La Spada (Magica) Vichinga

The last Viking and his 'magical' sword? 

ArchaeoHeritage, Archaeology, Breakingnews, Europe, Northern Europe, Norway 


Have you held the sword? 
Have you felt its weight? Have you felt how sharp and strong the blade is? 

Langeidsverdet helfigur 

[Credit: Ellen C. Holthe, Museum  of Cultural History, University of Oslo] 

A deadly weapon and symbol of power -- jewellery for a man, with magical properties. 
The sword gave power to the warrior, but the warrior's strength could also be transferred to the sword. 
That is how they were bound together: man and weapon, warrior and sword. 
This sword was found in Langeid in Bygland in Setesdal in 2011. It is a truly unique sword from the late Viking Age, embellished with gold, inscriptions and other ornamentation. 

The discovery of the sword has not been published until now, when it is being displayed for the first time in the exhibition 'Take It Personally' at the Historical Museum in Oslo. The sword must have belonged to a wealthy man in the late Viking Age. 
But who was he and what magic inscriptions are set into the decoration -- in gold? Was the owner of the sword in the Danish King Canute's army when it attacked England in 1014-15?

 "We just gaped" 
In the summer of 2011, archaeologists from the Museum of Cultural History in Oslo discovered a Viking burial ground in Langeid in Setesdal in southern Norway. 
In one of the graves they made a startling discovery. "Even before we began the excavation of this grave, I realised it was something quite special. 
The grave was so big and looked different from the other 20 graves in the burial ground. In each of the four corners of the grave there were post holes," said excavation leader Camilla Cecilie Wenn of the Museum of Cultural History. 
The post holes reveal that there was a roof over the grave, which is a sign that the grave had a prominent place in the burial ground. 
But when they dug down in the coffin in the bottom of the grave, there were few traces of gifts for the afterlife, only two small 
fragments of silver coins. The coins were from northern Europe; one was probably from the German Viking Age, judging by how it was embossed, while the other was a penny minted under Ethelred II in England dating from the period 978-1016. "But when we went on digging outside the coffin, our eyes really popped. Along both sides, something metal appeared, but it was hard to see what it was. 
Suddenly a lump of earth fell to one side so that the object became clearer. Our pulses raced when we realised it was the hilt of a sword! And on the other side of the coffin, the metal turned out to be a big battle-axe. 
Although the weapons were covered in rust when we found them, we realised straight away that they were special and unusual. Were they put there to protect the dead person from enemies, or to display power?" 
Dating of charcoal from one of the post holes shows that the grave is from around the year 1030, at the very end of the Viking Age. "And that fits in well with the discovery of the English coin." 

The sword 
The sword must have belonged to a wealthy man who lived in the late Viking Age. The sword is 94 cm long; although the iron blade has rusted, the handle is well preserved. 
It is wrapped with silver thread and the hilt and pommel at the top are covered in silver with details in gold, edged with a copper alloy thread," said project leader Zanette Glørstad. 

Langeidsverdet helfigur 

[Credit: Ellen C. Holthe, Museum  of Cultural History, University of Oslo] 

"When we examined the sword more closely, we also found remnants of wood and leather on the blade. They must be remains from a sheath to put the sword in," explained curator Vegard Vike. 
He has had the challenging task of cleaning up the handle and preserving the sword. The sword is decorated with large spirals, various combinations of letters and cross-like ornaments. 
The letters are probably Latin, but what the letter combinations meant is still a mystery. "At the top of the pommel, we can also clearly see a picture of a hand holding a cross. That's unique and we don't know of any similar findings on other swords from the Viking Age. Both the hand and the letters indicate that the sword was deliberately decorated with Christian symbolism. 
But how did such a sword end up in a pagan burial ground in Norway? The design of the sword, the symbols and the precious metal used all make it perfectly clear that this was a magnificent treasure, probably produced abroad and brought back to Norway by a very prominent man," added Camilla Cecilie Weenn. "The way swords are referred to in the sagas suggests that the sword is an important bearer of the identity of the warrior. 
A sword reveals the warrior's social status, his position of power and his strength. 
The sagas also tell us that gold had a special symbolic value in Norse society. In Norse literature gold represented power and potency. 
Gold is rarely found in archaeological material from Viking Period and then too, it stood for power and potency. 
This indicates that gold had considerable economic and symbolic value. Based on the descriptions in the literature, we can say that the sword was the male jewellery par excellence of the Viking Age," said Hanne Lovise Aannestad, the author of a recent article on ornate swords from the days of the Vikings. 

