Hurstwic's video: Hurstwic: Comparison of Test Burns of Viking-age Turfhouses

Hurstwic is using experimental archaeology to investigate the common Viking-age battle tactic of attacking an opponent by setting fire to his longhouse. The testing will culminate in a Fire Festival at Eiríksstaðir in Iceland in July. In preparation for the festival, we have conducted a series of test burns, both on full-size structures, and on scale models of Viking-age turfhouses. The attack began by bringing fire to the outside of the door, the only use of readily-combustible wood on the exterior of the house. Our tests have explored how a fire set at the outside of the door spreads to the inside of the house. This video compares the spread of the fire in a scale model of the full house to the spread in a full-sized build of a portion of the house. More information about the festival: https://www.hurstwic.com/fire/ A short video explaining the tactic of attacking a man by burning his house: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-hUxbpFjqM A short video explaining why the door was the focus of the attack on the house, as well as the defense: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQ-TmFmoeSw A more detailed report on the full-size burn shown in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDUsSX_1lC8 Excerpt of a scale model test burn was taken from: Flow Path and Fire Behavior Demonstration - Salem FD https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yHXBchubyE