2017-03 NG

ASTOUNDING TREES | THE DEEPEST CAVE?

VIKINGS

MARCH 2017





I CONTENTS

. .M A R C H 2 0 1 7 • VO L 2 3 1 • N O 3 • O F F I C I A L J O U R N A L O F T H E N AT I O N A L G EO G R A P H I C SO C I E T Y

DEPARTMENTS F E AT U R E S

VISIONS 52 THE WISDOM OF TREES

EXPLORE Every tree tells a story. Some are beyond eloquent: the apple tree that illustrated the law
.LWH VNLLQJ RQ LFH DQLPDO of gravity, the pear tree that survived 9/11, pines that can live more than 5,000 years.
tools, a ship elevator, and a
monastery’s hidden texts By Cathy Newman Photographs by Diane Cook and Len Jenshel

STARTALK
-D]]PHQ +HUELH +DQFRFN
and Wayne Shorter jam
with Neil deGrasse Tyson.

The centuries-old Wedding
2DN QHDU 6DQ 6DED 7H[DV LV
named for the many nuptials
that have been held under it.

SPECIAL POSTER: 30 | NEW VISIONS 74 | A SEA’S FADING 86 | A FIGHT
THE VIKINGS’ FAR- OF THE VIKINGS BOUNTY TO SURVIVE
FLUNG REALM AND
FEARSOME FLEET How Scandinavian farmers Politics and exploitation &UHVWHG EODFN PDFDTXHV
became Europe’s scourge. SXW D JUHDW ƃVKHU\ DW ULVN have many enemies.
On the Cover A Scandinavian
warrior chief from the late 10th By Heather Pringle By Rachael Bale By Jennifer S. Holland
century is ready for battle. The Photographs by Robert Clark Photographs by Photographs by
headgear he wears is based on and David Guttenfelder Adam Dean Stefano Unterthiner
WKH RQO\ FRPSOHWH 9LNLQJ PHWDO
KHOPHW NQRZQ WR VXUYLYH 104 | DARK STAR: INTO THE DEEP 120 | METROPOLIS
Art by Fernando G. Baptista
An expedition plumbs the depths of what The world’s megacities are a swirl of
&RUUHFWLRQV DQG &ODULƃFDWLRQV may be the Everest of the underground. 21st-century energy and humanity.
Go to natgeo.com/corrections.
By Mark Synnott Story and Photographs by
Photographs by Robbie Shone Martin Roemers

ELSEWHERE

TELEVISION TELEVISION

TAKE A JOURNEY THROUGH HUMANITY’S ORIGINS CESAR HITS THE ROAD…

+XPDQLW\ KDV SURJUHVVHG WKDQNV WR D VHTXHQFH RI TXDQWXP OHDSV In Cesar Millan’s Dog Nation the dog behav-
LQFOXGLQJ WKH GLVFRYHU\ RI ƃUH WKH GDZQ RI FRPPXQLFDWLRQ DQG WKH LRU H[SHUW DQG KLV VRQ $QGUH WRXU WKH 8QLWHG
ƃUVW VWLUULQJV RI ZDU 1DWLRQDO *HRJUDSKLFŠV new series ORIGINS delves States helping owners and pets. The series
into these and other advances Mondays at 9/8c, starting March 6. debuts March 3 at 9/8c on Nat Geo WILD.

TELEVISION

THE LANDMARK SERIES EXPLORER IS BACK

Long a popular documentary series, Explorer returns with magazine
storytelling, celebrity guests, and wide-ranging conversation. Watch
the series on Mondays at 10/9c on National Geographic.

STOP-MOTION VIDEO

JOIN THE VOYAGES OF A VIKING SHIPBUILDER

In a video adventure rooted in Norse mythology and fashioned entirely
RI KDQGPDGH SDSHU DUW D 9LNLQJ PDVWHU EXLOGHU FRQVWUXFWV D VKLS WKHQ
SLORWV LW RQ UDLGV WR WDNH ORRW DQG VODYHV 6HH LW DW ngm.com/Mar2017.

BOOKS

…AND OFFERS CANINE ‘LESSONS’

In Cesar Millan’s Lessons From the Pack:
Stories of the Dogs Who Changed My Life,
the Dog Whisperer shares life lessons he’s
learned from dogs. Available at shopng.com
DQG ZKHUHYHU ERRNV DUH VROG

360-DEGREE VIDEO NAT GEO WILD YOUTUBE CHANNEL

EXPERIENCE A BATTLE WITH VIKING WARRIORS SEE NEW WILDLIFE VIDEOS
1DW *HR :,/' ORRNV DW VXUSULVLQJ DQLPDOV
$UPHG ZLWK VZRUGV DQG D[HV DUPRU FODG UHHQDFWRUV DW D 9LNLQJ IHVWLYDO IRXQG LQ RXU RZQ EDFN\DUGV LQ D QHZ GLJLWDO
LQ :ROLQ 3RODQG ODXQFK DQ RƂHQVLYH DJDLQVW WKH 6ODYVŞDQG \RX FDQ series, Untamed With Filipe DeAndrade,
be part of it. Find our immersive 360 ƃOP DW natgeo.com/vikings360. airing on YouTube March 14.

TELEVISION

THE BIG CATS KEEP ON COMING
2XU DQQXDO %LJ &DW :HHN NLFNV RƂ
February 20 on Nat Geo WILD.

Subscriptions For subscriptions or changes of address, contact Customer Service at ngmservice.com or Contributions to the National Geographic Society are tax deductible
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We believe in the power of science, exploration, and storytelling to change the world.

EDITOR IN CHIEF Susan Goldberg The National NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY

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NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC • MARCH 2017

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| EDITOR’S LETTER | CLIMATE CHANGE