'Magic' 
The sagas emphasise the importance of the ornate sword. Swords could have hilts of gold with ornamentation and magical runes. 
The mythical sagas tell of magical swords forged by dwarfs. 
The creation of myths around the art of the blacksmith and the making of high-quality swords may be related to the fact that few people mastered the art. 
The production of metal objects of high quality may have been a form of hidden knowledge unavailable to most people. 
This gave the objects a magical aura. 
"In Mediaeval literature, swords are referred to as aesthetic, powerful and magical objects. The many similarities between the descriptions of swords in Norse and Mediaeval literature suggest that the splendour of the sword in the latter had roots in the Viking notions of the symbolic power, magic and ritual aspects of the ornate sword. The Viking Age was a period of great social upheaval. At times like that, certain symbolic objects may play an important role in negotiating social positions. There is much to suggest that these magnificent swords were such objects, reflecting the status and power of the warrior and his clan," said Hanne Lovise.

The battle-axe 
The axe found in the same grave has no gold decoration. But the shaft is coated with brass and it may well have flashed like gold when the sun shone. Such shaft coatings are very rare in Norway. But a number of similar battle-axes have been found in the River Thames in London. That makes the axe particularly interesting. 
Dating of the axe from Langeid shows that it belongs to the same period as the axes found in the Thames. 
There was a long series of battles along the Thames in the late 10th and early 11th centuries. 
The Danish king Sweyn Forkbeard and his son Canute led their armies against the English king in the battle for the English throne. 
Even the Norwegian king Olav (Haraldsson) the Holy was involved in the attack on London in 1009. 
The men under the Danish King were from all over Scandinavia. 
Did the axes get lost in the Thames during the numerous skirmishes, or did the victors throw them in the river? Did the sword belong to a Viking from King Canute's army? Further down the Setesdal Valley we find a runic stone, which says: "Arnstein raised this stone in memory of Bjor his son. He found death when Canute "went after" England. God is 
one." (Translated from the Old Norse).

The text probably refers to King Canute's attacks on England in 1013-14. 
It is likely that the stone was erected just after the incursions, by a father whose son never came back home. 
A written source from the 12th century states that King Canute's closest army had to meet certain requirements. 
Soldiers had to honour the king, had to belong to the leading families in society and also had to provide their own gilded axes and sword hilts. 
The Langeid sword would no doubt have been approved by King Canute, probably also the axe. 
The sword was made outside Norway and an Anglo-Saxon origin is quite possible. 
The axe is very similar to those found in the Thames, especially in its brass coating. 
The grave with the sword also contained the only coin found in Langeid from the Anglo-Saxon region, which increases the possibility that the dead man had a particular connection to the events in England. 
"It's quite possible that the dead man was one of King Canute's hand-picked men for the battles with King Ethelred of England. Seen in connection with the runic stone further down the valley, it is tempting to suggest that it is Bjor himself who was brought home and buried here. 
Another possibility is that his father Arnstein only got his son's magnificent weapons back and that, precisely for that reason, he decided to erect a runic stone for his son as a substitute for a grave. 
When Arnstein himself died, his son's glorious weapons were laid in his grave.
 The death of his son must have been very tough on an old man. Perhaps their relatives honoured both Arnstein and Bjor by letting Arnstein be buried with the weapons with such a heroic history," said Zanette Glørstad. The runic stone dates from the same period as the final phase of the burial ground and testifies that Christianity is about to take root in Norwegian society. 
It is the oldest runic stone in Norway that refers to Christianity. 
Could this also explain why the weapons were placed outside the coffin? In a transitional period, people may have chosen to use both pagan and Christian elements in a funeral. 
The Langeid grave is from one of the last pagan funerals we know of from Norway and marks both the greatness and the end of the Viking Age.

