2022/54: River Kings: the Vikings from Scandinavia to the Silk Roads -- Cat Jarman
Combined with the scientific evidence that women were part of the migration both into and out of Scandinavia, we really can’t exclude their agency from those worlds any longer. We have to carefully consider what roles they had; whether they were warriors, wives, traders, slaves (or slavers) or explorers. [loc. 1981]
The story starts with a single carnelian bead found 'within the detritus of a Viking terror attack' in Repton, Derbyshire. Jarman, investigating how it came to be there, reveals a network of trade, violence and exploration stretching from northern England to Byzantium and to Gujarat, the likely source of the bead.
( Read more... )