Items from Ukraine are getting a lot of attention from the first days of the exhibition. The National Museum of the History of Ukraine (MIST) and its branch the Treasury provided 201 exhibits. These are weapons, chips, Arab and Roman coins, jewelry, in particular, the famous diadem from the settlement of Divych-gora in the village of Sakhnivka in Cherkasy region. Also, interesting items from Chernihiv Regional Historical Museum of Vasyl Tarnovsky, Zaporizhzhya Regional Museum of Local Lore and the Institute of Archeology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.

The project “Rus – Vikings in the East” introduces the unique artefacts from Ukraine to the world. And after russia started full-scale war against Ukraine, it also helps to draw attention to Ukraine’s cultural heritage and its vulnerability.

Pauline Asingh, exhibition content coordinator at Moesgaard Museum, says that objects from MIST in the exhibition are admired by many guests, who express their sympathy to Ukraine. The exhibition and its narrative get much attention, also because of the war in Ukraine. Pauline Asingh told more about the project and its uniquety for foreing audience.

“Objects from Ukrainian collections were a prerequisite for the success”

How was the idea of the exhibition born?

At Moesgaard Museum, we had for several years a wish to tell the story of the Vikings’ eastern travels. The western story of those who traveled to present-day England, for example, and returned home is better known to the general public. The Eastern tale of those who traveled out and stayed out there and in the encounter with other peoples created a new identity is not well known to our guests. We found it exciting to tell that story and make an exhibition about it. 

Pauline Asingh. Moesgaard Museum

There are so many participants from Ukraine, Latvia, Germany etc. How did you find the partners? What were the main criterias for that?

It was a wish to loan objects that could substantiate our story, our narrative. Objects from Ukrainian collections were a prerequisite for the success of the project. A colleague pointed out to me that Dr. Fedir Androshchuk was newly appointed director of the National Museum of the History of Ukraine. I had just finished reading Dr. Androshchuk’s book “Vikings in the East” and found great inspiration. I contacted Fedir Androshchuk autumn 2020 to be part of a collaboration and thus loans from your collections. Dr. Androshchuk was very positive and helpful, both with lending his own collections and references to other Ukrainian collections that could cover our history. We owe Fedir Androshchuk huge thanks for the professional input and sparring as well as the coordination of the Ukrainian deposits and, not least, the generous spectacular loans from your collections.

As for the Baltic and Polish loans, it was both important to pursue the Scandinavian track, and to get objects that show the local tribes’ own expression in the objects. It was important to make clear who the Scandinavians met on their travels east. In addition, we searched for objects that demonstrate a fusion of the local and the Scandinavian, the mutual cultural influences in tradition, design, etc. The question of whether Scandinavians establish colonies in the foreign or assimilate with the people they meet was also important. The Polish loans of silver hoards are, among other things, essential in the narrative of human trafficking.

Baltic section in particular tells about slave trade. In the showcase you can see silver objects from Latvia and Poland. Jakob Due, Moesgaard Museum

In general, we used our network and Moesgaard’s existing partners for loans, just as the literature gave me many hints about interesting collections to shed light on the subject. We followed as mentioned the Scandinavian track in research for objects. And here the Scandinavian objects are important in the documentation of the story, as well as the objects that so beautifully show a mixture of Slavic, steppe nomadic and Scandinavian touches are essential to the story. Those objects are found so richly and distinctly in the collections from Ukraine. The objects are very well-executed and well-preserved. Many have belonged to the elite.

It is very interesting for the story of Kyiv’s princely environment and for the close connections between the Rus realm with its center in Kyiv and southern Scandinavia, including Denmark. A connection between Ukraine and Denmark which has strong ties more than 1000 years back in time.

In addition, silver is a central object throughout the exhibition. We see the motivation for the Scandinavian travels driven by a hunger for the caliphate’s silver, and therefore the silver goes as a trail through the exhibition.

“Groups of people who met in trade along the rivers forged a new empire, the Rus realm”

What is the plot of the exhibition?

This special exhibition takes visitors on a scenography journey back to a 250-year period, around AD 800–1050, as Vikings from southern Scandinavia crossed the Baltic Sea and penetrated the Eastern European continent via widely branched river networks against the then superpowers of the Byzantine Empire with the capital Constantinople south of the Black Sea and the Abbasid Caliphate on the Caspian Sea to the east. The riches of the East and trade with the world’s most powerful kingdoms drive in the period 800–1050, the Vikings out on journeys as warriors and merchants, tax extortionists, and as “mafia” for large-scale fur and slave trade with the caliphate, who in turn paid in abundant silver in form of dirhams, Arabic coins.

Together with local tribes (collective name in the exhibition: Rus people / Rus Vikings), they establish trading stations and settlements in foreign parts. Rus Vikings or Rus people is the term given to travelers along the rivers of eastern Europe. A multicultural people who fuse Scandinavian, Slavic, Finnish and steppe-nomadic traditions. They do not originate in one specific geographical area. But groups of people who met in trade along the rivers, established trading stations and forged a new culture and a new empire, the Rus realm. 

