How Is Climate Change Revealing The Secrets of the Viking Age?

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Melting ice high up in the mountains of Norway has left behind traces of a world long lost to time. Archaeological excavations at Lendbreen have unearthed a host of items at incredibly high elevations dating back to the Viking Age and beyond. The nature of the finds and their volume suggests that these high up palces thought to be impassable were actually highways over which people and goods were being transported from the hinterland to the coastal settlements that connected them with a trading network that stretched out across the North Sea to Anglo-Saxon England and the Carolingian Empire as well as the Baltic and beyond.
Further Reading:
News Article Mentioned:
news.artnet.com/art-world/mel...
Article on Ice Patch Reindeer Hunting In Norway:
royalsocietypublishing.org/do...
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[@tessjuel]

13:40 "They did know about skiing at the time" is an understatement. We have evidence of skis being used in Norway as early as 3000-4000 B.C. and by the time of the the viking age, it was a well known and common way of getting around in winter.

[@andersaxmark5871]

The climate during the Viking age was warmer than it is today and sea levels were slightly higher than today The climate got substantially colder around 1300, and we’re still coming out of this little ice age The warmer medieval climate made Norse settlement in Greenland possible, and the shift to a colder climate may have been what finally caused those settlements to collapse

[@GilgameshEthics]

I actually prefer this format > your other videos. This sort of covering actual archeological finds really fits your expertise, and you do an excellent job contextualizing what might otherwise be information that totally goes over the heads of non history nerds. Or even people like me who are big time history hobbyists but have other professions so can't dedicate all our time to it. Anyways, thanks for this one. Really enjoyed it!

[@historywithhilbert146]

Thank you for the feedback! I'll do my best to make more of this kind of content in future :)

[@perperson199]

5:40 Yes, it is indeed quicker and easier to travel with skies in winter than on foot in summer. Skies were of course a part of the culture then as now 🎿🇳🇴

[@historywithhilbert146]

From the Lendbreen evidence it seems as well that a lot of travel was happening either on horseback or simply using them as pack animals as well as the likelihood of moving cattle for whom it would be a lot easier travelling through the snow rather than over scree.

[@klondikechris]

I am a Canadian Ranger in the Yukon, and it is FAR easier going off road in the winter. We do our patrols in the winter because getting around is so much easier. I can well understand mountain trading paths being more used in winter. The only problem is the lack of light in the far north in the winter.

[@joshpullman1690]

The climatic change at the end of the bronze age (cooling, sea ice extends) and the warming at the start of the Viking Age are quite convincing for the demise and rise, end of the bronze age we see a population pulse come out of scandinavia, less available arable land supported a smaller population and that reversed at the start of the Viking Age. In my mind it comes down to how many fighting age men you can muster and what resources you as a population can support. Ofc not the only factor and i think as you demonstrated it was the coinciding of factors at the same time which let the Viking Age happen. Great video I learned a lot as ever, I really like your work keep it up :)

[@historywithhilbert146]

Thank you very much! And you're absolutely right, having looked a little at how even slight changes in climate have massively influenced human civilisations across the world it's clear it had a hand in creating some of the circumstances necessary for the Viking Age as well.

[@Themistocles1993]

12:03 "there were walrusses" Shows picture of reindeer... :)

[@SailingKaiser]

Are you implying they aren't the same animal?

[@antemanhejsan2]

in the 18-1900s people of my village in swedish lappland "among others villages" used to trek over to norway during the winters with sleds and horses to trade with the norwegians. they were called norgefarare.

[@historywithhilbert146]

Wow - amazing that happened so recently! Thanks for sharing that!

[@ganjafi59]

antemanhejsan2 the Russian from Arkhangels and Murmansk did the same, coming to northern Norway via ships. It was called the pomor trade and started in 1740 and ended in 1917 because of the Russian revolution. The traders developed a Norwegian Russian pidgin language as well.

