Board-game piece from the period of first Viking raid found on Lindisfarne, England.

The first wave of Viking raids in England has announced a small glass crown as a rare archaeological artifact.

On the holy island of Lindisfarne, a tidal island located off the north-western coast of England in Northumberland, a small working glass artifact was uncovered.

The Times reports that historians claim the crown was gameplay from the hnefatafl (king’s table) games strategy board gamed in England, Ireland and Scandinavia, prior to the arrival of chess in the 12th century, made from spinning blue and white glass with green glass bobbles.

The relic, which is no bigger than a grape, is described as being “of exquisite workmanship” showing influence from across the North Sea and if it is indeed a hnefatafl gaming piece it is a rare archaeological treasure linking the English island with the Vikings at the beginning of a turbulent period in English and Scandinavian history.

The Holy Island of Lindisfarne is perhaps best known for the 8th century illuminated gospels manufactured in the island’s first monastery, but in 793 AD the island was sacked in what was the first major Viking raid in Britain or Ireland.

The newly discovered gaming piece, according to a report in the Guardian, is thought to have maybe been accidentally dropped by a Viking or owned by a “high-status local” imitating Norse customs. Regardless, the treasure offers archaeologists a hard link between Lindisfarne ’s Anglo-Saxon monastery and the Norse raiders that sacked it.

Dr. David Petts, the project’s lead archaeologist and senior lecturer in the archaeology of northern England at Durham University, said that while the exact location of the island’s early wooden monastery is not known, recent excavations on the island by archaeologists and volunteers from  DigVentures have located a cemetery and a building.

DigVentures excavations on Lindisfarne are crowdfunded and greatly staffed by volunteers and this rare find was made last summer by the mother of one of the excavation teams who visited the site for a day celebrating her birthday.

Found in a trench dating to between the 8th and 9th centuries the gaming piece dates to around the time of the first Viking raid and according to DigVentures’ managing director, Lisa Westcott Wilkins, several of the most significant finds from Lindisfarne have been made by members of the public.

The “big argument”, says Wilkins, is whether you can do real archaeology with members of the public, but “you can” as long as it is properly supervised, she says.

When Wilkins was first presented with the tiny glass piece she says her “heart was pounding, the little hairs on my arms were standing up”, but as a scientist, she had trained herself out of having an emotional response to even such a fine piece, “it’s a piece of evidence, bottom line,” she said. But because the piece is “just so beautiful and so evocative of that time period,” the scientist said she just couldn’t help herself.

Dr. Petts said we often tend to think of early medieval Christianity, especially on islands, “as terribly austere: that they were all living a brutal, hard life” but this was not the case for everyone.

According to the archaeologist, even if it is proven the game this piece belonged to was being played by pilgrims or wealthy monks in the period before the Vikings raided, he says, it demonstrates that the influence of Norse culture had already extended across the Nordic regions.

Moreover, the professor says, in the 8th century Lindisfarne was “a bustling place peopled with monks, pilgrims, tradespeople, and even visiting kings,” and the sheer quality of this piece suggests someone on the island lived an elite lifestyle.

According to Anglo-Saxon writers, the opening weeks of the year 793 AD were worrying times in northern England with folk reporting whirlwinds, sporadic lightning, and even “fiery dragons flying in the air”.

And while in most years the preceding famine would have fulfilled the meaning of these prophetic signs, on  June 8th darkness spread on England in the form of a fleet of heathens who appeared on the east horizon “and miserably destroyed God’s church on  Lindisfarne, with plunder and slaughter”.

I have been careful not to call the Viking raid on the island of Lindisfarne, the first, but the “first major” attack on England, for only four years before, in 789 AD, according to English Heritage, “three ships of Northman had landed on the coast of Wessex, and killed the king’s reeve who had been sent to bring the strangers to the West Saxon court”.

But the assault on Lindisfarne differed greatly from this skirmish because it was a direct strike at the Christian sacred heart of the Northumbrian kingdom, desecrating what is known as “the very place where the Christian religion began” in England. It was where the venerated Cuthbert (d. 687) had served as a bishop and where his remains were worshiped as that of a saint.

