How Were Viking Houses Built? | Nordic Housing in the Viking Age

Have you ever wondered how Viking houses were really built? It turns out, even archeologists had it wrong for a very long time. In this episode, C.J. Adrien and Terri Barnes sit down with historian and archaeologist Sigurlaugur Ingólfsson, director of operations at the Árbæjarsafn Open Air Museum in Reykjavík, Iceland (link below), to discuss how Viking houses were built, why they were built that way, and what we can learn from modern reconstructions. As always, our conversation takes a couple of interesting detours within Viking history.

00:00 introduction
01:02 introducing our guest
04:00 what type of house did Vikings have?
08:54 the metric system and Viking measurements
11:27 images/examples of Norse housing
44:13 a detour about Icelandic sheep
46:54 housing based on class
56:37 accessory dwellings
1:02:57 bathrooms and garbage dumps
1:05:30 what can we learn from Viking houses?
1:08:28 Viking home maintenance

#historypodcast #vikings #vikinghistory #podcast #norse #historyfacts #history #viking #historian #iceland

[LaurenMuney]

Really nice interview and interpretation by Sig! I know him from living history conferences (ALHFAM) - I usually work with him out in the fields, so it's great to hear how brilliant he is with houses.

[steintoresrli]

This is not Viking houses from Norway. This houses are called Stabbur, and are from the 1600-1900 periode.

[suzz]

Super interesting, so stoked I came across ur channel. Thxs for uploading this. Also, is there any evidence that maybe they disassembled their ships to use the wood for building, or did they just keep the ships usable so they could sail back if need be???