described, and can also be the same place. Pliny mentions Scandinavia one more time: in Book VIII he says that the animal called (given in the accusative, , which is not Latin) was born on the island of Scandinavia. The animal grazes, has a big upper lip and some mythical attributes. The name , later used as a synonym for , also appears in Pliny's Naturalis Historia (Natural History), but is used for a group of Northern European islands which he locates north of Britannia. thus does not appear to be denoting the island Scadinavia in Pliny's text. The idea that may have been one of the islands was instead introduced by Ptolemy (c. 90 – c. 168 AD), a mathematician, geographer and astrologer of Roman Egypt. He used the name for the biggest, most easterly of the three islands, which according to him were all located east of Jutland. Viking Age The Viking age in Scandinavia lasted from approximately 793–1066 AD and saw Scandinavians participate in large scale raiding, colonization, conquest and trading throughout Europe and beyond. The period saw a big expansion of Scandinavian-conquered territory and of exploration. Utilizing their advanced longships, they reached as far as North America, being the first Europeans to do so. During this time Scandinavians were drawn to wealthy towns, monasteries and petty kingdoms overseas in places such as the British Isles, Ireland, the Baltic coast and Normandy, all of which made profitable targets for raids. Scandinavians, primarily from modern day Sweden, known as Varangians also ventured east into what is now Russia raiding along river trade routes. During this period unification also took place between different Scandinavian kingdoms culminating in the peak of the North Sea Empire which included large parts of Scandinavia and Great Britain. This expansion and conquest led to the formation of several kingdoms, earldoms and settlements throughout Europe such as the Kingdom of the Isles, Earldom of Orkney, Scandinavian York, Danelaw, Kingdom of Dublin, the Duchy of Normandy and the Kievan Rus'. The Faroe Islands, Iceland and Greenland were also settled by the Scandinavians during this time. The Normans, Rus' people, Faroe Islanders, Icelanders and Norse-Gaels all emerged from these Scandinavian expansions. The Middle Ages During a period of Christianization and state formation in the 10th–13th centuries, numerous Germanic petty kingdoms and chiefdoms were unified into three kingdoms: Denmark, forged from the lands of Denmark (including Jutland, Zealand