HB's interest in Vikings began when we looked at countries that straddle the Arctic circle. Books on Denmark and Norway mentioned Vikings, so when we had the opportunity to visit York during the Viking Festival, we did. The session we attended was at Dig museum and was aimed at under 5s.
Whilst waiting for the session to start we explored the interactive exhibits, which have an archaeological theme. We talked about the sorts of things we can and can't discover from archaeological remains.
We were then given a short talk and allowed to dig for artefacts in the foam pits. Each pit focusses on a different time period, but we spent the longest time in the Viking era pit.
When our digging time was over we went upstairs to look at some replica Viking artefacts. HB was the only person to manage to get a sound from the horn!
Then HB made a Viking paper doll.
After the session we looked around the rest of the museum.
We even had a sneak peek at the genuine archaeological finds which weren't really part of the Little Diggers tour.
We then looked at the Viking street camp (part of the Yorvik Viking Festival) and HB had a go at writing their name using Viking runes.
Although HB had a great time in York, it was two years before we would consider the Vikings again (at which point it became a much bigger passion). The main thing HB took away from this first encounter was a sense of archaeology - how objects can be used to tell the story of people long dead and how they can often be tricky to interpret.
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