Vikings’ homes would have been very polluted, researchers find

Their article, ‘Household air pollution from wood burning in two reconstructed houses from the Danish Viking Age’ was published last year in the journal Indoor Air. Using experimental archaeology, they tested carbon mononxide, carbon dioxide and fine particulate matter at two Danish museum reconstructions of Viking Age ‘Hedeby House’ – the first at Moesgard Museum and the second at Bork Viking Harbour.

The reconstructions were based on a 9th-century house discovered in 1968 in the Viking Age city Hedeby, located near today’s Schleswig, Germany. The two reconstructed houses “had outer walls made of wattle and daub, tamped earth floors, and thatched roofs. Inner walls and doors were made from wood, except for some doorways which just had a curtain. The houses were divided into three rooms: a central living room, a side room facing west with household functions, and a room to the east with work space. The living room had an open fireplace and wide ridges along each side, which served as beds and storage areas. A wood-plank loft was located on each side of the room, above the ridges, at about 2 m height.”
http://www.medievalists.net/2015/01/21/vikings-homes-polluted-researchers-find/

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Interesting. I have a question for their study: How do we know that this is a typical Viking house and not the home of the village idiot?