Viking warriors from the Jorvik Viking Festival

Three Viking warriors in a reenactment from the Jorvik Viking Festival (2012).

Reenactors and creators of the helmets, armour, clothing etc, are unknown: kudos to them for their marvelous work.

Mysterious Viking boat graves unearthed in central Norway

Republication from Norwegian scitech news

The oldest grave is from the 8th century. But why were these two people buried together? (Illustration: Arkikon)

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Two people died roughly 100 years apart. Nevertheless, they were buried together. In boats.

In the second half of the 9^th century, an important woman dies at the farm now known as Skeiet at Vinjeøra, in central Norway. Her dress is fastened at the front with two large shell-shaped brooches of gilded bronze along with a crucifix-shaped brooch, made from an Irish harness fitting. She is then placed in a boat, about seven or eight metres long. Grave goods are also buried along with body, including a pearl necklace, two scissors, a spindle whorl– and a cow head.

Georadar detects a Viking ship in in Østfold County, Norway

Republication from Niku

 

Archaeologists armed with a motorized high resolution georadar have found a Viking ship and a large number of burial mounds and longhouses in Østfold County in Norway.

Press release: 

The discoveries were made by archaeologists from the Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research (NIKU) with technology developed by the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Archaeological Prospection and Virtual Archaeology (LBI ArchPro).

– We are certain that there is a ship there, but how much is preserved is hard to say before further investigation”, says Morten Hanisch, county conservator in Østfold.

– This find is incredibly exciting as we only know three well-preserved Viking ship finds in Norway excavated long time ago. This new ship will certainly be of great historical significance as it can be investigated with all modern means of archaeology”, says Dr. Knut Paasche, Head of the Department of Digital Archaeology at NIKU, and an expert on Viking ships.

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.

Ηow and where the Viking age began

Republication from Science Nordic

Dragon heads in the prows of Viking longships.

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By Charlotte Price Persson

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The story of the Vikings begins in the year 793 AD, after Norwegian Vikings landed in England on the first official Viking raid. To this day, these fierce raids are the most famous of Viking stories.

Now, a new study suggests a more peaceful start to Viking seafaring — and it all began in Denmark.

Three archaeologists from the University of Aarhus (Denmark) and the University of York (UK) have shown that maritime voyages from Norway to Ribe, the oldest commercial centre in Denmark, occurred long before the Viking age officially began.

The study shows that early Vikings travelled to Ribe in South Denmark as early as 725 AD.

The researchers discovered deer antlers in the oldest archaeological deposits of Ribe’s old marketplace and they turned out to be the remains of Norwegian reindeer.

“This is the first time we have proof that seafaring culture, which was the basis for the Viking era, has a history in Ribe. It’s fascinating,” says Professor Søren Sindbæk, one of the authors of the new study, which has just been published in the European Journal of Archaeology.