Not just blood and jewels: many of our imaginations about the vikings.

Steven Ashby)/In the dialogue, does the popularity of Vikings only come from myths and adventure romantic stories, or are they more interesting games? Vikings have a lasting attraction in public consciousness and academic consciousness.

The stories surrounding them are always associated with the debate about whether the vikings were attackers or businessmen.

But this "predator-merchant" dichotomy has basically been shelved in academic circles, so I think it is more interesting to consider how and under what conditions these "pirates" series of characters appeared to track how our views on pirates have changed.

Our interests have never been politically neutral.

Therefore, the research in this period has an innate responsibility to write a book that is not only accurate in archaeology and history, but also responsible for society. The academic interest in Viking can be traced back to at least18th century, while the art and culture of Viking were integrated into the romantic movement in19th century.

In Scandinavia, this is combined with patriotism and manifested in a series of archaeological excavations.

In Britain, Viking is an important part of northern romanticism.

Their career was accepted by thinkers such as collingwood, Ruskin, Morris and Scott.

Later, in Germany, Viking phenomenon was included in the nationalist narrative, not only Wagner, but also Hitler's Aryan bag.

In 1930s, some important monuments held rallies and others were excavated. This is the largest pirate ship ever discovered. British Museum. (Source: Dialogue) In all this, a key component is the romance of exploration, the romance of conquest and the romance of landing.

Therefore, their fascination with the vikings aroused the cries of the imperialists, but this interpretation of the vikings did not come from this, and we can get other explanations.

In fact, in Britain, in the 1970s and 1980s, Vikings became Scandinavian settlers again: no longer marauders and mercenaries.

Now farmers and fishermen, businessmen and entrepreneurs.

Most evidence of Viking trade comes from urban excavation in the late 1970s and 1980s.

Thatcherism and mercantilism may contribute to this change, especially considering that many evidences are discovered through commercial excavation in urban environment.

In this way, the town is regarded as the center of many (non-Marxist) narratives in the Viking era.

The recasting of Vikings by the first generation of Millennium businessmen is still common in the mass media, and the subsequent development of Vikings originated from modern history.

In the 1990s, conflicts between Central Europe and Africa required archaeologists to re-examine the concept of race.

One result is a more careful consideration of Norwegian identity.

Peter Sawyer hinted earlier that the number of Scandinavian immigrants was overestimated.

This is consistent with the view that Viking-style objects need not be associated with traditional Nordic individuals.

This period continues to be regarded as the melting pot of Europe in 2 1 century, which is the background of Scandinavian nation-States.

Recently, however, people put forward a broader perspective: the vikings were also a group of marine pioneers.

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In this mode, we vikings are neither violent nor primitive capitalists.

They're real people, Lewis Chase. British Museum. (Source: Dialogue) In fact, the Viking era was a militarized and economical world.

This is a world of conspicuous consumption, but it is also a world of intimidation, exploitation and opportunism.

One can imagine failed countries in the Balkan conflict, or warlord rule in Rwanda and Congo in the 1990s.

These analogies are not accurate, but they help to balance our worship of Viking charm and destruction.

Collecting, managing, displaying and distributing movable wealth was the core of Viking society and economy.

These warlords wear elaborate clothes, eye-catching American personal ornaments and body decoration to engage in personal beauty.

Therefore, they may be regarded as rich more easily than ragged barbarians.

Modern Viking, another turning point of the kaleidoscope, reflects our consumerist society, so it is not surprising (and correct) that we pay attention to the material culture of wealth and status today, but our understanding of these phenomena must be based on an appropriate social background.

If we continue to return to these mythical giants, then we should know that we are doing this because we see a part of ourselves in them.

Therefore, we should see some failures in them: prosperity is always based on the suffering of others.

Every warship, every silver reserve, is bound to conflict with social inequality in the past.

Such a narrative will undoubtedly be clearly visible in the exhibition of the British Museum, and we should also put forward the same requirements for the mass media.

We have a responsibility to pay attention to wealth and power so that we can see the buildings that support exploitation and oppression. Steven Ashby's article "More than Blood and Jewelry: Our Many Desires for the Vikings" was first published in Dialogue and reprinted under "Knowledge * * *".

This is the ancient origin team, and this is our mission: "to stimulate open learning of our past by sharing research, education and knowledge, so as to improve our future." Read Mor.