Mar 7th, 2013 at 4:00PM:
A team of French archaeologists believe they have found a sunstone, a strange crystal that was said to help mariners locate the sun even on overcast days.
Some of the medieval Norse Sagas mention this device. In "Rauðúlfs þáttr," King Olaf asks the hero Sigurður to point out the sun in the middle of a snowstorm. Sigurður points to where it is behind the gray ...Click on a label to read posts from that part of the world.
vikings posts
Fabled Sunstone Discovered In English Shipwreck
Mar 7th, 2013 at 4:00PM:
A team of French archaeologists believe they have found a sunstone, a strange crystal that was said to help mariners locate the sun even on overcast days.
Some of the medieval Norse Sagas mention this device. In "Rauðúlfs þáttr," King Olaf asks the hero Sigurður to point out the sun in the middle of a snowstorm. Sigurður points to where it is behind the gray ...National Museum Of Scotland Takes New Look At Vikings
Jan 24th, 2013 at 12:00PM:
How much do we really know about the Vikings? A new exhibition at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh asks this question and comes up with some interesting answers.
"Vikings!" collects more than 500 objects from the Swedish History Museum in Stockholm to show a side to Scandinavia's most famous culture that most people don't know.
While most of the public is aware (hopefully) that ...Reassembling The Skeletons Of Medieval Royalty
Dec 24th, 2012 at 2:00PM:
A team of scientists from Bristol University are using DNA analysis to identify the remains of early medieval English royalty.
The bones are kept in several mortuary chests in Winchester Cathedral and include the remains of King Cnut, a Norse ruler who conquered England and ruled it from 1016-1035. The other remains are of Emma, his queen, and later kings Harthacnut, Egbert, Ethelwulf and ...The Viking Ship Museum In Denmark
Dec 22nd, 2012 at 12:00PM:
The Vikings were the greatest sailors of their age. They built sturdy vessels that took them as far as Greenland and even North America. A few of these amazing craft have survived to the modern day.
The Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde, Denmark, has five such ships on display. Fifty years ago they were discovered at the bottom of Roskilde Fjord, where they had been deliberately sunk to create a ...Uppsala, Sweden: A University Town With Viking Roots
Oct 7th, 2012 at 12:00PM:
Uppsala University in Sweden is 535 years old today, having been inaugurated on this date in 1477. As one of the older universities in Europe, it has quite a few sights to see and is located in a town of ancient importance.
The city started as a religious center for the pagan Vikings and the location of their Thing, a general assembly. An ancient temple at Uppsala was said to have had statues ...Eynhallow: Visiting Orkney's Haunted Isle
Jul 29th, 2012 at 9:00AM:
Orkney is an ancient land where prehistoric monuments still dominate the landscape, along with the wide sky and surrounding sea. Plenty of strange stories have grown up about certain places. Some of the strangest have to do with a little island called Eynhallow.
Eynhallow has been deserted since 1851. Considering that it's a little less than 200 acres of treeless grass and rocky cliffs ...Prehistoric Tombs And Viking Graffiti In Orkney, Scotland
Jul 26th, 2012 at 11:30AM:
There's something about death.
Graveyards, war memorials, mummified monks, Purgatory Museums ... if there's dead people involved, I'm there. That's why my 6-year-old son found himself crawling through prehistoric tombs with his dad on remote Scottish islands for his summer vacation.
He loved it, of course. He still has that wonderful sense of adventure children should keep into adulthood. ...The Viking Ship Museum In Oslo, Norway
Jun 7th, 2012 at 1:00PM:
Norway is famous for its breathtaking fjords and Viking heritage. A hundred years ago at the Oseberg fjord, archaeologists discovered a Viking ship burial containing the bodies of two women. The ship was so well preserved that it could be entirely reconstructed. Now it's the centerpiece of Oslo's Viking Ship Museum and one of the country's most popular attractions.