"Take it personally" 
Ever since the summer of 2011, the sword found in Langeid has been unpublished. Its display today has been made possible by the meticulous work and research of conservators and archaeologists at the Museum of Cultural History. 
Finally, it can be seen by the public and is displayed in the exhibition called "Take it personally" -- an exhibition of personal jewellery and adornment over time and space in the Historical Museum in Oslo.

Source: University of Museum of Cultural History Oslo [July 14, 2015]

Decodificato un Codice Runico!

Mysterious code in Viking runes is cracked 


Why did Vikings sometimes use codes when they wrote in runes? 
Were the messages secret, or did they have other reasons for encrypting their runic texts?

 Researchers still don’t know for sure. 

A rather forthright message written in code: “Kiss me” is etched into a piece of bone found in Sigtuna in Sweden, dating to the 12th or 13th century. The code is in cipher runes, the most common code known from medieval Scandinavia. 

This variety is called ice runes [Credit: Jonas Nordby] 

But Runologist K. Jonas Nordby thinks he has made progress toward an answer. He has managed to crack a code called jötunvillur, which has baffled linguists and historians for years. His discovery can help researchers understand the purpose behind the mystery codes. “It’s like solving a riddle,” says Nordby. “After a while I started to see a pattern in what appeared to be meaningless combinations of runes,” he says.

 Codes in frequent use 

Ancient codes prompt associations with treasure hunts and conspiracies as depicted in The Da Vinci Code. But mysterious codes are not just the stuff of fiction and films. Real-life Vikings and medieval Norse people carved runic codes onto sticks of wood, stones and other objects. 

Two men, Sigurd and Lavrans, carved their names both in code and in standard runes on this stick, dated from the 13th century and found at the Bergen Wharf. This helped researcher Jonas Nordby crack the jötunvillur code [Credit: Aslak Liestøl/Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo] 

The codes are found in many forms and contexts. They have turned up all over Scandinavia, the British Isles and other places where runes were used. “It was very common to use codes. Much of the population mastered them. That’s why I think they were something people picked up at the same time they learned the runic alphabet. If you had learned to read and write, you had also learned codes,” says Nordby. The use of the code as a tool in learning is not as odd as it might seem. There were no rune schools then but knowledge of this alphabet could be transferred from generation to generation by linking it to games, poetry, drills and codes,  Nordby says. He is working on his doctorate in runes. Nordby is the first person to study all the findings of runic codes in Northern Europe, around 80 inscriptions. His PhD research has taken him to several countries to analyse runic inscriptions dating back as far as 800 AD. 

Imaginative use 

The use of runic codes was imaginative, but not mysterious enough for a Hollywood blockbuster. A rune stick from the Wharf in Bergen testifies to a mischievous use of runic writing. 

The lines in the beards of these men comprise a message, written in cipher runes [Credit: Aslak Liestøl/ Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo] 

“Many think the Vikings used cryptography to conceal secret messages. But I think the codes were used in play and for learning runes, rather than to communicate,” says Nordby. One of the reasons for his claim is that the jötunvillur code is written in a way that makes the interpretation ambiguous. 
“Jötunvillur can only be written, not read. It would be pointless to use it for messages,” says Nordby. This is why he has considered other possible uses for the code.  Nordby thinks the Vikings memorised rune names with the help of the jötunvillur code. All runes have names, and the jötunvillur code works by exchanging the rune sign with the last sound in the rune’s name. For example, the rune for the letter U is called “urr” so it is encoded with the rune for R. The problem is that many runes end in the same sound. This makes it hard to figure out which runic letter the code refers to. The rune codes were not just used for learning. Nordby thinks the use also indicates a whimsical use of runes in the Viking Era and the Middle Ages. “These runes were carved by the most rune-literate man west of the sea,” bragged the author of this text. The inscription is in cipher runes and in regular runes. It was found in a burial chamber from the early Stone Age that Scandinavians broke into in the 1100s on the Orkney Islands. 

