OK, so not the real Vikings, but the Australian National Maritime Museum in Sydney is holding an exhibition on the History and culture of the Vikings, in conjunction with the Swedish History Museum. Nearly 500 rare artefacts will be on show at Darling Harbour, including the oldest known Scandinavian crucifix, small statuettes of norse gods, viking swords, jewellery, and hundreds of other items from 700-1100AD.
There is also an 8 metre replica of the Viking boat Krampmacken, as well as the Jorgen Jorgenson, a replica based on the Gokstad and Oseberg ships.
Which brings me to the second part of this post. Obviously, not everyone is able to make the trip to Sydney, not even I can see myself getting there. However, the Australian National Maritime Museum have their own blog on which they have been posting in the lead up to the exhibition. Most of the posts lately have been on the construction and outfitting of the Jorgen Jorgenson replica ship, and it is interesting what they have had to research in order to stay historically accurate. For example, when they were excavating and curating the original Gokstad ship the archaeologists found traces of yellow and black paint on the shields, which is replicated on the shields of the Jorgen Jorgenson.
You can have a look at the blog here (and have a look around at some other posts on Australian maritime history) or if you are interested in going to the Vikings exhibition, it opens on the 19 September and runs though til the end of November. Tickets are available on Ticketek. For more information the Exhibition website is here.
Related articles
- A Viking ship on Sydney Harbour – the artisans at work (anmm.wordpress.com)
- ‘Are we there yet?’ (ahgray.wordpress.com)
- The Vikings get their own Ipad App (ahgray.wordpress.com)
A H Gray 