Category Archives: EUROPE

EUROPE, NORWAY, WORLD

Viking sword found in a grave in central Norway

Viking sword found in a grave in central Norway

A 9th century Viking sword has been unearthed by archaeologists in central Norway.

Viking sword found in a grave in central Norway
It’s been more than 1000 years since someone held this sword. It belonged to a warrior who lived in Trøndelag in Viking times. But why was the sword placed on the opposite side of what was common practice?

During the Viking Age, a man was buried with a full set of weaponry at Vinjeøra in the south of what is now Trøndelag county in central Norway. An axe, spear, shield and sword were placed alongside his body in the grave.

Archaeologist Astrid Kviseth recently became the first person to hold the rusty sword in their hands for approximately 1,100 years:

Astrid Kviseth carefully carries the sword away from the site. Now it will be investigated further.

“I’m a little surprised at how heavy it was. I don’t exactly know ​​how heavy a sword is, but it had some heft to it. You would have had to be pretty strong to be able to swing this sword!” she said.

An area rich in Viking history

The grave was the latest in a series of archaeological finds in connection with the improvements to Norway’s E39 highway.

By law in Norway, archaeological surveys must be conducted in connection with all new construction projects, including roads. This is so that important cultural heritage can be preserved. The rule has led to many fascinating finds including the remains of a historically important church in downtown Trondheim.

A team is now excavating what appears to be a burial ground on a former Viking farm. Last year, remains of a burial house and an unusual double grave was found in the area.

“The fact that he was buried with a full set of weapons tells us that this was a warrior. In Viking times and the early Middle Ages, most warriors were free men who owned their own farms,” said Raymond Sauvage, an archaeologist at the NTNU University Museum and project manager for the excavation.

A left-handed owner?

An unusual aspect of the find was that the sword appears to have been placed on the left side of the deceased. Typically, swords are placed on the right-hand side of the body.

Swords are usually placed on the right side of the body in weapon graves like this. In this grave, it was laid on the warrior’s left side. One explanation may be that the warrior was left-handed.

The custom itself is a little odd. That’s because warriors would typically carry their sword on their left, in order to allow the right hand to access it easily.

“Why the swords are almost always placed on the right side is a bit mysterious. One theory is that the underworlds you go to after death are the mirror image of the upper world,” said Sauvage.

He suggested the sword in the Vinjeøra grave may have been placed on the left to signify the warrior was left-handed.

A ditch burial

The warrior’s grave partially overlapped three other graves. They were laid to rest in a ditch surrounding a large burial mound. Sauvage explained that using a grave more than once appears to have been common in the area:

“People were buried in the same grave or partly inside older graves. It was obviously important to lie next to or in the burial mounds and the ring ditches around them.”

“We can imagine that this burial practice is an expression of how important the family’s ancestors were on a farm in Viking times. In addition to being present on the farm as companion spirits – fylgjur – the ancestors could continue to live physically in the burial mounds.”

Another grave with burial gifts

Archaeologists found a fourth grave most likely to have been for a cremated Viking woman. One of the beads found in the grave. Photo: Raymond Sauvage, NTNU University Museum. Burial gifts included an oval brooch, a pair of scissors and beads. But there was a strange addition: a large number of bones.

In the same area, archaeologists discovered what they believe was a woman’s grave, based on the artefacts they found – like this bead.

“A study done several years ago showed that cremation graves from the Iron Age on average contain only about 250 grams of bone. A dead human body that is cremated, on the other hand, burns down to about 2 kilos of bones,” Sauvage said.

So while the cremated woman was buried in her entirety, archaeologists also found bird bones in the material. The team believes this could have been part of a burial ritual.

Lab work to follow

Sauvage said that the sword will now be examined in a Trondheim lab to see what remains under the rust:

“It will be exciting to get the sword into the conservation laboratory and have it x-rayed so we can see what’s hiding under the corrosion. Maybe it has ornamentation or pattern welding in the blade,” he says.

EUROPE, ITALY, WORLD

Ancient Roman Villa Discovered Beneath an Italian Apartment Complex

Ancient Roman Villa Discovered Beneath an Italian Apartment Complex

Next month is the unveiling of an underground museum of intricate Roman mosaics located under an apartment complex in the Italian capital.

Six years ago, BNP Paribas Real Estate, which owns the property, found the site during the construction work, an announcement made on Tuesday.

