Tag: viking age

New studies are upending our ideas about Viking shields

The shields from the Gokstad Viking ship were not only made for burial rituals and as decorations. Evidence indicates that they were used in battle, according to a Danish archaeologist.

The Vikings in Greenland imported timber from North America, according to a researcher

What kind of timber did the settlers in Greenland use, and where did the different types of wood come from?

This brooch became high fashion during the late Viking and Middle Age

The number of Urnes style brooches found in Norway have more than doubled in the past decade, most likely due to an increase of metal detectorists.

New discovery of a Viking ship in Norway

A 20-metre-long Viking ship has been discovered using georadar on a mound previously believed to be empty. “This is a spectacular find which sheds light on the earliest Viking kings”, says archaeologist Håkon Reiersen.

The supplier of display cases for the new Viking Age Museum is being sued by another museum. Then NASA got involved

Fragile objects are safe in the new displays, the Norwegian Directorate of Public Construction and Property (Statsbygg) and the National Museum assure us. The latter already uses display cases from this supplier.

The Vikings traveled a lot. How did they manage to talk to people?

How did they communicate without learning languages in school or having access to dictionaries?

Vikings tagged the great lion in Venice with runes

Hundreds or thousands of Norwegian and Swedish Vikings went to the Mediterranean for ‘summer jobs’ as mercenaries. They left behind graffiti.

The building of a new Museum of the Viking Age in Oslo has officially begun

Ola Borten Moe, Minister of Research and Higher Education in Norway, did the honours of putting the first shovel – or rather excavator – in the ground.

The Vikings likely brought horses and dogs with them on their voyages to England

“Very nice to get some archaeological flesh on that bone,” says Professor Jan Bill.

Now we know who the Vikings had children with

DNA evidence from Norway points above all to Britain and Ireland rather than people from the north-east. But a lot of this hereditary material has mysteriously almost disappeared after the Viking Age.

40-tonne steel rigs will protect the Viking ships during the building of a new Viking Age museum in Oslo

The Viking ships have remained in the same place since they were first put on display. Now they are being moved, with comprehensive security measures in place to ensure they are not damaged.

The world's most modern Viking ship can parallel park

You probably haven’t heard of electric Viking ships before. Old meets new in ‘Saga Farmann’ — and the Vikings would probably approve, being the innovators that they were.

Viking grave discovered in the middle of Norway's capital Oslo

A grave with the remains of a shield and a cape buckle were uncovered during the construction of a new house this autumn. It is the first Viking grave rich in artefacts that archaeologists have excavated in Oslo.

The Princess from Kyiv was Norway's last Viking queen

Harald Hardrada became the last Viking king of Norway. Ellisiv from today's Ukraine was his queen.

A ski from the Viking Age melted out of the ice in 2014. A few years later the second ski in the pair appeared

The skis are the best-preserved pair from prehistoric times in the world. But who was trying to cross a mountain pass during winter in the 8th century, and why did they lose their skis? More clues may yet melt out of the ice to tell the story.

One Viking’s lost silver treasure discovered by metal detector enthusiast

46 pieces of silver from the Viking age were recently discovered in a field in mid-Norway. “It’s an exceptional find,” says archaeologist.

How do you build a Viking ship? These woodworkers are joined by researchers on their third Viking ship project

The prow of a Viking ship rises over Vikingodden in Tønsberg, Norway. The ‘Gokstad ship’ is being rebuilt.

Norway has more than 400 apple varieties, but they can’t be bought in stores

The apples grown in this country come from the Netherlands and Belgium.

Every Viking owned a stone like this - and they traded massive quantities of them too

Whetstones are one of the most common finds from the Viking Age. What looks like a simple stone however, tells the tale of extensive trading systems - and perhaps even the reason for why the Vikings started raiding overseas.

Found a Viking sword in the backyard

It wasn't a couple of pieces of an old rusty plow. It was a Viking sword.

The last person who touched this three-bladed arrowhead was a Viking

“We have never found an arrowhead like this before”, the glacial archaeologists from Secrets of the Ice in Norway recently reported on their Facebook-page.

New Viking Age jewellery find delivered to archaeological museum on a platter

The typical Viking Age women’s jewellery had been collecting dust in somebody’s living room for decades. Until last week, when it was all of a sudden delivered by an anonymous source at the Museum of Archaeology in Stavanger.

This gold ring once belonged to a powerful Viking Chief. It was found in a pile of cheap jewellery auctioned off online

The heavy, shiny gold ring stood out. And no wonder. It once belonged to a powerful Viking chief.

