At the dawn of Mediaeval Culture, more than a thousand years ago, a human group crossed seas and rivers from their motherland of Scandinavia to the distant Mediterranean Sea.  We call them Vikings and they have gone down in History as excellent sailors, brave warriors and remarkable storytellers.  Also as savage looters and merciless fighters. They fought against Muslim Emirs in the Iberian Peninsula, against the Saracens in England and served under the emperors of Byzantium, building principalities and kingdoms and creating a network of trade and navigation in the seas surrounding the European continent, reaching also islands and coasts beyond the Atlantic Ocean.

In this lecture we shall follow the amazing journey of these wild warriors from the North to the South, towards the Mediterranean and Al Andalus from the 9th to the 13th AD finding the traces they left in the territories they visited.

About the Lecturer

Manuel Parodi has a European PhD in History and Archaeology and is a specialist in archaeological and economic history (especially of Antiquity) and a cultural heritage analyst. He is currently working as a researcher at the University of Jaén in Andalucia and is a Member of the Governing Board of the illustrious College of Doctors and Graduates of Seville-Huelva. He has also taught as a visiting Lecturer at several Spanish and foreign Universities and is the author of some thirty books and 200 scientific articles about history, cultural and historical heritage.