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Vikings
While it would debatable to call the Vikings a civilization they were certainly explorers and their sites are found all over northern Europe into Germany and Canada. Here are a collection of resources on what those villages and settlements looked like.
The Vikings
The Vikings were a farming culture, who originated in Scandinavia about the 4th century AD, and began to spread out and conquer the Europe in the 9th century AD. They were mostly defeated or subsumed into other cultures by the 13th century AD.
Viking Timeline and Description
Most of the archaeological investigations undertaken on the Viking Age have been focused on the two hundred years or so the Vikings spent raiding Europe.
Eastern Settlement (Greenland)
Eastern Settlement - Norse Settlement of Greenland
Vinland
Where in the North American continent is Vinland, the land reported in the Viking chronicles as that colonized by Leif Erikson? Birgitta Wallace has an idea.
Shieling
A shieling was a part of the landnam system of farming used by the Vikings in the 8th century AD.
Viking Economics
Over the 300 years of the period called the Viking Age, the economics of the people known as the Vikings changed and adapted, and sometimes failed.
Viking Raids
Viking raids were a characteristic of the Scandinavian early medieval pirates called the Vikings, particularly during the first 50 years of the Viking Age (~793-850)
Viking Social Structure
Viking society is traditionally described as highly stratified, with three classes as written into mythology, slaves (thrall), farmers (karl), and aristocracy (jarl or earl)V
Viking Trade
The Vikings had an extensive trade network throughout Europe, based on cod and exotic goods and maintained by a group of tradesmen.
Viking Settlement
Viking settlers lived not so much in villages, but rather on isolated, regularly spaced farmsteads surrounded by grain fields, and led by chieftainships with multiple farmsteads.
Academic Viking Archaeological Projects
As I was building the About.com Guide to the Viking Age, I realized how difficult it was for anybody to discover the Viking Age pages in archaeology that are produced by universities. This list of Viking Archaeological Projects should help.
Viking Timeline
A Viking Timeline, showing the major events of the Viking Age as they colonized, or attempted to colonize, Europe and North America.
100th Aniversary of the Oseberg Find
A web page from the Universitetets kulturhistoriske museer celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the finding of the Oseberg boat grave has loads of pictures and information about this well-known Viking grave site. English and Norwegian
Explore a Viking Village
From the fabulous NOVA series, archaeological investigations at Birka, a Viking-period site in Stockholm; includes Quicktime and Realvideo movies of thereconstructed village, and a slew of information, attractively packaged.
Normans
The Normans were descendants of Vikings, who settled in the northwest France in the early 10th century AD and crossed the English Channel in 1066.
The Fate of Greenland's Vikings
A history of the Viking settlements in Greenland, from an online article in Archaeology magazine by Dale Mackenzie Brown.
The Norse
The Norse were Viking warriors who were great adventurers, traveling westward from the Viking homeland to Iceland, Greenland, and yes, even Canada.
The Vikings: the North Atlantic Saga
From the Smithsonian Institution, a website published in conjunction with a new exhibit explores the Viking exploration of Greenland and the Americas.
Viking Heritage
An interesting site full of little tidbits, games, and other diversions on Viking legend and fact. Be sure to visit Frojel while you're there!
VikingBronze
Brief articles and research information into the Iron Age/early Middle Age art of bronze metallurgy.
Cold Earth
Cold Earth is the story of an archaeological expedition which eerily follows the same path of destruction that the Vikings did on this remote farmstead on the west coast of Greenland.