The Vikings were a race of Scandinavians who settled in many areas of Northern Europe. Although they are commonly portrayed as bloodthirsty warriors who pillaged, raided and raped their way through much of Europe they also had a thriving culture. While it is true that many of them were violent and blood thirsty there were also Viking traders and explorers as well.

They were able to explore much of Northern Europe using their famous long ships. The design of these ships was very different than many of the sailing vessels we are familiar with today. A Viking ship did not have a large keel like other sailing vessels did. This meant that it could sail in shallow rivers as well as at sea. Viking raiders were able to use their ships to penetrate inland and then attack outwards from there. In areas such as Ireland, this tactic proved to be exceptionally successful.

One Viking in particular, Erik the Red was very good at raiding and pillaging. Although history is somewhat sketchy, it is believed that he discovered Greenland after being sent away from Iceland in exile. This was rumored to have been his punishment for committing murder. He was able to settle in Greenland and survive there for several years. Finally, his exile was ended and he found that he wanted to settle the island more fully. For that, he needed to convince others to come with him. Erik the Red is believed to have lived from circa 950 to 1003CE.

Of course, when you tell someone that they will be travelling with you to a place that is barren, cold and inhospitable you may have trouble convincing even a Viking to come with you. So instead, Erik (according to popular legend) called the island Greenland and instead painted the island as being a wonderful place to settle.

There are other theories as to how Greenland got its name. One theory is that the “green” in Greenland is actually a translation error. The word “grunt” actually means ground and it could be that Greenland was meant to be named Gruntland (or ground land).

The island has never been heavily populated. Much of it is covered by a sheet of ice. The only area that is not covered in ice is only clear because the air is so dry that ice cannot form. Many Native cultures have used the island as a hunting ground and several nations have used the island as a strategic launching point or a base during various conflicts and wars.

The island is currently owned by Denmark despite previous attempts by the United States to purchase the island.

The earliest form of alternate transportation for humans wasn’t the wheel after all – it was something much simpler, and much less time-consuming to build… not to mention convenient for winter! That’s right: northern Europeans invented ice skates around 3000 BC, which would have assisted humans in saving energy on their daily travels – not to mention help them move from one place to another much more quickly!

The first skates were made of animal bones in southern Finland, where the extremely high density of lakes would have resulted in a rather treacherous landscape for humans trying to cross frozen bodies of water on foot. And so, someone devised the brilliant idea of trimming down horse and cow bones, piercing them at either end, and strapping them onto one’s feet with leather thongs.

Unlike the skates known to Olympic athletes and minor hockey players today, these ancient skates actually were not used on their own, but were complemented by a long stick that was used at the same time. Skaters would strap the skates to their feet, straddle the stick, and pole themselves along the ice – think of cross-country skiing, except with only one pole and on skates instead of skis.

The thing is, skating is an awfully strange activity to have developed as a hobby – it seems like a much more practical idea to have come from humans living in the frozen lands of northern Europe, where surviving was a priority and winters were incredibly harsh. Ice skates would then allow hunters to find food with less energy expenditure, which meant that less food needed to be consumed to survive – which tends to be a bonus under extreme winter conditions.

Although experiments in reconstructing the ancient skates showed that a person would have moved quite slowly while using them – around 2.5 miles per hour – the energy expenditure in using the skates on Finland’s nearly 60,000 frozen lakes would have reduced a human’s energy requirements by around 10%.

Talk about a legacy in human history!

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Tomorrow: More Ancient Standard

Once upon a time, a local Swedish gardener was minding his own business, tending his vegetable patch on the island of Gotland, when all of a sudden… he realized it wasn’t a rutabaga he pulled out of the ground, but a hoard of Viking treasure! Indeed, he had found a treasure trove of silver coins from Europe, Central Asia, and the Middle East, all dating to around 970-1030 AD.

The garden trove yielded 69 coins, and the cache as a whole has been identified as a Viking “safety-deposit”, which was not unusual – Vikings and Anglo-Saxons would bury their stash of loot somewhere in the ground, with every intention of returning for the money in the future when it was needed.

In addition to coins from Eastern Europe and beyond, there were several extremely rare Viking coins in the cache, which were likely paid to the owner as protection or plunder money, also known as ‘danegeld’. Danegeld was paid to Viking groups by regional rulers, in order to bribe them out of attacking their cities or towns – which was an easy way for the Vikings to make some extra cash for little work! The rare coins were minted for a regional Swedish king named Olof Skotkonung, who was actually the first king to mint coins in Sweden. He had probably learned the trade from England.

