Booknotes
by Arthur Spiess

    This Booknote is on Vikings : The North Atlantic Saga, which was edited by William Fitzhugh and Elizabeth Ward. the book was published by Smithsonian Institution Press, 2000, $34.95 paperback, 750 Ninth St. NW, Washington, DC 20560-0950, or 202-275-2300, or www.sipress.si.edu.

    This book contains 31 separate chapters in 400 pages with four color illustrations of artifacts, sites, and scenery sprinkled throughout. It is quite simply the best archaeology book I have ever read, and the number and quality of the illustrations helped form that opinion. But the text is also rich with information and ideas. More than 40 authors are invovled including a majority of the big names from North America, Europe, and Iceland dealing with the issue of Norse and Viking history, developement, and colonization of the North Atlantic. The Society for American Archaeology shares my opinion, because they gave this book their annual award in 2001. There are chapters that deal with Norse and Viking history from about the year 700, and chapters that are site summaries discussing the archaeology of important trading centers or, for example the archaeology of Greenland or Vineland settlement at L'Anse aux Meadow. There are chapters discussing the sagas and the historic sources and how they shed light on the archaeological information and vice versa. Eight chapters explore in detail North America, including contacts with Indians and Dorset and Thule Eskimo in the Canadian Arctic, Vineland, and Labrador.

    Six chapters explore the archaeology and history of Norse Greenland. The background of Iron Age Norse life in homeland areas of Scandinavia is presented in enough detail so that the reader feels completely educated in the causes of Norse migration, and the social and economic patterns involved. Norse colonization of parts of Scotland, England and Ireland are discussed.There is plenty of information on Norse ships of various sizes and designs, Viking artifacts, old Norse religion and conversion to Christianity, and even the involvement of the non-Scandinavian Finns in Norse trade and economic patterns that extended into what is now Russia. The Norse coin from the Goddard site in Blue Hill is mentioned and figured.

    Even if you are not an archaeologist by training, this book will be fascinating and a reference text for decades to come. The book closes with chapters on Norse hoaxes in North America,of which there are an incredible number; the fascination of Norse mythology today, including poking fun at the Minnesota Vikings football team with their winged helmets; and a chapter on tourism and sites that one can visit in Newfiundland, Greenland and England in particular, where you can gain a first-hand experience of Norse and Viking archaeology.