By early 9th century, the Orkney Islands, an archipelago in the Northern Isles of Scotland, pretty much became the headquarters for pirate raids and expeditions mounted by the Vikings against both Norway and mainland Scotland. In fact, the area later became embroiled in the dynastic politics of the Norsemen, and as such was under Norse…
Using satellite imagery, archaeologists have stumbled across what could be the second Viking site in the Canadian island of Newfoundland. The discovery, the researchers believe, indicates that the Scandinavian seafarers traveled much farther into North America than previously believed. The findings will be made public in the form of a two-hour documentary, titled "Vikings Unearthed".…
The horned helmet of the Vikings was rather a Victorian age embellishment, so as to romanticize the 'noble barbarity' (read oxymoron) of these adventurous seafarers from the Scandinavian lands. However, there is more to the Vikings than just the stereotypical myths that were fabricated later - firstly by the Catholic factions of the medieval world…
Back in 2004, Ingmar Jansson, a professor of archaeology at Stockholm University had this to say about the Vikings - "The Norsemen were not just warriors, they were farmers, artists, shipbuilders, and innovators. More than anything, they were excellent traders who connected peoples from Baghdad to Scandinavia to the mainland of North America." Pertaining to the…
A few days ago, we talked about how the Viking colonizers also included women (mostly family members) in their ranks, as is evident from the study of mitochondrial DNA. And now, Davide Zori, the field director for the Mosfell Archaeological Project, has shed new light into the intrinsic relationship between a Viking chieftain and consumed…
Although very interesting in their designs, the discovery of Viking fortifications pertains to nothing new in the field of archaeology. But this time around, there might be something very special about the ring fortress uncovered in the island of Zealand. Known as the Vallø Borgring, some historians believe this was the very training camp from…
To start off with the histrionic statement - Christopher Columbus was not the first European to reach the Americas. The honor is commonly believed to belong to one Leif Erikson, the intrepid Viking explorer from Iceland who arrived in North America almost 500 years before Columbus, and also established the Norse settlement at 'Vinland' (a…
The Vikings were indeed a resourceful bunch. While modern air transportation, with its shambolic overhead bin system, is a seat of confusion and disorder, Vikings, of the late 8th to 11th centuries, had already conceived a way of implementing one-to-one storage on board their ships. (more…)