On the site, which is situated on the Aventine Hill, one of the seven hills of Ancient Rome, archaeologists from the Special Superintendence of Rome worked on the site.

Visitors will be able to see the mosaics when the museum opens in November.
A mosaic discovered beneath an Italian luxury apartment complex

During the excavation, they discovered mosaics, structures and other artefacts, and a multimedia exhibition using video mapping and projections will help explain the site’s history to visitors.

There were some signs that the area was inhabited around 900 BC, according to the statement. The site also includes a block wall dating from 700-400 BC that may have been the foundation of a watchtower.

Black-and-white mosaic tiles displayed on a wall bearing Latin inscriptions
The mosaics were laid in an upper-class Roman home.
The installation now resides in the basement of a residential luxury apartment complex. Starting in November, visitors will be able to take guided tours of the site twice per month. The building may open the museum up to more visits depending on the amount of interest.

Archaeologists also found that the area was levelled to increase the available flat surface, and around the middle of the 2nd century BC, a Domus — a type of private residence for the upper classes — was built.

The piece de resistance is a mosaic in black and white tiles from the end of the 1st century BC, and there is also a mosaic fragment dating from the reign of Emperor Trajan (98-117 AD).

Then, during Hadrian’s reign (117-138 AD), more black and white mosaics were laid in geometric patterns, one of which will be on display, followed by five more mosaics from the Antonine period (150-175 AD).

Perfectly preserved ancient Roman mosaic floor discovered in Italy
“In recent years we have worked as a team with the Superintendency to complete a unique archaeological project for the city of Rome: a museum inside an apartment building,” said Piero Cocco-Ordini, CEO of BNP Paribas Real Estate Italy, who called the site “a hidden treasure chest, a thousand-year witness to our past.”

In May, another beautiful ancient Roman mosaic was uncovered in northern Italy.

The remarkably well preserved mosaic floor was uncovered in a vineyard in Negrar, north of the city of Verona, almost a century after the remains of an ancient villa were found on the site.

Pictures of the floor posted by the town’s officials show its intricate patterns and colourful detail, much of which has been preserved perfectly through the centuries.

EUROPE, GREECE, WORLD

A 3,500-year-old Minoan vase carved from rock-crystals

A 3,500-year-old Minoan vase carved from rock-crystals

Ideally situated in a sheltered gulf surrounded by mountains, Zakros (or Kato Zakros) in south-eastern Crete, was the fourth largest Minoan settlement after Knossos, Phaistos and Malia.

The ancient name has been lost and the present one derives from the nearest local town. Inhabited since Neolithic times, the settlement achieved its greatest influence in the palatial period c. 2000 BCE to c. 1450 BCE.

The palace was destroyed (possibly by the eruption of the Thera volcano, although the date of this is much disputed) and abandoned c. 1450 BCE with the surrounding settlement also being abandoned c. 1330 BCE.

The site was first excavated in 1901 CE by D. Hogarth of the British School of Athens and once again from 1961 CE under the supervision of N. Platon, Ephor of Cretan Antiquities.

The excavations discovered a large palace complex and surrounding settlement displaying many typical Minoan architectural features.

These include a large central court (30x12m), secondary courts, colonnades, light-wells, a monumental stepped entrance, lustral basins (sunken rooms), storage magazines, archive rooms, stairs to a second floor, and paving with large flagstones and red plaster interstices.

Some rooms were also covered in fresco similar to (but fewer in quantity than) those at Knossos, depicting spirals, double axes and bull horns of consecration.

Unique to the Zakros site is a large circular cistern (5m in diameter) with seven steps leading down into it and originally surrounded by columns. An interesting and unique find in the extensive settlement around the palace complex is a large furnace with four exhaust ducts, perhaps used for metallurgy.

Zakros Minoan Site

The presence of more than 500 large storage jars (pithoi), over 50 fine stone vases, seals and Linear A tablets, quantities of ivory and bronze ingots, fine libation vases and rhyton all suggest the palace, as in the other Minoan towns, was a prosperous administrative and commercial centre, not only locally but with trade links to the Cycladic islands, Egypt and the Peloponnese on mainland Greece.

Other archaeological finds of note are fine gold jewellery pieces, Marine style pottery and gold objects such as a bull’s head and engraved bowl.

