Viking chieftain's burial ship excavated in Scotland after 1,000 years

[kiwi_2005]

Viking chieftain's burial ship excavated in Scotland after 1,000 years.

Timber fragments and rivets of vessel, and deceased's sword and shield, unearthed undisturbed on Ardnamurchan peninsula



A Viking ship, which for 1,000 years has held the body of a chieftain, with his shield on his chest and his sword and spear by his side, has been excavated on a remote Scottish peninsula – the first undisturbed Viking ship burial found on the British mainland.

The timbers of the ship found on the Ardnamurchan peninsula – the mainland's most westerly point – rotted into the soil centuries ago, like most of the bones of the man whose coffin it became.
However the outline of the classic Viking boat, with its pointed prow and stern, remained. Its form is pressed into the soil and its lines traced by hundreds of rivets, some still attached to scraps of wood.
An expert on Viking boats, Colleen Batey from the University of Glasgow, dates it to the 10th century.

At just 5m long and 1.5m wide, it would have been a perilously small vessel for crossing the stormy seas between Scandinavia, Scotland (http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/scotland) and Ireland. But the possessions buried with him suggest the Viking was a considerable traveller. They include a whetstone from Norway (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/norway), a bronze ringpin from Ireland, his sword with beautifully decorated hilt, a spear and a shield which survive only as metal fittings, and pottery.

He also had a knife, an axe, and a bronze object thought to be part of a drinking horn. Dozens of iron fragments, still being analysed, were also found in the boat.
more here
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/oct/19/viking-burial-ship-found-scotland?newsfeed=true

In before Vendor :D

[Sailor Steve]

Cool! New finds are always awesome. :rock:

[Gerald]

Viking chieftain's burial ship excavated in Scotland after 1,000 years.

Timber fragments and rivets of vessel, and deceased's sword and shield, unearthed undisturbed on Ardnamurchan peninsula

more here
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/oct/19/viking-burial-ship-found-scotland?newsfeed=true

In before Vendor :D Good one,:up:

[Egan]

Some cool stuff about. Further north, in the Cape Wrath area, I've heard plenty of rumours over the years of at least four of these funerary ships buried in the vicinity of a place called Sandwood Bay. I don't know whether they are really there or not but the Vikings certainly held the area in special renown and large swathes of the north west have stronger Norse influences than anything else.

In the area I grew up, in the estate just across the road from the house I grew up in, in fact, A huge battle had been fought in the 9th or 10th century between a confederacy of local clans under the leadership of a 'king' called Dunacht against Vikings who had come inland, mostly navigating along the river Spey from it's mouth on the Murray firth, and then continuing overland.

A few miles further south, in an old, old church yard on the shores of loch Laggan (which itself contains small islands upon which several Pictish kings were buried) are the graves of Christianized Norse settlers from the 11th and 12th centuries - some of them still have their original headstones as well. I don't think the church yard has public access. I only ever got to see them because my friend was commissioned to do some sketches and painting of them for a book that was being written. Certainly virtually no one else I've spoken to seems to know that they are there.

This story is very, very interesting. Cheers. :up:

[Jimbuna]

Viking chieftain's burial ship excavated in Scotland after 1,000 years.

Timber fragments and rivets of vessel, and deceased's sword and shield, unearthed undisturbed on Ardnamurchan peninsula

more here
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/oct/19/viking-burial-ship-found-scotland?newsfeed=true

In before Vendor :D

Your kidding....surely? :DL

A popular staging area for the Vikings apparently.

[AVGWarhawk]

Finds like this always make me wonder how this person died, what was it like the day he was buried and what did he do in his life.

[Jimbuna]

Most likely his hobbies included killing, raping and pillaging :DL

[Diopos]

Boy, that ferry to Trondheim was really late, after all ...

:D

.

[papa_smurf]

Most likely his hobbies included killing, raping and pillaging :DL

Like this well know "Viking"
http://surbrook.devermore.net/adaptationscomic/other/hagar.jpg

[Gerald]

Your kidding....surely? :DL

A popular staging area for the Vikings apparently.:DL

[Jimbuna]

Like this well know "Viking"
http://surbrook.devermore.net/adaptationscomic/other/hagar.jpg

That be him :DL

[Dan D]

Very interesting!
And here some viking traces in what you call "Germany" nowadays:
Danevirke (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danevirke)

Note that NAzi Himmler Aryan Viking part:

"The Danevirke in World War II

"Following the Allied invasion of Normandy during World War II, the Wehrmacht feared that a second Allied invasion might take place through Denmark, and contemplated converting the earthen wall into an anti-tank trench to counter this threat. Had the proposal been implemented, it would have destroyed the structure.
Hearing of the plans, Danish archaeologist Søren Telling – aware that all archaeological investigation was under the ultimate jurisdiction of SS chief Heinrich Himmler – immediately telephoned both the head of the SS's archaeological department, Amt für Ahnenerbe, and Himmler himself. Telling argued strongly against the destruction of an important remnant of "Aryan civilization" and Himmler authorized him to stop the construction of the anti-tank trench. He informed Telling that a written order would be dispatched but that it would take several days to arrive. Telling then drove to the site and ordered the commanding Wehrmacht officers to immediately stop the construction process. When the local Wehrmacht commander refused, Telling threatened him with reprisals from the SS. Construction was called off and Himmler's written order arrived two days later countering the Wehrmacht's original instructions. Telling later settled near the site and considered himself a custodian of it until his death in 1968."

[AVGWarhawk]

Most likely his hobbies included killing, raping and pillaging :DL

Crush your enemy. See him driven before you....you get the picture. :DL

[CaptainMattJ.]

We come from the land of ice and snow from the midnight sun where the hot spring blow. hammer of the gods, drive our ships to new lands, fight the hoard, singing and crying, Valhalla i am coming.

[Jimbuna]

We come from the land of ice and snow from the midnight sun where the hot spring blow. hammer of the gods, drive our ships to new lands, fight the hoard, singing and crying, Valhalla i am coming.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBmueYJ0VhA