The message delivered by the 793 AD raid was clear: we don’t just want your fields, fish, and women, but we are here to topple your king. And in this context no more fitting a discovery could ever have been made on Lindisfarne than an easily breakable crown.

Hidden Drawing Beneath Leonardo Da Vinci’s Painting Virgin Of The Rocks And Unknown Handprints Discovered

Scientists at the London National Gallery have utilized state-of-the-art methods to uncover a hidden drawing beneath Leonardo da Vinci’s The Virgin of the Rocks.

This reveals that after the original design was drawn up, the great artist and his assistants chose to take the biblical -themed painting in a completely different direction, to say the least.

First, know that there are two versions of The Virgin of the Rocks, one hanging in the Louvre and one in the National Gallery of London.

It’s thought that da Vinci first created the Louvre version by himself for a commission, but then sold it privately. Sometime later, he (and possibly his assistants) created a second copy, based on the first, in order to fulfill the original commission. That’s the version hanging in the National Gallery.

(By the way, to see why da Vinci might have set this typical Christian scene in such an unorthodox location, read this BBC essay. It provides further confirmation of how far ahead of his time he was, scientifically speaking.)

Using infrared techniques, National Gallery researchers discovered the draft of a different drawing beneath the visible paint in 2005. To see if there was more to it, another team re-scanned the painting using cutting-edge macro x-ray fluorescence techniques more recently.

Thanks to the presence of zinc in the original drawing material, it revealed much more detail from the original composition.

The first draft was significantly different from the final painting, with the figures positioned higher and looking in different directions.

The angel at right is looking down on the baby Christ and holding him more tightly, while the Virgin is looking toward the angel and Christ, rather than at the John the Baptist baby figure at left.

It’s not clear why da Vinci abandoned the original, arguably more dynamic composition. In any case, the under-drawing shows typical da Vinci “elaborations and adjustments” used when he transitioned from drawing to painting, according to curators.

“For instance, the angle of the Infant Christ’s head was changed so that he was seen in profile, while some parts of the angel’s curly hair have been removed,” the gallery wrote in a press release.

The research will form the basis of a new National Gallery exhibition entitled Leonardo: Experience a Masterpiece kicking off on November 9th, 2019.

Visitors will see how the painting might have looked in the original chapel setting while exploring the new drawings and seeing how experts uncovered them.

We might never know what the great man was thinking, but we will get to enjoy what is essentially a completely new Leonardo da Vinci work.

Possible 18th-Century Sailor’s Skeleton Unearthed near buried porpoise in Guernsey

However, after closer inspections of his buttons, particularly the archeologists have pointed out that he will actually be a marine sailor from the Royal British Navy and that they think he died about 1760, the remains found in Chapelle Dom Hue at first it was thought to be those of a monk living in nearby Lihou.

Archeologist Dr. Phil de Jersey said that after a fascinating dig in 2017 and a further one in 2018 – which resulted in the find of a whole skeleton minus the hands, from the initial discovery of a tiny toe bone – it was good to finally find out more about the sailor’s story.

‘This is a young man probably in his teens or early 20s,’ he said.

‘He’s quite short, around 5ft 2in., and radio-carbon dating shows him to have died around 1760.

‘The buttons themselves gave us the best information from him, leather buttons that we could use for dating and we even found a button specialist to look at them.

‘They said it fits in with the date and the idea that he was a sailor from the Royal British Navy. It even looks like the design on them is an attempt at the Union Jack flag.

‘We had thought he might be a monk, but the dates are all wrong.’

Hypotheses have been made on how he died, including drowning after falling overboard from his ship and washing up on the west coast, where locals buried him where he was found.

He is missing his hands and there is a suggestion this could be down to them being the uncovered part of his body that fish would have eaten first, whereas the large hole in the skull could be the result of the remains being battered by the elements as they were washed up.

