Archaeology, features and articles | Educational Science

Sep 4, 2020

Viking sword placed on warrior's left side likely prepared him for 'mirror afterlife'

Archaeologists in Norway have unearthed the 1,100-year-old grave of a Viking warrior, whose steel sword was placed in an unusual spot: on his left side. Though the sword's sinistral position is still somewhat perplexing, one theory is that the Vikings perceived the afterlife to be a mirror image of the...

Sep 17, 2020

Vikings may not have been blonde, or Scandinavian

Those ferocious seafaring warriors that explored, raided and traded across Europe from the late eighth to the early 11th centuries, known as the Vikings, are typically thought of as blonde Scandinavians. But Vikings may have a more diverse history: They carried genes from Southern Europe and Asia, a new study...

Nov 10, 2020

Viking ship in Norway buried near cult temple, feast hall and funeral mounds

A Viking ship that was laid to rest centuries ago wasn't alone underground. A feast hall and a cult temple were also buried at the cemetery site, hinting at the elite standing of the community that conducted the burials. Archaeologists discovered the ship in 2018, after conducting surveys with ground-penetrating...

Dec 7, 2020

Elaborate Viking ship burial may have held a king or queen

It doesn't look like much now — just a series of well-organized nails and a few fragments of rotted wood — but a Viking ship unearthed by archaeologists in Norway may have been the elaborate burial of a king, queen or powerful lord. According to BBC News, the ship was...

Apr 26, 2021

Vikings created a massive boat in this volcanic cave to ward off the apocalypse

Archaeologists have discovered the remains of rare artifacts from the Middle East in an Icelandic cave that the Vikings associated with Ragnarök, an end-times event in which the gods would be killed and the world engulfed in flames. The cave is located by a volcano that erupted almost 1,100 years...

May 4, 2021

Misplaced Viking noble's bones vanished decades ago, finally found in museum collection

The long-lost bones of a Viking nobleman have been found in the archives of the Museum of Denmark in Copenhagen, more than 50 years after the remains were mislabeled and vanished into museum storage. These artifacts came from the burial of a wealthy Viking man in Bjerringhøj, Denmark, dating to...

Jun 2, 2021

Christian monks may have buried this treasure to dupe the Vikings

More than 1,000 years ago, someone hid an opulent hoard containing more than 100 valuables underground in Scotland. When this buried treasure of silver brooches and bracelets, gold pins and rings, and an intricately decorated metal vessel was discovered in 2014, researchers initially thought that the Vikings had buried it....

Jun 9, 2021

Hoard of silver coins may have been part of historic ransom to save Paris

A hoard of silver coins minted in the Carolingian Empire about 1,200 years ago has been unearthed in northeastern Poland and may have been part of a historic ransom to save Paris from a Viking invasion. It's the first time anyone has found so many Carolingian coins in Poland. Only...

Jul 5, 2021

Skeletons of twin infant Vikings discovered in Sweden

Seven Viking tombs holding well-preserved skeletons, including possible twin infants, have been discovered in the Swedish town of Sigtuna. The archaeologists discovered the 1,000-year-old remains of eight people — four adults and four children — inside the tombs; they were likely Vikings who had converted to Christianity. The Christian character...

Jul 19, 2021

Viking 'piggy bank' hoard discovered on Isle of Man

An amateur treasure hunter on the Isle of Man discovered a Viking Age piggy bank hoard that contains a 1,000-year-old analog to today's Bitcoin. The recently discovered hoard includes 87 silver coins, 13 pieces of cut, silver arm-rings, or hack silver, and a handful of artifacts, according to a statement...

Dec 14, 2021

X-ray analysis reveals 'highly decorated' Viking sword caked in dirt and rust

Archaeologists in Scotland have revealed the ornate hilt of a Viking sword after scanning it with X-rays. The sword is highly corroded and covered in dirt, but the new images show the weapon in a new light and reveal its striking design. The sword is part of a hoard of...

Dec 20, 2021

One of the largest-known Norse longhouses discovered near Viking ship burial

Archaeologists in Norway have discovered the remains of a cluster of Norse longhouses, including one of the largest of these structures ever found. The investigations of farmland at Gjellestad, in southern Norway about 50 miles (85 kilometers) southeast of Oslo, have revealed the underground remains of at least five longhouses....

Jan 6, 2022

Horned 'Viking' helmets were actually from a different civilization, archaeologists say

Two spectacular bronze helmets decorated with bull-like, curved horns may have inspired the idea that more than 1,500 years later, Vikings wore bulls' horns on their helmets, although there is no evidence they ever did. Rather, the two helmets were likely emblems of the growing power of leaders in Bronze...

Jan 27, 2022

Vikings' 'blood eagle' torture was horrific — and may have actually happened

A brutal, ritualized method of torture and execution that was allegedly practiced by Nordic people during the Viking Age was so gruesome that some scholars questioned whether it was even possible to perform on a human body. However, researchers recently found that the act known as blóðǫrn, or blood eagle,...

Mar 30, 2022

Drought helped push the Vikings out of Greenland, new study finds

Scientists may have found an important factor behind why the Norse mysteriously abandoned their largest settlement on Greenland. And it wasn't cold weather, as some had long thought. Rather, drought might have played a major role in the abandonment of the Eastern Settlement of Vikings around 1450, new research suggests....