“A typical bunch of male adolescents were fooling around and wrote tall tales about treasures and their own sexual prowess,” says Runologist Jonas Nordby [Credit: Bengt A. Lundberg/Riksantikvarieämbetet] 

“We have little reason to believe the runic codes were used to conceal sensitive information. People often wrote short, routine messages,” says Nordby. Coded declarations such as “Kiss me” demonstrate that the use of code was not limited to issues of political significance. Many of the messages in runic codes included a challenge to the reader to crack the code. The inscription “Interpret these runes” was common. “People challenged one another with codes. It was a kind of competition in the art of rune making. This testifies to a playfulness with writing that we don’t see today,” says Nordby. Nine of the 80 or so coded runic writings that Nordby has investigated are written in the jötunvillur code. The others are written in coded runes with the aid of the Caesar cipher, a system involving a shift to letters a few places away in the alphabet. This and another code have been understood by researchers for some time. 

The recipient of this small altar in ivory got a challenge written in runic code on the side of the altar: 'Pauline, my sister, interpret this'. Code is Cæsarchifferet, the system of the Roman emperor Caesar used to communicate with his generals [Credit: Jonas Nordby] 

Bragging about literacy and sex 

Being good at writing and breaking codes ensured a certain amount of status, and people bragged about their proficiencies. On the Orkney Islands, for instance, someone wrote in code:  “These runes were carved by the most rune-literate man west of the sea”. Runic codes drawn as figures also show that Vikings played with writing. A window of understanding Henrik Williams, a professor at Uppsala University’s Department of Scandinavian Languages and a Swedish expert on runes, says that Nordby’s discovery is important. 

Digit code is a system that divides the runic alphabet in three parts. 

Number of lines on the left side of the sign showing which part of the runic alphabet they should look for it in.  

The bars on the right tells the exact position within one of the three parts

 [Credit: Jonas Nordby] 

“Above all, it helps us understand that there were more codes than we were aware of. Each runic inscription we interpret raises our hopes of soon being able to read more. This is pure detective work and each new method improves our chances,” says Williams. He agrees that the codes could have been used as a tool for learning runes. But he is uncertain how big a role this would have played in the learning process. In any case, Williams thinks the codes were used for much more than communication. “They challenged the reader, demonstrated skills, and testify to a joy in reading and writing.” What can the codes say about society at the time they were used? “They tell us much about people’s playfulness and innovation. We come closer to the thoughts of people living at the time through understanding their codes. Nordby has made an important discovery by breaking the code,” says Williams. “But personally I think jötunvillur is an idiotic code, because whoever made it chose a system that is so hard to interpret. It’s irritating not being able to read it.” 

Author: Ida Kvittingen.

 | Source: Science Nordic [February 05, 2014]

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Saccheggiavano l'Ovest, compravano seta dalla Persia (e forse Cina)

Norwegian Vikings 

purchased silk from Persia

The Vikings did not only go West to pillage and plunder. Most of the silk found in the Oseberg ship may have been purchased by honest means from Persia.

Silk textiles from the Persian region were found in the Oseberg ship. Among the motifs, we can see parts of special birds associated with Persian mythology, combined with clover-leaf axes, a Zoroastrian symbol taken from the Zodiac. The textiles have been cut into thin strips and used for adornment on clothing. Similar strips have also been found in other Viking Age burial sites [Credit: KHM- UiO]

The Norwegian Vikings were more oriented towards the East than we have previously assumed, says Marianne Vedeler, Associate Professor at the Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo in Norway. After four years of in-depth investigation of the silk trade of the Viking Age, she may change our perceptions of the history of the Norwegian Vikings. The silk trade was far more comprehensive than we have hitherto assumed.

The Norwegian Vikings maintained trade connections with Persia and the Byzantine Empire. A network of traders from a variety of places and cultures brought the silk to the Nordic countries. Her details are presented in the book “Silk for the Vikings”, to be published by Oxbow publishers this winter, but in this article you can glimpse some of her key findings.

In the Oseberg ship, which was excavated nearly a hundred years ago, more than one hundred small silk fragments were found. This is the oldest find of Viking Age silk in Norway.