ON THE SIDE report—factually and fairly—on how When Albert Lukassen
climate change is altering the Earth. was a boy in Greenland
OF SCIENCE more than 50 years ago,
Those who deny climate change he hunted until June on
In the past three years, this magazine receive a lot of attention, but the vast the frozen Uummannaq
has run 34 stories on climate change— majority of Americans acknowledge Fjord. Today the fjord thaws
including a special issue devoted entirely the reality of the problem. Nearly two- by April, when this photo
to the topic. thirds of respondents told Gallup last was taken. The Inuit man’s
year that they are worried about global story appears in National
Our commitment is ongoing. In the warming—the highest figure since 2008. Geographic’s Climate Issue,
April issue, to mark Earth Day, we’ll which can be ordered at
publish a guide that separates fact from To help keep you current on develop- 1-800-777-2800.
fallacy on climate change and a feature ments, we’re expanding our environmen-
story on how rising temperatures are tal coverage across publishing platforms. EXPLORER
affecting Alaska. Later this year we’ll We’ll have deeply reported magazine Bill Nye’s
offer looks at the Arctic, Antarctica, the stories, brought to life with exceptional Global
Galápagos Islands, and other places at photography, graphics, and maps. On Meltdown
risk as the world warms. Our television nationalgeographic.com, you’ll find top-
channel is airing a documentary film ical stories every day, as well as a climate The Climate Issue
and a three-part series on water issues. change reference guide. And on our social
media accounts, our contributors are
And that doesn’t count the hundreds providing compelling views of climate
of climate stories we have published on change from all points of the globe.
nationalgeographic.com.
We are committed to understanding,
Covering our climate—where we keep and to helping you understand, how best
setting records for the hottest year—is to care for this planet. Perhaps philoso-
one of the most important things we pher Eric Hoffer put it best: “In a time
can do. It’s especially crucial in an era of drastic change it is the learners who
when some people claim that there are inherit the future. The learned usually
no “facts” and basic science is loudly find themselves equipped to live in a
questioned without embarrassment. world that no longer exists.”

At National Geographic we are proudly Thank you for reading National
nonpartisan. But there are a few matters Geographic.
on which we do take sides:
Susan Goldberg, Editor in Chief
• We are on the side of facts.
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I VISIONS

Estonia
Like mushrooms
sprouting in soil,
wooden poles capped
with ice poke free of
the sea at an old port in
Tallinn. Lit by the rising
sun, these remnants
of a dock on the
Paljassaare Peninsula
are visible due to an
unusually low tide.

PHOTO: ANDREI REINOL





Mozambique
$ GULIWLQJ MHOO\ƃVK
plays host to a small
constellation of brittle
stars. Scientists aren’t
sure why the two
invertebrate species
sometimes unite.
The salad-bowl-size
MHOO\ PD\ RƂHU WKH VWDUV
food, protection, or
transportation.

PHOTO: ANDREA MARSHALL

England
On a misty morning in
London’s Richmond
Park, a red deer stag
bellows during mating
season. From Sep-
tember to November,
mature males roar and
thrash the brush with
their antlers to attract
females, aka hinds,
and to intimidate rivals.

PHOTO: FÉLIX MORLÁN
GONZÁLEZ

O Order prints of select National Geographic photos online at NationalGeographicArt.com.



|   V I S I O N S  |   YO U R S H OT. N G M .CO M

Andrew Richard Hara
Hilo, Hawaii
Hara, a professional photographer, had been to the summit of Mauna Kea hundreds of times
LQ VHDUFK RI D FOHDU VN\ $ PHWHRU VKRZHU LQ -XO\ RƂHUHG FRVPLF GUDPDWLFV Ţ, WKLQN
being at only 60 percent oxygen helps me focus on what makes a great image,” he says.



EXPLORE

TOOLS AND TECHNOLOGY

SIX HUNDRED NATGEO.COM
MILES WITH SKIS, / EXPLORERS
KITES, AND WIND
INSTAGRAM
By Kat Long @sarahmcnairlandry
@eboomer
On the southeastern edge of the @redonkulous2u
Greenland ice sheet, a blast of Arctic
wind hit the three kite-skiers. Sarah The three adventurers
McNair-Landry’s kite billowed, but with crossed 600 miles of
her safety latch jammed, the gust yanked Greenland’s punishing
her 20 feet into the air. She dropped head- terrain in 46 days.
first onto the ice, cracking her helmet
and briefly blacking out.

The accident almost derailed her
expedition with kayakers Ben Stookes-
berry and Erik Boomer—an expedition
to kite-ski from east to northwest across
Greenland. But the three continued on,
wearing skis while harnessed to giant
kites designed to catch the wind and
propel them across 600 miles of ice.

“You’ve got these amazing winds
and conditions in Greenland,” says
McNair-Landry. “You can travel so much
faster and farther, especially while pull-
ing sleds, than you would if you were
just skiing.” On some days the three
would ski across the terrain from 3 a.m.
to 10 p.m. They encountered dangerous
crevasses, uneven ice, and a seven-mile
ice canyon carved by meltwater.

After the canyon they paddled a wild
Arctic river replete with waterfalls and
bone-chilling class-five rapids to com-
plete the journey. McNair-Landry later
learned her fall had cracked a vertebra in
her back, but that didn’t detract from an
adventure well traveled. “I love having
one goal that you work toward as a team,”
she says, “even though there will be a lot
of challenges to get there.”

PHOTO: ERIK BOOMER

| EXPLORE | TOOLS AND TECHNOLOGY

On this parchment (left), the naked eye sees only one text. But a multispectral image (right), HIGH-TECH
shows two: the visible text, in red, and an earlier, erased document underneath, in blue.
TRAPPINGS
RECOVERING fresh surface. The old text isn’t entirely
ERASED WISDOM gone, though. It remains embedded in A researcher at the
the page as a ghostly shadow, which can University of Tokyo
By A. R. Williams be resurrected with a technique called spent six years trying
multispectral imaging, designed to peer to transform electrical
Built in the sixth century at the foot of into both visible and invisible wave- FXUUHQWV LQWR WKH ƄDYRU
Mount Sinai in Egypt, St. Catherine’s lengths of light. of salt. The result? A
Monastery is the world’s oldest such fork that fools taste
institution in continuous use. Its library So far the imaging has revealed some buds by transmitting
preserves hundreds of manuscripts col- 6,800 hidden pages in 74 of the monas- the sensation of salt to
lected during medieval times—classical tery’s 163 recycled parchments, called the tongue without a
texts, scriptures, and other documents palimpsests. “We have identified erased pinch of sodium.
of interest to the monks. But it turns texts in 10 languages that date from the
out that people recycled the pages of fifth to the 12th centuries,” says Michael An Israeli tech start-up
some of those manuscripts, erasing texts Phelps, the director of the recovery ef- is replacing bifocals
they no longer needed. Since 2011 the fort. In the example above, a text in with “omnifocals.” The
monastery has been working to recover Syriac overlays a ninth-century trans- autofocusing glasses
some of those long-lost erasures using lation of a page from a medical treatise have infrared sensors
modern digital technology. by the ancient Greco-Roman physician that detect the dis-
known as Galen. tance between pupils
About half of the library’s manu- and the object being
scripts were written on parchment, the With dozens of palimpsests yet to be viewed, refocusing in
specially prepared skin of a calf, goat, or scanned, Phelps believes there are still 300 milliseconds.
sheep. Parchment can be recycled by treasures to come: “It’s not unlikely that
scraping off any ink and writing on the St. Catherine’s holds many more pages of Your cell phone knows
previously unidentified and unstudied you best. Scientists
texts from antiquity.” at the University of
California San Diego
swabbed 39 devices
and were able to identi-
fy their owners’ groom-
ing products, medical
conditions, recently
visited locations, and
favorite foods. Such a
composite character
sketch can be used
LQ FULPLQDO SURƃOLQJ RU
medical monitoring.

