Saturday, September 12, 2020

The Vikings and Byzantium

 From Medievalists:

The account of De Administrando Imperio shows that the Vikings sailed all the way to Byzantium by including the names of various waterways and lakes along the way. The first step to proving that contact between two remote areas took place is proving that it is possible to travel between them.

After establishing that such travel was possible, and by which routes, scholars turned their attention to why the journey was undertaken: trade. Angus Somerville and R. Andrew McDonald’s book, The Vikings and their Age, explains accounts of trade between Byzantium and the Rus’ preserved in several later medieval chronicles, noting that typical trade goods included furs, honey, wax, walrus ivory, high-grade weapons and the slaves which De Administrando Imperio mentions. (Read more.)


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