Date: 14 May 2025

 

Yorkshire Museum Announces Major Exhibition:

‘Viking North’ Opens Friday 11 July 2025

 

Viking Treasures Reveal the North’s Power Base

As the premier museum in the north of England for ancient objects and rare finds,      The Yorkshire Museum in the city of York, announces its forthcoming major exhibition, Viking North, which opens Friday 11 July 2025.

 

Filled with magnificent objects, many unseen for generations and others which have never been on public display, this is the best collection of Viking finds to be shown outside London and tells the story of the Viking Age in the North of England from 866 to 1066.  Underpinned by new archaeological research and cutting-edge technology, the exhibition combines objects from Yorkshire Museum’s own collection, the Vale of York hoard, co-owned with the British Museum, and specially loaned national and regional items including objects from the Viking Army Camp at Aldwark in North Yorkshire. This combination of artefacts shown together for the first time, reflect the north as the power base for the Vikings. Many of these items in gold and silver are of high value and prestige – our version of ‘bling’ – that deemed to show the power, wealth and skills of the Viking people who lived in Yorkshire and the wider north of England.

Dr Adam Parker, Curator of Archaeology at York Museums Trust says: “Viking North is a story of geopolitical change and a clash of cultures. A story enhanced by the inclusion of loans from other museum partners and private individuals. This exhibition will enable generations of visitors to benefit from the successes of these partnerships.  When the Viking Great Army arrived in the North of England in AD 866, everything changed. Anglo-Saxon kings were defeated, new territories and allegiances rose and fell, new identities were forged, and new international connections were made. The story will be brought alive by the emergent research into these temporary, mobile towns in the late 9^th century as these settlers expanded their geographical locations and made England their home. This major exhibition is a chance to marvel at, explore and understand the true story of the Vikings in the north.”

• This is the largest group of Viking objects on display in England with artefacts displayed across five themes within Vikings North: Viking Great Army Invasions

• From Yorkshire to the World: International Links
• Making of Viking Age England: Danelaw and Jorvik
• Hammer, Cross, Beasts and Dragons: Objects and Art
• Change and continuity: Yorkshire and the North

Displayed with added atmosphere alongside the internal ruins of the Abbey at Museum   Gardens on which the Yorkshire Museum is built, the world class objects on display include:

• The renowned York Helmet found in Coppergate in York – the best preserved helmet from Early Medieval England.
• A Silver-gilt bowl found with sword in a Viking burial in Cumbria.
• The Bedale Hoard, an extraordinary collection of precious items including silver from the Middle East.
• A Silk Cap preserved in the waterlogged soil of Coppergate in York evidencing the imported style and prosperity that the Vikings enjoyed
• The Vale of York Hoard; 700 pieces of gold and silver jewellery and coins found near Harrogate in 2007 – the most significant Viking silver find in 150 years.
• A Bone Pricker and pins presenting strange and unusual beasts as an important elements in Viking art.

• The exhibition additionally includes
• A newly-discovered and unparalleled Thor’s pendant made in silver with gold inlay reflecting pagan belief.
• A Stone Cross, the finest piece of Anglo-Scandinavian carving from York.
• A Walrus Ivory seal which, when pressed into wax, gave tax collector Snarrus’ his official signature and displayed his Norse name.

Viking North is shown alongside current exhibitions, including Star Carr: Life After the Ice, and will run until 2027. These concurrent exhibitions enable us to place the Vikings in the context of the history of Britain and the Viking influences in the North of England.  To compliment Viking North, York Museums Trust has created a programme of engaging events, including those appropriate for schools and groups, with the exhibition extending a strong leaning towards an adult audience.

 

ENDS

 

 

 

For attendance at our press preview on Wednesday 9 July from 9am to 12 noon, please contact Kendra Grahame-Clarke on 07910 214474.

For further information, please contact Siona Mackelworth, Head of Communications & Marketing: siona.mackelworth@ymt.org.uk / 07483 825647 Amy Cope, Public Relations Officer on amy.cope@ymt.org.uk or Kendra Grahame-Clarke kendra@kendrapr.co.uk / 07910 214474.

 

Photo Credits:

Images courtesy of York Museums Trust.

 

Yorkshire Museum opens Tuesday to Sunday 10am to 5pm. Tickets for Yorkshire Museum are £9.50 per adult and £4.75 per child. Concessions available. Ticket valid for 12 months. Children of York residents are free. Visit www.yorkshiremuseum.org.uk

 

Notes to Editors:

 

Key artefacts within the exhibition include:

 

The York Helmet

The wonderfully preserved York Helmet was discovered in several carefully deconstructed pieces. It helps us understand how these helmets were made, used, and stored. The helmet is an iron cap with brass edging and a mail neck guard. It is beautifully decorated with tiny animals. The inscription on the band reveals the name of its owner – Oshere. In abbreviated Latin across the two bands it reads: “In the name of our Lord Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and God; and to all we say Amen. Oshere. Christ.” The helmet was undoubtedly a prized possession and a great status symbol for the owner. We believe that Oshere was a nobleman and may well have been a member of the Northumbrian royal family, the most powerful dynasty in England at the time.

