If you've watched a film or TV show about vikings recently, you may well have noticed a distinctive hairstyle featuring an undercut and a ponytail. But is this actually a realistic depiction? And, do we really know much about viking hair at all?
Luckily, we certainly know a lot about viking grooming, not least because Norsemen were said to be popular with Anglo-Saxon women thanks to their (relative) cleanliness! What we know about viking hair, hygiene and grooming can actually tell us a lot about the Viking age as a whole. Alas in this episode, Cat sits down with Dr Steve Ashby, Senior Lecturer in Archaeology at the University of York, to find out more about this hairy subject.
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The Kingdom of the Franks was the largest post-Roman barbarian kingdom in Western Europe, ruled by the Franks during Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. But how did it fare against Viking attacks? From the changes in travel, early raids, exports, and trades, we look at this kingdom and its ...
Knights in their armour is one of the most enduring images of the Middle Ages, perhaps the first thing that comes to mind and a role that many of us would have played at as children.
Yet surprisingly, there are no surviving examples of English armour from this period that we know of in the world...