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.

Ancient Masterpieces- Stark White/Brilliant Color

Unfortunately, there is no way I will have any chance to see this exhibit in its original run. Here is to hoping the exhibit goes on tour or that someone takes and shares detailed pictures



The advertising page for it can be found here.

The Mystery of Mine Howe

I had no idea Orkney was such a hot spot for ancient archeology

The Land of the Dead- Stonehendge

Although we will probably never know the full extent of what Stonehenge was used for, what we can say is that the stone structure and the surrounding area appears more like a proverbial 'land of the dead'. More so, it appears that Stonehenge is a part of a far larger ritualistic structure. As reported by the New Scientist.

The landscape around Stonehenge has yielded hidden treasure: 17 previously unknown ritual monuments, a "house of the dead" predating the stone circle, and what appears to be a ceremonial route around Stonehenge itself.

Instead of today's solitary monument, Stonehenge was the focus of "a completely theatrical arrangement," says archaeologist Vincent Gaffney of the University of Birmingham in the UK.

Gaffney and his colleagues have produced a detailed map covering 12 square kilometres around Stonehenge. No excavation was involved. Instead, Gaffney's team spent four years surveying the landscape with magnetometers, radar, electrical resistance measurements and lasers, creating a detailed picture of what lies below the visible landscape. They unveiled the map this week at the British Science Festival in Birmingham.

A hidden world

One of the most striking discoveries was also one of the oldest: a long burial mound dating from before Stonehenge was built between 5000 and 4000 years ago. The mound was built over the remains of a huge, 6000-year-old timber building thought to have been a "house of the dead", used to store bodies that had been ritualistically defleshed and disassembled. The building has a slightly trapezoidal shape, similar to much older buildings on mainland Europe, although those were always in or near settlements.

The survey turned up 17 small ritual monuments, many of them circular, thought to be contemporary with Stonehenge's busiest period. Gaffney suggests they were the equivalents of small "chapels".

(Image: LBI ArchPro, Mario Wallner)

The nearby Durrington Walls "super-henge" holds even more secrets. At almost 500 metres across, it is one of the biggest earthworks of its kind. Gaffney's team has found evidence that early in its history it was flanked by a row of around 60 huge stones or posts up to 3 metres high. Some of them may remain intact beneath the banks of the monument.

The map also shows many linear features, which Gaffney says suggest that the land was divided up at some point, perhaps into fields or proto-estates.

The remainder of the article can be found here. 

The Ancient World of Orkney

Interesting in of itself, but it also makes me wonder if the Orkney ruins were not built on or around other more ancient sites now sunk below sea. Not that I have any evidence to support that idea, but considering all that we have learned about the ruins drowned by the inundation at the end of ice age.

And Jack the Ripper Was.......

Now this story caught my eye. Not only did technological advances seeming help solve a murder, and I say seemingly because the authorities, as of this writing, remain mum, but a murder mystery that has lasted for well over 100 years and caught the curiosity of so many too numerous to count. So who was the Jack Ripper, the excerpt from the BNO New story states.....

‘Jack the Ripper,’ the elusive serial killer who targeted prostitutes in London in the late 19th century, has been identified as a Polish immigrant through DNA evidence which was recovered from a shawl that was found at one of the crime scenes, according to British researchers. Police have not yet commented on the claim.

Russell Edwards, 48, enlisted the help of Dr. Jari Louhelainen, a senior lecturer of molecular biology at Liverpool John Moores University, after finding out about a shawl which belonged to Catherine Eddowes, the fourth murder victim, and which was found at the crime scene. He bought it at an auction and handed it over to Louhelainen for analysis.

“In March 2007, I became aware that there was a shawl, purported to belong to Catherine Eddowes at the time, for sale at an auction house near to where I lived. I did some research into the provenance of the shawl and from there I went and bought it,” Edwards explained. “The very first day, I allowed this shawl to be tested.”

The shawl was next to Eddowes’ body when she was found in Mitre Square in London by policeman Edward Watkins on September 30, 1888. Acting Sergeant Amos Simpson, who accompanied Eddowes’ body to the morgue, asked his supervisor if he could take the shawl because of its size and because his wife was a seamstress. It was then passed down the family over the years without ever being washed.

When Louhelainen and his assistants examined the shawl, they discovered multiple stains which originated from the brutal murder of Eddowes. “We were told that we have blood spatter in the form of slashing, possible semen stains, possible blood stains, possible fecal matter, all of which the shawl is covered in,” Edwards said. “It was extremely exciting.”

You can find the remainder of the story here.

The Mystery of the Mayan Red Queen

Who was she? Why was she adorned while other Mayan women were not?

First Artic Peoples Not the Inuit

I saw this rather intriguing article a few days ago, an excerpt which appears below.

