How did Viking era hikers carry their gear and provisions?

I'm interested in how Viking era¹⁾ hikers carried their gear and provisions while out and about on foot. My focus here would be longer walks in civilian life, e.g. to get from farm A to farm B. I.e. no raiding parties, travel on horse back, etc...

I have seen some interpretations in videos of reenactment groups where simple wooden racks made out of split branches are used (e.g. video here). In others I have seen people simply carry a cloth bag over their shoulder, or bundles held together with a belt carried on the back by holding on to one end of the belt with one hand. At least the two latter examples don't seem very practical, as they don't leave your hands free and are prone to be rather tiring over longer distances.

I do realise that civilians walking long distances was probably not something that was very common at the time - at least not without good reason. These reasons would of course likely dictate how said marches were done and what kind of equipment was used (if any at all). Meaning that farmer Jo Jonson probably spent all his life on his farm and maybe the ones around him, and didn't venture out into the wide world carrying lot's of stuff...
Still, if possible, I'm looking for sources (preferably archaeological finds, depictions or texts) that give some idea of the available possibilities.

¹⁾ I'm mostly interested in lets say ca. 800-1000 AD Scandinavia. (This is still very broad, I can refine it if necessary.)

posted about 6 years ago

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