However, Dr de Jersey said the acidity of the soil in the islands could be another factor in the state of the remains, which have severely eroded.

He did, however, add that he still hoped to find out even more about the sailor.

‘We would look at re-burying him up at St Saviour’s,’ he said.

‘But it would be nice to keep him a bit longer and possibly get more information from his teeth, which can reveal more geographical data and more about his diet.

‘People are fascinating to dig up, as weird as it sounds, and that is because it is more personal than pottery or flint. These are real people, people that are lost to history that you can bring back to life.

‘We would love to find out even more about him.’

Also unearthed near the body was the remains of a porpoise believed to have been buried in the 15th century. This is what led to the find of the skeleton after a human toe bone was spotted exposed on a cliff edge about 10 meters away.

Detectorists unearth record-breaking haul of 69,347 Iron Age coins after a 30-year search

The biggest coin hoards found in the British Isles are recorded by treasure hunters, after unearthing 69,347 Roman and Celtic coins that were buried three feet beneath a hedge in Jersey, Channel Isles.

Reg Mead and Richard Miles spent 30 years looking for the £ 10 million treasure in the field, after a woman described seeing what looked like silver buttons in the area.

Their find – made in 2012 – trumps the previous record-holding discovery of 54,951 Iron Age coins unearthed in Wiltshire in 1978.

Some of the silver and gold relics from the Guinness Record-setting discovery, dated to around 50BC, will go on display at La Hougue Bie Museum on the island.

‘We are not surprised at this achievement and are delighted that such an impressive archaeological item was discovered, examined and displayed in Jersey,’ said curator of archaeology at Jersey Heritage Olga Finch.

‘Once again, it puts our Island in the spotlight of international research of Iron Age coinage and demonstrates the world-class heritage that Jersey has to offer.’ 

Mr. Miles said he and Mr. Mead had been involved in the process the whole way through and described receiving the Guinness World Record certificates as ‘lovely’.

The coins were found to have been entombed in a mound of clay weighing three-quarters of a ton and measuring 55 x 31 x 8 inches.

They were declared a ‘treasure’ under the Treasure Act 1996, which means they officially belong to the Queen, although the finders are entitled to a reward. 

Mr. Mead has said that the least valuable coins in the hoard are likely to be worth £100 each, suggesting a valuation of several million pounds, without taking into account the precious jewellery also found in it.

However, there has been discussion over whether the price would come down because so many coins had been found, reducing their rarity.

The previous largest coin hoard from Wiltshire was discovered in 1978 at the former Roman town of Cunetio near to Mildenhall.

The largest hoard of coins ever found in the world was in Brussels in 1908 with 150,000 silver medieval pennies from the 13th Century uncovered. 

125 Million-Year-Old Dinosaur Tail Found In Isle Of Wight Cliff

At the bottom of a crumbling cliff on the Isle of Wight was a fossilized tail from a dinosaur that roamed the World 125 million years ago.

In the base of a cliff-side in the area of Brighstone were found the fossilized remains of the dinosaur – believed to be an iguanodon.

But excavations and attempts to salvage the tail for detailed analysis are currently being thwarted, due to safety risks posed by the crumbling cliff. 

Beach-goer Pippa Fairweather, 45, discovered the fossil in a cliff face near Brighstone on the Isle of Wight, describing the find as ‘pretty impressive’. 

It is thought around six vertebrae have been uncovered, and Isle of Wight radio reports that the dinosaur died and was exposed to the elements for several months before being buried by a large flash flood.  

Iguanodons were herbivores that measured up to 30 feet (10 meters) tall and weighed more than four tons (4,000kg). 

Oliver Mattsson, an expert from the Dinosaur Farm near to the find on the Isle of Wight, said: ‘Complete skeletons of the iguanodon have been found but we don’t know how much of this one is there, because it is inaccessible due to the safety risk being too great.

‘Given the cliff, as it is, and the rain we have been having, it is unsafe to go near it.