BULGARIA, EUROPE, WORLD

Roman Woman’s Trendy Earring Unearthed in Bulgaria

Roman Woman’s Trendy Earring Unearthed in Bulgaria

Archaeology in Bulgaria reports that an intact gold earring has been discovered in what was a room of the public bath at Deultum, a Roman colony founded in the first century A.D. by veterans of Augustus’ Eighth Legion near Bulgaria’s Black Sea coast. The artefact matches earrings shown in the second century A.D. 

A genuine ancient gold earring that can be used in some of the so-called Fayum Mummy portraits of Roman Egypt was found by archaeologists in south-east Bulgaria excavating the Deultum Ancient Roman colony near the town of Debelt, district Burgas, near the Black Sea coast.

Deultum was a Roman colony, which according to Roman law signified a status equal to that of the city of Rome itself. In today’s Bulgaria, there are only three Roman cities which enjoyed this status – Deultum (Colonia Flavia Pacis Deultensium) near Burgas, Ratiaria (Colonia Ulpia Traiana Ratiaria) near Archar, Ulpia Oescus near Gigen.

Fayum mummy portraits are portraits on wooden boards which were attached to the mummies of upper-class residents buried in Egypt during the Roman Era, in the 1st century BC – 3rd AD.

Such mummy portraits have been discovered throughout Egypt but most famously in the Fayum Basin, in Hawara and the Roman city of Antinoopolis from the time of Emperor Hadrian (r. 117 – 138). The term “Fayum mummy portraits” is used both as a geographic and stylistic description.

The Roman gold earring discovered in the city of Deultum in Southeast Bulgaria has been found to appear exactly the same as earrings of women depicted in some of the Fayum mummy portraits. Based on that similarity, the earring is dated by the Bulgarian researchers to the 2nd century AD.

The Ancient Roman city of Deultum (Colonia Flavia Pacis Deultensium) was built in the 1st century AD near a previously existing Ancient Thracian settlement called Debelt or Develt. It was settled by Roman military veterans from the Augustus’ Eight Legion (Legio VIII Augusta) near the Mandra Lake (today the Mandra Water Reservoir) where it also had a port connecting it to the Black Sea.

Roman Woman’s Trendy Earring Unearthed in Bulgaria
The gold earring found in the Roman city of Deultum – Debelt in Southeast Bulgaria appears to be the same as the earrings worn by the woman depicted in this Fayum mummy portrait.

The present archaeological excavations in the Deultum – Debelt Archaeological Preserve began on October 1, 2020; the Fayum mummy portrait gold earring was discovered two days later.

The Roman gold earring was found in the joint between tiles in one of the rooms in the ruins of the thermae (public baths) of Deultum, beneath an embankment, informs Krasimira Kostova, head of the Deultum – Debelt Archaeological Preserve, as cited by the Bulgarian National Radio.

“The gold earrings of a noble lady depicted in one of the Fayum Portraits are exactly the same as the earring that we have discovered here in Deultum,” the archaeologist says. She points out that the thermae of Deultum was destroyed in 357 – 358 AD during a major earthquake.

“The gold earring probably was lost as it fell between the tiles, and when the thermae were destroyed by the earthquake, it remained there. Subsequently, the site was levelled with embankments, which is how it remained there. Because the spot of the thermae remained inhabited after that,” Kostova explains.

“This jewel is extremely sophisticated, it is very interesting. We found it has parallels to one of the Fayum mummy portraits, which has led us to date it to the 2nd century AD,” she adds.

“We are construing the discovery of the gold earring like the earrings depicted in that Fayum mummy portrait as evidence that the female inhabitants of the Roman colony of Deultum were following the fashion trends in the Roman Empire, and were up to date with fashion,” the archaeologist emphasizes.

The Fayum portrait gold earring from Deultum – Debelt is fully intact save for a slight bent in its upper part.

It has a cassette filled with white glass with a slight yellowish nuance; below it comes a filigree holder with three pendants, each of which ends with a white glass ball. The patina on the three balls gives them the appearance of pearls.

In addition to the gold earring similar to those in one of the Fayum mummy portraits, the archaeologists excavating the ruins of the Roman city of Deultum have already discovered a large number of bronze coins.

Their digs are now focused on exposing more from the ruins of the thermae (public baths) of the Roman colony. The later homes, which were built on top of the ruins of the Roman thermae in Deulum, were researched during last year’s archaeological season, with the current excavations now targeting the layers beneath.