A scientist at the
University of Central
Florida developed a
material to harvest and
store the sun’s energy.
Woven into clothing,
WKH FRSSHU ULEERQ ƃOD-
ment will turn a wearer
into a self-charging
solar battery that may
someday power a
phone from inside
a pocket.

PHOTOS: ST. CATHERINE’S MONASTERY, USED WITH PERMISSION



| EXPLORE | TOOLS AND TECHNOLOGY

New World ANIMAL HACKS
monkeys
By Rachel Hartigan Shea
(22 tool uses)
Humans aren’t the only creatures to use
Bonobo tools. Archerfish shoot water droplets
(21) from their mouths to fell insects. Oc-
topuses carry coconut shells to serve
Old World as shelter. Orangutans borrow canoes
monkeys to forage for aquatic plants.

(19) “Tool use is widespread and diverse,”

Elephants ALBERTO LUCAS LÓPEZ, NGM STAFF; KELSEY NOWAKOWSKI
(12) PHOTO OF PAPER CONSTRUCTION: REBECCA HALE, NGM STAFF

Rodents
(8)

Insects
(7)

Ungulates
(4)

Prosimians
(3)

Arachnids
(3)

Fish
(2)

Amphibians
(1)

$ƅ[ DSSO\ RU GUDSH DQ REMHFW RQ WKH ERG\ Differences in
7KURZ animal tool use

%DLW HQWLFH Each layer represents
&RQWDLQ OLTXLGV RU REMHFWV IRU FRQWURO RU WUDQVSRUW a mode of tool use.
Colored bars next to the
3U\ DSSO\ OHYHUDJH animals’ names indicate
%UDQGLVK ZDYH VKDNH which behaviors have
been recorded for that
%ORFN group in the scientif-
3URS DQG FOLPE EDODQFH DQG FOLPE EULGJH UHSRVLWLRQ ic literature. Animal
groupings can have one
'LJ species (bonobo), a few
6FUDWFK UXE (Old World monkeys),
3RXQG KDPPHU or hundreds (insects).
+DQJ
:LSH Chimpanzees,
,QVHUW DQG SUREH orangutans
'URS (22 tool uses)
5HDFK
6SRQJH OLTXLGV WR PRYH WKHP Gorillas
'UDJ UROO NLFN VODS SXVK RYHU (20)
&OXE EHDW
-DE VWDE SHQHWUDWH Birds
6\PEROL]H (18)
&XW
Carnivores
says biologist Robert W. Shumaker. But (10)
it’s not necessarily a sign of intelligence.
“We don’t even attempt to classify exam- Gibbons
ples as thinking or not thinking,” he says. (8)

For some animals, like the archer- Cetaceans
fish, tool use is mostly instinctive: Each (6)
individual of the species does it, in the
same way. Other animals learn their Cephalopods
skills: Before the canoeing orangutans (4)
ventured out on the water, they observed
how humans used the craft. Crustaceans
(3)
SOURCE: ROBERT W. SHUMAKER, INDIANAPOLIS ZOO
Gastropods
(2)

Crocodiles
(1)

Echinoids
(1)

| EXPLORE | TOOLS AND TECHNOLOGY

A PASSION
FOR PINS

Between 1852 and
1887 the U.S. patent
RƅFH LVVXHG RYHU
SDWHQWV IRU FORWKHV-
SLQV VXFK DV WKRVH
EHORZ 7KHVH WRROV
IRU DWWDFKLQJ ODXQGU\
WR D OLQH EHJDQ ORVLQJ
WKHLU YDOXH DIWHU Ş
ZKHQ WKH ƃUVW HOHFWULF
GU\HU ZHQW RQ VDOH
—Catherine Zuckerman

1864

1865

NIT-PICKING IN $ERXW WKUHH LQFKHV VTXDUH WKLV FRPE KDV 1866
ANCIENT CHILE WLQHV RQ HDFK VLGH 7UDFHV RI ERWK OLFH
DQG QLWV DUH ORGJHG EHWZHHQ WKH WLQHV

By A. R. Williams collection of double-sided combs made 1867
from common reeds. All came from 1868
Lice have plagued humankind through- cultural groups that flourished in river 1871
out history. Spreading from person to valleys in the Atacama Desert between 1873
person by close contact, they latch onto about A.D. 500 and 1500. 1883
hair with hooklike claws and pierce the
scalp to suck up a meal of blood. The Experts previously suggested that
result is often a very itchy head. Relief such combs had been used to create
comes only with the removal of all traces complex hair styles. Also, since most
of infestation—the insects, each about of the combs were found in the graves
the size of a sesame seed, and the tiny of women, they might have served a
eggs they lay, known as nits. function in the female task of weaving.

Picking off the parasites one by one But viewing the combs at 10 times
is tedious, so many cultures have craft- normal size revealed their true purpose:
ed fine-tooth combs to hasten the job. Many still bore traces of the lice and
Combs of wood, bone, and ivory have nits they had extracted from someone’s
turned up at ancient sites in the Old tresses. In pre-Columbian times, as to-
World, but solid evidence for such tools day, people apparently resisted cutting
in the Americas was lacking until a re- off all the hair, the easiest way to get rid
cent study in northern Chile. of lice. “Vanity is stronger than itching,”
says lead scientist Bernardo Arriaza.
That research focused on a museum “People prefer to feel ‘lousy’ than bald.”

3+2726 %(51$5'2 $55,$=$ 81,9(56,'$' '( 7$5$3$&ƒ &+,/( ǖ&20%Ǘ &/27+(63,16 3+272*5$3+('
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Mark Isreal

Doughnut Plant Owner

37.5 lb. ORGANIC SUGAR PIZZA CUTTER

4,669 POINTS 1,499 POINTS

CUSTOM
DOUGHNUT CUTTERS

52,570 POINTS

7.5 lb. BUTTER MARKET FRUIT 37.5 lb. SUGAR
4.5 bags FLOUR
0.75 block YEAST 6,400 POINTS 2,194 POINTS
2.25 gallons MILK

12,668 POINTS

HOW MARK TOOK 80,000 POINTS,
FRIED THEM, GLAZED THEM AND MADE HEADLINES.

