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ArchaeologyYou are in: North Yorkshire > History > Archaeology > Walking back in time  Model of archaeologist. Walking back in timeBy Alan Webber The Jorvik Viking Centre opened to the public in 1984, giving the visitor a unique insight into life in 10th century Jorvik. In 1976, Archaeologist Richard Hall directed the original excavations on the site, he gave us a special tour of the centre.  Wall at Jorvik Centre. The tour begins as the archaeologists did in 1976. They entered the demolition site and decided to use the cellar floors as a short cut to the Viking age.听Their journey into the past is depicted on the stairs leading down into the centre. The wall shows the various levels of a thousand years of history. Richard Hall said "It was very exciting back then to discover just how much of the Viking Age we could see laid out before us in a way that no-one had seen before." He explained how the Coppergate discoveries built on previous smaller-scale finds under Lloyds Bank.
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"This site here at Coppergate was an opportunity not to look through a tiny archaeological keyhole but to see a great archaeological vista in front of us. Between 1976 and 1981 we dug 1000 sq metres and saw so much that was new and exciting and so very well-preserved - that鈥檚 what inspired the creation of the centre.鈥  Bone worker. Bone combsYork was expanding in the late 10th century and听a variety of crafts were developing.听 Bone and antler workers made combs, of which dozens were found at the site. Bone and antler in the Viking Age was a very important raw material, like plastic or metal today.
Help playing audio/video IndustryQuite early on in the dig the team started to find hundreds of little bits of wood. Richard Hall thought they resembled children鈥檚 spinning tops. "I thought we can鈥檛 have a Viking age spinning top factory, that doesn鈥檛 make sense." Then they discovered what they were finding were the remains of people making wooden cups and bowls by turning them on a rotary lathe. Wooden cups were the everyday tableware of the period. In fact Coppergate means the street of the cup-makers.听
Help playing audio/video  Viking woodworker. They found very well preserved houses听and soon noticed that it wasn鈥檛 just cup or bowl making which occupied the residents of Coppergate a thousand years ago. There was a wide range of industries being practiced. The archaeologists found some of the finished articles and all the waste and debris from the manufacturing process. The Jorvik CentreThe huge wealth and range of discoveries encouraged the Archaeological Trust to make a permanent display of the Viking age city. Luckily, the developers of the site were happy with that prospect. Having finished the excavation they spent a couple of years planning and building the Jorvik Centre and it opened at Easter 1984.  Richard Hall. But would the Centre prove popular? Would it grab the public's attention? Richard Hall said he was pleasantly surprised. "I remember vividly coming down on the opening morning, to be met by an enormous crowd of people which swirled all the way around the Coppergate square and up into the street. People had come down from Aberdeen and up from Kent to be here at the opening and nearly 3000 people passed through the doors on the first day. I think we have put York in its Viking age back on the map not just locally, but nationally and internationally." last updated: 09/04/2009 at 10:14 SEE ALSOYou are in: North Yorkshire > History > Archaeology > Walking back in time |
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