early medieval travel
- assumption that world was smaller place
- not so - merely that fewer people travelled
- harald hardrada
- king of norway
- served in army of novgorod
- served empress Zoe of Byzantium
- fought at Stamford Bridge
- journey to Byzantium followed well known river route via Volga
- same route reputed to have been used to take slaves from scotland and ireland for sale in Constantinople
- coin evidence from arab Dirhams from c850 being found in Norway
- harald hardrada
- first crusade shows not unique
- pilgrim route to east well known
- evidence from Alexa Comnena, Henry of Huntingdon
- follows old Roman route following Via Egnatia to Byzantium
- anecdote - people in igouminetsia and ioannina refer to the freeway heading east as the 'new via egnatia'
- byzantine trade with cornwall
- created effective link between cornwall and north africa
- use by ecclesiastics
- pottery evidence in cornwall
- links by sea to britons in galicia
- persisted until disrupted by vikings in mid C9 onwards (first raids in 844) see here for notes on early medieval ships
- evidence for byzantine trade via galicia ? research reqd
- persisted until disrupted by vikings in mid C9 onwards (first raids in 844) see here for notes on early medieval ships
- created effective link between cornwall and north africa
- not so - merely that fewer people travelled
page revision: 11, last edited: 01 Dec 2010 06:43