Migration pulses into the Americas

In the archaeological literature, distinctions are drawn between the different cultural units in the Arctic in the period up to the rise of the Thule culture, which replaced all previous Arctic cultures and is the source of today’s Inuit in Alaska, Canada and Greenland. The earlier cultures included the Saqqaq or Pre-Dorset and Dorset, comprising the Palaeo tradition, with the Dorset being further divided into three phases. All of these had distinctive cultural, lifestyle and subsistence traits as seen in the archaeological record. There were also several periods during which the Arctic was devoid of human settlement. These facts have further raised questions regarding the possibility of several waves of migration from Siberia to Alaska, or perhaps Native Americans migrating north during the first 4,000 years of the Arctic being inhabited.

“Our study shows that, genetically, all of the different Palaeo-population cultures belonged to the same group of people. On the other hand, they are not closely related to the Thule culture, and we see no indication of assimilation between the two groups. We have also ascertained that the Palaeo-population were not descendants of the Native Americans. The genetics reveals that there must have been at least three separate pulses of migration from Siberia into the Americas and the Arctic. First came the ancestors of today’s Native Americans, then came the Palaeo-population, and finally the ancestors of today’s Inuit,” says Eske Willerslev.

Inuit family circa 1917. Image: Wikimedia Commons

The genetic studies confirm a growing body of knowledge that shows that migrations of early humans was far more complex than was otherwise considered.

Voodoo- Spirits of Two Faces

A rather detailed look at the history of voodoo.

Ancient Greek Cities That No Longer Exist

I have a certain ambivalence when it comes to lists, as they generally speak more to those who compile the list more so than anything else. That said, what analysis does not show a certain level of bias. More so, many of the cities mentioned in the video below show how influential and wide-spread the Greek culture was. Many of the ruined cities mentioned are quite surprising.

Kennewick Man Revisted- Part 2

Just a little more information on the Kennewick man.

Kennewick Man Revealed

via the Washington Post



In a soon to be released 600-page book, scientists will be providing the world with one of the greatest and most comprehensive views on the Kennewick Man, the skeleton remains found by teenagers back in 2006 Kennewick, Washington. The Kennewick Man, other skeletal remains, DNA, and other evidence have slowly eroded the long-held notion that the America's were solely settled from a migration out of Siberia 10,000 years ago, replaced with a far more complicated view.

As the Washington Post article states....

“Kennewick Man could not have been a longtime resident of the area where he was found, but instead lived most of his adult life somewhere along the Northwest and North Pacific coast where marine mammals were readily available,” the concluding chapter of the book states.

“He could have been an Asian,” said co-editor Richard Jantz, emeritus professor of anthropology at the University of Tennessee. “One of the things we always tend to do is underestimate the mobility of early people.”
 
His co-editor, Douglas Owsley, a forensic anthropologist at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, agrees with that assessment of Kennewick Man: “He was a long-distance traveler.”

Further still,

The origin of Kennewick Man is relevant to the future disposition of his bones. Native American tribes have claimed him as one of their ancestors and have sought to rebury the remains in keeping with their customs. The scientists argued that there is no evidence linking any of today’s tribes to the skeleton.

They say that Kennewick Man’s skull, which is large and narrow with a projecting face, doesn’t look like the skulls of later Native Americans. This has been noted in other skulls from that era, including that of a teenage girl found in a submerged cave in Mexico, and the skull of a man found in the Channel Islands off the coast of California.

The dimensions of Kennewick Man’s skull most closely match those of Polynesians, specifically the inhabitants of the Chatham Islands, near New Zealand, the scientists say.

He wasn’t himself a Polynesian, however. Rather, according to the scientists, Kennewick Man and today’s Polynesians, as well as the prehistoric Jomon people and contemporary Ainu people of northern Japan, have a common ancestry among a coastal Asian population.

The remainder of the article can be found here.

Just goes to show, we all should challenge so-called truths. 

Large Alexander Era Tomb Found in Greece

You may have seen this article a couple of weeks ago, but if you have not...... intriguing to say the least. Is the resting place of Alexander? Who knows.

As reported by Yahoo News



Archaeologists have unearthed a funeral mound dating from the time of Alexander the Great and believed to be the largest ever discovered in Greece, but are stumped about who was buried in it.

Prime Minister Antonis Samaras on Tuesday described the find as "unique" after he visited the site, which dates to the era following Alexander's death, at the ancient town of Amphipolis in northern Greece.

"It is certain that we stand before an exceptionally important find," Samaras said in a statement. "This is a monument with unique characteristics."

The remainder of the article can be found here. 

Cold Case- Cleopatra

Think Cleopatra committed suicide?- maybe it is time to rethink what history has told you.

The Mysteries of the Longyou Caves

The below article was written by April Holloway for Ancient-origins.net, as reported on by Epoch Time. Additionally, the below video (I believe it is in Mandarin, which unfortunately I cannot speak at the moment, so I am unsure of the comments) shows the scale, scope, and the majesty of the man-made cave system that was only discovered in 1992. Cannot say I know much about this cave, nor can anyone else for that matter, but I present this to you as an enigmatic mystery among many showing how little we know of history.

