Blood Of The Vikings by Julian Richards

CHRIS TITLEY that there was more to the Vikings than facial hair and hard hats

VIKING expert Julian Richards has a confession to make. He's been to York three times since the Jorvik Centre was revamped, and has failed to take the tour each time. "My wife and son went round it during the summer and said it was fantastic," he says, somewhat apologetically.

But then, Julian would not have learned a lot from a trip in the Coppergate time machine. He already knows just about all there is to know about the Vikings, their culture and their lives.

And he recently imparted a lot of that knowledge to history-hungry television viewers in the BBC's Blood Of The Vikings.

This five-part series, which has just ended, was not his first telly hit. He also presents Meet The Ancestors in which excavated human remains are given a face and a life story through modern scientific techniques.

It's all a far cry from when Julian started out in the 1970s. The first dig he worked on had no toilets, nowhere to wash, and a small smelly shed to shelter in when it rained hard. The first deep cutting he helped to dig promptly collapsed, "nearly terminating my archaeological career when it had only just started".

Given such primitive conditions, it is hardly surprising that archaeology failed to capture the public's imagination.

"I have worked in archaeology for over 30 years now," he said. "When I started out, one of the things I was always encouraged to do was get out and teach evening classes, adult education classes, to try to get the message about archaeology to more people.

"You would go out and talk to 15 people at a time in a village or school hall."

Within a generation, millions of people were glued to archaeology shows like his own and Channel 4's Time Team. Why?

Much of the popularity comes from the new techniques that enable dusty archaeological finds to be "brought back to life".

"Analytical techniques have come on enormously over the last 20 years," says Julian. "There are lots more things we can find out. That's what fascinates people."

For Blood Of the Vikings, a genetic survey of modern Britons was undertaken. It attempted to find out where the Vikings had settled in our islands.

The survey proved inconclusive about York: although the ancestry of the city's present population was found to be heavily influenced by invaders from the Dark Ages, it was impossible to separate the Vikings from the Anglo-Saxons.

Nevertheless, it is clear to Dr Richards that York "was amazingly important" to the Vikings - and to those who came after them.

"The Battle of Stamford Bridge and all those extraordinary events that took place in and around York in 1066 had such an enormous impact on the whole history of the country.

"I do wonder what would have happened if Harold hadn't come up to fight the Norwegian king Harald Hardrada - would he have defeated the Norman invasion?"

In both the television series and the book of Blood Of The Vikings, Dr Richards seeks to challenge stereotypes. Our view of these invaders has been too narrow, he says.

"It was a very one-sided picture. If you ask anybody what their image of the Vikings is it would be of hairy men with blades and axes on board longships.

"We have tried to show another side of the Vikings.

"If they really had been raiders who just sacked places and moved on again, they would never have had much of an impact - and they did. They came and stayed and became an integral part of the British Isles."

But he is not suggesting the Vikings were a bunch of flower-pressing pacifists.

"There's no getting away from it, they were quite a war-like and aggressive people, but yes there was another side to them. They were farmers and skilled craftsmen."

The book has allowed him to go into far more depth than the TV series.

"It's obviously much easier for me in a book to explain my ideas and feelings. It's been possible in the book in a much more structured, chronological way."

Julian is following up his Viking quest with another series of Meet The Ancestors, due to screen at Easter. It includes an episode charting the discovery at Wetwang of a woman's skeleton inside an Iron Age burial chariot.

At about the same time, another of his Radio 4 series, Mapping The Town, will be broadcast. In this, he explains how to uncover the hidden history of a place through existing streets and buildings, and one programme centres on York.

With such a hectic schedule, it's possible to forgive him for failing to hitch a ride on the Jorvik time machine.

Blood Of The Vikings by Julian Richards is published by Hodder & Stoughton, price £20

The Jorvik Centre has a Blood Of The Vikings display until February 3.

Updated: 10:29 Wednesday, January 09, 2002