Silver-gilt bowl

A Viking warrior was buried at Ormside in Cumbria. As well as a sword, he was found buried with a great treasure in the form of a silver-gilt bowl. It is one of the finest pieces of Anglo-Saxon silverwork found in England. The valuable materials combined with prominent Christian symbolism on the bowl suggest that it was taken from a holy site and represents some of the best evidence for Viking raids of holy places.

The Bedale Hoard

​The Bedale Hoard reveals many diverse and complex international connections. A wide silver bracelet is of Irish origin, a twisted neck ring comes from Russia, and other objects were made in England and Scandinavia.

The ingots look identical, but inspection of the small amounts of lead within them shows that the silver for some comes from England and others from sources in Asia. Archaeologists also found mixed signals showing that some ingots and adornments were made from several melted silver objects. Viking silver was repeatedly crafted, used, traded, cut up, recycled and re-made. Tiny cuts were made by a trader cutting into the silver with a knife to ensure its authenticity. The oldest objects in the hoard are pieces of gold from the grip and pommel of an Anglo-Saxon sword. The highest value elements were stripped from the iron blade – the gold was kept and the iron discarded. The goldwork was old by the time it was deposited in the ground.   Acquired under the Treasure Act 1996. Purchased with the aid of a grant from the Victoria and Albert Museum Purchase Grant Fund and Art Fund support, 2014.

Silk Cap

The international networks of the Viking settlers in the North brought new objects to the region. Materials from elsewhere like soapstone, amber, and silk became much more popular. Styles and traditions blended and so people began to adopt different types of clothing and jewellery. The styles of art and decoration on metalwork, pottery and carvings linked people in the Viking North to craftspeople thousands of miles away. In the 1980s archaeologists working at Coppergate in York discovered amazing evidence of the Viking town. Waterlogged soil had preserved fragile organic materials like wood, bone and textile. Archaeologists found fragments of silk, including an almost complete silk cap.   Silk was incredibly rare in the Viking North because it was not made locally. Silk-weaving is a Chinese technology, but by the 10th century, the practice had reached the Arabian peninsula, the Byzantine Empire, parts of North Africa and Spain. Silk used to make the cap must have been imported from one of these places. The fine, pale toned material would have been recognised in the town as a highly expensive and exotic fashion item.

Vale of York Hoard

The wealth and far-reaching connections of the Viking North are highlighted in the many hoards discovered in the region. Hoards were deposited as offerings, for security in a time without banks, or in the face of uncertainty or danger.  The borders of the Danelaw were never wholly secure. Political instability caused by power struggles between Viking and Saxon kings may explain the number of hoards buried in and around the region. The most significant of these is the Vale of York hoard.  It was discovered by two metal detectorists near Harrogate, North Yorkshire, in 2007. With over 700 pieces of gold and silver jewellery and coins found in a rare silver-gilt vessel, this remarkable collection represents the most important Viking discovery in England in more than 150 years.  The hoard was buried originally in a lead container. Its contents include a gold arm-ring, 67 pieces of silver including 5 arm-rings and chopped up fragments of brooches, ingots and rods. These are known as hacksilver.

617 coins were also found in a silver-gilt vessel. It has been possible to date the burial of the hoard precisely, to AD 927/8, shortly after the Anglo-Saxon king Athelstan took control of the Viking kingdom of Northumbria. This hoard is remarkable for its size, the range of its contents and the rarity and quality of many of the pieces in it.  The owner packed the majority of the hoard into this beautifully decorated silver-gilt cup. Engraved within the vine scrolls are six panels which show a hunting scene with lions and stags. The metalsmith enhanced the detail using an alloy called niello, creating a black contrast against the golden background.   The style of decoration suggests that the cup was made in a workshop in the northern part of the Carolingian Empire (modern France) during the mid-9th century. The cup was commissioned and used at a wealthy monastery. Acquired under the Treasure Act 1996. Purchased with the aid of grants from the National Heritage Memorial Fund, Art Fund (with a contribution from the Wolfson Foundation), British Museum Challenge Fund and Public Appeal, 2009.

 

Bone Pricker and pins

Strange and unusual beasts were important elements in Viking art. Sometimes they were mythical beasts from sagas and stories, like the dragon Fafnir. Wearing objects carved with beasts showed an understanding of the stories and sagas

 

Thor’s pendant

Pagan Vikings wore pendants in the shape of the hammer of the god Thor after seeing Christians wearing cross pendants. In Scandinavia these pendants were very detailed. Most English examples are plain silver hammers. A recent discovery in Yorkshire sits between these traditions and includes a tiny gold hammer inlaid into the silver pendant. The person wearing this wanted to tell a clear story of their religious identity

 

Stone cross

The finest piece of Anglo-Scandinavian carving from York is a section of a large cross found at Newgate Street. It includes artistic elements from before the Viking period, some that are purely Scandinavian, and others that blend the two. This is the mark of a carver known as ‘the York Master’ – a professional artisan whose work is found across York.

 

Walrus ivory-seal

Scandinavian influences survived in the North long after the Norman invasion. A tax collector named Snarrus made a seal out of walrus-ivory in the 12th century. Pressed into wax, the seal was his official signature and displayed his Norse name.