Y

Yemen

See Arabian Peninsula

York

York is a prominent city in northeastern England with a long history of invasion, settlement, and trade. Known as Roman Eboracum in the first century a.d., York became the Anglo-Saxon capital of Northumbria in the seventh century and was conquered by the Danes in a.d. 866–867. In both a.d. 700 and 1050 York was the premier settlement in northeast England in political, ecclesiastical, and economic arenas. The archaeological history of York follows the history of archaeology itself. Early studies focused on grave goods; early methods included creating typological series, relative dating, distribution in settlement patterns, and comparison of artistic motifs. The study of artifacts and environment in York continues at present and detailed studies are published in The Archaeology of York.

No direct historical documentation exists on the early history of York, although there are some coinage and runic inscriptions. Heathen Vikings lacked writing, but the neighboring people wrote observations of the Vikings. Most written records are from contemporary Anglo-Saxons and Irish. Other sources include West Saxon writers hostile to the Scandinavians; English monastic writers who include Scandinavian descendants; and the Icelandic sagas that blend fact, fiction, and folklore, but contain detailed records of the twelfth to fourteenth centuries. Recent archaeological evidence now supports the historical sources.

The early fifth century was a period of political, economic, and social change in Britain. At York, the archaeological evidence shows the end of town life after Roman withdrawals, between the fifth and eighth centuries (O’Connor 1990). Long-term excavations show the same at London (Vince 1990) and at Winchester (Biddle 1973). The early Anglo-Saxon settlements that followed were small rural villages. One of the difficulties in York is the problem of the palimpsest factor (approximately all of the site’s stratigraphic elements), which creates a confusion of close dates between late Anglian and early Anglo-Scandinavian. The archaeological record does show continuity in land use, agriculture, and animal husbandry practices. Crabtree’s work (1982, 1984, 1989a, 1990) and analysis of faunal remains shows continuity in the patterns of raising cattle, sheep, and pigs from the Iron Age to the Anglo-Saxon period.

Viking activity in the British Isles was part of the struggle between Danes and Norwegians for territorial expansion and control of the trade route from the Irish Sea to southwest Norway. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle recorded the first Viking raids in a.d. 793. Archaeological research and place names show that Shetland, the Orkneys, and the Hebrides were colonized by Norwegian pirates by a.d. 800. Danish sailor-raiders known as Vikings attacked churches, farms, towns, and villages. With their shallow-draft boats of fifty men, the Vikings could travel up rivers. They established winter camps at the conquered sites; eventually they settled, converted to Christianity, and brought in family or married into local families. York became a trading center.