Byzantium, Hagia Sophia, the baptismal font where the Varangians are baptized before being admitted to the emperor's bodyguard (exhibition scenography). Jakob Due, Moesgaard Museum

The Vikings meet trappers in the ice-cold north, Baltic and Slav peoples further south and the nomads of the southern steppes. They travel to the Caliphate and encounter Arab merchants and trading towns. In Byzantium they challenge the East Roman emperor, and many Rus Vikings serve as the emperor’s personal bodyguard. Trade with the Caliphate and Byzantium is crucial to the rus Vikings’ travels and settlements. Strict control of the fur trade in the cold northern regions and, not least, the slave trade, also contribute to the Vikings’ success in the east.

Rus people found towns, long-distance trade stations and transit hubs. Also, they achieved a monopoly on trade via the river systems. Meetings with the local tribes take place in a mixture of diplomacy and bloody conflict.

The focus of the exhibition is the journeys, cultural meetings, trade, power and diplomacy. The story is told in nine acts, nine scenographed galleries, responding nine places on the journey: leaving Scandinavia lured by the silver that comes in, the Baltic coast and the Baltics, fur hunters station in the north, sailing on the rivers, including the seven dangerous rapids, Kyiv – center of the Rus realm, Constantinople, Atil, the Caliphate, Gotland and Birka.

Kyiv section at the exhibition. Objects from MIST to the right. Jakob Due, Moesgaard Museum

The magnificent artefacts on display in the exhibition show that the Vikings made a huge impression in Østerled, as the great area of land for their eastern adventures was known.

The narrative of the exhibition is supported by written Slavic, Byzantine, Arabic, Baltic and Scandinavian sources. 

“Many of our guests did not know that story in advance”

To your mind, why are items from Ukraine and Baltic countries not known so much between European researchers?

This is due to past political, linguistic and cultural barriers. In recent years, however, intensive international and interinstitutional research projects have taken place, and many excavations and research projects are now published in English or German. 

In what aspects the artefacts from Ukraine are interesting to Danish researchers?

Regarding objects from the 9th–11th century, the cultural influences between for example Ukraine and Denmark, the many Scandinavian objects in Ukraine and the Scandinavian influences in general are of course very important for a greater understanding of the time we denote the Viking Age. Objects from other periods of history are also interesting for Danish researchers, for example in relation to discussions about migration.

I see opportunities in collaborations around further studies of the objects with the inclusion of scientific analyzes. There are many obvious projects to define.

The Caliphate section at the exhibition. Jakob Due, Moesgaard Museum

You talked about access to the newest research results on the Viking Age’s cultural connections eastwards. What new information can the visitor of the exhibition get?

For Moesgaard, it is important to always present the latest knowledge in a scientific field of research. We need to be updated on new research in the exhibitions. At the same time, our target group is three generations. For the Danish, but also for the international audience, it is eye-opening that the southern Scandinavians traveled so far and so massively to the east in the Viking Age, and many stayed there and became part of a new identity.

Many of our guests did not know that story in advance. There are probably more Scandinavian objects to the east than to the west. It is estimated that about 10% of the people in the towns and trading stations etc. at that time were Scandinavians or had Scandinavian relatives.

“The guests are overwhelmed by the Kyiv princely gallery”

What things about Vikings are still unclear for scientists?

There are still lots of open questions for scientists. Natural sciences will tell us much more in the future. For example, DNA projects will provide many perspectives for research.   

In collaboration with metal detector groups, connected to the museums, many eastern objects appear in these years in Denmark. They are fittings of steppe-nomadic character. It is very interesting and may in the future tell much more about the contacts between Scandinavia and the eastern area. Byzantine art has to some extent inspired Scandinavia. 

Kyiv section. The visitor is looking at the showcase with golden objects from MIST. Jakob Due, Moesgaard Museum

The exhibition opened on January 22. What are the visitors interested in the most? What was the first feedback on this project?

The visitors are very excited about the exhibition, the objects, the story, the narrative together with the soundscape and media designs. The exhibition gives an experience of being on a very long journey together with the people travelling East. The guests are overwhelmed by the Kyiv princely gallery with all the high-status objects on loan from Ukraine. This room is indeed an eye opener. For many visitors it is quite a new history which they knew very little or nothing about.  

The exhibition has been very well received by our guests who send positive and enthusiastic feedback. The media gave us top marks in the Danish newspapers – six of six possible hearts and stars. It is overwhelming and we are grateful.

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Exhibition “Rus – Vikings in the East” will continue until September 11, 2022.            

Mariia Prokopenko

The main image: Kyiv section at the exhibition, objects from chamber grave Shestovitsa in Chernihiv region. Jakob Due, Moesgaard Museum