Strange carvings at Norwegian grave site reveal what language was like before Vikings

Archaeologists have pieced together the earliest stone fragments containing inscriptions of Germanic letters, revealing what the Norse language was like before the Viking era.

Researchers from the University of Oslo found that the ancient fragments fit together “like a jigsaw puzzle” suggesting that the writing may have been “separated intentionally”.

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Earliest Known Rune-Stone Discovered in Norway

Archaeologists in Norway have pieced together fragments of what is now the world’s earliest known rune-stone, dating back to as early as 50 BC. The discovery at the Svingerud grave field offers new insights into the origins of runic writing, a script long associated with the medieval period but now revealed to have a much older history.

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What Do Vikings Mean to You? New Global Survey Seeks Answers

The University of Oslo’s Museum of Cultural History has launched a global study to uncover how people around the world perceive Viking warriors and the enduring legacy of the Viking Age. The Great Viking Survey invites individuals to share their thoughts on these iconic medieval figures and their influence in modern culture.

The survey, part of the Making a Warrior research project, aims to map the ways contemporary media and academia shape public perceptions of the Viking Age. Led by a pan-Nordic network of scholars, the project explores the concept of Viking “warriorhood” and its representation throughout history

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6th c. B.C. shipwreck found off Sicily

The remains of a shipwreck dating to the 6th or 5th century B.C. in the waters off Santa Maria del Focallo, a beach town on the southern tip of Sicily. An underwater excavation found the wreck at a depth of 20 feet, the wood of the hill buried under sand and rocks.

Experts revealed that the ship’s hull was constructed using the su guscio technique, a method that involved joining the planks of the hull with dovetail joints and clamps, which gave the structure notable strength and self-sufficiency.

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Hagia Sophia Dome to Be Dismantled for Restoration

The iconic Hagia Sophia in Istanbul (Constantinople) will undergo extensive restoration, including the dismantling of its dome, to preserve the historical and structural integrity of the world-renowned monument, according to the Turkish newspaper Hurriyet.

Ahmet Gulec, a member of the project’s scientific committee, said damage to the dome’s lead cover and cement materials made the restoration necessary. “The underside of the dome is covered in mosaics, making structural intervention from below nearly impossible” Gulec explained. The team will remove the lead cover and other harmful materials to ensure the building’s safety.

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Who Was the Man in the Well?

“Remarkable historical find at Sverresborg. Skeleton at the bottom of the old well. Could it be the Baglers’ victim, thrown into the well in 1197, as the saga claims?”

This was the headline in Adresseavisen on December 2, 1938. The manager of Sverresborg Folk Museum, Sigurd Tiller, and architect and self-taught archaeologist Gerhard Fischer found the skeleton while investigating the castle ruins. Three doctors were called in to confirm it was indeed a human skeleton. Despite the uproar caused by the discovery, Tiller was cautious with the press.

“Thorough and lengthy investigations are required before science can provide definitive insights into the find’s true significance.”

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Book review: Muslims on the Volga during the Viking Age

A compilation of essays may not necessarily be your first choice when you reach for a book on a library shelf or conduct a quick search on Amazon. 

For many of us non-academics, essays are something that brings back pubescent horrors from schooldays. The type of thing that, as soon as you graduated from high school, you'd pledge to avoid for the remainder of your life... until you went to college or university. 

Yet one must, as Voltaire's Candide quips, "tend to one's garden," and part of this tending is surely reading both for pleasure and for a purpose. 

Muslims on the Volga during the Viking Age, thankfully, for a collection of essays, combines both pleasure and purpose as a series of famed historians and academics cast their gaze upon the multicultural interactions that took place on the Volga River during the 10th century CE.

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Archeologists share new findings from the Viking graves at Tvååker, Sweden

The Viking burial ground at Tvååker revealed 139 graves, including ship-formed stone settings and a ship-formed mound. Photo: Arkeologerna

Ship made of oak and stone 

The latter appears to be the remains of a wooden ship burial that may have been relatively common in the local area. 

"Scientists in the 1950s discovered a characteristic local grave type in Halland County known as 'oblong mounds,'" Nordin and Kjellin tell The Viking Herald. 

