This paper reviews the achievements and challenges of archaeological research on Viking Age northern Europe and explores potential avenues for future research. We identify the reemergence of comparative and cross-cultural perspectives along with a turn toward studying mobility and maritime expansion, fueled by the introduction of biomolecular and isotopic data. The study of identity has seen a shift from a focus on collective beliefs and ritual to issues of personal identity and presentation, with a corresponding shift in attention to individual burials and the “animated objects.” Network ontologies have brought new perspectives on the emergence of sea trade and urban nodes and to the significance of outfield production and resources. Field archaeology has seen an emphasis on elite manors, feasting halls, and monuments, as well as military sites and thing assembly places, using new data from remote sensing, geophysical surveys, geoarchaeology, and metal detectors. Concerns over current climate change have placed the study of environment as a key priority, in particular in the ecologically vulnerable North Atlantic settlements. Discussing future directions, we call for alignment between societal/economic and individual/cultural perspectives, and for more ethically grounded research. We point to diaspora theory and intersectionality as frameworks with the potential to integrate genomics, identity, and society, and to ecology as a framework for integrating landscape, mobility, and political power.

本文回顾了北欧海盗时代的考古学研究的成就和挑战，并探索了未来研究的潜在途径。在引入生物分子和同位素数据的推动下，我们确定了比较和跨文化视角的重新出现，并转向研究流动性和海洋扩展。对身份的研究已经从关注集体信仰和仪式转向个人身份和表象问题，并相应地转移了对个人葬礼和“动画物体”的关注。网络本体为海上贸易和城市节点的出现以及外地生产和资源的重要性带来了新的观点。在野外考古学中，重点是精英庄园，宴会厅和古迹，物组装场所，使用来自遥感，地球物理勘测，地球考古学和金属探测器的新数据。对当前气候变化的担忧已将环境研究作为主要优先事项，尤其是在生态脆弱的北大西洋定居点。在讨论未来方向时，我们呼吁在社会/经济和个人/文化观点之间保持一致，并进行更具道德基础的研究。我们将散居理论和交叉性作为具有整合基因组学，身份和社会的潜力的框架，将生态学作为整合景观，流动性和政治力量的框架。