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Upcoming Events

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Experimental Archeology Festival 2025

Join us summer 2025 for our annual experimental archeology festival here at Eiríksstaðir. Planning is currently underway, so look our for upcoming details

Past Events

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Experimental Archeology Festival 2024: Past in Flames

Combining forces with international experts and our friends at Hurstwic, we were able to create a replica viking age building - and set it on fire. For the first time, we were able to use technology  to gather a great deal of information on how such a structure would burn, and how accurate the depictions of saga house burnings really are.

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The Winter Solstice at Eiríksstaðir 2023

Celebrating the mid-winter solstice in a ceremony that blended the old with the new, this Ásatru event brought together members of the local community to mark the beginning of a new solar year.

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Eiríksstaðir Living History  Festival 2023

The second festival of the summer revolves around experiments with ancient crafts, methods and lifestyles of the 10th century.
This time we will focus on handicrafts and ironworking, but this festival is also dedicated to tapestries.

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Experimental Archeology Festival: Fibres and Turf

Focusing on the cottage production of wool and linen, this festival combined the reproduction of linen and wool processing and weaving, as well as the reconstruction of the dyngja, where these tasks were performed.

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Community Event: Manuscript Making

Manuscripts are a vital part of Icelandic culture - they gave us the Sagas after all! In this free community workshop we let children and adults experience the beauty and craftsmanship of this old craft, as well as try it out for themselves.

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Community Event: Paint in the Viking Age

After a 1000 years underground, it is no wonder that a lot of the things we find from the Viking Age are now shades of brown - but they didn't start off that way. In this workshop we both demonstrated and taught how the Vikings created their rainbow of paints.

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Experimental Archeology Festival: Cloth and Clothing

No one knows for certain what Viking Age clothes looked like - but we can say with certainty that most media gets it very wrong. Here we showcased clothing reconstructed from the surviving fragments and artwork, as well as their vibrant plant-based dyes.

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Community Event: National Hnefatafl Tournament

Held at our Experimental Archaeology Festivals each year, we host an open hnefatafl competition. This ancient type of chess was seemingly the one played by the Vikings, and is very different to the chess we commonly play today.

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Eiríksstaðir Living History  Festival 2021

Celebrating the reopening of the museum after our 2020 closure, we welcomed crowds to our second Living History Festival. The multi-day event featured fashion shows, live animals, historical demonstrations, and more.

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The Winter Solstice at Eiríksstaðir 2020

Celebrating the mid-winter solstice in a ceremony that blended the old with the new, this Ásatru event brought together members of the local community to mark the beginning of a new solar year.

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Experimental Archeology Festival: Iron Festival

Based upon the thesis of a student researcher that Viking Age Icelanders refined iron on a large scale, an international band of experts tried doing just that. The results were so groundbreaking that the discoveries were showcased at the National Museum of Iceland.

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