Vikings: Life and Legend

The British Museum’s new Sainsbury Exhibition Gallery opened in March, launching with the museum’s first exhibition on the Vikings in more than 30 years.

Artefacts dating between the late eighth century and the early eleventh century are on display, including all the treasures from 2007 Vale of York Hoard and a life-size replica of the Roskilde 6 longship that consists of a stainless steel frame and 20 percent of the original timbers, conserved and reassembled.

The contrast between ostentatious jewellery and other items of personal grooming (check out the gold ear-wax spoon) and brutal-looking weapons – plus skeletons bearing evidence of their ferociousness from a mass Viking grave in Dorset – paints a more nuanced picture of Viking life than the standard rape-and- pillage stereotype.

Expect to read lots of captions if you want to get the most out of the show, although the big-reveal moment provided by the replica ship, which fills the huge new gallery, is pretty dramatic and conjures vividly the terrifying image of a boatload of invading Vikings surging ashore.