‘The iguanodon is the most common type found, as the dinosaur has been found on all continents.’

Ms. Fairweather, who is from Freshwater on the island and runs an online retail shop, said it is between Brighstone’s Grange Farm and Isle of Wight Pearl.

She adds: ‘But is in a seriously over-hanging cliff which seems to be crumbling constantly, so people need to be super careful.’ 

Experts are also urging locals to not attempt to extract the fossil for the risk of damaging it or endangering themselves.  

Rare 17th Century Wine Bottles Worth a Fortune Unearthed in England

After being mistakenly dug up at a building site, a garden of Gold-encrusted 17th-century wine bottles will be auctioned at £ 20000 for the leading price.

Seven ‘ extremely rare ‘ curved bottles of black glass have been unearthed from the clay during construction last November and carry the seal of the Earl of Coventry.

In the late 1600s, the Earl lived in Worcestershire on the nearby Croome estate and it is thought they belonged to him. 

The eight-inch tall vessels, which are almost completely intact, are thought to date between 1650 and 1670, around the time of the reign of Charles II and the civil war.

A workman in a JCB who was digging at a site near Kinnersley, Worcestershire, spotted the bottles glistening in the sun during routine excavations. They will be sold off by BBR Auctions of Elsecar, South Yorkshire, next month.

‘Wine bottles which date from 1650 to 1670 are extremely rare and for these to be discovered with their seals so they can be attributed to the Earls of Coventry is very special,’ said Alan Blakeman, the auctioneer at BBR Auctions.

‘Back then, you had to be filthy rich to have your own wine bottles made, with the seals providing an extra status symbol.

‘The workman was digging a trench for footings with a JCB when he found them and it is remarkable that they have survived in such good condition.’ 

It’s thought the bottles were made for George Villiers – the second Duke of Buckingham and the second Earl of Coventry (1628-1687).  Villiers owned three glassworks houses and was interested in glassmaking. 

He was granted an exclusive patent in 1663 for plate and mirror glass at Vauxhall glassworks in the area now called Glasshouse Walk in London, according to Antiques Trade Gazette. 

The Earl of Coventry was created for the Villiers’ father of the same name, the first Earl of Coventry, who was also a favorite – and possibly lover – of King James I.

The bottles are valued at £20,000 and will be sold over the course of three auctions, with the first sale taking place on February 2.  The National Trust-owned mansion Croome Court was the seat of the Coventry family from the late 16th century.

The building in its current form was started in 1751 for the 6th Earl of Coventry.

Europe’s Oldest Intact Book Is Discovered Inside the Coffin of a Saint

After having been shut up inside a hermit monk’s tomb for more than 400 years, the oldest preserved book in Europe was found.

The exhibition will be portrayed in the British Library, featuring prize manuscripts like the Lindisfarne Gospels and Beowulf.

The show is a once in a lifetime opportunity to see how medieval Anglo-Saxons depicted their own culture through early writings.

Among the precious materials is the Stonyhurst Gospel, a small book that holds a lot of history.

Also known as the St. Cuthbert Gospel, this Latin copy of the Gospel of John was discovered inside the coffin of St. Cuthbert, a hermit monk who died in  687 CE. It’s said that his body was found incorrupt decades after his death and this led to a cult that placed sacrifices around his remains.

Sometime after 698 CE, a small red book made its way into St. Cuthbert’s tomb along with other offerings. The book, a rare surviving medieval manuscript, was removed from his coffin in 1104 CE and transferred to Durham Cathedral, where it was kept as a separate relic.

In 2012, The British Library acquired the 1,300-year-old text, which still retained its original binding and pages.

The book’s binding is covered in a deep crimson-stained goatskin, which was stuck to boards while still damp.

“The decoration of the boards was enriched by tooling and coloring lines on the surface, with the tip of a fine folder or a stylus,” describes The British Library, which has also digitized the book.

“The left board is decorated with a rectangular frame with interlaced patterns in the upper and lower fields and a larger central field containing a chalice from which stems project, terminating in a leaf or bud and four fruits. This raised motif was apparently made using a matrix, with a clay-like substance beneath the leather.”

