And the Oh, Hello, everyone, and welcome back to the Viking Age podcast. My name is Lee, and this is Eastern Way 2, Gods and Kings.

This is the second episode in our series covering the Viking Age in the East.

Now this series is designed to be listened to in order. So if you haven't yet listened to our first

episode, I highly recommend that you smack that pause button, go back and listen to

Eastern Way 1, and then come on back here so you'll be well armed with all the context you need

to fully understand this installment. And don't worry. We'll definitely still be here when you get back.

Everyone good?

All right, let's do this.

So in our last time out, we began this series by exploring the Baltic Sea region and the decades leading up to the Viking period.

What do we found was strong evidence in both literary and archaeological sources

that by the mid 700s or so,

extensive networks of trade, communication, and warfare had been established between people's living all along the Baltic Sea.

One of the most vivid illustrations which we have of these networks and their impact is a pair of

mass ship graves which have been uncovered near the village of Salome on the Estonian island of Sarima.

In these graves, archaeologists have uncovered the remains of 41 individuals, all of whom were mostly young, well-built men whose skeleton showed signs of a violent death.

Buried alongside the slain were swords, spears, and other weaponry, gaming pieces, and even the remains of

slaughtered animals. In short, these were all the accoutraments of a well-armed seaborne raiding party.

And what is more?

Thanks to modern archaeological science, we know that these individuals were not local to the island

on which they were interred. In fact, it's just possible that they originally hailed from Central Sweden.

In short, the remarkable graves at Sarima may well represent the remnants

of an unsuccessful raiding expedition, which had been launched

...