Many other coins in the horde were copies of English coins made by Ethelred II, who was the British monarch between 978 and 1016. He was often referred to as “Ethelred the Unready”, since he lacked reliable counsel and greatly preferred the option of paying massive amounts of “tribute” cash to the Vikings, rather than face them in armed conflict.

As for the Asian coins found in the treasure trove, they would have come from the Vikings’ transactions while moving along their extensive trade route – often, Viking ships would travel all the way along the Russian rivers into the Middle East! And since Gotland in Sweden was situated right in the middle of the Viking routes – between eastern and western Europe – it was a natural stopping point for Vikings to stash their cash before continuing onward in their travels and trade.

In total, the area of Gotland has actually yielded between 700-800 Viking treasure hoards, with the majority of the coins originating from the Middle East. Many of the coins in this and other caches also show evidence of ‘pecking’, which results from someone poking at the surface of a coin with a knife, in order to determine whether or not it the coin is real silver or a lead counterfeit.

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Tomorrow: Soggy Rice in Stone Age China

No, it’s not a splash of spilled ink… the ancient Norse blot was actually a pagan sacrifice to the Norse gods and the Elves, held at several times throughout the year. The sacrifice typically took the form of a sacramental feast or meal, and the sacrificial victims tended to be pigs and horses. The meat from these festivals was then boiled in enormous cooking pots heated by stones, and the blood from the animals was sprinkled on the community’s statues of their gods, on the walls, and on the people, as it was believed to hold special magical powers.

The word “blota”, from which the sacrificial festival took its name, means “to worship with sacrifice” in Old Norse, and the people would gather around the boiling pots of meat as it cooked, believing they were having a meal with the Elves! They also passed around a drink that was blessed and considered sacred, each person taking a drink as the cup came into their hands. Typically, the drink would be either beer or mead, while the high-class nobility often imported wine just for the occasion!

Several blots were held throughout the year, one in October and then later on, one in December called “The Great Midwinter Blot.” Interestingly enough, the tradition of eating ham at the December blot has continued, as it still tends to be the main course at Christmas feasts in Scandinavian countries. Around April, a third ‘summer’ blot was held in honor of the god Odin, celebrating the beginning of the season of war and Viking raid expeditions.

Blots were actually held in their own little blot buildings called ‘hovs’, however most hovs were destroyed or built over during Christianization of the area – namely, medieval churches were built overtop these spots in an effort to redeem the land. Several laws were also put into place that forbade various forms of pagan worship, but the traditions were so ingrained into the local culture that elements of the rituals have survived until today, such as the Christmas tradition.

Each Scandinavian country had their own variations on each blot throughout the year, though the basic concept remained the same: kill a pig, have dinner with elves!

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Tomorrow: more Ancient Standard!

It is known that during the Neolithic period, humans used birch bark tar as an antiseptic to treat mouth sores like gum infections, or even for household tasks such as repairing a pot. Birch bark tar in particular contains something called “phenols”, which are antiseptic compounds that help to treat infections naturally.

Chewing sugar-free gum – whether it is modern gum or ancient birch bark tar – also helps to stimulate the production of saliva in the mouth, which works as a preventative method against tooth decay.

In the case of this ancient piece of birch bark tar, there are tooth marks remaining on the piece of gum that confirm it was in someone’s mouth thousands of years ago! Interestingly enough, an amber ring and a slate arrowhead were also found near the ancient treat.

Even if they weren’t necessarily aware of the gum’s medicinal properties, it appears that humans of all millennia have enjoyed popping a tasty, chewable treat into their mouths… perhaps they even had their own troubles with scraping used gum off of sandals.

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Tomorrow: Eagle vs. Shark? Forget it…Griffins vs. Deer!

As fierce and merciless as their reputation may have been, one thing is now clear: the Vikings took pride in their outward appearance. In fact, they were so concerned with looking good that they actually did something that might be considered strange to those who were not part Viking culture – they filed their teeth.

A study of 557 Viking skeletons revealed that 24 of the bodies’ mouths had deep, horizontal grooves across their set of upper front teeth. Although other cultures around the world were known to have practiced dental modification in ancient times, this is the first known occurrence of it on human skeletons from this part of Europe.

