Meet Ulf - Sweden

Meet Ulf, a merchant of Viking times.

Around 1100 years ago, a man was buried in a boat at Valsgarde, just north of Uppsala. Those buried at Valsgarde  belonged to society's elite.

This man was a Viking merchant.  With him on his final journey, he had useful, and for their time modern, objects, such as a set of scales, weights and a box with keys and a lock.  During the Viking Age, it was the weight of the metal that served as a currency.  Many coins and silver objects were broken up into smaller pieces, depending on how much silver was required at the moment. That is why the scale and weights were a vital part of the merchant's equipment.

Engaging in trade involved a lot of contact over long distances with both sellers and purchasers. 
Viking trade routes stretched across Europe and into parts of Asia.  The Swedish Vikings mainly moved towards the east.

See the film and hear about Ulf and Valsgarde at    www.vikinguppsala.se