"These have been interpreted to be the remains of a cremation in a ship site. The cremation here appears to have taken place in the ship." 

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Hoard of Roman coins found during building work

A hoard of gold and silver Roman coins dating back to the reign of Emperor Nero have been found during building works in Worcestershire.

The treasure, consisting of 1,368 Iron Age and Roman coins, includes the largest collection from the emperor's reign ever found.

Worcestershire Heritage, Art & Museums said the hoard was discovered in the Leigh and Bransford area, west of Worcester, in late 2023.

It is expected to be valued at more than £100,000.

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Weapons, Violence, and the Crusades: A Medieval Arms Race

The sword and shield of medieval Europe weren’t just tools of war—they were catalysts of chaos, reshaping societies and escalating crime rates. From Christendom to the Crusader States, weapons played a dual role: defence and destruction. Their prevalence not only shaped the violence of the battlefield but also fuelled conflicts in everyday life, leaving a lasting legacy of turmoil.

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How did they make it? New insights into the production of the Nebra Sky Disc

The Nebra Sky Disc, which is more than 3,600 years old, is a unique find of international standing and has been part of the UNESCO "Memory of the World" register since 2013. It can be considered one of the best-researched archaeological objects, but the question of the manufacturing process of the object has not yet been completely clarified.

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Human burial site discovered under car park

Archaeologists have discovered a "significant" medieval human burial site underneath a car park.

Thames Valley Archaeological Services surveyed Abingdon's Cattle Market car park ahead of works being carried out by Vale of White Horse District Council and Thames Water.

James McNicoll-Norbury, from consultancy firm ADAS, said the burials and a stone wall, which was also found, would be preserved.

The site lies in an area of considerable archaeological significance with the nearby Abbey Baptist Church, and previous archaeological work in the area found further medieval burials and Iron Age artefacts.

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Medieval silver gilt earscoop found in Norfolk

A rare decorated parcel-gilt silver earscoop from the Middle Ages was discovered by a metal detectorist in King’s Lynn, Norfolk, in July. The whole piece is just 1.7 inches long and is composed of a shaft that is square in cross-section with a widened, flattened end hollowed out to form a scoop on one side and a flattened square end on the other. The square end bears some resemblance to a modern cuticle pusher, but if it had a usage in the Middle Ages, it was more likely to have been used to clean under fingernails. 

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The Lost Medieval Library Found in a Romanian Church

Hidden away for centuries in a Transylvanian church tower, a forgotten medieval library has come to light, revealing treasures as old as the 9th century. This extraordinary discovery of manuscripts, books, and documents offers a rare glimpse into the intellectual and cultural life of medieval Romania.

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12th c. mass pit burial found at Leicester Cathedral

One of the largest mass burial pits ever discovered in the UK has been unearthed next to Leicester Cathedral. The pit contained the skeletal remains of 123 men, women and children dumped down a narrow vertical shaft in the early 12th century.

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Roman road found under modern Old Kent Road in London

An excavation in southeast London, during utility work has uncovered an important section of one the main Roman roads in Britannia. It was discovered beneath the modern Old Kent Road in Southwark, which was thought to have been built directly on top of the ancient Roman road, but this is the first archaeological evidence confirming it. The section is intact in multiple layers, revealing details of its construction method.

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Ancient monument found beneath the Hill of Tara provided more insight into Ireland's prehistoric past

In November 2002, a remarkable discovery was made beneath the Hill of Tara in County Meath, Ireland, unveiling a hidden monument that added new layers of historical significance to this already hallowed site.

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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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Gainsborough Old Hall in Lincolnshire, once graced by Henry VIII and Catherine Howard, has revealed itself as a hotbed of supernatural defence. Thanks to the eagle-eyed efforts of English Heritage volunteer Rick Berry, this 15th-century manor now boasts the most identified 'witches marks' of any of the charity’s 400 historic properties.

Over two years, Berry uncovered around 20 carvings, with a particular concentration in the servants' wing.

These apotropaic marks – or ‘witches marks’ – designed to ward off evil, include everything from rudimentary circles (believed to trap demons) to intricate overlapping 'V's, or Marian marks, invoking the Virgin Mary’s protection.

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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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