6/16 The Jorvik Center

What most people do not know is that York was really a Viking city, and its original name was Jorvik, with the "J" pronounced as "Y."   In the 1970s and early 1980s, an excavation was conducted that resulted in thousands of artifacts from the 1,000 year-old Viking town, as well as evidence of walls of that city and the previous Roman town here. 

While this building in the middle of York may not look very impressive, it was built over the excavation and houses many of the artifacts discovered.  It has been developed into a reconstruction of the Viking city with models depicting Viking life.  You ride in a little suspended Disney-like car through a recreation of the Viking city and then walk through a display of some of the artifacts.  

After entering the building, you enter a room where a staff members points out the various items under the glass floor that were preserved during the archeological dig.   

You then line up and get into little cars holding about 6 people each.  They keep slowly moving through the reconstruction, shown in the next few photos. 

 

 

  

 

 

Then, out of the moving vehicles and entry into a series of rooms with artifacts.  

The whole thing took only about an hour, and I did ask if there were other Viking museums in the area, and i was told there were not.  In any case, on Wednesday, I am headed to the York Museum to see what is there.