cotton, or other material to produce long strands...

s, and plant and animal remains

Body

With regard to living things, a body is the physical body of an individual. "Body" often is used in connection with appearance, health issues and death...

 from the period were also discovered, preserved in oxygen-deprived wet clay

Clay

Clay is a general term including many combinations of one or more clay minerals with traces of metal oxides and organic matter. Geologic clay deposits are mostly composed of phyllosilicate minerals containing variable amounts of water trapped in the mineral structure.- Formation :Clay minerals...

. In all, over 40,000 objects were recovered.

The Trust took the decision to recreate the excavated part of Jorvik on the site, peopled with figures, sounds and smells, as well as pigsties

Sty

A sty or pigsty is a small-scale outdoor enclosure for raising domestic pigs. It is sometimes referred to as a hog pen, hog parlor, pigpen, pig parlor, or pig-cote. Pigsties are generally fenced areas of bare dirt and/or mud. Both "sty" and "pigpen" are used as derogatory descriptions of dirty,...

, fish market

Fish market

A fish market is a marketplace used for marketing fish products. It can be dedicated to wholesale trade between fishermen and fish merchants, or to the sale of seafood to individual consumers, or to both...

 and latrine

Latrine

A latrine is a communal facility containing one or more commonly many toilets which may be simple pit toilets or in the case of the United States Armed Forces any toilet including modern flush toilets...

s, with a view to bringing the Viking city fully to life using innovative interpretative methods. The JORVIK Viking Centre which was designed by John Sunderland opened in April 1984. Since its formation, the Centre has had close to 20 million visitors.

The Centre today

In 2001, the Centre was refurbished and enlarged at a cost of £5 million. Visitors are currently taken back to 975 AD in a time-capsule, and then embark on a tour of a reconstructed Viking settlement. Beyond this is an extensive museum area, which combines an exhibition of some 800 finds from the site with interactive displays and the opportunity to learn about tenth-century life and to discuss it with "Viking" staff. Among the exhibits is a replica of the Coppergate Helmet

Coppergate Helmet

The Coppergate Helmet is an 8th century Anglo-Saxon crested helm in York. It has two cheek plates, a mail curtain and a nose-guard, and is richly decorated with brass ornamentation. On analysis it was found to be made of iron with decorations of brass containing approximately 85 percent copper...

, which was found near the site of the Centre and is now in the Yorkshire Museum

Yorkshire Museum

The Yorkshire Museum is a museum in York, England. It is the home of the Cawood sword, and has four permanent collections, covering biology, geology, archaeology and astronomy...

. A new museum was opened on 13 February 2010, coinciding with the start of the annual Viking Festival in York. The centre contains new exhibitions and features.

Viking Festival

The centre also organizes a annual Viking Festival that takes place in the second week of February. The festival is set up in tradition of an ancient Viking festival known as "Jolablot". The festival includes Combat reenactment

Combat reenactment

Combat reenactment is a side of historical reenactment which aims to depict historical forms of combat. This may refer to either single combat, melees involving small groups, or nearly full-scale battles with hundreds of participants....

involving volunteers from all over the world.

External links

• JORVIK Viking Centre website