No more delays for the new Museum of the Viking Age

About a month ago, the Museum of the Viking Age was asked to cut costs by NOK 1 billion. Now the government has allocated NOK 700 million to them instead.

University rector says Viking ships may collapse in 5 or 50 years if new museum is delayed

The future is still uncertain for Norway’s Viking ships after budget agreement.

Researchers have started a petition to save the Norwegian Viking ships

“This is a desperate cry to the government,” says one of the archaeologists behind the petition.

New report: Budget cuts put 1200 year old Viking ships at risk of being destroyed

Cutting costs means risking Norway’s greatest cultural heritage and largest tourist attraction. “We cannot allow this,” says Svein Stølen, rector at the University of Oslo.

Unique sword from the Viking Age found in Stavanger

Metal detector enthusiasts in Norway have found a unique type of Viking Age sword with spectacular ornamentation.

The Viking Ships can’t wait

OPINION: Each day that construction is delayed, valuable time in the race to preserve this cultural heritage is wasted. The government should not mess about at this point - it should guarantee steady progress of the project.

The planned new Viking Age Museum in Oslo told to cut a billion NOK

The Norwegian Minister of Research, Ola Borten Moe from the Centre Party, has delivered a clear message: The cost of building a new Viking Age museum in Oslo must be reduced by a billion NOK.

A lost Viking town discovered in the 1950s is stored away in this basement

Not until recently have researchers really started studying a thousand-year-old Norwegian town we know surprisingly little about.

Why was this flimsy Roman-looking sandal buried beneath the snow in an ancient, dangerous Norwegian mountain pass?

“It looks almost like a sandal. It’s pretty astonishing, we’re up here at almost 2000 metres, and we find a shoe with fashion elements, similar to those found on the Continent at the time,” says glacial archaeologist Espen Finstad.

No, the Vikings didn't wear helmets with horns

But 2,000 years before the Vikings – in the Bronze Age – horned helmets existed.

Did this Viking helmet belong to a Norwegian warrior who served rulers in the East?

New interpretations of the so-called Gjermundbu find suggest that the Viking buried in one of Norway's richest male warrior graves had ties to great rulers in Eastern Europe.

The 12 most exciting finds from the Gjellestad Viking ship dig

A large amber bead, an axe placed under the ship, 25 horse teeth and pieces of wood that will tell us exactly when it sailed are among the results from Norway’s first excavation of a monumental Viking ship burial in a century.

Huge longhouse found near the Gjellestad Viking ship – one of the largest in Scandinavia

The finding confirms what the researchers already believed – that this place was a significant site of power during the Iron and Viking Ages.

Was there such a thing as a female Viking warrior?

OPINION: Are the changing answers to this question a direct result of our own changing views on gender?

This piece of wood will help archaeologists reconstruct the grand Gjellestad Viking ship

It will tell us exactly when the ship sailed the seas, as well as how it sailed.

The amazing discovery of a lost Viking settlement

SHARE YOUR SCIENCE: The lost Viking mountain pass that melted out of the Lendbreen ice patch was a fantastic and baffling discovery. The discovery made headlines around the world, but it also raised questions.

The Viking version of Assassin’s Creed is surprisingly violent, according to researcher

The game is part of an explosion of popular culture created around a contemporary idea of Vikings and Norse mythology, where violence often plays a large part.

Why do we love the Vikings so much?

Violent vikings might be the ones we see in movies and on TV, but Vikings are also popular today because they represent a return to our roots and nature, researchers claim.

Vikings had a completely different relationship to animals than we have today

The Vikings and their ancestors looked at animals with awe and admiration, researchers at the Museum of Cultural History say.

Does the story of Beowolf explain the Oseberg, Gjellestad and Sutton Hoo ships?

The new Netflix film “The Dig” tells the story of the excavation of the Sutton Hoo ship in England. A Norwegian professor believes that a 1500-year-old poem can explain why a number of large ships were buried during the Viking Age.

Viking women played an important role in raids

Kitchen equipment from the British Isles has been found in graves belonging to Viking women from aristocratic families. “We can gain new knowledge about women’s participation in the Viking raids by posing new questions to old findings,” says researcher.

Here's how Vikings celebrated Christmas

They drank, and they ate horse meat.

Layers of soil and turf tell the tale of a grand Viking ship burial

The Gjellestad Viking ship has more or less disintegrated. But the ongoing dig to salvage the remains, the first Viking ship dig in Norway in a century, is still finding important clues to what happened here, a long time ago.

Mysterious remains of a huge, 'ship-shaped' house discovered near the Viking ship grave at Gjellestad

Archaeologists suggest that the almost 40-metre-long building may have been a house for ancient rituals, or a feasting hall.

