Yorkminister and Vikings: A busy tourist day in York

A beautiful city on a beautiful day.  York would be a great place to poke around for much more than the day I allocated for it.  Beautiful medieval city, great restaurants, interesting museums. I targeted Yorkminister, the Jorvik Viking Museum and the Center on Contemporary Ceramics at the Art Museum. I just could not make it to the Richard III exhibit even though I find the recent discovery of his body totally interesting. 

York had been the second city of Britain at least since the Romans established Ebraicum here in the 300's.  It had much to recomment it as a city--a navigable river, many fish, fertile land.  It is inside Hadrian's Wall, thus fairly safe from warring tribes.  It thrived.

Not much is left of the original infrastructure but the medieval and modern city are built right on top of the Roman foundations, which peek through here and there.  The medieval city wall is built  on and faithfully follows the Roman wall. When the Roman Army withdrew from Britain in 410, York lost population but remained as a fairly urban area, center of the northeast part of Britain. Christianity re-entered north England when monks from Lindisfarne brought monasteries, farming, stability to the area during the 8th C.. King Edward, the Saxon kind adopted Christianity here based on their teaching and was baptized on the site which is now Yorkminister.  

What a beautiful church.  The current church is a cathedral of the Church of England based in the building built by the Normans after their conquest in 1066.  It is a rare structure which survived intact through the Cromwell years with the stained glass protected from his destruction.

When the War of the Roses was finally over, a Lancaster king (red rose) married a York princess (white rose) and this window was created.  Even now, Yorkminister wants the body of Richard III to be returned there for burial but appears to be losing that battle.

Yorkminister is built fully in the Gothic style although it was begun in the 12th C and has round arches in the crypt.  The consistent style and great size give this church grandeur befitting a cathedral of a great empire. It remains an active church today taking principled stands on social issues.




Vikings
Vikings first struck Britain at Lindisfarne monastery on an island off the northeast coast near the border between England and Scotland.  They were fierce raiders, striking at will.  They reached and conquered York in 866 and stayed to settle and govern.  An area that had not been used since Roman days became the Viking city,  It is across the Ouse river from York centers on the Foss River.  The area eventually housed several thousand people bring the whole of your to 15000 people in about 1000.  King Magnus of Norway conquered York and installed his son Cnut as ruler.  The Viking kings ruled the area alongside the Archbishops of York for several hundred years until defeated just before the Norman invasion.  York was the capitol of the Danelaw, the north part of Britain.

The Jorvik Viking Museum is a fascinating display based on excellent recent archeology.  The Viking Houses were discovered in 1976.  Excavation and other analysis has gone on for many years. DNA analysis of human remains gives considerable information about diet, disease, trade, economy.  I think it is hard to make a museum adequately interesting to the general public and yet not too "dumbed down" that it says nothing.  This museum treads this line well.  I very much enjoyed riding a little train through dioramas of Viking life but also enjoyed exhibits with complicated analysis of injuries and disease on some skeletons.



Two house foundations are displayed in place under glass floors.  This one is from the early period after Viking settlement, thus shortly after 866.  It shows re-used Roman tiles for the hearth.

Below, a glass wall with time periods imprinted, showing the various archeological layers uncovered at the site.




The Vikings were farmers but engaged in manufacturing and trading on a fairly big extent.  These metal jewelry pieces were a trade item.  They were particularly well known for making and selling wooden cups and tableware.