Day reading Passage (Australian culture and culture shock)

Viking Ireland
A recent excavation in Dublin challenges long-held ideas about when the Scandinavian
raiders known as Vikings arrived in Ireland
A 
When Irish archaeologists working under Dublin’s South Great George’s Street 
unearthed the remains of four young men buried with fragments of Viking shields, 
daggers and personal ornaments, the excavation appeared to be simply more 
evidence of the Viking presence in Ireland. At least 77 Viking burial sites have been 
found across the basis of artefacts that accompanied them, and the South Great 
George’s Street burials seemed to be further examples. Yet when archaeologist Linzi 
Simpson sent the remains for analysis, the tests showed that men had been buried in 
Irish soil years, or even decades, before the accepted date for the establishment of 
the first year-round Viking settlement in Dublin.
В 
Simpson’s findings are now adding new weight to an idea gaining growing
acceptance - that instead of a sudden, calamitous invasion, the arrival of the Vikings 
in Ireland started with small-scale settlements and trade links connected Ireland 
with northern Europe. And, further, that those trading contacts may have occurred 
generations before the violent raids described un contemporary texts, works written 
by monks living in isolated monasteries. These were often the only places where 
literate people lived and were especially targeted by Viking raiders for their food 
suppliers and treasures.
Scholars are continuing to examine the texts written by monks, but are also 
considering the limitations of using them. ‘Most researches accept now that the 
raids were not the first contact, as the old texts suggest,’ says Viking expert Gareth 
Williams. ‘How did the Vikings know where all those monasteries were? It’s because 
there was already contact. They were already trading before those raids happened.’
С 
Although the earlier dates for a Viking presence in Dublin that have been identified 
by Simpson and independent archeologists differ from the later dates by only a few 
decades, when combined with other evidence, they are challenging the chronology 
of Viking settlement in Ireland. Since the 1960s, archaeologists have been gathering 
information about the mid-ninth-century settlement that lay under the sidewalks 
of Fishamble Street in Dublin. According to archeologist Ruth Jonson, the Vikings 
started with sporadic summer raids, but after some years of profitable plunder, they 
decided to stay, and built settlements for the winter.
D 
Carbon dating, which measures the age of organic materials based on the amount 
of radioactive carbon 14 remaining in a specimen, usually gives a range of likely 
dates for the time of death. The older the material, the wider the range. In the case 
of the four individuals excavated at the South Great George’s Street site, Simpson 
found that two of them had a 95 per cent probability of having died between 670 and 
680, with a 68 per cent probability of death occurring between 690 and 790. Thus, 
the entire most likely range was before the first documented arrival of Vikings in 
795. A third individual lived slightly later, with a 95 per cent probability of having died 
between 680 and 882. The dates were not what Simpson had thought they would

---

Day 11
be. These dates seem impossibly early and difficult to reconcile with the available 
historical and archeological sources,’ she says.
E 
The fourth individual excavated at South Great George’s Street was the most intact 
of the group, and revealed the most about the lives and hardships of Vikings at this 
time. A powerfully built man in his late teens or early 20s, he was approximately 
1,70m. tall by the day’s standards, with the muscular torso and upper limbs that 
would have come from hard, ocean-going rowing. His bones showed streets 
associated with heavy lifting beginning in childhood. Unlike the three other men, he 
was not buried with weapons. Like one of the other men found at the site, he had a 
congenital deformity at the base of his spine, perhaps indicating they were relatives. 
Carbon dating gave a wider range for his lifetime, showing a 95 per cent probability 
he died between 786 and 955.
F 
Tests were also carried out on the four South Great George’s Street men’s isotopic 
oxygen levels. Such tests indicate where a person spent their childhood based on 
a chemical signature left by groundwater in developing teeth. The results showed 
that the two men with the spinal had spent their childhood in Scandinavia. However, 
the other two had spent their childhoods in Ireland or Scotland, another sign of 
permanent settlement by Viking families and not just summertime raids by warriors.
G 
The evidence of an earlier-than-expected Viking presence in Ireland, based as it is 
on forensic tests conducted on a handful of burials, may seem slight. But seemingly 
small pieces of evidence can overturn well-established conventions in archaeology. 
Both Simpson and Johnson stress more excavations and tests will be needed before 
anyone can rewrite the history of Viking settlement, and such work is years away. 
Williams adds, There are two possibilities raised by (Simpson’s) work. Either there 
was Viking activity earlier than we’ve realized in Ireland, or there is something in the 
water or soil in Dublin skewing the data, and both possibilities need further research.’ 
Nevertheless, Williams agrees with Simpson and others that the chronology of the 
Viking presence in Ireland is uncertain, and that they were possibly trading or raiding 
in Ireland before 795. ‘It’s a poorly documented part of history,’ says Williams. But 
before there was Viking settlement, there was this big trading zone in the North Sea. 
Did it extend to the Irish Sea? We don’t have any evidence to say that, but it could be 
just a question of time.’

---

Match each statement with the correct expert, A, В or C.
Write the correct letter A, В or C, in boxes 20-23 on your answer sheet.