If you haven't seen this episode from Secrets of the Dead, it is available for free viewing until August 5th. https://www.pbs.org/wnet/secrets/viking-warrior-queen-full-film/5276/
I forgot to mention that around 26 minutes into the video there's a discussion about some Islamic coins found in the Viking grave. The Vikings did conduct trade as far as the Byzantine Empire and the early Islamic Caliphate, so the coins found are not a great surprise.
This is one of my favorite programs. Although I do not collect coins from that era, the information presented is quite interesting. Thanks for the posting of the program.
Many thanks for that! I don't have a tv anymore, but when I did, it was without cable, so it was like, if there's nothing on PBS, there's nothing on. Never heard of this episode. There's a thread here, somewhere (I contributed a little), where there was some discussion of Samanid dirhams, from Muslim central Asia. The Swedish Vikings and Rus' got Piles of 'em in trade. There have been huge hoards found in Russia and Sweden, but they've been found all over the Baltic, and as far as Norway, (Norse) York, Dublin (also Norse), and even, in the case of fraction I have from a detectorist, Gloucestershire. It was largely the drying up of the silver mines in that part of the world, in the late 10th century, that inspired the 'second wind' that Viking activity of the more stereotypical kind got from that point. As they say, "Follow the money." ...In the case of the one from Gloucestershire, it's worn, and it's fun to imagine it have gotten there with one of Scandinavians that settled there during the reign of Cnut.