[@tomorbataar5922]

@@ganjafi59 There's still a remnant of the pomor trade actually, you don't need visas (just a renewable 3 year permit) to cross the border up there if you live in areas or cities close to it.

[@dovahkriid]

Hordaland is on the western part of Norway (bergen is lokatet in Hordaland) it is not in the far north.

[@Nortrix87]

Hålogaland would have bin right.

[@historywithhilbert146]

Yepp my bad meant to say Halgoland rather than Hordaland.

[@Nortrix87]

​@@historywithhilbert146 Easy mistake :)

[@fredriks5090]

@@historywithhilbert146 Not to be confused with Helgoland, Germany.

[@age3801]

If you use Magellan tv and live in Europe I recommend you to use a vpn because there are manies documentaries not accessible in Europe like "the Normans".

[@age3801]

I use a free vpn ;))

[@SailingKaiser]

@@age3801 I would recommend getting a paid VPN, either NordVPN or CyberGhost. Free VPN services are free for a reason.

[@micahistory]

Ice really preserves things very well. Now wonder there are so many well preserved remains in the North

[@timomastosalo]

So Vikings started the international on European + Mediterranean scale: and with their neighbours. Before that it was more like within the Roman sphere. In a way they set the foundation for the colonial sailing era a few centuries later. In Finland we also see Central and South Europe, plus Russia and Constantinople, maybe North Africa too. There are some Roman coins too, and Tacitus traveled to Scandinavia, and recorded descriptions about the Nordic nations.

[@baltichammer6162]

For many years historians/scholars have tried to figure out why the Norse suddenly burst out of Norway & Denmark. I think its within logical probability their populations expanded due to warm climate. Possibly same for the Cimbri (Jutland). Then there's that historical legend of the Goths whose population expanded and they drew lots to determine which 1/3 of the population had to move to other lands.

[@TheFarmersFarmington]

Speaking as someone who has traversed scree and snow trails scree is hell on the knees and feet descending snow is just slippery

[@SailingKaiser]

I was surprised when you mentioned Avaldsnes. I live about 30 minutes from there and it's quite popular with tourists during the summer. You should visit the museum, the authentic viking age farm and the old church sometime when it's safer to travel, Hilbert.

[@tessjuel]

5:42 Cairns - or varde (plural varder) as they are called in Norwegian - are still used a markers along mountain passages today. It's still quite common that they are buit over time, not in an organized effort but in a casual way by people passing by adding a rock or two if/when they feel like it.

[@andersengman3896]

Why would a warming climate be a bad thing, really? It was obviously warmer in the medieval warm period, since viking artifacts are found when the ice is melting.

[@benoitbvg2888]

Water levels rising, less food, more diseases, ecosystems collapsing, but at least we get some of that sweet sweet ancient horse shit.

[@okwathne]

Land has been rising in Norway since the last ice age, so ocean levels compared to land has been lowering, not rising.

[@jimmywayne983]

Historically horseshoes were not known to have been used in scandinavia until after the viking age. however sometimes in harsh winters horses were shod with iron spikes to better drag sleds. So if its a horseshoe that was found, it has to have been post viking age. Also, horse dung dosnt have to have a connection with humans, since wild horses did exsist in scandinavia back then, to my best knowledge the Fjord horse is said to have been bred from these wild horses, the fjord horse still exsist and is said to be the worlds oldest and purest horsebreed, migrated to norway as wild horses some 4000 years ago and has been selectively bred for atleast 2000 years. it became a popular farmhorse in norway.

[@andwhat]

Cannot wait to see what unseen artifacts have yet to be uncovered, but I do feel bad for the polar bears and things who need the ice to live on :(

[@KevinSmith-yh6tl]

Greta is that you?

[@DANEgerus]

Tree Rings matched against recovered Viking Ships prove the Medieval Warm Period allowed Nordic peoples to dwell in Greenland for 5 centuries... but cold chased them out. Can I get one of them 9th Century SUVs?