At the time when the Oseberg silk was discovered, nobody conceived that it could have been imported from Persia. It was generally believed that most of it had been looted from churches and monasteries in England and Ireland.
Lots of Viking silk

Since the Oseberg excavation, silk from the Viking Age has been found in several locations in the Nordic countries. The last finding was made two years ago at Ness in Hamaroy municipality, Nordland county. Other Norwegian findings of silk from the Viking Age include Gokstad in Vestfold county, Sandanger in the Sunnmore district and Nedre Haugen in Ostfold county.

The highest number of burial sites containing silk from the Viking Age have been found at Birka in the Uppland region, a few miles west of Stockholm.

– Even though Birka has the highest number of burial sites containing silk, there are no other places where so much and such varied silk has been found in a single burial site as in Oseberg, says Marianne Vedeler to the research magazine Apollon.

In Oseberg alone, silk from fifteen different textiles, as well as embroideries and tablet-woven silk and wool bands were discovered. Many of the silk pieces had been cut into thin strips and used for articles of clothing. The textiles had been imported, while the tablet-woven bands most likely were made locally from imported silk thread.

Marianne Vedeler has collected information on silk and its trade in the Nordic countries. She has also studied manuscripts on silk production and trade along the Russian rivers as well as in Byzantium and Persia.

– When seeing it all in its totality, it’s more logical to assume that most of the silk was purchased in the East, rather than being looted from the British Isles.
Waterways

Vedeler believes that in the Viking Age, silk was imported from two main areas. One was Byzantium, meaning in and around Constantinople, or Miklagard, which was the Vikings’ name for present-day Istanbul. The other large core area was Persia.

The silk may have been brought northwards along different routes.

– One possibility is from the South through Central Europe and onwards to Norway, but I believe that most of the silk came by way of the Russian rivers Dnepr and Volga.

The Dnepr was the main route to Constantinople, while the Volga leads to the Caspian Sea. The river trade routes were extremely dangerous and difficult. One of the sources describes the laborious journey along the Dnepr to Constantinople.

– A band of traders joined up in Kiev. Along the river they were attacked by dangerous tribesmen. They needed to pass through rapids and cataracts. Then, slaves had to carry their boat.
Persian patterns

On the basis of the silk that has been found, there are indications that more silk came to Norway from Persia than from Constantinople.

– Large amounts of the Oseberg silk have patterns from the Persian Empire. This silk is woven using a technique called samitum, a sophisticated Oriental weaving method. Many of the silk motifs can be linked to religious motifs from Central Asia.

Another pattern depicts a shahrokh, a bird that has a very specific meaning in Persian mythology; it represents a royal blessing. In the Persian myth, the shahrokh bird is the messenger that brings the blessing to a selected prince. In a dream, the bird visits the prince holding a tiara, a tall head adornment, in its beak. The prince then wakes up and knows that he is the chosen one. The image of the imperial bird was popular not only in silk weaving, but also in other art forms in Persia. The motif gained widespread popularity in Persian art.

– It’s an amusing paradox that silk textiles with such religious and mythological images were highly prized and used in heathen burial sites in the Nordic countries as well as in European churches.
Exclusive

In the Orient, silk was essential for symbolizing power and strength. There was an entire hierarchy of different silk qualities and patterns reserved for civil servants and royalty.

Even though silk was a prominent status symbol for the Vikings, they failed to get their hands on the best silk.

– Most likely, the bulk of the silk imported to Scandinavia was of medium or below-medium quality.

In Byzantium, major restrictions were imposed on the sale of silk to foreign lands. The punishment for illegal sale of silk was draconian. The Persian lands also imposed strict restrictions on the sale and production of silk.

In Byzantium, it was illegal to buy more silk than what could be bought for the price of a horse. A foreign trader was allowed to buy silk for ten numismata, while the price of a horse was twelve numismata.

– However, several trade agreements that have been preserved show that traders from the North nevertheless had special trade privileges in Byzantium.

Silk was not only a trade commodity. Certain types of silk were reserved for diplomatic gifts to foreign countries, as described in Byzantine as well as Persian sources. In Europe, silk became especially popular for wrapping sacred relics in churches.

– Some of the silk found in Norway may be gifts or spoils of war, but archaeological as well as written sources indicate that silk was traded in the Nordic countries.
– So the Vikings were more honest than has been assumed?

