Field Museum exhibit paints new picture of Vikings

CHICAGO (WLS) -- The Vikings, not the Minnesota Vikings, were famous for deadly raids on defenseless countries, but now a new exhibit at the Field Museum paints a new picture of these frightening warriors of the sea.

From the middle 700's until almost 1100, the Vikings ruled the seas around Europe and beyond. For as long as most of can remember, they have had a reputation of bloodshed, pillage and conquer. Starting Friday at the Field Museum the Vikings have been given a positive makeover.

"This is an exhibition that explores Viking culture," said Susan Neill, Field Museum exhibition manager. "It confronts a lot of stereotypes about Vikings as fierce raiders in horned helmets and really paints a fuller picture of who the Vikings were."

There is a replica of Viking ship, a small one that might have sailed on voyages close to home in Scandinavia. You get a good look at the craftsmanship of these people who obviously were not just making swords and helmets.

"The thing is the Vikings were farmers," said Maria Jansen, General Director, Swedish History Museum. "Most of them lived on the farms and they would also do exploring and trading."

"We're showing almost 500 original objects that date to the Viking age which was from between 750 and 1000," Neill said.

In a sense, the Field Museum and the Swedish History Museum are doing a great PR job on a very bad image. They say modern research has now shown that Vikings might have been pretty bad guys at times but they weren't all bad and dirty. For instance, found in many Viking graves was the tools of a clean cut image.

"We found a lot of combs and things you need for good hygiene," Jansen said. "So we know they liked to look good and be clean and do a lot of things with their beards and hair."

Conventional wisdom has it that Vikings wore those helmets with the horns and sporting a big Viking sword, but that's not the way it was.

"There were no horns on the Viking helmets. We have no findings of helmets with horns at all," Jansen said.

The exhibit opens Friday and runs until October 4.