University of Birmingham historian Dr Chris Callow is curating a series of films as part of the British Museum’s ‘Vikings: Life and Legend’ exhibition. 

The main exhibition runs from March 6 until June 22 and features archaeological discoveries never before seen in the UK. It includes personal objects such as jewellery, amulets and religious images and its centrepiece is the remains of a 37 metre long warship, known as Roskilde 6, dating from about 1025. Developed alongside the National Museum of Denmark and the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin the exhibition focuses on the core Viking age from the late 8th century until the early 11th century and showcases new finds which are changing understanding of the nature of Viking identity.

Dr Callow said of the British Museum exhibition: “It really is a landmark exhibition. There hasn’t been anything in the UK on this scale since an exhibition in 1980. There have been so many more archaeological finds, not just in the UK but across the rest of Europe and Scandinavia, and this exhibition brings all these new discoveries to us. Visitors to the exhibition will get a sense of just how incredible the Viking expansion was and how enduring some of the contacts were between Scandinavia and the rest of the world.” 

  • Exhibition website