Once it is fully studied, the gold earring similar to the ones seen a Fayum mummy portrait from Roman Egypt is going to be put on display at the museum of the Deultum – Debelt Archaeological Preserve.

EUROPE, NORWAY, WORLD

1,200-year-old pagan temple to Thor and Odin unearthed in Norway

1,200-year-old pagan temple to Thor and Odin unearthed in Norway

The remains of the 1,200-year-old pagan temple were dug up in Norway and provide a rare insight into the Viking religion. Archaeologists have dated the remains of the large wooden building to the end of the 8th century.

The Old Norse “god house” was built from wood about 1200 years ago to worship gods like Odin, Thor, and Freyr. Post-holes that show its distinctive shape, including its central tower, have been unearthed at the site.
1,200-year-old pagan temple to Thor and Odin unearthed in Norway
The god house (shown here in a digital reconstruction) was strongly built of beams and walls of wood; some lasted for hundreds of years. It included a central tower, patterned on Christian churches seen in lands further south.

They think it would have stood 40 feet high and was 45 feet long and 26 feet wide.

That’s just over half as tall as Buckingham Palace. It’s thought sacrifices and feasts would have occurred inside to honour the gods during the midsummer and midwinter solstices.

A large white penis shaped stone was previously found near the site and was linked to ancient fertility rituals. This is the first Old Norse temple to be found in Norway.

Old Norse is the ancient language associated with the Viking’s Archaeologist Søren Diinhoff of the University Museum of Bergen told Live Science: “This is the first time we’ve found one of these very special, very beautiful buildings.

“We know them from Sweden and we know them from Denmark. … This shows that they also existed in Norway.”

He added: “It is a stronger expression of belief than all the small cult places.

The temple was unearthed during a dig taking place before planned housing work

“This is probably something to do with a certain class of the society, who built these as a real ideological show.”

The foundations of the ancient building, or “god house” as they’re often called, were unearthed last month in a Norwegian riverside village called Ose.

Digging was happening there in preparation for new houses. Traces of early agricultural settlements were also found nearby. They dated to the earlier time of around 2,000 to 2,500 years ago.

The remains of the temple date to a later time when the area is thought to have been dominated by elite wealthy families. It is thought the families would have led the cult worship.

Experts think the elite likely wanted a “god house” built based on more Christian structures with a high tower on top. Before this time, Viking gods were more commonly worshipped in simplistic settings.

The wood of the temple no longer remains but you can see the postholes where the main beams would have stood and the area where the tall tower would have been.

Evidence of cooking pits and animal bones fit in with the theory that feasts and sacrifices occurred there. Food, drink, animal sacrifices, and precious metals were often offered to Old Norse gods.

The worshippers would then feast and enjoy the goods themselves because they knew the gods couldn’t come and join them. Instead, wooden figurines may have been used to represent the gods.

Popular Old Norse gods include storm god Thor and war god Odin. Norway’s kings enforced Christianity from around the 11th century so burned down a lot of Old Norse temples and religious sites. There’s no current evidence to suggest the Ose temple was burned down.

DENMARK, EUROPE, WORLD

Viking Grave in Denmark Holds Remains of Mother and Son

Viking Grave in Denmark Holds Remains of Mother and Son

The Copenhagen Post reports that researchers at the Roskilde Museum have analyzed DNA samples from the remains of a man and woman discovered in a 1,000-year-old burial known as the Gerdrup Grave, and determined that the pair were mother and son.

The grave contains the skeletons of a child and a woman, and archaeologists have long speculated who they might be and why they were buried together.

Another element of the mystery is that the child was killed at some point and buried next to the woman. 

The Gerdrup Grave has another important aspect to it: it was the first discovery that proved that Viking women were buried along with a weapon – in this case, a lance.

Familial link

Well, now some new information has surfaced about the longstanding mystery. DNA testing has revealed that the pair are actually mother and son and, as previously believed, a sacrificial slave. 

“It’s an incredibly exciting and surprising result we have here. We need to thoroughly consider what this means,” Ole Kastholm, an archaeologist and senior curator at Roskilde Museum, told TV2 Lorry.

The revelation means that the history of the Gerdrup Grave needs to be rewritten and that a new mystery needs to be solved.

“We need to look at whether other graves and other source material from the Viking Age could reveal some patterns that might help us solve this case,” said Kastholm.

Do Sagas hold the key?

