Travel BACK 1000 years on board your time machine through the backyards and houses to the bustling streets of Jorvik. Everything here is based on facts – from the layout of the houses, the working craftsmen, the language of the gossiping neighbours, to the smells of cooking and the cesspit!
As you travel through the busy market place, you will experience a blast of smoke as you pass the blacksmith's furnace, smell the fish on the riverside and visit the hearth scene inside the Viking home. You are in JORVIK!
Everything in JORVIK Viking Centre is based on archaeological evidence unearthed during the Coppergate excavations undertaken between 1979–81 by York Archaeological Trust.
Archaeologists started digging on the site of an old sweet factory and unearthed remains of 10th century Viking-age buildings that were surrounded by moist, spongy layers of earth similar to that of a peat bog.
These damp conditions helped preserve everyday Viking items such as wood, leather, cloth, bugs and even a Viking toilet and its contents. In total, an incredible 40,000 objects were uncovered by excavating 36,000 layers and sieving 8 tonnes of soil!