Historical Revelation of the Week:
August 2011 Oxford, England

Unearthed January 2008:
Grave Site

Contents:
35 male skeletons, aged 16 to 25

Historical Importance:
So, who were all these corpses?

“The bodies buried at Oxford were those of vigorous males of fighting age, most between 16 and 35 years old. Most were unusually large; an examination of the muscle-attachment areas of their bones revealed extremely robust physiques. Some victims had suffered serious burns to their heads, backs, pelvic regions and arms.”

That just might be a good way to tell if you may have found a Viking burial site. However, that wasn’t a good day to be a Viking.

While most stories may paint the most brutal picutures of these northern warriers, don’t be fooled. Remember, when Einstein said everything is relative, he meant it. What the English, or Anglo Saxons did to the Vikings in their own turn was equally atrocious. History is written by the winners and England is not called Vikingland. Keep reading to find out how this one discovery shows how true this is.

“It was obvious at the time of excavation that many of the skulls had been fractured or crushed, but after piecing these skulls back together, she found that many of them were covered in blade and puncture wounds mostly to the back of the head.”

I particularly love it when we find physical evidence of old legends and lift them off the page, even if they be gruesome…

“It is possible that the Oxford skeletons were victims of an event called the St Brice’s Day Massacre, recorded in a number of historical sources.

In AD 1002, the Saxon king Ethelred the Unready recorded in a charter that he ordered ‘a most just extermination’ of all the Danes in England.

He made the decision after he was told of a Danish plot to assassinate him.”

And this too, is very interesting for a number of reasons. Read on and I will tell you why.

“The charter also recorded how on that day, the Danes in Oxford fled to St Fridewides church expecting to find refuge, but instead were pursued by the townspeople, who then set the church on fire.”

Vikings seeking refuge in a church? They get burned out by the English locals? On how many occasions were Vikings and other Scandinavian peoples accused of doing the same thing? Many! In fact, I think that was the favorite accusation of the Vikings from their victims. Funny how the people who accused Norse the most of sacrilegious acts burn a church at the first word of their king.

And that’s all England had in Vikings for 2011. Next week we are on to Ireland.

This post is part of the January is Viking Month blog series. To read the next post, Here there be Vikings, Not Just Legends, click here. To see the series page click here.

Viking Discovery of the Week:
July 1, 2011 Furness England

Unearthed: Treasure Horde
All those folks with metal detectors might be onto something…Another metal detecorist landed on Cumbria’s largest to-date (always hope for more) treasure hoard, ruled as such by the local coroner and valued at over tens of thousands of pounds.

Contents:
90 silver coins and artifacts
2 Arabic Dirham coins
Several ingots
1 nearly complete bracelet

Historical Importance:
A wallet without ID makes it hard to place the person who dropped it. But this is different, this person thought they would be coming back for it, and didn’t think to leave a note. Even without any identifying contents, this hoard still gives some clues about north-western England at this time. For instance, Viking expert at the British Museum, Dr. Gareth Williams sums it up nicely: “By the mid-950s, most of England had become integrated into a single kingdom, with a regulated coinage, but this part of the north-west was not integrated into the English kingdom until much later, and the hoard reflects that.” And this discovery proves the Vikings were there to stir things up.

I wonder what else this discovery will tell us down the road…

This post is part of the January is Viking Month blog series. To read the next post, History, as Written by the Victors, click here. To see the series page click here.

Historical Viking Revelation of the Week
July 2011 Dorset, England

Unearthed 2009 Weymouth:
54 skeletons
51 skulls
all male and in their late teens to about 25
1 individual with intentional dental modification

Image: Oxford Archaeology

Historical Importance:
This 10th or 11th century find in Weymouth has indicated that Vikings participated in tooth filing like other Scandinavian cultures. “Teeth with neat parallel grooves have been found in Viking graves in Sweden, Denmark and England, and farther afield”

The purpose behind such an uncomfortable practice is still being sorted out by
experts. However, some pose that it was to frighten, or intimidate opponents.

Image: Oxford Archaeology

I like this idea in an amusing sort of way:
To show their furrows, the individuals would have had to smile quite broadly and to be visible from any distance they would need to be ‘coloured’. However, this would have disappeared when they ate and drank, so they would have had to reapply regularly. Their “dental bling” would have needed to be applied after meals, like lipstick, and really, how intimidating is the look of rotten teeth?

Image: Hans Splinter, Flickr.

This post is part of the January is Viking Month blog series. To read the next post, A Link in the Viking Chain, click here. To see the series page click here.

Viking Discovery of the Week:
October 27, 2011 Lancashire England

Unearthed: Treasure Horde
What treasure hunter hasn’t dreamed of stumbling across the find of a lifetime? Maybe a source of not only his, but local pride? What Darren Webster found in Lancashire was not only those things, but also was once the very dear belongings of a Viking leader from around 900 AD.

Contents:
200 pieces of jewelry
Engraved Bracelets
Rings
27 coins
Hack silver
Ingots

Historical Importance:
“Big hoards such as this paint a new picture of what Vikings were doing in England,” says anthropologist Stephen Oppenheimer from Oxford University, “Burying large amounts like this indicates they were settling here.”

One coin, of a type never seen before, could prove that Vikings were not all just heathen, bloodthirsty invaders raping and pillaging their way across the countryside. They were, in fact, looking for a place more hospitable to settle than the frozen wastes of the North.

On one side, this coin may carry the name of Viking ruler in Northern England, one that no one has heard of before. The name Airdeconut may be a representation of the Scandinavian name Harthacnut.

On the other, it features the words DNS, abbreviation of “Dominus” and REX arranged to form a cross. This is a reminder that many Norse converted to Christianity when in England.

This post is part of the January is Viking Month blog series. To read the next post, A Viking Mystery, click here. To see the series page click here.

2011 was a good year for the Vikings. In pop-culture itself, they found themselves featured in the video game Skyrim and the movie Thor. I’ve also noticed an influx of Viking books and music over the last few years. Perhaps that is why I am writing this now. Historically, three discoveries were unearthed and four revelations came to light from studying former discoveries, these and their importance are what I’ll be focusing on during my month long blog dedication.

With each new discovery and revelation, we understand the Vikings a little better. In 2011 alone, we’ve learned much more about their presence in the lands they so ruthlessly, or maybe desperately invaded.

Hopefully by the end of January as we learn what the dirt reveals to us about the oft misunderstood Norse-Cultural-offshoot that are the Vikings, you’ll also have learned something new about these magnificent warriors.

This post is the first post of the January is Viking Month blog series. To read the next post, The Truth About Vikings, click here. To see the series page click here.