Exhibition shows links across sea - Shared culture of Northern peoples

Date : Sat, 20 January, 2001 Publication : THE JOURNAL

Thousands of foreign visitors from Scandinavia and Northern European countries arrive on Tyneside by ship every year. But are they really so foreign? According to a spectacular exhibition opening in Newcastle today, we have a lot more in common than we think. The Kings of the North Sea display at the Laing Art Gallery chronicles the so-called Dark Ages from the Third to the Ninth Centuries.

Tyne and Wear Museums has joined with counterparts in Denmark, Holland, Germany, and Norway to stage the exhibition of life in the countries bordering the North Sea from the dusk of the Roman Empire to the dawn of the Vikings. Each country has invited its museums to donate their best items from the period for the display, which follows on from the hugely successful Lindisfarne Gospels exhibition. The Gospels, which fall in the period covered by the new exhibition, attracted 188,000 visitors in just three months against an annual average for the gallery of 250,000.

On show from today until April 1 are objects from everyday life, jewellery, arms and armour and burial goods which demonstrate Anglo-Saxon art and culture. And gallery curator Andrew Greg said: "What comes across is how close the cultural contact was across the North Sea between the countries taking part in the exhibition. "They share a common history and it is expressed in the decorative and ornamental work. "Britons mingled with Saxons, Angles and Jutes coming from Northern Europe and we are still debating if it was a question of settlement or military invasion.

"But the exhibition is full of treasure, gold and fabulous jewellery and metalwork, arms, and objects from ordinary life and shows the way these countries traded with each other and invaded each other." The exhibition, which has been part-funded by the European Union to promote shared cultural heritage and tourism, was opened last night by North-East MEP Mo O'Toole. She said: "The recent Lindisfarne Gospels exhibition demonstrated that the Gospels are an important part of our cultural heritage and regional identity. The Kings of the North Sea enables us not only to appreciate our past with fascination and pride but also to look to the future."

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