The Houses of JORVIK
Much of the detail about Jorvik comes from the excavation of four Viking-age house plots in the street of Coppergate. Up to the mid 10th century the buildings in this area of Viking-age York were single-storey structures, typically at least 7m (23ft) long by about 4.5m (14ft 9in) wide. Their size and construction is reminiscent of Anglo-Saxon buildings and is not typically Scandinavian. Upright posts set into the ground at fairly short intervals along the wall lines supported a thatched roof. The walls themselves were made of wattle withies woven horizontally in and out of stakes set between these posts. Benches of earth contained within a revetment of wattlework sometimes ran along the side walls. Each building had a very large central hearth, with edges defined using re-used Roman tile, or building stones, or lengths of wood. The floors were simply made of earth, onto which debris accumulated and into which objects were trampled.