Dr Robert Gallagher examines the cultural heritage of the vikings in Kent through community research.
In the Middle Ages, finding vikings would not have been on most people’s to-do lists. However, leap ahead more than a thousand years and that’s exactly what Dr Robert Gallagher, senior lecturer in early medieval history at the University of Kent, is doing. In an interdisciplinary partnership with early medieval archaeologist Dr Heidi Stoner of Canterbury Christ Church University, Dr Gallagher is hunting what he calls Kent’s ‘little-known and arguably misunderstood’ viking history.
Watch: Dr Rob Gallagher on why Kent’s viking past is so mysterious.
A lack of settlement evidence may lead some to question a viking presence in Kent, but evidence shows they were in Kent on numerous occasions, including in 851, when a viking army camped through the winter on the Isle of Thanet. Through their research, Drs Gallagher and Stoner are challenging popular assumptions about who the vikings were, when and where they were present in Kent, what types of activity they were engaging in and the legacy they left behind.
Watch: Dr Gallagher tells the story of the ransomed Golden Book.
Their research will impact the public’s understanding of what Dr Gallagher explains were a fluid group of raiders who were ‘who were diverse … ethnically [and] in terms of their geographic origin‘. By revisiting charters and other documentary evidence from the 9th-11th centuries, Dr Gallagher hopes to ascertain whether the impact of the vikings in Kent was greater than previously thought. Similarly, Dr Stoner is working to re-evaluate archaeological finds, particularly metalwork, through new and interpretive frameworks to gain a deeper and more nuanced understanding of the objects and where they fit into Kent’s viking past.
Working with a wide variety of stakeholders, from Canterbury Cathedral and Canterbury Archaeological Trust to metal detectorists and church wardens, the research team will focus on each entity’s specific needs in order to provide information that will help these stakeholders develop new curricula, exhibits and programs that uncover the vikings’ hidden impact on the people of Kent. [RG]