The road to Scandinavia’s bronze age: Trade routes, metal provenance, and mixing

Republication from phys.org/

British-developed bronze flat-axe from Selchausdal, northwest Zealand (NM B5310, photo: Nørgaard). The 20-cm-long axe has a geometric decoration covering the surface. Low-impurity copper is alloyed with 10% Sn. Scandinavia holds the largest proportion of British type axes outside the British Isles 2000-1700 BC. Credit: Heide W. Nørgaard (2019)

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The geographic origins of the metals in Scandinavian mixed-metal artifacts reveal a crucial dependency on British and continental European trading sources during the beginnings of the Nordic Bronze Age, according to a study published July 24, 2019 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Heide W. Nørgaard from Aarhus University, Denmark, and colleagues.

Nordic or Anglo-Saxon Shield Design

Some time ago, I found this image of an Anglo-Saxon or Scandinavian heavy infantryman as it looks. The most interesting feature is his shield Design, so I chose to republish it. Most of his arms and armour are Scandinavian – and definitely the crow standart behind him – but most

England and Wales c. 1399

A detailed map of England and Wales in 1399 with the kingdom’s various forms of

London’s Viking Lineage

Republication from  heritagedaily.com

London is generally associated with the Romans, Saxons and Normans, but a lesser known part of London’s history is intertwined with that of the Vikings.

When the early Anglo-Saxons settled in the area, they established a settlement that later become known as Ludenwic. This settlement was sited 1.6 km’s from the ruins of Londinium, the Roman city (Named Lundenburh in Anglo-Saxon, to mean “London Fort”).

By around 600, Anglo Saxon England was divided into several small kingdoms known as the Heptarchy. Lundenwic came under control of the Mercian Kingdom in about 670, as the Kingdom of Essex became gradually reduced in size and status. After the death of Offa of Mercia in 796, it was later disputed between Mercia and Wessex.

Æthelred the Unready – The Lost King

Republication from Heritagedaily

Battle of Assandun, showing Edmund Ironside (left) and Cnut the Great. (Matthew Paris, Chronica Majora, Cambridge, Corpus Christi College MS. 26, fol. 80v)

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Æthelred II, also dubbed the Unready was King of Saxon England during 978–1013 and 1014–1016.

Under his father Kind Edgar, England had experienced a period of peace after the reconquest of the Danelaw in the mid-10th century. However, beginning in 980, small bands of Danish invaders carried out coastline raids testing defences across England that included Hampshire, Thanet, Cornwall, Dorset and Cheshire.

After several successful Danish raids such as the Battle of Maldon, where a sizable Danish fleet defeated Byrhtnoth, ealdorman of Essex, Æthelred turned to paying tributes to hold off the invaders and keep the peace in his realm.