The Ripple craze began with Mark Isreal, owner of Doughnut Plant,
using 80,000 points from his Chase Ink® card to buy ingredients
and equipment. Mark’s points gave him the freedom to experiment
and bring an entirely new idea to life for his business. Mark started
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See Chase.com/Ink for pricing and rewards details. © 2017 JPMorgan Chase & Co. All rights reserved.

| EXPLORE | TOOLS AND TECHNOLOGY

UP AND OVER

By Daniel Stone

Technically it’s ancient technology. But balanced. Remove water from one cham- 4 hours
now the two-millennia-old principle of ber, and that chamber will slowly rise.
the Greek mathematician Archimedes The ship lift
has been deployed at gargantuan scale. A system designed to accommodate reduces transit
The Three Gorges Dam, China’s marvel ships up to 3,000 metric tons is a little times from
on the Yangtze River, is one of the world’s more complex. The dam first opened with up to four hours
largest engineering projects—the prod- a series of locks, similar to the Panama Ca- through the lock
uct of 37 million cubic yards of concrete. nal’s. The new ship lift raises and lowers system to less
Its final feature, inaugurated in late 2016, boats using cables, a basin, motors—and than one hour.
is a new ship lift, a hydraulic seesaw that simple gravity. Concrete counterweights
raises and lowers vessels as many as 371 in addition to water keep the system 40 minutes
feet to traverse the dam. balanced, as do high-tech safety stops. Lift time:
21 minutes
Archimedes’ notion was simple: The The China Three Gorges Corporation,
weight of a buoyant object is equal to which designed the lift with German LOCK SHIP
the weight of water it displaces. Take engineers, expects several benefits: SYSTEM LIFT
two identical chambers filled with equal lower power needs, a rise in shipping
amounts of water. They will balance on capacity, increased passenger traffic,
a scale. Add an object—e.g., a ship—to and lower carbon emissions—plus, the
one of them, and let water of an equal universal currency of time. A crossing
weight out. The two chambers will remain that once spanned three to four hours
via locks now takes just 40 minutes.

THE THREE GORGES DAM HOW IT WORKS
The dam was completed in 2012 after 18 years
of construction. The world’s largest hydropower 1. Entering the Lift
SODQW LW KDV LQFUHDVHG HFRQRPLF WUDƅF XSULYHU
but also displaced at least 1.3 million people Vessels enter the ship chamber, which
DQG FDXVHG VLJQLƃFDQW accommodates a draft (or depth) of almost nine
ecological changes. feet and a height of 60 feet. The chamber can
handle boats that displace a maximum
CHINA TAIWAN of 3,000 metric tons of water,
or 793,000 gallons.
Three Gorges Dam
Yangtze JASON TREAT, NGM STAFF; KELSEY NOWAKOWSKI
ART: BRYAN CHRISTIE. SOURCES: CHINA THREE GORGES
Reservoir Lock system CORPORATION; THREE GORGES NAVIGATION AUTHORITY;
KREBS+KIEFER ENGINEERS
Ship lift Yangtze
M

A
D

0 mi 1
0 km 1

3. Exiting the Lift

At the top of the lift, the chamber
OHYHOV RƂ ZLWK WKH ZDWHU RQ WKH KLJK
side of the dam. A steel gate opens,
DQG WKH YHVVHO H[LWV WKH FKDPEHU

2. The Chamber Rises

The chamber is made of reinforced
concrete and is suspended from 256
cables attached to counterweights.
When the counterweights go down,
the chamber rises.

SAFETY MEASURES
The ship chamber is accom-
panied up and down by four
static screws, called rotary
ORFNLQJ URGV ,Q WKH HYHQW
of an accident, the screws,
which follow threaded
tracks, are locked and the
chamber becomes immobile.

COUNTERWEIGHTS
Water can be added to or
subtracted from the chamber
to help raise or lower it. While
JUDYLW\ SULPDULO\ SRZHUV WKH
lift, electric motors are used to
ensure its stability and safety,
PXFK OLNH ZLWK DQ HOHYDWRU

EFFECT ON TRAFFIC &DUJR LQ PHWULF WRQV 3DVVHQJHU WUDƅF
&DUJR WUDƅF WKURXJK WKH ORFNV 120,000 2 million
rose faster than expected after
they opened in 2003, while 60,000 1 million
SDVVHQJHU WUDƅF GHFOLQHG 2WKHU
recent infrastructure projects, 0 0
including the Yiwan Railway and 2003 2003
WKH +XURQJ ([SUHVVZD\ RƂHU
faster routes for migrant workers
through the Three Gorges region.

2015 2015

| EXPLORE | TOOLS AND TECHNOLOGY

CHANGING Parents may have rejoiced last year time may rewire the developing brain,
THE WORLD when their kids left the couch to run hinder cognitive abilities, and cause
KIDS SEE around outside, hunting imaginary behavioral problems. But unlike other
creatures. But the kids still clutched forms of digital media, “the primary
By Nina Strochlic digital devices: They were using an activity in AR is interacting with the
augmented reality (AR) app, which real world,” says Chris Dede, a pro-
layers computer-generated images fessor in learning technologies at
over a user’s surroundings, to turn the Harvard University.
real world into a Pokémon Go safari.
Dede foresees a future where aca-
Its ability to engage kids has made demic lessons will be matched to aug-
AR a powerful tool for education. AR mented settings, from economics in
technology can let students experience malls to biology in zoos. Investors fore-
climate change and witness historic see a windfall: According to a Goldman
events. It can even assist them with Sachs estimate, AR and virtual reality
homework assignments. education tech combined will generate
$700 million annually by 2025.
Some scientists contend that screen

CATCH ’EM ALL

A young girl pursues the Pokémon
:HHSLQEHOO OHIW 7KH DSS VHW ƃYH
world records for mobile games
sales within a month of its release.

PHOTO: MIKE MCGREGOR. ILLUSTRATION: NIANTIC, INC.

®, TM, © 2016 Kellogg NA Co.



| STARTALK | WITH NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON

The Science of Jazz

Herbie Hancock on piano and Wayne Shorter on saxophone. They
first paired up in the ’60s, playing with the Miles Davis Quintet. Their
pioneering musicianship endures, spanning two centuries. During a
syncopated chat with Neil deGrasse Tyson, they drew connections
between music and other matters: science, education, inspiration.