[@perperson199]

Yes please

[@magnusorn7313]

tree rings elsewhere show that this change was not global drop it with the SUV shtick and see the larger picture

[@micahistory]

At least this is helping archaeologists uncover more interesting stuff from the past

[@16voyeur]

Thank you!! Great channel!!

[@historywithhilbert146]

Thank you!

[@Robwolf28]

I think the Norse could also have been reindeer herders just as the Sami are.

[@historywithhilbert146]

Yeah they were actually and used different techniques to the Sámi. They would chase the reindeer and scare them with specially designed "scare-sticks" into traps etc and then shoot them whereas the Sámi technique is much more creeping up on them and shooting them when in range.

[@fdumbass]

I don't think so

[@CarlosSanchez-my7zg]

@@fdumbass why? Substantiate!

[@fdumbass]

@@CarlosSanchez-my7zg Nah I'm good. I just don't feel that way you know?

[@johnkilmartin5101]

The Sami moved from being hunter gatherers to pastoralism due to taxation imposed by the Norse kingdoms.

[@Artisan_crafts]

Good video👏. Also, your pronunciation of “Lendbreen” was really good. You almost sounded like a Norwegian for a second😊 Best regards from Trondheim- Norway.

[@ole7146]

Trade routes etc., the Norwegian language is probaly one of the most dialetical languages of the world, even today,, so Norwegians probaly didn’t move around that much within the country unless there was access through waterways.

[@perpotet4629]

Well we aren't so dialectical, the unique thing with Norway and dialects is that we are really proud of them. In most countries if a politician or someone else of higher standing speak dialect they get laughed at, even if the country has more dialects, and more varied

[@hannem9799]

@@perpotet4629 What sets Norwegian apart from most languages is that there’s no standardized spoken Norwegian. Even Scandinavians may get bewildered: Nothing like rigsdansk? Rikssvenska? Not really, even people working for the public broadcaster (NRK) are allowed to use their dialect.

[@kabalder]

There is very compelling linguistic evidence for how certain parts of the country became effectively isolated for a surprisingly long period at around year 900-1000. Like the south end of Østfold, that had been the center of the known world until then (yeah, you obviously laugh at that one now/Kaupang to Moss and Fredrikstad). While many other parts of the country, specially to the west, retained contact with the outside world and along the coast, mostly by trade (presumably because they were slightly more friendly to Christians at that critical time). In the same way you could also guess (and that is a lot more of a guess than the previous paragraph) - from the way the dialects have familiar sounds - at that these trade-routes towards the mountains like this were actively used, long after the organised trade before the 900s ceased, and maintained a certain link between Østfold and the northward areas on that side of the mountain, and then southwards and eastwards to Sweden. While this is separated, linguistically speaking, from the areas in Hordaland and southwards. So when physical evidence for that kind of trade-traffic was maintained, long after the trade-routes were assumed to be abandoned in the merovingian period - that this turns up is very interesting, for all kinds of reasons. Because we have sort of assumed that the dialects just morphed by osmosis as the farms crept northwards, generation for generation, like some kind of weird evolutionary tale of a lizard - even though this isn't really how people, or language works, of course.

[@perpotet4629]

@@hannem9799 That kinda what I mean by being proud of the dialects.

[@ole7146]

Hanne M , excatly! I as a Dane have meet Norwegians whom I understod completly and others I understod 50%. Every now and then I zap through tv channels and watch a Norwegian debat program and again, some of them I understand completly and others 50%.

[@perperson199]

12:08 Hordaland is the area around Bergen, not the Arctic. Hilbert?

[@haniwa7006]

he probably meant trondelag

[@historywithhilbert146]

Per Person Yepp my bad meant to say Halgoland rather than Hordaland.

[@perpotet4629]

Per

[@k0vert]

Never apologize for Hilbert-Rants

[@Revan1st]

"Lendbre-end" drag out the "e" a bit... Edit: you got better at pronouncing as you talked, into perfection...