The key to solving the enigma could be found in one of the old Icelandic Sagas, a series of narratives written between the 12th and 15th centuries covering Viking history.

The man in the grave looks to have been executed, hung, and bound before being laid in the grave. Meanwhile, the woman was weighed down with large stones.

One theory is that the lance belonging to the woman in the grave is actually a sorceress’s staff.

Something Odd about them?

One of the sagas tells the story of the sorceress Katla and her son Odd who were persecuted and executed. Odd was hung and Katla was stoned to death.

While the plot thickens and archaeologists work to solve the latest part of the puzzle, the skeletons can be viewed at Roskilde Museum.

EUROPE, TURKEY, WORLD

2,400-Year-Old Kitchen Uncovered in Turkey

2,400-Year-Old Kitchen Uncovered in Turkey

Hurriyet Daily News reports that a 2,400-year-old house, with a kitchen and a neighbouring room containing mirrors, ornaments, loom weights, and fragrance containers have been unearthed at the site of the ancient Lycian city of Patara. 

2,400-Year-Old Kitchen Uncovered in Turkey

The world of archaeology was delighted by the objects found during the excavations at Patara, the capital of the Lycian Union, where significant traces of human life were uncovered during the archaeological excavations.

Excavations take place in the area of Tepecik, where settlements of the city were established. The kitchen and the women’s room with mirrors, ornaments and fragrance containers have been found in this area.

Speaking to state-run Anadolu Agency, deputy head of Patara excavations, Associate Professor Erkan Dündar said that the Tepecik settlement in Patara is an area where the earliest finds and architectural structures of the ancient city were found.

Emphasizing that thanks to the excavations there, they reached information about the residential life during the Lycian Union period, Dündar said that besides residential buildings, there was a military garrison in Tepecik.

Stressing that Alexander the Great came to the Lycian region for a short time, Dündar said, “After he seized it, he set up a garrison as he did in many places.

The soldiers staying in the garrison brought their families here. It was a kind of military lodge. In addition to war tools such as stones, arrowheads and spears, we also found finds of residential life.”

What delighted them the most was the kitchen they found in an ancient house, Dündar said.

“We found the kitchen items in bulk. We found crush pots, storage pots, oil pots, casseroles and a hairpin.

The kitchen gave us important information about life in that period. We also found a women’s room during excavations. In a room called ‘women’s room,’ we found loom weights, small items belonging to women, mirrors, ornaments and fragrance pots. Women are women in every period. They always cared about their own beauty.”

Noting that the houses in the Tepecik region have stone foundations, Dündar said that the superstructures of the houses have flat roofs raised with mudbrick and that they resemble the highland houses in today’s Elmalı district.

Dündar said that the region does not attract much attention from visitors because it lacks aesthetics, but that academic and scientific data emerging from the region were very important for them.

ENGLAND, EUROPE, WORLD

Possible Roman Salt-Making Site Discovered in England

Possible Roman Salt-Making Site Discovered in England

Spalding Today reports that excavations ahead of road construction in England’s East Midlands have uncovered Roman pottery, charcoal, two ditches, and holding tanks that may have been used by the Romans to make and transport salt. “Before this, it was believed that the area did not have much activity up until recent times,” said project manager Mick McDaid. 

A team of archaeologists have been running an excavation in Pinchbeck as part of the preparation work for the Spalding Western Relief Road.

Lincolnshire County Council and South Holland District Council are working on the plans to create the 6.5km road to link the A1175 and A16 to the south and east of Spalding, to the B1356 to the north, via the B1172 Spalding Common.

Archaeologists at work on the site off Spalding Road as part of the Spalding Western Relief Road

Two substantial ditches and holding tanks have been uncovered during the 16-week excavation.

Project manager Mick McDaid said that this site has been a surprise.

He said: “Nothing was expected from the site prior to evaluation. There was an aerial photograph which showed a crop mark but there was no indication of the quality of the archaeology.

Archaeologists at work on the site off Spalding Road as part of the Spalding Western Relief Road

“This has really added to the knowledge of the area. Before this, it was believed that the area did not have much activity up until recent times.”

During the Roman period, Spalding and the surrounding area would have been creeks which would provide the ideal location for creating salt.

Romans would use a hearth to evaporate tidal water intobrine to create salt.

Mr McDaid said: “There are no signs that this was any sort of settlement but was purely for industrial use.

“We have what appears to be holding tanks for the brine.”