Neil deGrasse Tyson: I’ve got to start by in physics and math and the universe. I Neil deGrasse Tyson is
saying that between the two of you there’s started taking them, and this became an the host of the StarTalk
almost 160 years of life. Wayne, you’re… outlet for my energy, a way of harnessing television series on National
Wayne Shorter: I’m 82. curiosity completely. Geographic. His new book
NT: And Herbie? is StarTalk: Everything You
Herbie Hancock: I’m 76. Herbie, at age 11 you won a piano Ever Need to Know About
competition? Space Travel, Sci-Fi, the
NT: I don’t know what’s going on with HH: Right. It was a young people’s con- Human Race, the Universe,
the two of you. You look the same as cert series in Chicago, and if you win and Beyond. It’s available
when I bought your albums in the 1970s. the contest, you get to play the concerto wherever books are sold
Both of you have been at this since you that you used for the audition, with the and at shopng.com/startalk.
were young, right? Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
WS: I started playing the clarinet when PHOTO: WILLIAM CALLAN, CONTOUR
I was 15, taking lessons every Saturday, There were a couple of reasons I got BY GETTY IMAGES
and then I went to the saxophone at 16. In into music. One of them is that my
the old days we had record gramophone mother saw that every time I would go
players, and I would play alongside, like, to my best friend’s apartment, the first
Dvořák’s New World Symphony and try thing I’d say is, “Hey, can I play your
to jump in where it was conducive, try piano?” So she told my father, “We got
to add something. to get this boy a piano.” My brother and
sister and I started lessons. After about
I also was listening to Charlie Parker, three years they got interested in sports
Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk—and and dropped piano, but I continued
playing hooky from my high school because I was too little, my hands were
classes. When they caught me, the too small—I wasn’t as good at sports as
vice-principal had my mother and father others. But on the piano I was as good
come in and asked where I had been go- as anybody.
ing. I told them, to the theater around the
corner where they showed musical films NT: When I bring my expertise to the
with Gillespie, Parker, Lionel Hampton. public, I figure out a way to package it
So the vice-principal called the music and what words to use. Then I stand up
director and put me in music class. in front of an audience and deliver my
astrophysics lecture. And if I succeed,
NT: Something like that happened to me people will hear it, they’ll learn—and
in sixth grade. I was a little bit disruptive ideally they’ll be enlightened by it and
in class—occasionally, a lot disruptive— make it part of themselves. So that’s
and all of my book reports were on my conduit of communication. Your
astronomy. The teacher saw that and conduit of communication is music.
told me that the Hayden Planetarium HH: The conduit is being human and
in New York offered advanced classes manifesting that humanity in every-
thing that you do. Not just the thing that

'28%/( (;32685( 32575$,7 ǖ+$1&2&. ,1 )5217 6+257(5 ,1 %$&.Ǘ (7+$1 /(9,7$6
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| STARTALK

you’re famous for, the thing that you’re
known for being good at. We both share
having played with Miles Davis [in a
quintet that included bassist Ron Carter
and drummer Tony Williams].
WS: And when Tony Williams was
asked, “What do you think about when
you’re playing the drums?” he said, “If I
could tell you what I was thinking about,
I wouldn’t have to play the drums.”

NT: What you’re saying is that music ‘I like finding artists who’ve been
brings vocabulary to you that doesn’t touched by the universe.’
otherwise exist.
WS: Mm-hmm. Tyson, on Shorter (left) and Hancock
HH: Right. And people still continue to
create new avenues within the music. HH: We’ve been told that a lot of young Shorter’s work with Han-
people are not interested in math cock and other artists is
NT: I’m intrigued by the referencing and science, but they’re interested in the subject of a forthcom-
that goes on in your music, both of you, music. Let’s use what they’re interested ing documentary, Wayne
to scientific themes. To the universe in in to teach math and science—that’s a Shorter: Zero Gravity.
particular. What role has science played win-win for the arts community, and for Shorter says he gave the
in your lives? humanity, really. ƃOP WKDW QDPH WR H[SUHVV
HH: Let me just say that when I was a “a buoyancy, a state of
little kid, even before I got the piano, I NT: Yes. being which is untethered,
was already taking watches and clocks HH: There are so many connections transitory.”
apart and trying to put them back between music and people we revere
together, because I was always curious. in the scientific community. Einstein
That was all well and good until I tried played violin.
to take apart my Lionel electric train. I NT: I read that John Coltrane was influ-
got a spanking for that. enced by Einstein.
WS: And Dr. Albert Schweitzer played
NT: It’s been suggested that the next the organ.
generation, their curiosity is not fos- HH: The scientific community created
tered in that way because nothing can this technological age—but where did
be taken apart. You don’t take apart your that impetus come from? If you ask
computer to meddle with its parts. So many people—like Larry Page, one of
this whole world of the tinkerer, learning the co-founders of Google—they say
how things work, might be a lost era. music was a big influence. I’ve private-
HH: There is tinkering, in music. And all ly asked many scientists if they’ve had
kids love music. We have a new initiative a connection with music or other arts,
that I presented formally to UNESCO and the answer was yes from maybe
called Math, Science & Music. It’s using 85 percent of them.
musical elements to teach math and
science. So, if these people who have this
attachment to the arts created this tech-
NT: We know the concept of STEM nological age that we’re living in, then in
education—science, technology, engi- order for it to thrive we need the arts the
neering, and math. There’s been a move- same way they needed the arts.
ment to add an A in there: STEAM, for
science, technology, engineering, arts,
and mathematics. I was wondering if
you can reflect on the value of an arts
education in our life, in our society, in
our personal growth.

