Rare Viking-age treasure begins international tour

 

The Galloway hoard is set to be on display in Adelaide in Australia next year

One of the UK's most important archaeological finds this century is set to go on show for the first time outside the UK early next year, as it begins its international tour.

The Viking-age Galloway Hoard - buried about AD 900 - was unearthed in a south of Scotland field by metal detectorist Derek McLennan in 2014.

It contains a variety of objects and materials, including a rare Anglo-Saxon cross, pendants, brooches, bracelets and relics.

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Anglo-Saxons plagiarized a Roman coin — and it's full of typos

 

An unusual piece of Anglo-Saxon jewelry — a plagiarized pendant rife with typos — that was discovered by a metal detectorist has now been declared treasure in the U.K.

The pendant imitates a Roman coin called a solidus, a type of gold coin introduced by the emperor Constantine in the fourth century A.D. It was discovered in January 2023 near the town of Attleborough in Norfolk, England, and dates to the late fifth to early sixth century. The piece of jewelry copies the imagery and inscriptions found on coins from the time of emperor Honorius, ruler of the Western Roman Empire from A.D. 393 to 423.

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The Royal Palace at Bamberg

 

After 1007 Bamberg castle was rebuilt as a modern cathedral and palace complex. Likely, it turned out to be an ideal prototype for other similar building projects at Paderborn, Goslar and elsewhere

In 973, Otto II presented his cousin, Heinrich der der Zänker ( Henry the Wrangler), with the keys to Babenberg Castle near the confluence of the rivers Regnitz and the Main. When Heinrich der Zänker was granted Bamberg, the castle on the later Domberg was already impressive. Archaeologists have shown that already in 902, the Babenberg – later Bamberg – was a heavily fortified castle domineering a riverine landscape with a village down to the river. For several years, it was used as a state prison for the Italian king, Berengar II, who died there in 966.

Later, Heinrich II, at that time Duke of Bavaria, presented his wife, Kunegunde, with Bamberg as her matrimonial gift; he granted her a thriving and vital city, which they later transformed into a diocese in 1007, and where they built the first cathedral, consecrated in 1012.

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140-year-old message in a bottle found in Viking burial mound in Norway

 

Archaeologists excavated the Myklebust ship mound and found a 140-year-old message in a bottle left by the site’s discoverer, photos show. Photo from the University of Bergen

When researchers began reexcavating a Viking burial mound in Norway, they knew they were following the footsteps of an influential archaeologist. What they didn’t know was that he’d left them a note 140 years ago. The Myklebust Ship is the one of the largest Viking ships ever found in Norway, reaching about 100 feet long in its original form. Archaeologist Anders Lorange unearthed the burnt ship in a large burial mound in Nordfjordeid in 1874, according to the Sagastad Viking Center dedicated to the find. The massive treasure-filled grave — likely belonging to a Viking king — was “only halfway excavated” before being filled in, the museum said.

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Portage: Will archeologists find proof of Viking ship-hauling in Scotland?

 

When, in season four of the hit television series Vikings, Ragnar Lothbrok exhorts his fellow Norsemen to pull their ships out of the water and over the hills to attack Paris, it seems like an impossible feat – made for TV. 

Certain written records, however, suggest that the act of dragging a ship across land – known as portage – is not so outlandish. 

Both the 10th-century Byzantine text De Administrando Imperio and the 12th-century Rus text Nestor Chronicle describe instances of Vikings hauling ships over land. Now, a study taking place in Scotland could be about to provide further confirmation of this seemingly remarkable feat. 

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Gjellestad Viking ship in danger of disappearing

 

Sindre Martinsen-Evje, the mayor of Østfold County Municipality in Norway, has called for urgent action to help preserve the Gjellestad Viking ship burial site. 

Although the site was only excavated in 2020 and 2021, time is already ticking as archeologists seek to save the remnants of the first Viking ship burial to be found in Norway in over a century. 

Will it be gone forever? 

With the help of ground-penetrating radar, Gjellestad was discovered more than 100 years after the Oseberg ship was excavated in 1904. 

The Gjellestad dig, which took place near the town of Østfold on the Viksletta Plain, revealed the remains of both a large Viking ship burial and several other interesting finds, including horse teeth, a large amber bead, and a Viking axe. 

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That 800-Year-Old Corpse in the Well? Early Biological Warfare

 

The Well Man was little more than a myth until 1938, when archaeologists excavated an abandoned well in the ruins of Sverresborg, outside Trondheim in central Norway.
Credit...Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research

In the dying days of the 12th century, with Norway in the grip of civil wars, the Baglers, a faction aligned with the archbishop, laid siege to Sverresborg, the castle stronghold of King Sverre Sigurdsson. The monarch was away, so the besiegers pillaged the castle, burned down houses and poisoned the water supply by heaving the corpse of one of the king’s men headfirst down the well and filling the shaft with stones.

This early biological warfare is recorded in “Sverris Saga,” a contemporaneous biography of the king, who reigned over much of Norway from 1184 to 1202. Scholars have long debated the chronicle’s reliability as a historical document, but a study published Friday in the journal iScience recounts how researchers unearthed the body of the “Well Man” and, with the help of ancient DNA, have provided fresh details about who he was.

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