The Oseberg ship is 21.58 ...St. Brendan: Did An Irish Monk Come To America Before Columbus?
May 16th, 2012 at 10:30AM: Today is St. Brendan's feast day. To the Irish, St. Brendan needs no introduction. For those less fortunate in their birth, let me tell you that he may have been Ireland's first adventure traveler.
Saint Brendan was an Irish holy man who lived from 484 to 577 AD. Little is known about his life, and even his entry in the Catholic Encyclopedia is rather short. What we do know about him mostly ...The Kensington Runestone and other Viking mysteries in America
Mar 16th, 2012 at 10:00AM:
When I was in the fifth grade, my teacher asked me what I thought was an easy question.
"Who discovered America?"
"The Indians!" I replied.
My teacher frowned at me and asked, "No, what EUROPEAN discovered America?"
"Oh, Leif Erikson. He was a Viking."
Obviously annoyed, my teacher told me, "No! COLUMBUS discovered America."
"But the Vikings came here in the year 1000. ...
L'Anse aux Meadows: A Viking colony in Canada
Mar 15th, 2012 at 10:00AM:
The Vikings were some of the best sailors of the Middle Ages. They sailed all over the Mediterranean, far up the rivers of Russia and across the north Atlantic to colonize Iceland and Greenland. For a long time archaeologists wondered if they ever made it to other parts of North America besides Greenland. Although some Viking sagas mention a land called Vinland to the west of Greenland, no ...Runestone erected by Christian Vikings added to UNESCO list
Feb 26th, 2012 at 11:00AM:
A Viking runestone bearing a cross and the first written mention of Norway found in the country has been added to UNESCO's Memory of the World program. This program aims to protect important documents that contribute to our global heritage. The runestone, called the Kuli Stone, is the oldest document on Norway's list.
It's important for its early mention of the country's name and also because ...Viking hoard highlights the value of responsible metal detectoring
Dec 17th, 2011 at 2:00PM:
When I used to work as an archaeologist, I heard a lot of bad-mouthing about metal detectorists. These guys scan the ground for coins and other metal objects. Most of the time they only find a few old pennies. It's when they discover something of historic value that some archaeologists get grumpy. Many archaeologists don't trust metal detectorists, saying they disturb ancient sites and pocket ...10 breeds of pirate - Somalis to Vikings to Japanese Pirate Ninjas
Feb 21st, 2011 at 11:00AM:
A yacht carrying a quartet of Americans was recently seized by Somali pirates, the latest in a string of hijackings that reaches back millenia. According to MSNBC, the seized yacht, the "S/V Quest," is owned by Jean and Scott Adam - a couple on a worldwide quest distributing bibles. While they no doubt expected to spread the word far and wide, they were certainly not expecting to be boarded by ...Archaeology reveals the best way to drink: from a human skull
Feb 17th, 2011 at 11:30AM:
Archaeologists in England have discovered three prehistoric skulls that were used as cups, the BBC reports.
The skulls were carefully worked into the shape of bowls. They were found in Gough's Cave, Somerset, and are 14,700 years old. These make them the oldest skull cups discovered. Investigators found other human remains in the cave that suggest people split the bones to get at the marrow. ...York: capital of England's north
Oct 19th, 2010 at 3:30PM: So far my journey through Yorkshire has been one of small towns and moorlands, yet the most popular destination in Yorkshire is the city that gives the shire its name--York. No trip to the north of England would be complete without checking out this historic city.
A brief look at York's long history
Like many English cities, York's origins are lost in prehistory. It's first recorded in the ...How green is Greenland?
Sep 9th, 2010 at 9:30AM: Is Greenland Green? The question and oft-given answer are cliché--even you've heard it before: that Iceland is really green whereas Greenland is covered with ice and snow.
Well, I'm about to set the record straight, right here, right now, because after spending more than a week in Greenland, I can tell you that Greenland is in fact, very, very GREEN.
Yes, it's true that a Europe-sized ...
