So How Bad Were the Vikings

You have undoubtedly heard the stories of the Norse raiders laying waster to parts of Northern Europe and keeping the inhabitants in fear. New research now shows that stories may in fact just be stories. As reported by National Geographic

Just how bad were the Vikings?

Winroth is among the scholars who believe the Vikings were no more bloodthirsty than other warriors of the period. But they suffered from bad public relations—in part because they attacked a society more literate than their own, and therefore most accounts of them come from their victims. Moreover, because the Vikings were pagan, they played into a Christian story line that cast them as a devilish, malign, outside force.

"There is this general idea of the Vikings as being exciting and other, as something that we can't understand from our point of view—which is simply continuing the story line of the victims in their own time," Winroth says. "One starts to think of them in storybook terms, which is deeply unfair."

In reality, he proposes, "the Vikings were sort of free-market entrepreneurs."

further still...

Rather than being primed for battle by an irrational love of mayhem, Vikings went raiding mainly for pragmatic reasons, Winroth contends—namely, to build personal fortunes and enhance the power of their chieftains. As evidence Winroth enumerates cases in which Viking leaders negotiated for payment, or tried to.

For example, before the Battle of Maldon in England, a Viking messenger landed and cried out to 3,000 or more assembled Saxon soldiers: "It is better for you that you pay off this spear-fight with tribute ... Nor have we any need to kill each other." The English chose to fight, and were defeated. Like anyone else, the Vikings would rather win by negotiation than risk a loss, Winroth says.

This just shows that history we are taught may not be the actuality of events and to always keep an open mind to historical 'facts'.

And Even More Scot History- The Real Braveheart

In the vein of looking at the history of Scotland. I thought we could take a look at the one of most famous, at least by Hollywood standards, thank you Mr Gibson, Scot. Here are two views on Braveheart, William Wallace.

The first showing the world, palaces, etc, of Wallace.



And the second, a channel 4 documentary looking at the true Braveheart.

Before Scotland- The Story of Scotland, Part 2

A continuation of part 1

Before Scotland- The Story of Scotland, Part 1

With impeding vote that may may create one of newest independent nations, I thought a little trip down the history of Scotland was in order.

Uncovered- 7,000 Year Old Stone Age City

Via Haemus.org and more found after the jump

Archaeologists in Croatia have unearthed what they say is the largest Stone Age city ever discovered in the region. The new find stretches for more than 100 thousand square meters, and it is believed to be roughly 7,000 years old.

A research team led by Maja Krznaric Skrivanko and Hrvoje Vulic from Vinkovci Municipal Museum announced this week that they had discovered a previously unknown village that dates back to the fifth or fourth millennium BC. Speaking with JutarnjiList, the team said that the discovery lurked for millennia just a couple of feet below the surface.

“At the beginning,” Vulic said, “we found the remains of tanks, wells, and ceramic items dating back to the Stone Age, and we decided to further investigate.”

The find was made a few kilometers west of Vinkovci, a Croatian city of roughly 35,000 and the largest town in the country. The survey work was necessary to ensure that any future construction work on the site would not damage unknown historical artifacts. The researchers reportedly had no clue that they would find such a massive repository of archaeological treasures before they started the dig.

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Place Your Bets- Whose Is Burried in Large Northern Greece Tomb

Yes, the headlines (mine and the National Geographic piece cited) should be leading you to think that is Alexander the Great. But, the smart money is not betting on that outcome, thinking the Alexander's body lay somewhere in Egypt, and the tomb being excavated is a royal tomb and probably one of Alexander's family members. Still an exciting find.



From NG and more after the jump

After nearly two years of digging at the site (known as the Kasta tumulus after the name of the hill it lies beneath), archaeologists are now exploring its inner chambers.

This past weekend the excavation team, led by Greek archaeologist Katerina Peristeri, announced the discovery of two elegant caryatids—large marble columns sculpted in the shape of women with outstretched arms—that may have been intended to bar intruders from entering the tomb's main room.

"I don't know of anything quite like them," says Philip Freeman, a professor of classics at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa.

The curly-haired caryatids are just part of the tomb's remarkable furnishings. Guarding the door as sentinels were a pair of carved stone sphinxes, mythological creatures with the body of a lion and the head of a human. And when archaeologists finally entered the antechamber, they discovered faded remnants of frescoes as well as a mosaic floor made of white marble pieces inlaid in a red background.

The finely crafted floor, says Ian Worthington, a classical scholar at the University of Missouri in Columbia and the author of two books on Alexander the Great, "is a clear sign of wealth. The palace of Pella [where Alexander the Great was born] yielded a number of mosaics, and they were all very costly."

A big question now is: Who was interred in the inner chamber? Peristeri and her colleagues have yet to break the seal over the entrance, so archaeologists can only make educated guesses. Most agree, however, that the tumulus is unlikely to hold the remains of Alexander the Great, the Macedonian king who defeated the Persian army, invaded Asia and Egypt, and created one of the ancient world's largest empires.

The Gold of the Thracians

The below video shows a part of the historical record that I have heard, read, or otherwise know very little about. I hope you find it as enthralling as I did.