Seaport, aquarium to open new exhibits

Mystic — Two of the state’s biggest tourist attractions soon will open new exhibits featuring very popular topics: Vikings and dinosaurs.

On May 19, Mystic Seaport will unveil two new exhibits. The first, entitled “Vikings Begin,” will feature Viking artifacts such as swords, helmets and armor that have never been shown outside of Sweden, where they were discovered. The second will feature the first public display of the controversial Vinland map in the

United States since 1966. The purported 15th century map describes a land mass visited by Vikings in the area of North America in the 11th century.

And in early April, Mystic Aquarium will open “Jurassic Giants: A Dinosaur Adventure,” in which visitors will walk along an indoor trail with a dozen animatronic dinosaurs — some as much as 27 feet long and 12 feet tall. Among them will be a stegosaurus, triceratops and tyrannosaurus rex, all of which will move and roar.

The Viking exhibits are part of the Seaport’s initiative to open two to three major new exhibits each year, many in the new Thompson Exhibition Building. A large white board in the office of Nicholas Bell, senior vice president for curatorial affairs, lists working titles of possible exhibits over the next decade.

Bell said the origin of the Viking exhibit came from a meeting between Seaport President Steve White and Marika Hedin, the director of Museum Gustavianum at Uppsala University in Sweden. White is the president of the International Congress of Maritime Museums and Hedin is its vice president.

Bell said a large trove of Viking burial ships had been excavated in the area of the Swedish museum, which then received a $6 million grant from Sweden’s government to study the artifacts. He said this led to learning new stories and details about Vikings.

Bell said Hedin knew about the opening of the $11.5 million Thompson building, partly to house large traveling exhibits, and asked if the Seaport would be interested in displaying some of the artifacts.

An easy decision

“We said ‘hell yes.’ It was an easy decision,” Bell said. “This will be the first time they have left their country in 1,400 years. And the first stop is Mystic.”

The exhibit will feature artifacts from the 7th and 8th centuries, the beginning of the 350-year reign of the Vikings, when they were transforming from a peaceful agrarian society to a more chieftain culture as the weather cooled and resources became more scarce. They also traveled long distances in massive longboats.

Some of the artifacts include intricately fashioned helmets, swords and horse armor, and items the Vikings obtained in their travels, such as glass beads, bracelets, glass and coins from as far away as India. Bell said that while the Vikings had little written language, the word “Allah” has been found on a piece of clothing, indicating the Vikings had contact with Islamic culture.

Bell said the exhibit offers a real opportunity for the museum to connect with the public’s fascination with Vikings.

“You don’t have to explain Vikings to people. There’s already this childlike awe about them,” Bell said.

He added there is a mythlike culture that surrounds Vikings, with a lot of stereotypes but not a great deal of actual information. For example, despite pop culture depictions, Vikings did not wear helmets with horns.

“We have an opportunity to educate people. They will be able to learn some things based on fact and not fantasy,” Bell said.

The exhibit will be open until Sept. 30.

The second Viking exhibit is called “Science, Myth and Mystery: The Vinland Map Saga.”

Controversial map

The 2-foot-long parchment map is owned by Yale University. When Yale announced the map’s existence in 1965, it generated controversy because it changed the story about when Europeans first arrived in North America. That was despite the fact that five years earlier, Norse artifacts were recovered from a settlement in L’Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland, that date back to 1000, indicating Vikings were in North America long before Christopher Columbus.

The map, which will be exhibited in the Schaefer Building, has not been on public display in the United States since 1966. Part of the exhibit will tell the story of the controversy over the map.

“This is a rare opportunity to see the map,” Seaport spokesman Dan McFadden said.

At the aquarium, spokeswoman Dale Wolbrink said renovations to the former Institute for Exploration building to create the dinosaur trail began on Monday and the dinosaurs, which already have been fabricated, are awaiting delivery.

She said the very authentic looking dinosaurs will be placed in dioramas along the trail. They were constructed by Dragon Culture, an animatronic dinosaur manufacturer in China.

“They look phenomenal. They are so realistic and lifelike,” she said.

While there were aquatic dinosaurs, and the aquarium has featured other non-aquatic wildlife, such as birds and butterflies, in past exhibits, dinosaurs are a different offering for the aquarium.

Wolbrink said the $500,000 exhibit is designed to enhance guest experience and will allow the aquarium to present issues such as the impact of the destruction of the dinosaur’s habitat and how that connects with the effects that today’s loss of habitats and climate change has on animals and the need to protect those habitats.

The dinosaurs will be on display for one year and are included in a regular admission ticket.