Time Team: The 98 series
Programme 3: Orkney

Over the last four series, Time Team have excavated sites ranging in age from the times of the dinosaurs to the Industrial Revolution, but the one era that they have never touched on is the Viking invasion and its influence on Britain. Until now. The Team travelled to the island of Sanday in Orkney to find out if four mysterious mounds are, in fact, evidence of a Viking settlement or Viking burials.

The Team's tip-off came from local schoolchildren who were intrigued by the mounds on what is called the Ness of Brough on the island where, just over 100 years ago, Walter Traill Denison, a local farmer and antiquarian, had recorded finding a Viking sword, skull and shield boss. But while the mounds could date from the 9th century and be Viking in origin, they could equally be Iron Age or Bronze Age – and the Vikings could have reused a much older structure.

However, as the trenches are dug and excavated, the seemingly jumbled mass of stones begin to tell their stories to the Time Team and the local archaeological experts. The Team's three distinct finds from three distinct ages are just part of a 4,000-year link that sees the same land farmed today.

As ever, Time Team tackle a practical project, and this time it's making a Viking comb from deer horn. The result takes the wind-blown tangles out of Carenza's hair and even renders Phil's famous sideburns acceptable!

This piece of pottery was found in the excavation on the far side of the Ness on Sanday. It once held food, but according to Olwyn Owen of Historic Scotland, the scratches on it may indicate that it also had another, more playful purpose. What could this be?

It was part of a Viking bowl made out of soapstone (steatite). Instead of making pottery, the Norsemen made most of their vessels from this soft material, which can be carved extremely easily. On the broken edge of the bowl there are the remains of a rivet hole stained with rust; this indicates that it had been previously broken and then repaired and was, therefore, an object of some importance. When whole, the bowl would have been quite large and deep. Lines scratched into the inner surface looked like a pattern. According to Olwyn Owen, the bowl could have been reused as a gaming board, perhaps to play the popular Viking game hnefatafl, a forerunner of chess. According to Swedish enthusiast Sten Helmfrid [user.tninet.se/~jgd996c/hnefatafl/hnefatafl.html]:

A century ago, many experts on ancient Scandinavia were fascinated by a mysterious board game called hnefatafl or tafl, which was often referred to in the sagas. Its reputation as an intellectual pursuit was equal to that of chess today. In the early Middle Ages, when chess was introduced in Scandinavia, the noble game of the Vikings gradually became extinct and no explanation of the rules survived.

One of the first persons who became devoted to solving the puzzle of hnefatafl was Willard Fiske, an American expert on languages. He collected a lot of material that was published in the book Chess in Iceland (1905), but he finally abandoned the problem as insoluble. The only conclusion he could make was that the game was played between two groups of 'maids' with a 'hnefi' on one side. Hnefi, an Icelandic word, literally means 'fist', but since the hnefi had a role corresponding to the king in chess, it is often translated as 'king'. The word hnefatafl itself is a compilation of hnefa (genitive of hnefi) and tafl, the Old Norse word for 'board'.

The game remained a mystery until the British chess historian HJR Murray connected a description of the Saami game tablut – in the diary of Swedish botanist Carl von Linn – [ie Linnaeus] from his trip to Lapland in 1732 – with the descriptions of hnefatafl in the sagas. Murray's hypothesis, that the Saami game of tablut was identical to hnefatafl, was put forward in his book History of Chess in 1913. Thirty-nine years later, he published another book called History of Board Games other than Chess. By that time, he had collected much more material to support his theory, notably a Welsh manuscript from 1587 by Robert ap Ifan describing a game called tawl-bwrdd.

From the material that Murray collected, we learn that tafl was known not only in Scandinavia, but also in other regions that were under the influence of the Vikings: Ireland, Wales, England and Lapland. Although the rules and size of the gaming board changed over time, the basic idea remained intact for more than a millennium.

The game is played on a board divided into squares, the odd number of vertical squares being equal to the number of horizontal squares, so that there is a distinct central square. It simulates a battle between two unequal forces: a weaker force in the centre of the board, surrounded and outnumbered by an attacking force.

The surrounded side consists of a king (hnefi) and a number of identical pieces called defenders. All the pieces on the attackers' side are identical, and there are twice as many as the defenders. The king, who is larger than the other pieces on the board, is initially placed on the central square. The defenders stand on the squares closest to him, and the attackers are scattered around the outer parts of the board. The objective for the surrounded side is to break out and escape with the king, whereas the attackers win if they manage to capture the king. All pieces are allowed to move any number of vacant squares in a vertical or horizontal direction, like a rook in chess. A piece is captured and removed from the board if it is sandwiched between two enemy pieces, one on each side in a vertical or horizontal direction.

Resources

Websites

This website contains links to other websites which are not under the control of and are not maintained by Channel 4 Television. Channel 4 Television is not responsible for the content of these sites and does not necessarily endorse the material on them.

Jorvik Viking Centre
www.jorvik-viking-centre.co.uk
Find out more about the Jorvik Viking Centre in York.

Hnefatafl – the strategic board game of the Vikings
An overview of rules and variations of the game by Sten Helmfrid.
user.tninet.se/~jgd996c/hnefatafl/hnefatafl.html

Visit Orkney
www.garioch.demon.co.uk/orkney.htm
Beautiful photographs of Orkney's impressive heritage.

The Sanday, Orkney Homepage
www.sanday.co.uk
More about the Island of Sanday and its interesting archaeology.

Organisations

Orkney Tourist Board
6 Broad Street
Kirkwall KW15 1NX
Tel: 01856 872856

Historic Scotland
Longmore House
Salisbury Place
Edinburgh EH9 1SH
Tel: 0131 668 8800

Books

Orkney by Anna Ritchie (HMSO, 1996) paperback £10.95
A chronological survey of the island. It describes Viking brochs and houses, Pictish gravestones and medieval houses, castles and churches with plenty of photographs and directions.

Viking Scotland by Anna Ritchie (Historic Scotland/Batsford, 1993) paperback £15.99
The story of the Vikings in Scotland, told through the archaeological, historical and literary evidence. Includes a guide on what can still be seen today.

Scandinavian Scotland by B Crawford (Leicester University Press, 1987)

Picts, Gaels and Scots by Sally Foster (Historic Scotland/Batsford, 1996) paperback £15.99
A lively portrayal of Scotland's early inhabitants 600-1000 AD, charting their economic, political and religious histories.

The Oxford Illustrated History of the Vikings edited by Peter Sawyer (Oxford University Press, 1997) hardback £25
Archaeological research, from Dublin to Russia, backs up this fully illustrated overview of the history and culture of the Vikings. Includes chapters on their seamanship, religion and the Vikings in history and legend.

Orkney Folklore and Sea Legends by Walter Traill Dennison (Orkney Press Ltd, 1995)
A collection compiled by the 19th-century antiquarian whose explorations led Time Team to the site on Sanday.

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