In 2009 archaeologists in Weymouth made a gruesome discovery: 51 skeletons were found buried in a pit - separated from their 1000-years-old heads. Further analysis of the skulls using the latest forensic techniques confirms that the victims were all came from a very cold climate. One of the executed warriors even originates from north of the Arctic circle.
Glasgow Museums and the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum invites you - and the kids - to join them for a weekend of earthy activities. On the - science - menu:
History from the Earth: Come and be an archaeologist for the day. Excavate, record and investigate our reconstructed Viking dig.
A Bugs Eye View: using natural materials, creating a large scale installation of a bug’s eye view of the world.
Insect Landscapes: investigating bugs and insects that live above, on and under the ground and how they see.
'Going Underground' is part of the National Science and Engineering Week.
Harthacnut, son of Cnut the Great and Emma of Normandy, was the Danish King of Denmark from 1035 to 1042. As he was the son of Cnut the Great he was the heir to the English crown aswell. However, he had been proclaimed King of Denmark in 1028 and when Cnut died in 1035 Harthacnut was defending his land in Denmark.Thus his half-brother, Harold Harefoot was crowned King Harold I of England in 1037. There was a struggle between the two brothers that only ended on the death of Harold in 1040. Thus, Harthacnut became king of England from 1040 until his death in 1042. He was known as a harsh and unpopular ruler.
Actor and Director Mel Gibson is working on a Viking-themed film that is going to star Leonardo DiCaprio, who will have to brush up on his Old Norse. The script is in the hands of Oscar-winning screenwriter William Monahan, and will chronicle the Viking raids on England and Scotland in the ninth century.
When asked about the Viking project at a recent press event, Mel Gibson told Collider.com: “I think it’s going to be English - the English that would have been spoken back then - and Old Norse. Whatever the 9th century had to offer. I’m going to give you real.”
London bridge is between the City of London and Southwark in London, over the River Thames. A bridge previously existed at or near the present site of the London bridge over the period from the Roman occupation of the area, nearly 2,000 years ago, around 50 AD. This was the first bridge across the Thames in the London area.
The Lewis Hnefataflmen: doesn’t quite have the same ring to it as the Lewis Chessmen, does it?
But if what a new paper by a trio of heritage experts is saying is true, the famous 900-year-old set of ivory-carved pieces discovered on a Scottish island in 1831 may not be from a chess set at all, but rather an ancient Viking board game.
It’s lonely out here in Tibet. The sun is shining down over a mountain and for miles around there is not a soul in sight. The sky is clear and at my feet I can see six layers of brown stones, about the size of baseballs, piled up by an unknown people.
These stone piles dot the landscape – only a few feet away I can see a pile of them shaped into what looks like a house with two or three rooms.
No, I’m not in Tibet. I’m also not reading an archaeological report, or even a looking at a virtual reconstruction. I’m immersed in a photographic panorama of an actual site in Tibet. The objects are real and were shot by a photographer – Tito Dupret – who was actually there.
Highlighted Quote:
“This will be the beginning of a new era to express these fabulous pictures and sites around the world.”
Submitted by Sean Williams on Wed, 11/04/2009 - 18:07
As blogged earlier today, the Staffordshire Hoard made its way to London's British Museum this week, to feverish public interest. And not wanting to miss out on the party, Heritage Key took a trip to Bloomsbury today, to give you a first-hand look at how it has been laid out for the capital's history lovers. As you can see, there weren't queues tailed back hundreds of yards outside the building - as was the case at earlier displays in Birmingham - but interest was high, with HK struggling to burst through the crowd for some decent shots.
Björn Ironside was a legendary Viking chief, warrior and naval commander, famed for his ruthlessness and cunning. He lived sometime in the 9th century AD.
The son of Ragnar Lodbrok, he successfully continued a tradition begun by his father of raiding into France and England. He pushed further south still, terrorising the Mediterranean from Gibraltar to the south of France, Pisa and the inland Italian town of Luna. Legend has it that Luna was taken by devious means - Ironside is said to have faked his death, then had the town's priest informed that he'd undergone a deathbed conversion and wished to be buried in the grounds of the town chapel. When his coffin was carried inside, he is said to have lept out, fought his way to Luna's gates and let his forces in.
Ironside and his fleet were eventually seen off after a bruising encounter with the Saracen navy in the Mediterranean, but he made it back to Sweden and lived out a life of immense prosperity. Since the 18th century, it has been believed that a barrow named after Björn Ironside on the island of Munsö in Lake Mälaren, Sweden is the legendary Viking king's burial grave.
A heated cross-border dispute has been rumbling the last few days over the origins of the humble haggis – Scotland’s national dish, famously memorialised as “the great chieftain o’ the puddin’ race” in Robert Burns’ 1787 Address To The Haggis. It’s been sparked by historian Catherine Brown, who has attributed the delicacy’s origins to the Scots’ “auld enemy”, the English, on the basis of references to the dish she’s recently discovered in a book called The English Hus-Wife, which was written in 1615 and thus predates Burns’ homage to stomach-cooked sheep’s organs by 171 years.
