A thousand years after the Vikings braved the icy seas from Greenland to the New World in search of timber and plunder, satellite technology has found intriguing evidence of a long-elusive prize in archaeology — a second Norse settlement in North America, further south than ever known.
The wealthy and lead poisoning in the Middle Ages
Article from the University of Southern Denmark:
“Being rich in the Middle Ages led to an unhealthy life”
Summary: In the Middle Ages only wealthy town people could afford to eat and drink from beautiful, colored glazed cups and plates. But the glazing was made of lead, which found its way into the body if you ate acidic foods. This has been revealed by chemical investigations of skeletons from cemeteries in Denmark and Germany.
Archaeologists discover ancient Anglo-Saxon Island
From Fox News:
Experts in the U.K. have discovered the remains of an Anglo-Saxon island, which they are touting as a site of huge archaeological importance…
…The amazing Lincolnshire discovery was sparked by Graham Vickers, a local man with a metal detector who unearthed a silver stylus from a disturbed plough field. Vickers reported the find to the Portable Antiquities Scheme, which encourages the voluntary recording of archaeological objects found by members of the public.The ornate writing tool, which dates back to the 8th century, was the first of a number of items found at the site.
Digitizing the medieval world
From Philly.com:
At Lehigh University, a visitor to the Linderman Library can plunge into the Middle Ages and study a 15th-century text that shows the Earth as the center of the universe.
Or touch the pages of an oversize religious songbook, adorned with gold leaf and painted in bright hues on calfskin, and held by monks hundreds of years ago as they lifted their voices in unison …
… Soon, viewers won’t have to travel to Bethlehem, Pa., to view Lehigh’s varied medieval collection. Anyone anywhere in the world will be able to see the items with a click of a mouse.
Medieval Glossary: Danegeld
Danegeld
Tribute paid to the Danes (Dane Gold).
*term retrieved from Netserf Medieval Glossary
From the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle:
AD 1050. The same year King Edward abolished the Danegeld which King Ethelred imposed. That was in the thirty-ninth year after it had begun. That tribute harassed all the people of England so long as is above written; and it was always paid before other imposts, which were levied indiscriminately, and vexed men variously.
Norman castle discovered beneath a Gloucester prison
Was Stonehenge first constructed in Wales?
From The Guardian:
Evidence of quarrying for Stonehenge’s bluestones is among the dramatic discoveries leading archaeologists to theorise that England’s greatest prehistoric monument may have first been erected in Wales.
It has long been known that the bluestones that form Stonehenge’s inner horseshoe came from the Preseli hills in Pembrokeshire, around 140 miles from Salisbury Plain.
Now archaeologists have discovered a series of recesses in the rocky outcrops of Carn Goedog and Craig Rhos-y-felin, to the north of those hills, that match Stonehenge’s bluestones in size and shape.
Viking connection to Northeast Scotland
From the Archaeology News Network:
Their exploits are more linked to the Northern Isles and the west coast of Scotland, with monastries raided, islanders murdered and gold and silver plundered. But new research – and a clutch of archaeological finds – has now suggested that the North East may not have escaped the fury of the Norsemen after all.
Academics at Aberdeen University have been working to fill the “blank space” of Viking activity in Aberdeenshire and Moray, with written history barely touching on the area so far. Using finds recorded through the Treasure Trove system and the input a team of metal detectors in the North East, a picture of possible Viking activity in the old Pictish Kingdom of Fortriu during the 8th, 9th and 10th centuries is now emerging.
Read more at: http://archaeologynewsnetwork.blogspot.de/2015/11/viking-link-to-north-east-of-scotland.html#.VlNByHarRhE
Hiker finds a 1,200-year-old Viking sword
From Fox News:
Goran Olsen was enjoying a leisurely hike recently in Norway when he stopped near the fishing village of Haukeli, about 150 miles west of Oslo. Under some rocks along a well-traversed path, he made a discovery that’s now the envy of every detectorist in Scandinavia: a 30-inch wrought-iron Viking sword, estimated to be about 1,200 years old.
Read the full article.
50 graves discovered at medieval pilgrimage site in England
The skeletal remains of about 50 medieval individuals have been discovered in shallow graves near the pilgrimage site of a famous seventh-century saint in England.
The human remains, which have been exhumed, may help archaeologists learn more about the medieval era, according to Archaeology Warwickshire, an archaeology and excavation firm. The company plans to study each skeleton to determine its sex and approximate age, and to identify evidence of injuries or diseases preserved in the bones, said Stuart Palmer, the business manager of Archaeology Warwickshire