3+272 (7+$1 /(9,7$6

| EXPLORE | BASIC INSTINCTS

SEX THAT WORKS fluid, whips it to a foam with her back GRAY
UP A L ATHER legs, and puts in her eggs. At this point, FOAM-NEST
says Byrne, up to 20 more males “line up TREE FROG
By Patricia Edmonds in an orderly fashion by the female and
vigorously and synchronously beat their CHIROMANTIS
These frogs put the “group” in “group back legs to help make a big wonderful XERAMPELINA
sex”—and that helps them thrive. nest,” where they deposit their sperm.
HABITAT/RANGE
Of all vertebrates, gray foam-nest tree The group spends hours pumping out
frogs exhibit the most extreme form of gametes and bubble-wrapping them in Tree-, crop-, and grass-
simultaneous polyandry, or a female foam that will shield growing embryos. covered lands in parts
mating with multiple males, says be- Five days later tadpoles will wiggle free of southeastern Africa
havioral ecologist Phillip Byrne of the of the nest and plop into the water below.
University of Wollongong in Australia. CONSERVATION STATUS
Nearly all C. xerampelina females
After a heavy rain swells pools in the mate with multiple males to produce one Least concern
African landscape, male frogs gather in egg clutch, says Byrne—and that confers
poolside vegetation and call for mates, genetic advantages. His research shows OTHER FACTS
while females in the pools absorb water that 20 percent more offspring survive
through their skin. When she’s hydrated from those females than from females 3RO\DQGU\ PDNHV RƂ-
enough, a female heads for an overhang- that mate with just one male. spring more genetically
ing branch. En route she is amplexed— diverse. That could help
gripped in a sexual embrace—by a male. Unlike species whose males compete insulate C. xerampelina
brutally to mate, these frogs’ orgies are from threats that have
The joined pair climb to a nesting site. calm affairs, Byrne says. “By the females’ resulted in about a third
There the female discharges a watery letting lots of males sire offspring, it of the globe’s amphibian
makes this a pretty relaxed business.” VSHFLHV EHLQJ FODVVLƃHG
as threatened or extinct.

PHOTO: AVALON/BRUCE COLEMAN INC/ALAMY

NEW VISIONS OF THE

VIKINGS

Yes, they were brutal. They also had women leaders,
coveted riches and finery, and encountered more
than 50 cultures from Afghanistan to Canada.

In a feathered helmet that’s more fantasy than
fact, a Shetland Islander celebrates his Viking
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ELLIOT ROSS

31

Bristling with spears and swords, Viking and
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raiding parties early in the Viking age grew into
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DAVID GUTTENFELDER

32 NAT I O NA L G E O G R A P H I C • M A RC H 2017



By Heather Pringle
Photographs by Robert Clark and David Guttenfelder

A cold drizzle falls as we shiver in the streets, wait-
ing for the Viking lord and his band of raiders to
appear. It’s a raw January night in the old Shetland
town of Lerwick, but there’s euphoria in the air.

Beside me, a man with two young children laughs Now, as the crowd belts out old songs of sea
as he spots a red smoky haze rising behind the kings and dragon ships, the torchbearers tow
town hall. “Looks like they torched the whole the vessel into a walled field. As the lord gives
building,” he shouts, to grins all around. Fire, the signal, a hail of torches sets the ship ablaze.
after all, is why we are here. It’s Up Helly Aa, the Fire races up the mast, and embers fly into the
great incendiary celebration of the Viking past in night sky. On the sidewalk, children stomp their
Shetland. Like everyone else, I’ve come to see a feet and dance, nearly delirious with excitement.
Viking ship burn.
Later that evening, as revelers kick up their
As the lord’s squad and dozens of others pour heels at parties, I marvel at the power the
into the street, fire seethes from hundreds of Vikings still hold over our imaginations. Dead
torches. A roar of delight goes up from the crowd and gone for centuries, these medieval seafarers
as it catches sight of the sleek longship the raid-
ers tow. The Vikings first landed on these rocky 360 VIDEO
shores north of the Scottish mainland some 1,200
years ago, crushing the local resistance and taking Step into the thick of Viking warfare
the land. For nearly seven centuries Norwegian at natgeo.com/vikings360.
lords ruled Shetland, until they finally pawned
the islands to a Scottish king. Today the old Norse $ KHOPHW RXWƃWWHG ZLWK EHDUGOLNH FKDLQ PDLO ULJKW
dialect—Norn—is all but forgotten in Shetland, SURWHFWHG D ZHDOWK\ ORUG ZKR OLYHG EHIRUH WKH 9LNLQJ
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34 NAT I O NA L G E O G R A P H I C • M A RC H 2017





Historical interpreters bring a reconstructed
longhouse to life at the Ribe Viking Center in
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on a hearth, and Viking fare included salted
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DAVID GUTTENFELDER

STORY NAME HERE 37

The earliest attackers often struck
monasteries brimming with treasures
such as this gold pendant, from a
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and warriors live on in the invented worlds of traded avidly for luxuries. They donned Eurasian
filmmakers, novelists, and comic book artists. caftans, dressed in silk from China, and pocketed
Today most of us can reel of details of these heaps of Islamic silver coins. They built thriving
imagined Vikings—how they fought and feasted, cities at York and Kiev, colonized large swaths
where they lived, how they died. But how much of Great Britain, Iceland, and France, and estab-
do we really know about the Vikings? Who were lished outposts in Greenland and North America.
they, how did they see the world, and what were No other European seafarers of the day ventured
their lives truly like? so fearlessly and so far from their homeland. “It’s
only the people from Scandinavia who do this,”
Now, with advanced technology—from satel- says Price. “Just the Vikings.”
lite imagery to DNA studies and isotope analysis—
archaeologists and other scientists are coming But exploration and trade weren’t the only
up with many surprising new answers. In Esto- roads to wealth. Viking raiders prowled the
nia, scientists are poring over two buried ships coasts of Britain and Europe, striking with sud-
filled with slain warriors, shedding new light on den, shocking brutality. In northern France they
the violent origins of the Vikings. In Sweden, re- sailed up and down the Seine and other rivers,
searchers are studying the remains of a female attacking at leisure and filling their ships with
Viking commander, illuminating the role of plunder. Spreading terror far and wide, they
women in warfare. And in Russia, archaeologists extorted nearly 14 percent of the entire econo-
and historians are tracing the routes of Viking my of western Europe’s Carolingian Empire in
slave traders, revealing the importance of slav- exchange for empty promises of peace. Across
ery to the Viking economy. For archaeologists the channel in England, sporadic raids expanded
the doors are starting to swing open on a world into total warfare, as a Viking army invaded and
that was far more complex and compelling than conquered three Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, leaving
once thought. “These are heady times in Viking bodies to rot in the fields.
research,” says Jimmy Moncrief, a historian at
the Shetland Amenity Trust in Lerwick. The Viking age, says Price, “is not for the
squeamish.” But how, ask researchers today, did
Taken together, the new studies reveal a fresh all this mayhem begin? How and why did medi-
picture of the ambitions and cultural impact of eval farmers in Scandinavia become the scourge
these daring seafarers. From the shores of their of the European continent?
Scandinavian homeland, between the Baltic and
North Seas, Viking fortune seekers took to the IN THE NEARLY THREE CENTURIES before the
world stage in the mid-eighth century, explor- raids on foreign shores began around A.D. 750,
ing much of Europe over the next 300 years and Scandinavia was wracked by turmoil, Price says.
traveling farther than earlier researchers ever More than three dozen petty kingdoms arose
suspected. With sleek sailing ships and expert during this period, throwing up chains of hill forts
knowledge of rivers and seas, they journeyed to and vying for power and territory. In the midst
what are now 37 or more countries, from Afghan- of these troubled times, catastrophe struck. A
istan to Canada, according to archaeologist Neil vast cloud of dust, likely blasted into the atmo-
Price of Uppsala University in Sweden. En route sphere by a combination of cataclysms—comets
they chanced upon more than 50 cultures and or meteorites smashing into Earth, as well as the

