On 5 August 2021, Svitlana Fomenko, Deputy Minister of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine, met with Mads Kähler Holst, Director of the Danish Moesgaard Museum, to discuss the organization of the “Rus – Vikings in the East” exhibition.
According to the organizers of the exhibition, it will take visitors on a scenographic journey into an era lasting about 250 years, about 800-1050 AD, which is called the Viking Age. The main focus of the exhibition will be on the discovery by these formidable shipbuilders, seafarers and merchants of Eastern European lands, where they gained power and immense wealth combining diplomacy with bloody battles.
“The Vikings’ expeditions west to Normandy and England are well studied and described. But we do not have such a clear picture of their travels to the east across the Baltic Sea and further to Byzantium and the Arab Caliphate. At Moesgaard, we have long wanted to create a special exhibition with a new look at the Vikings and their settlements and travels in the east. We will build on the latest knowledge and tell a different and for many surprising story about the Vikings,” says the director of Museum Mads Kähler Holst.
Thanks to extensive excavations and international research cooperation of Moesgaard, first of all, with the National Museum of History of Ukraine and regional Ukrainian museums of Chernihiv, Kharkiv and Zhytomyr, the exhibition will shed light on Viking contacts with worlds and cultures that were different from their own – from peoples of the present Baltic, Ukraine and to Byzantium and the Arab Caliphate. Museums from Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Germany, Sweden, Finland, Norway and Denmark are also involved in the preparation of the exhibition.
“The exhibition will provide an opportunity to show the history of Ukraine in the European context, while Ukrainian museums will gain new international experience,” Svitlana Fomenko said during the meeting.
According to the latest scientific research, thanks to DNA and strontium analysis, about 10% of the population in the old towns east of Scandinavia were Vikings who left their mark on a large geographical area. In fact, more Scandinavian Viking objects have been found in Eastern Europe than in Western Europe.
The exhibition “Rus – Vikings in the East” will open on 19 January 2022 and will last until 11 September 2022. The official opening of the exhibition will be one of the events marking the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Ukraine and Denmark.
The Danish Moesgaard Museum is located in Højbjerg, a suburb of Aarhus. It specializes in conducting in-depth historical research, as well as presenting their results through scenography and storytelling. The museum’s ethnographic collections contain almost 50,000 artifacts from around the world. The museum is also an architectural landmark located in a picturesque setting.