The Viking Dig: excavations in progress in Coppergate

The Vikings captured the city in 866 and there soon followed a tremendous boom in urban development. Although antiquarian discoveries of the 19th and early 20th century had hinted at the richness of the surviving archaeological record, it wasn’t until 1972 that its full potential was recognised. Excavations by the Trust, first in Pavement and subsequently in Coppergate, uncovered material which attracted international interest and the so-called Viking Dig brought thousands of visitors to York to see the excavations taking place.

Part of Viking Age Coppergate was revealed in all its detail — timber houses, workshops, fences, animal pens, privies, pits and wells. Objects indicated extensive international trade and highly skilled crafts and technologies. Wood, leather, textiles, and plant and animal remains, which do not normally survive, were recovered in great quantities, along with pottery, metalwork, bone, antler and all the debris of everyday life.

A Viking family around the fire as reproduced in the Jorvik Viking Centre