Controlling outcomes, steering destiny and reversing fate in ancient times was all about spells and old-school hands-on magic. Practitioners in ancient Greek and Rome commonly used ‘binding spells’...
It isn’t rare for a once prosperous medieval town to be abandoned and slowly get side-lined in the annals of history. Nothing exemplifies this statement better than the lost Viking village of Borgund...
For centuries, it has been believed that the large piece of skin nailed to the door of St Botolph’s church in Hadstock near Cambridge in England was human skin that belonged to a Viking raider who...
European Nordic seafaring pirates and raiders, known as the Vikings, would come to Greenland to settle around 950 AD, but mysteriously the Greenland Vikings vanished with the onset of the Little Ice...
Sailing, exploring, and raiding. Three activities well-loved by Vikings in their time. These Scandinavian seafarers spent their days as brutal warriors, pillaging and colonizing cities all over...
The University of Nottingham is leading a collaborative study that aims to identify the place of origin of iron Viking weapons, using their chemical fingerprints. For example, Viking weapons made...
A new study published in the journal Russian History has revealed some surprising details about economic, political, and cultural developments in medieval and modern Russia. It seems that the Russian...
In 1874, the Norwegian chess historian Antonius Van der Linde belittled Frederic Madden’s suggestion that Iceland could produce anything approaching the sophistication of the Lewis chessmen...
Revolutionary new advances in radiocarbon dating techniques have enabled scientists to more precisely determine the chronology and dynamics of Viking Age trade networks based on a medieval Danish...
Scottish archaeologists have released a mind-boggling 3D reconstruction of the largest royal Pictish fort ever discovered. Burghead Fort was the largest settlement of northern Picts in what is today...
A new study has tackled a burning question which has preoccupied generations of archaeologists: When did the Vikings first “discover” the Americas? Their analysis was based on a selection of wooden...
There are Viking hoards and then there are amazing Viking hoards. England’s Cuerdale Hoard, discovered in the 1840s, is in the amazing category in more ways than one! In terms of weight and number of...
The accepted mainstream story has long been that no one in southern or western Europe knew anything about the Americas before the discoveries associated with the voyages of Columbus. But a new...
The Vale of York Hoard is a Viking hoard dating to the 10th century AD. The hoard, which consists primarily of silver coins, was discovered by a pair of metal detectorists in 2007. The objects in the...
Scholars at Yale University have just completed a comprehensive analysis of the Vinland Map , a cartographic representation of the northeastern North American coast that was supposedly created in the...
Throughout their history, the Vikings were known as ferocious fighters, seafarers, raiders, and traders. The popular image depicts them as somewhat rambunctious and lawless - but that is far from the...
A metal detectorist with a nose for Viking era artifacts has struck gold again. Or more precisely, struck silver. These discoveries have helped to spark a renewed interest in the Viking history of...
Odin is the chief deity of the Norse pantheon. Although Odin was worshipped more generally in Germanic paganism, the information we have today about this god is derived mostly from Norse mythology...
What is being described by one Shetland islander as a “hugely significant discovery " has reached the press. While nobody is just yet sure what the five ancient circular structures found on the...
In Sigtuna, Sweden, just north of Stockholm, seven well-preserved Viking tombs have been discovered, including the graves of two possible infant twins. As per the Swedish press release on this...
Archaeologists in Poland have unearthed a coin hoard from the early Carolingian dynasty in a field in the remote north-east of the country. The coin hoard treasure indicates a connection between the...
A piece of textile fabric from a grave, dated to the Viking Age, has been found in southern Norway, dated to 850-950 AD. The grave of a woman was uncovered at Hestnes in southern Trøndelag county,...
Archaeologists digging below the floors of the spectacular Stavanger Cathedral on Norway’s southwestern coast unearthed new evidence revealing more about the church site’s complex past. While...
A group of archaeologists have found a unique Viking age site, 300 meters (984 feet) beyond the entrance of Iceland’s Surtshellir cave, that appears to have been used for Viking rituals. The most...