38 NAT I O NA L G E O G R A P H I C • M A RC H 2017

eruption of at least one large volcano—darkened seeming abundance of wifeless young warriors,
the sun beginning in A.D. 536, lowering summer and a new type of ship—created a perfect storm.
temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere for the The stage was set for the Vikings to pour out of
next 14 years. The extended cold and darkness the north, setting much of Europe on fire with
brought death and ruin to Scandinavia, lying as their brand of violence.
it did along the northern edge of medieval agri-
culture. In Sweden’s Uppland region, for example, AROUND 750 A BAND of early Viking warriors
nearly 75 percent of villages were abandoned, as dragged two ships onto a sandy headland on the
residents succumbed to starvation and fighting. island of Saaremaa, just of the coast of Estonia.
Far from their homes in the forests near Uppsala,
So dire was this disaster that it seems to have Sweden, the men were the bloodied survivors of
given birth to one of the darkest of all world a costly raid. Inside their ships lay the tangled
myths—the Nordic legend of Ragnarök, the end corpses of more than 40 Viking men, including
of creation and the final battle, in which all gods, one who may have been a king. All were in their
all supernatural beings, and all humans and youth or prime of life—tall, muscular, strapping
other living creatures die. Ragnarök was said to men—and many had seen savage fighting. Some
begin with Fimbulwinter, a deadly time when the had been stabbed or hacked to death, others
sun turns black and the weather turns bitter and decapitated. One man died after a sword took of
treacherous—events that eerily parallel the dust the top of his head.
veil that began in 536, Price says.
On the sandy headland the survivors began
When summer at last returned to the north the gruesome task of reassembling severed body
and populations rebounded, Scandinavian soci- parts and arranging most of the dead men in the
ety assumed a new, more truculent form. Leaders hull of the largest ship. Then they covered the
surrounded themselves with heavily armed war bodies with cloth and raised a low, makeshift
bands and began seizing and defending aban- burial mound by placing their wood and iron war
doned territory. In this real-life Game of Thrones, shields over their slain comrades.
a militarized society arose in which men and
women alike celebrated the virtues of warfare— In 2008 a work crew laying an electrical cable
fearlessness, aggression, cunning, strength under discovered human bones and bits of a corroded
fire. On the Swedish island of Gotland, where ar- sword, and local authorities called in archae-
chaeologists have found many intact graves from ologists. Today, sitting in his oice at Uppsala
this period, “almost every second man seems to University, Price marvels at the discovery. “This
be buried with weapons,” notes John Ljungkvist, is the first time that archaeologists have ever been
an archaeologist at Uppsala University. able to excavate what is clearly a Viking raid,” he
says. More remarkable: The warriors laid to rest
As this weaponized society was gradually at Salme, Estonia, died nearly 50 years before
taking shape, a new technology began revolu- Scandinavian raiders descended on the English
tionizing Scandinavian seafaring in the seventh monastery of Lindisfarne in 793, long thought to
century—the sail. Skilled carpenters began con- have been the first Viking attack.
structing sleek, wind-powered vessels capable of
carrying bands of armed fighters farther and fast- Today the ship burials at Salme are creating a
er than ever before. Aboard these ships, northern stir among Viking specialists. “What I find amaz-
lords and their restless followers could voyage ing is all the swords,” Price says. Most researchers
across the Baltic and North Seas, exploring new had long assumed that early Viking raiding parties
lands, sacking towns and villages, and enslav- consisted of a few elite warriors armed with swords
ing inhabitants. And men with few marriage and other costly war gear, as well as a few dozen
prospects at home could take female captives as poor farm boys furnished with cheap spears or
wives by persuasion or force. longbows. But that’s clearly not the case at Salme.
The burials there contained more swords than
All of this—centuries of kingly ambition, a

NEW VISIONS OF THE VIKINGS 39

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men, confirming that at least some early expedi- cultures, and some elites took pleasure in owning
tions consisted of many warriors of high status. and using these status symbols. “The top men,
they were dandies,” says Ashby. “It’s a society in
ON A JANUARY MORNING in a quiet industrial which conspicuous consumption is important.”
park south of Edinburgh, Scotland, researchers
lead the way through locked doors to a small More Johnny Depp than Vin Diesel, Viking
conservation lab. For more than a year, scien- leaders painted their eyes, pulled on flashy col-
tists here have been unpacking the riches that ored clothing, and donned heavy jewelry—neck
one Viking leader amassed from raiding and rings, dress pins, armbands, and finger rings. But
ransacking in foreign lands. Buried some 1,100 this dress for excess had a serious purpose: Each
years ago in southwest Scotland, the Galloway object told a story of foreign adventure, of reck-
hoard is a collection of strange and beautiful lessness and courage rewarded. Fitted out in the
things, from a solid-gold ingot to pieces of silk spoils of war, a Viking was a living recruitment
samite cloth from the Byzantine or Islamic world poster for the raiding life, beckoning young men
to an enameled Christian cross. Olwyn Owen, an to take an oath of loyalty in return for a share of
independent archaeologist who specializes in booty. “Viking leaders couldn’t be bashful about
the Viking age, says she’s never seen anything what they achieved, if they wanted to maintain a
quite like it. “It’s an incredible find,” she says, power base,” Ashby says.
“just incredible.”
At the start of the Viking age, these raiders
Today a conservator has laid out some of the targeted mainly coastal or island monasteries—
rarities from the hoard. On the table there’s a armed, it seems, with advance intelligence. Scan-
slender gold pin shaped like a bird. It resembles dinavian traders were already plying the coasts of
an aestel, a small pointer that bishops and other Britain and Europe, and they quickly discovered
members of the clergy once used to read sacred that the markets typically were held next to mon-
texts. Nearby is a gold filigree pendant, possibly asteries. Strolling past stalls and sizing up the
designed to hold a small relic of a saint. And, at goods, some would have spotted the silver chal-
the end of the table, Owen gazes at nine silver ices and gold altar furniture adorning monastic
brooches, some bearing swirling tendrils and chapels. “I don’t think it requires mental leaping
mythical creatures, others strange humanlike to think there’s someone who finally says, ‘Guys,
faces. All but one, says Owen, were designed why don’t we just nick the stuf?’” says Price.
for Anglo-Saxon wearers. “In other words,” she
concludes, “some Anglo-Saxon monastery or Early raiding parties planned their attacks for
settlement had a very bad day.” the summer months, and they often set out with
just a few ships and perhaps a hundred fighters.
The Viking leader who carried of these trea- Bristling with iron weaponry, the raiders struck
sures had a weakness for beautiful things. Rather rapidly and went about the carnage swiftly, set-
than melting down all the plunder into bullion, ting sail before locals could mount a defense. In
this Viking lord set aside several pieces for his per- France, in the ninth century alone, Viking raiders
sonal collection of exotic, foreign art. The Vikings, stormed more than 120 settlements, massacring
says archaeologist Steve Ashby with the Universi- monks and local inhabitants, stripping churches
ty of York, had a taste for finer things from foreign of their treasures, and enslaving the survivors. “If
you lived in northwest France in the late ninth