– We may safely assume that the Vikings engaged in trade, plunder, exchange of gifts and diplomatic relations in equal measure.

A possible example of loot found in the Oseberg ship is a piece of silk with an image of a cross.

– This was long before the introduction of Christianity. The silk piece may have been sewn locally, but it is also highly likely that it was purloined from an Irish church.
Possibly China

At Gokstad, thin strips of hammered gold wrapped around silk threads were among the findings.

– These threads are highly exclusive. We do not know their origin, but we suspect that they may have come from even further east, in the direction of China, says Vedeler, who will now travel to China to find out more.

As yet, Vedeler must draw conclusions regarding the origin of the silk by investigating weaving technologies and patterns. With time, she wishes to make use of a new method which is being developed at the University of Copenhagen and which will be able to reveal the geographic origin of artefacts.

Author: Yngve Vogt | Source: University of Oslo [November 01, 2013]

Arco Neolitico rinvenuto grazie allo scioglimento delle nevi.

Melting snow reveals Neolithic bow, arrows

A melting patch of ancient snow in the mountains of Norway has revealed a bow and arrows that were probably used by hunters to kill reindeer as long ago as 5,400 years.

The oldest of the arrows was 5,400 years old. The bow and arrow design is strikingly similar to those found in other frigid locales, such as the Yukon. Though people from these two far-flung regions never met, they seemed to have separately developed similar adaptations [Credit: Martin Callanan]

The discovery highlights the worrying effects of climate change, said study author Martin Callanan, an archaeologist at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology.

"It's actually a little bit unnerving that they're so old and that they're coming out right now," Callanan told LiveScience. "It tells us that there's something changing."

Componenti (aste e punte) di frecce neolitiche.

Parti dell'arco lungo neolitico

Renne: vivono nelle valli, ma salgono sui monti d'estate per trovare refrigerio ed allontanarsi dal fastidio degli insetti.

Locked in snow

Callanan and his colleagues spend every summer hiking up the Trollheim and Dovre mountains, a few hours south of Trondheim, Norway, to study the snow patches in the area, track snow melt and look for archaeological artifacts. The mountains stretch 6,200 feet (1,900 meters) above sea level, and at the highest elevations, only rocks and snow prevail year-round.

In 2010 and 2011, a patch of snow melted, revealing an ancient bow and several arrows that had been locked in the snow for centuries. The bow was made from a common type of elm that grows at lower altitudes along the coast. The arrows were tipped in slate and set in different types of wood.

Radioisotope dating revealed that the Neolithic bow was about 3,800 years old, while the oldest of the arrows were 5,400 years old. 

Stone Age hunters probably used the bow and arrows to kill reindeer, which spend summer days at high altitudes. The mountain retreat would have allowed the animals a respite from pesky insects, while standing on snow patches would have helped the shaggy creatures keep cool, Callanan said. Those predictable habits likely made them easy prey for ancient hunters.

No one knows exactly who left these ancient hunting instruments, but the bow and arrows have a design that's strikingly similar to those found thousands of miles away in other frigid landscapes, such as the Yukon, Callanan said.

"The people in Norway, they didn't have any contact with people in the Yukon, but they have the same type of adaptation," Callanan said. "Across different cultures, people have acted in the same way."

Decomposing artifacts

Finding such well-preserved tools is rare, said E. James Dixon, an archaeologist and director of the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology at the University of New Mexico, who was not involved in the study. "It's one of the rare glimpses that we have into this Neolithic-period archery technology," Dixon said.

However, while the find itself is stunning, the climate change that caused such ancient snow to melt is bad for archaeology, he said.

Artifacts locked in ice can be preserved for thousands of years.

"As soon as ice melts and it comes out, it's subject to decomposition and we lose it," Dixon told LiveScience. "For every artifact we find, there are probably hundreds, maybe thousands, that are lost and just destroyed forever."

The bow and arrows are described in the September issue of the journal Antiquity. 

See more photos of the ancient bow and arrows.

Author: Tia Ghose | Source: LiveScience [September 30, 2013]