[@kabalder]

:) also..."lend" (different from the "lende/t" and "land" type of meaning) is still used, but on the way out - it means the lower body, the stomach and the hips. Which is kind of what that glacier looks like, like it's covering the stomach of the mountain.

[@jekyllpark5570]

Three syllables; Lend-bre-en. But the right "e" sound :-)

[@larson0014]

so it was warmer in that area then, warmer than it is now

[@adamroodog1718]

Na it was a depression between two hills. It had a little ice 'lake' that didnt get enough snow to become a full on glacier. Its been disappearing, so the researchers go and walk the new 'shore' as the ice retreats in summer each year and see what has been uncovered

[@magnusorn7313]

the atlantic has frequent warming periods, tree rings and ice cores show us that the atlantic will independently warm as a region while global temperatures remain level

[@TheArneSk]

Ifyou remember that the Islandic Horse actualy is a race who comes from the Vikings Horses its not that strange that they used them in the mountains. Sorry my bad english but my mostly speak norweegan.

[@gregorflopinski9016]

Icelandic sure is an interesting language, it sound norwegian and foreign at the same time.

[@ecurewitz]

There were walruses? You know the walrus was Paul!

[@Draugenjol]

@HistoryWithHilbert Hålogaland* not Hordaland.

[@kevwhufc8640]

I think the east ( Russia etc) since they've been sharing their archaeology , has been more enlightened than anything else in a very long time. ⚔

[@phillips9738]

How far north did the norsemen live in Scandinavia, like what was there northernmost settlement?

[@tannu4377]

Ah yes

[@WarDogMadness]

have they found elder things yet. are they doing gpr and satellite wizardry or is that a bit to much of a cost for what there doing.

[@wimtillaart8671]

Bij KZbin filmpjes wordt vaak tekst gebruikt om dingen duidelijk te maken, deze tekst staat vaak véél te kort in beeld om door mensen die Engels niet als eerste taal hebben gelezen kunnen worden. Zij moeten dat stukje 2 of 3 keer bekijken om alles mee te krijgen. Wil je daar rekening mee houden volgende keer? Verder ben je goed bezig, ik kijk alles wat je uitbrengt. Regards, Wim.

[@user-mq1mq7tg9u]

Paraguay please do a video and interesting history of only majority speaking native American language in the world

[@EvansdiAl]

bruh how is it that the weather was warmer during roman and bronze age times, did they have factories to warm up earth?

[@nunoamaro6518]

Trumps fault

[@mustyfan1584]

Actually Iron Age deforestation led to a significant change in the atmosphere. With the enormous amounts of wood being burned for charcoal and iron production and then significantly fewer trees to store the released carbon, there was a warming period. And it absolutely was human caused.

[@joshpullman1690]

@@mustyfan1584 I think we have enough data as well to suggest the major contributing factor for the bronze age collapse was climatic. I hadn't even thought it might have been a man made catastrophe in its entirety.

[@rayyankhan343]

Nuno Amaro will you stop

[@magnusorn7313]

there is such a thing as regional changes, if you look at records from the arctic and antarctic you will see that they are not fully synced up in the roman and medieval warming periods you will see in the greenland ice cores and by looking at tree rings that these changes where regional

[@blakeluccason9971]

I wonder if ive seen you on anglosaxon posting

[@RegCampbell]

Have you ever thought about pacing your reading, or editing separate parts of your reading together? Your delivery is quite good, but the points where you have to stop, gasp and swallow at the end of sentences are really distracting. Love your videos, keep up the good work!

[@CarlosSanchez-my7zg]

Really? Seems such a small thing to complain about.

[@L.Nyquist]

its proven that is was warmer during the viking age

[@ShortFuseNL]

Hey-Ho

[@guzelataroach4450]

Why does Hellas and Italy have advanced ancient civillastion, but it was mostly hunterer gatherers in most of europe uptill 500 ad. can you discuss this?

[@Halloyaw11]

That's not really true. There were a multitude of settled agricultural socities in northern Europe at least as early as 1500 bc. Their architectural culture was different and arguably less advanced, but culturally they were just as "modern" as the Myceneans or later Greco-Romans.