40 NAT I O NA L G E O G R A P H I C • M A RC H 2017

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century,” Price says, “you must have thought your This nameless Viking woman seems to have
world was ending.” commanded the respect of many Viking war-
riors. “On her lap she had gaming pieces,” says
As rivers of precious metals flowed back to archaeologist Charlotte Hedenstierna-Jonson
Scandinavia, young men flocked to the great of Uppsala University. “This suggests that she
halls of Viking leaders, eager to swear their loyalty. was the one planning the tactics and that she
What began as small raiding forays of two or three was a leader.”
ships gradually evolved into fleets of 30 vessels,
then many more. According to the Anglo-Saxon THE FLEETS THAT CARRIED death and de-
Chronicle, a contemporary annal, hundreds of Vi- struction to western Europe also transported
king ships arrived along the east coast of England slaves and commodities to markets scattered
in 865, carrying a ravenous host that the Chronicle from Turkey to western Russia, and possibly Iran.
writers called micel here, the great army. Pushing Medieval Arab and Byzantine oicials described
inland along England’s rivers and roads, these convoys of armed Viking slavers and merchants
invaders began smashing Anglo-Saxon kingdoms known as the Rus who regularly voyaged along
and seizing large swaths of land to colonize. river routes to the Black and Caspian Seas. “I have
never seen more perfect physiques than theirs,”
Just outside the modern city of Lincoln, observed Ahmad Ibn Fadlan, a 10th-century Arab
archaeologist Julian D. Richards from the Univer- soldier and diplomat from Baghdad. “Every one
sity of York is studying one of the winter camps of them carries an ax, a sword, and a dagger.”
of the great army. The encampment, known as
Torksey today, was large enough to accommo- To shed light on this southern trade, archaeol-
date 3,000 to 4,000 people, but discoveries there ogists are now excavating sites along the routes to
indicate that the great army was more than a the Byzantine and Muslim worlds. On a late June
fighting force. Metalsmiths melted down plunder, morning some 230 miles southwest of Moscow,
and merchants conducted trade. Children raced Veronika Murasheva, an archaeologist at the State
through the muddy fields, and women went about Historical Museum in Moscow, walks the bank of
their work—which may have included leading the Dnieper River where a small medieval city
men in battle in some parts of the Viking world. once stood. Founded by Viking explorers more
than 1,100 years ago, Gnezdovo lay along two
One famous early Irish text records how a wom- major trade routes—the Dnieper, which flows
an known as Inghen Ruaidh—or Red Girl, after into the Black Sea, and a skein of streams that
the color of her hair—led a fleet of Viking ships sweeps into the Volga River, whose waters empty
to Ireland in the 10th century. Bioarchaeologist into the Caspian Sea. Gnezdovo clearly profited
Anna Kjellström of Stockholm University recent- from this geography, flourishing and eventually
ly reanalyzed the skeletal remains of a Viking sprawling over an area the size of 30 city blocks.
fighter found in the old trading center of Birka, in
Sweden. Mourners had furnished the grave with Today Gnezdovo is mantled in forest and grass-
an arsenal of deadly weapons, and for decades land, but over the past century and a half, Russian
archaeologists assumed that the elite fighter was archaeologists have uncovered hill forts, hoards,
male. But while studying the warrior’s pelvic caches, workshops, a harbor, and nearly 1,200
bones and mandible, Kjellström discovered that burial mounds that have produced rich artifacts.
the man was in fact a woman.

42 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC • MARCH 2017

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Gnezdovo, they discovered, was home to a wealthy their bills with heaps of silver coins known as dir-
Viking elite who collected tribute from the local hams, a key source of wealth in the Viking world.
Slavic population and who likely managed aspects
of the southern commerce. Each year, after the By searching archaeological reports and data-
spring thaw, Viking traders set of from Gnezdovo bases, Marek Jankowiak, a medieval historian
in ships laden with luxury goods—furs, honey, at Oxford University, has found records of more
beeswax, chunks of amber, walrus ivory—and than a thousand hoards of dirhams that Viking
cargoes of human slaves. Many, says Murasheva, traders and others buried across Europe. Based
were bound for the Black Sea and Constantinople, on an initial analysis, Jankowiak estimates that
the capital of the Byzantine Empire and a city of Viking slavers could have sold tens of thousands
more than 800,000 people at the time. In the heat of eastern European, mostly Slavic, captives into
and dust Viking traders wandered the markets, bondage in the 10th century alone, earning mil-
striking deals for their cargo and buying prized lions of silver dirhams—an immense fortune
commodities: amphorae filled with wine and olive at the time. In the Viking world, where lords
oil, fine glassware, colorful glazed plates, swatches regularly rewarded their fighting men with gifts
of silk and other rare textiles. of silver, the road south was the road to power.

Other Viking traders ventured farther east IN THE FIRELIT HALLS of the Norse lords, story-
from Gnezdovo, following streams that wended tellers also described early voyages to the west.
across western Russia into the Volga. In bazaars Gazing around at those assembled, they told the
along the river and around the Caspian Sea, Mus- tale of a trader, Bjarni Herjólfsson, who lost his
lim buyers paid handsomely for foreign slaves, way in thick fog while sailing from Iceland to
since the Quran forbade believers from owning Greenland. When the mist finally lifted, Herjólfs-
freeborn Muslims. The eastern buyers settled son and his men spied a new land that bore little

NEW VISIONS OF THE VIKINGS 43

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