By the 6th century AD, wax tablets and scrolls were replaced by codexes in Europe. A codex refers to a handwritten manuscript where sheets of papyrus or vellum were bound between hardcovers.

The typology was created by the Romans in the 1st century but didn’t become widespread for a few hundred years.

As one can imagine, the fragile nature of these bound books makes their survival unlikely, making the St. Cuthbert Gospel all the more precious.

The St. Cuthbert Gospel, along with many other treasures, is on view at the British Library as part of Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms.

Anglo-Saxon Abbey where Lusty King Edgar was Crowned, Found!

The ruins of two stone buildings found during restoration work at Bath Abbey by Wessex Archeology specialist, it was discovered during renovation work at Bath Abbey, to the 8th – 10th century.

It is probably part of the Anglo-Saxon monastery where King Edgar was crowned as the first King of England in 973 AD.

In the excavation project Bath Abbey’s Footprint, the two foundations were uncovered underneath the street level, as part of Bath Abbey’s Footprint project.

The Wessex Archeology team revealed the apsidal (semi-circular) structures below an area where the cloisters of the 12th-century cathedral would have once stood and overlying earlier Romano-British deposits.

An internal plaster renders on the southern-most apse contained fragments of charcoal from which two samples were sent for radiocarbon dating at Queen’s University, Belfast.

The dates came back as AD 780-970 and AD 670-770, much to the delight of Wessex Archaeology Senior Project Officer Cai Mason, who said: “When you find something unusual, you have to think ‘what is the most mundane explanation for what we’ve found?’, and most of the time that will be the explanation, but sometimes that doesn’t work, which makes you wonder ‘have we found something genuinely unusual?’

“In a post-Roman context, the most likely place to find this type of structure is at the east end of an ecclesiastical building, such as a church or chapel, and given the fact that the excavated structures are surrounded by late Saxon burials, this is the most likely explanation for their use.

“This, together with the late Saxon stonework and burials found at the Abbey, provides increasingly strong evidence that we have indeed found part of Bath’s lost Anglo-Saxon monastery.”

Wessex Archaeology Project Manager Bruce Eaton added: “Given that the potential date of these structures spans some 200 years there are several possible contexts for their construction.

“One possibility would be the reign of King Offa of Mercia, who acquired the monastery in AD 781 and is credited by William of Malmesbury for building the famous Church of St Peter, probably utilizing the ready supply of worked stone from the near-by collapsing Roman baths complex.

“Extensive building work within this period is further attested to by Offa’s successor Ecgfrith having the infrastructure in place to hold court at the monastery in AD 796.

“This phase of energetic building activity does fit neatly with our earliest possible date for the plasterwork, but it is certainly not our only candidate.”

The Reverend Canon Guy Bridgewater at Bath Abbey, said: “This is a really exciting find. While we’ve always known there once was an Anglo-Saxon monastery on this site, no trace of the building remains above ground today, so it’s amazing that we now have an actual record of it and can get a real sense of it as it was.

“The excavations being carried out as part of our Footprint project are essential to make major improvements to the current Abbey church, and how we use it.

“A massive benefit has been working with Wessex Archaeology who are making important discoveries about Abbey’s 1,000-year heritage all the time.”

The Anglo-Saxon structures are among a series of exciting discoveries made by Wessex Archaeology during their excavations at Bath Abbey. In August 2018, the team uncovered a vibrantly coloured 14th century tiled floor in what would have been the nave of the medieval cathedral.

They have excavated a Mesolithic land surface below the Victorian plant room, Roman buildings which would have once stood in the heart of the town of Aquae Sulis, an Anglo-Saxon cemetery containing rare charcoal burials and the medieval cloister walk.

More recent finds have included the coffin-plate of controversial Georgian demographer Rev. Thomas Malthus and recovered painted fragments of the lost Jacobean plaster ceiling of the current Abbey church.