As reported by Epoch Times and originally present at Ancient-origins.net. The entire article can be found here.

Located near the village of Shiyan Beicun in Zhejiang province, China, lies the Longyou caves – an extensive, magnificent and rare ancient underground world considered in China as ‘the ninth wonder of the ancient world.’ The Longyou grottoes, which are thought to date back at least 2,000 years, represent one of the largest underground excavations of ancient times and are an enduring mystery that have perplexed experts from every discipline that has examined them. Scientists from around the world in the fields of archaeology, architecture, engineering, and geology have absolutely no idea how they were built, by whom, and why.
First discovered in 1992 by a local villager, 36 grottoes have now been discovered covering a massive 30,000 square metres. Carved into solid siltstone, each grotto descends around 30 metres underground and contains stone rooms, bridges, gutters and pools. There are pillars evenly distributed throughout the caves which are supporting the ceiling, and the walls, ceiling and stone columns are uniformly decorated with chisel marks in a series of parallel lines. Only one of the caves has been opened for tourism, chosen because of the stone carvings found inside which depict a horse, fish and bird. The Longyou caves truly are an enigma and here we will explore ten mysteries that are still unexplained despite more than two decades of research.

1. How were they constructed?

A rough estimation of the workload involved in building these five caves is awe-inspiring. The quantity of rock that would have been removed in the overall excavation of the grottoes is estimated to be nearly 1,000,000 cubic meters. Taking into account the average digging rate per day per person, scientists have calculated that it would take 1,000 people working day and night for six years to complete. These calculations are based purely on hard labour, but what they haven’t taken into account is the incredible care and precision of the sculptors, meaning that the actual workload would far surpass the theoretical estimation. As for how they were constructed and what tools were used, it is still unknown. No tools have been found in the area, and, as we will explore later, scientists still don’t know how they achieved such symmetry, precision, and similarity between the different caves.

2. No traces of construction

Despite their size and the effort involved in creating them, so far no trace of their construction or even their existence has been located in the historic record. Although the overall excavation involved almost a million cubic metres of stone, there is no archaeological evidence revealing where that quantity of stone went, and no evidence of the work. Moreover, there is not a single historic document that refers to them, which is highly unusual considering the sheer scale of the project. Their origin is a complete and utter mystery. .......

25 Most Intense Archaeological Discoveries In History

Some lighter fare

The City of Lord Krishna

I have posted this (or a similar video) in an older post but I thought it would worth another look considering yesterday's look at the 'history' of Krishna. I am on the fence considering the conspiracy theory atmosphere surrounding Graham Hancock, but side with the notion and idea that civilizations could have settled and flourished in the lands now lost following the floods caused by the end of ice age.

History or Myth- Krishna Edition

I have to say I know little about the Hindu religion. Even after watching this overlying context about Hinduism. Now, much of this is filler and the first third or so goes over the many varying aspects, but the last two-thirds goes in to some interesting observations, albeit with some dubious conclusions. But nonetheless, still worth a go around.

The Cult Osiris and Christianity

Although many like to think otherwise, most of the so-called modern religions have their roots deep within the past. This is just one of too many examples to list.

The Fall of the Pax Romana

The Roman Empire, it rise, its falls and the continuing ramification are just too fascinating in my mind.Here we look some views and perspective on the fall of the Empire.

The Mystery that Remains of Petra

In some way shape or form, most people have at least a little exposure to Petra. But all that exposure, except for just a few, is the tip of the iceberg.

The Black Sea Atlantis- The Varna Civilization

Again, an area of history I knew nothing about until just recently. But isn't that what makes this field so interesting.

1000 Years of European History in 3 Minutes

Not 100% sure whom developed this but it is a great view of 1,000 years of history in 3 minutes

New Nazca Line 'Appear'

As The Daily Mail reports......

The mysteries of the Nazca Lines carved into the Peruvian desert have intensified after gales and sandstorms revealed previously unseen ancient designs.A pilot discovered a geoglyph of what appears to be a 196ft-long (60 metre) snake, as well as a type of camelid - such as a llama - above an unidentified bird. These new lines join existing geoglyphs of a dog, hummingbird, condor and a monkey, thought to have been drawn by the ancient Nazca people between the first and sixth centuries.

The discovery was made by pilot Eduardo Herrán Gómez de la Torre as he flew over the hills of El Ingenio Valley and Pampas de Jumana, as reported by El Comercio. Archaeologists are now working to confirm the authenticity of the lines. The geoglyphs, more commonly known as the Nazca Lines, were first spotted from the air in 1939 when a pilot flew over the Nazca region of the Peruvian coastal highlands.

The enigmatic Nazca lines have enticed me for years. Why were they made and how? What religious philosophy would drive people to create massive glyphs in a foreboding desert's sand/rock? We may never know the answer, aliens aside- but it can be fun to speculate.