Badger might have been behind "looted" viking graves in Norway

Someone, or something, has "drilled" deep holes into 17 Viking graves.

Viking children practiced with swords and quickly grew up to become adults

They grew up playing with swords, and were adult at puberty. Here's what we know about the life of a Viking child.

Remains of what may be a temple where Norse gods were worshiped have been found in Norway

Researchers believe they have found the remains of a pagan temple, where Vikings made sacrifices to gods like Thor and Odin. If so, then this would be the first Norse temple identified in Norway.

Researchers have examined the burial mound where the Gokstad Viking ship was found. What they found surprised them.

“The first thing that struck me was that it was so neat. All the layers were so clean,” says archaeologist Rebecca Cannell to sciencenorway.no.

What did the Vikings really eat?

Norwegian researchers are working to find out more about what the Vikings cooked in their cauldrons.

Was there a Viking Age in Norway — 2000 years before the Vikings?

It may be that people from the North went to the Mediterranean with "Viking ships" as early as 3000 years ago.

Why archaeologists call for an immediate Gjellestad Viking ship dig

One reason is the ship is under attack by a fungus that is consuming the wood. "It’s being eaten from all directions and we don’t know how long this siege has been going on,” says Archaeologist Christian Rødsrud.

Glacial archaeology: Activity over this mountain pass was at its peak during the Viking Age

Norwegians used this mountain pass for more than 1200 years. As the ice melts in the high mountains, long-hidden objects emerge.

Why is the full story of the Viking Age and High Middle Ages emerging only now?

Written in the 1380s in Iceland, the Flateyarbók chronicling Norwegian history never made it to Norway. Some 600 years later a Norwegian king has finally received the book, in Norwegian. An English translation is also on the way.

The mystery from pre-Viking days: Only the most powerful had these little pieces of gold

Was it a gold ticket to important meetings? Or proof that you were related to the Gods? A new gold foil figure was recently found in Vestfold.

Vikings wiped out Iceland’s walruses

Walrus tusks were a luxury good, and the ungainly marine mammals probably didn't put up much of a fight when the Vikings came to the island country.

Government finally grants money for new Viking ship museum in Oslo

The unique collection of Norwegian Viking ships is housed in dire conditions. Next year's National Budget has granted money to start the process for a new museum to be built.

Crazed Viking warriors may have been high on henbane

The Viking warriors who went berserk may have been intoxicated with the plant stinking henbane, one scientist says. Norwegian experts have their doubts.

Creating languages of the past for HBO’s "Beforeigners"

Researchers who created language for the new HBO hit Beforeigners couldn’t just translate Norwegian into Old Norse, 19th-century Norwegian or a Stone Age language. For one thing, how would you curse in Old Norse if you knew nothing of Christianity?

Viking men were buried with cooking gear

What were gender roles like during Viking times? A Norwegian archaeologist thinks we often misinterpret the past based on our current cultural assumptions.

Why did the Vikings take hostages?

Sometimes the captives spent their whole lives together with the hostage-takers.

Counting the years the Viking way

How did Norway keep track of time before it adopted the modern calendar?

Viking arrowheads emerge from melting Norwegian glaciers

High up in the mountains, archaeologists are now discovering human traces dating as far back as the Stone age.

’Twas dangerous to insult a Viking

You had to watch your tongue during the Viking era. Insulting someone could get you killed on the spot. But could you get away with murder?

Old DNA reveals Viking impacts on flora and fauna

Vikings’ navigational skills and travels led to more than plundering and cultural exchanges. It also spread Scandinavian plants and animals to places abroad – and likewise brought foreign flora and fauna to the Nordic countries.

Items lost in the Stone Age are found in melting glaciers

Mittens, shoes, weapons, walking sticks – lost in the high mountains of Norway thousands of years ago - are now emerging from melting ice.

Norwegian Viking treasures tour Europe

Viking relics found in Norway and elsewhere are expected to be viewed by exceptionally large crowds in London as the British Museum stages its first major Viking exhibition in 30 years.

Mysterious code in Viking runes is cracked

A runic code called jötunvillur has finally been decrypted. It just might help solve the mystery of the Vikings’ secret codes.

Old Arabic texts describe dirty Vikings

Arabs who encountered Scandinavians who had journeyed eastward depicted them as handsome people but filthy and barbaric.

Dreaming of Valhalla

What does Norse mythology say about the creation of the world? Can ancient tales answer the questions of today? A new tablet application called “Dreams of Valhalla” offers everything you ever wanted to know about Norse myths and their gods and goddesses.