The workshops will take place on 16, 17 and 18 January 2018, from 10:00 to 14:00, in the City History Department of the Bolesławiec museum. Sessions will begin on the hour and last approximately 45 minutes. The final session will begin at 13:00.
The workshops will be preceded by a short tour of the exhibition, with particular attention to topics such as shipbuilding and Viking expansion, the weaponry of a Viking warrior, and jewellery associated with the circle of Scandinavian peoples. After viewing the exhibition, children will make Viking shields based on preserved designs or jewellery inspired by beads and amulets discovered at Truso.
Participants will be able to follow a map of Viking conquests and create schematic models of famous Viking ships—longships—which made such effective and far-reaching expansion possible.
Groups interested in taking part are asked to register by phone at 75 644-22-00 or by email at poczta@muzeum.boleslawiec.net. The choice of workshop topic will be made in consultation with the group leader and tailored to the children’s age. We warmly invite you to learn and have fun together!
The Viking trading settlement of Truso
An archaeological exhibition presenting Truso, one of the most important Viking trading settlements in the Baltic Sea basin, has opened in the City History Department of the Bolesławiec museum.
Until recently, this settlement was known only by the name recorded by the Anglo-Saxon traveller Wulfstan, who around 890 set out on a voyage from the Danish port of Hedeby to Truso, located near the mouth of the Vistula. The English king Alfred the Great included the account of the journey in his translation of Paulus Orosius’s Chorography.
Attempts to determine Truso’s location continued for nearly 400 years, counting from the discovery of Wulfstan’s account and its publication in 1598 in the work The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation by the Oxford geographer Richard Hakluyt. Finally, in 1981, Dr Marek Jagodziński discovered Truso on the eastern shore of Lake Drużno, level with the village of Janów, several kilometres south of Elbląg.
Archaeological research into the port and trading-and-craft settlement located on the Slavic-Baltic border made it possible to verify the hypotheses and speculation that had accumulated around Truso. During more than 35 years of research, tens of thousands of artefacts were recovered from the emporium, which at the height of its development—from the mid-9th century to the late 10th century—covered approximately 20 hectares. They were made of amber, horn, bone, metal, glass, ceramics and stone. Unfortunately, objects made of organic materials such as wood, leather and textiles have not survived.
The exhibition at the Bolesławiec museum presents more than 160 artefacts from the research: silver, glass and amber jewellery, bone combs and skates, metal weapon fittings, as well as beam scales, weights, silver coins and hacksilver—clear evidence of Truso’s important commercial role.
Visitors to the exhibition can learn about Norse mythology and, through a model of the sacred tree Yggdrasil, discover the origins of beliefs and the secrets of Ragnarök, Asgard and Thor. A special educational trail has been prepared for younger visitors, allowing those interested to find the key to deciphering runic inscriptions, try their hand at a game of hnefatafl—the most popular Scandinavian board game—or learn about the medieval system of weights and measures used in trade. The exhibition is accompanied by a digital visualisation of Truso based on the results of interdisciplinary research conducted at one of Europe’s most fascinating archaeological sites.
The exhibition “Vikings. Truso—the Legend of the Baltic” was prepared in cooperation with the Archaeological and Historical Museum in Elbląg, the Lusatian Museum in Zgorzelec and the Serbo-Lusatian Warriors’ Group—Biełoboh, and will be on display until the end of January 2018.
