Escrick sapphire ring's mystery history sparks meeting

The style and material of the ring makes it hard to date the university said

A sapphire ring found in North Yorkshire has sparked a meeting of experts to determine exactly when it was made.

The ring has baffled archaeologists because it is unlike any other according to the Yorkshire Museum.

The intricate ring, presumably made by a highly skilled craftsman, is on show at the Museum in York.

Natalie McCaul, from the museum, said the meeting may "shed new light on the ring" and "reveal some of its secrets".

The museum said the ring's style and material made it hard to date but it could have been made any time during the seventh to 11th centuries.

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Quentovic: The discovery of an early Medieval trading site

DAVID HILL MEMORIAL LECTURE

Quentovic:  The discovery of an early Medieval trading site

A Lecture by

Margaret Hill

Independent Archaeologist 

Friday, 15th March 2013 at 7.00pm

Activity Space 1, Clore Learning Centre

Museum of London, London Wall

EC2Y 5HN

FREE TO EMAS MEMBERS  NON-MEMBERS £3.00

Living conditions and indoor air quality in a reconstructed Viking house

Jannie Marie Christensen  & Morten Ryhl-Svendsen 


How harmful to a person’s health were the indoor conditions in Danish Viking Age houses? 

We do not have much direct evidence describing that. But we know that currently exposure to smoke from the solid fuel used for cooking and heating in open fireplaces in Third World homes is in harmful levels. It is among the top ten global risks for mortality and lost years of healthy life. Fuel smoke accounts for about 3 % of the global burden of diseases, mainly for women and young children, e.g.; lower respiratory infections, pulmonary diseases, and lung cancer

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Where were the Viking brew houses?

Graham Dineley, craft brewer & Merryn Dineley, independent researcher

We have been studying traditional malting and beer brewing techniques for 15 years. 
Graham is a craft brewer with 30 years’ experience of making beer from the grain. 
Merryn is an archaeologist, completing her M.Phil ‘Barley Malt & Ale in the Neolithic’ at 
the University of Manchester in 1999 and continuing research independently since then. 
The brewing of ale is a skilled craft that has hardly changed over the millennia.  For the 
last few years we have been looking into the potential archaeological evidence for the 
brewing of ale at Viking sites.


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Archeologist who found 1,400-year-old grave of princess signs copies of his new book

ROYAL FIND: Dr Steve Sherlock, who discovered the Saxon Princess jewellery at Loftus, a piece of which is shown below, signs copies of his book at Kirkleatham Museum 

THE archaeologist behind one of the most important discoveries ever made in the region held a book signing session this weekend. 

Dr Steve Sherlock discovered a striking 7th century gold pendant, which would have belonged to a princess, as well as glass beads, pottery, iron knives and other objects, in Loftus, East Cleveland between 2005 and 2007. 

The finds, which were described as “unparalleled” by experts, now form the Saxon Princess display at Redcar’s Kirkleatham Museum. 

The Princess was buried with her jewellery about 1,400 years ago and the haul was discovered at the only known Anglo-Saxon royal burial site in the North-East.

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Death, Narrative and Understanding the Viking Mind

We think we understand the Vikings and their ways as a culture of warriors and pirates. The Vikings plagued the coast of early medieval Britain, robbing from monastic and secular sites until they finally set up permanent residence in the Danelaw.

In reality, however, the Vikings inhabited a nebulous dichotomy between violent warrior and peaceful merchant.

Yet these views of the Norsemen originate from sources outside Viking culture, they originate from the victims, such as the monasteries that were attacked. As a result, our view of the Viking world is rarely from the perspective of people who were part of it. In a series of lectures to Cornell University, delivered in September 2012, Professor Neil Price of Aberdeen University attempts to bridge this gap and get inside the Viking mind.

Professor Price puts forward the argument that stories are at the heart of the Viking consciousness and that the Vikings perceived the world as a series of interconnected stories passed orally and lived out day to day. What modern scholars interpret as “Norse myths”, i.e. tales of the gods collected in what we call the Prose and Poetic Edda, were not only stories to entertain on the long Scandinavian nights, they were also a very real part of the nature of the world.

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Dig will root out secrets of Viking past

A two-mile stretch of land between Arrochar and Tarbet could hold vital clues to the Vikings' occupation of Scotland. 

An archaeological project hopes to shed new light on how the Vikings used the narrow isthmus between Loch Lomond and Loch Long to expedite their notorious plundering exploits. 

The fierce Norsemen are said to have dragged their boats across the isthmus - now the route of the busy A83 - to raid the rich Lomond settlements before encountering defeat at the Battle of Largs in 1263. 

Now an appeal has gone out for volunteers to come forward and help archaeologists in their quest for Viking clues.

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