[@stormbreaker758]

Someone save these artifacts before Swedish globalists destroy them. smh

[@liamimbriolo6066]

Climate change isnt good or bad. It just is. Man has had to, currently is and will in the future, adapt to said change.

[@magnusorn7313]

current observed changes are bad

[@historywithhilbert146]

Hmu again when the Netherlands is underwater :P

[@liamimbriolo6066]

@@historywithhilbert146 Dont worry, the Dutch are an intelligent people, they can figure this out.

[@claudiapelizzon4305]

Too bad if you live in the Pacific

[@davidjones535]

Stopped the video with in the first min.

[@perpotet4629]

Why?

[@majesticfeet1]

Hasn't global warming also opened up the Northwest passage from Asia to Europe over Canada?

[@duanemiller5606]

“How finding ancient Nordic artifacts proves that the changes in climate today has happened before Meaning there’s nothing to worry about” may have been a better title for this video.

[@magnusorn7313]

not at all, no one denies that the climate is subject to natural change, it was even by observing the patterns in natural climate change that scientists discovered that the current warming trends are not natural

[@Robwolf28]

Don't the Sami also live in Norway? I mean the Sami are reindeer herders.

[@Robwolf28]

The Sami live in Northern Norway and they are reindeer herders.

[@Robwolf28]

The Laplanders they are called in English.

[@Robwolf28]

Here is a video of the Sami kzbin.info/www/bejne/laOlhmVrrqasm6s

[@Robwolf28]

That thing you showed Hilbert looks a lot like a Sami sled.

[@perpotet4629]

Not all Sami are reindeer herders.

[@daneaxe6465]

Just the fact that artifacts, natural and man-made, are being found shows the climate was warmer centuries ago even 2-3,000 years ago. Like the tree up in the Alps uncovered by a melting glacier, scientists dated it as 4,000 years old. In the north central US in the middle of Viking Land we've not seen this mythical global warming thing. It would sure be nice to have some.

[@magnusorn7313]

look at the full picture, yes, if you only look at the ice cores of southern greenland and tree cores in regions surrounding the atlantic it will appear as if the global temperature went up during those periods, but if arent selective with your data and you look at ice cores from the antarctic and tree cores from other parts of the world you will see that the global temperature was much lower than it is today you know what i hate more than idiots? people who clearly have the intellectual capability to not be wrong, but their agenda makes their vision so narrow that they focus on one thing and end up saying the same shit as the idiots just because they cant be bothered to apply the same scientific mind to something other than what confirms your agenda

[@daneaxe6465]

@@magnusorn7313 You are in serious need of medical intervention and spiritual realignment, wow you have some anger issues. First step is to stop believing lies, they always lead to destruction and ruin.

[@magnusorn7313]

@@daneaxe6465 im not that angry, i was just stating my dislike of those whos minds are narrow because they only seek to have everything match their agenda, a true scientific was is to be able to argue from the side of the opposition its the same behavior i see from flat earthers

[@daneaxe6465]

@@magnusorn7313 Repeatedly exposing lies with black & white evidence exposing the dishonest manipulation of historical records or just flat out lies, does not make a person a conspiracy nut. Every law enforcement officer would be a conspiracy nut if that definition was used, because they take apart and expose the criminal's lies. Its too bad that watchdogs are needed full time to monitor the unrelenting propaganda.

[@eckligt]

It's actually better if you stick to the agreed English pronunciation of "Oslo" instead of going with that "sh" sound, which makes you sound like a drunk to this native Norwegian speaker.

[@hannem9799]

Nonsense. His pronounciation corresponds well with the way East Norwegians pronounce Oslo. And that’s very observant and quite impressive for someone who does not (?) know Norwegian.

[@AlexandraBryngelsson]

Plz don't say lapps about the same people. I know it was not the same in the viking age but today it's basically the same as saying the N-word.