It is an interesting find, because Vikings have typically been known for their seafaring abilities and violent church and monastery raids in ancient Britain and France. Facial decoration simply does not seem to conform to the habits of gold and silver acquisition that the Vikings practiced – however, it is entirely likely that they picked up on the idea from another foreign culture.

Since the Vikings were expert seafarers, it is possible that they learned of dental modification after coming into contact with some West African cultures during one of their voyages across the Mediterranean, or perhaps even as far away as North America – the only other known place where horizontal tooth marks occur is in the Great Lakes region and several other adjoining American states.

The actual tooth markings appeared to cut quite deeply into the enamel, and the markings tended to happen either in pairs or sets of three. The consistency of the markings also rules out any suggestion of this occurring through natural wear or using the teeth as a tool – the depth of filing and the placement on the teeth indicate that the grooves are decorative and were probably done by a very skilled hand.

Why these Vikings chose to file their teeth remains a mystery, however the most likely explanation is that it was representative of an achievement. It could have been a way to socially identity certain individuals of marked status, and if filled in with colored pigment – which Vikings often used to color their faces or tattoo their own skin – they would have looked even more terrifying to the villagers they were raiding.

On the other hand, there is evidence that most Vikings spent time combing their hair and ironing their clothes with hot rocks – so perhaps filing one’s teeth was an expensive way of making oneself more aesthetically pleasing… a kind of Viking answer to modern plastic surgery.

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Tomorrow: Mega volcano eruption? No problem!

During the Viking Age in Scandinavia, there was a group of poets who performed their poetry in the courts of Viking leaders and kings – this so-called courtly poetry, more commonly known as Old Norse poetry, would be performed in solo by a poet called a skald.

Each skald tended to emphasize the deeds of his king in his poetry, and the constructed poems tended to be subject to rather intense technical demands. These complicated forms of verse were comparable to those of Welsh bards, and in the same manner, the topics of poetry were rather limited to testimonials and memorials of a king’s or well-known aristocrat’s battles and deeds. In fact, it wasn’t unusual for a Viking king himself to take an interest in poetry, and many kings actually became their own skalds! For this reason, the majority of skaldic poetry that survives today can be attributed to specific authors and kings.

As time moved on, the 10th century began to see an increase in syncretizing of pagan and Christian themes, and by the 11th century, skaldic poetry had become extinct in a Christianized Scandinavia. Icelandic skalds continued to practice well into the 13th century however, which gave many of the poets time to write down their own compositions as well as traditional poems that might have otherwise been lost. One skaldic poet even compiled a manual called the Prose Edda, hoping to preserve an understanding of this poetic art for the future.

To make matters a little more interesting, skalds also tended to compose other pieces of poetry that weren’t necessarily meant for recitation in the court. They were known to have composed satire, and on rare occasions, they constructed erotic verses called ‘mansongr’. Unfortunately for the skalds, the writing of mansongr was forbidden in many Norse jurisdictions under penalty of death.

Why? Not because of any moral objections, but because leaders were afraid of the poems’ potential for magical ensnarement! Erotic and love poetry often contained magical charms in several verses, and on other occasions, love poetry was seen as a smear on a woman’s reputation – thus potentially harming her family’s reputation as well.

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Tomorrow: To kill a Mayan scribe…

What are these stones, and why do they seem to be named after canned preserves? The truth is, they’re actually named after the town of Jelling in Denmark, and currently rest in one of Jelling’s churchyards between two large, earthen burial mounds.

These enormous rune stones were carved in the 10th century, during the transition period between traditional Norse paganism and Denmark’s Christianization. Due to the lack of written history for most of Scandinavia’s past, the few inscriptions found on these stones are quite valuable for their historic worth.

The smaller – and older – of the two stones was set up by King Gorm the Old, the last ‘pagan’ king of Denmark, as a memorial for his wife, Queen Thyre. The larger stone was erected by Harold Bluetooth in memory of his own parents, King Gorm and Queen Thyre.

The Jelling stones have a strong association with the establishment of Denmark as a nation, a notion which may have originally come from the inscriptions. The older rune stone reads: “King Gorm made this monument in memory of Thyvre, his wife, Denmark’s salvation”.

The Bluetooth inscription says:

“King Haraldr ordered this monument made in memory of Gormr, his father, and in memory of Thyvre, his mother; that Haraldr who won for himself all of Denmark and Norway and made the Danes Christian.”

This stone also has an image of Christ on one side, and a picture of a lion wrapped in a serpent on the other.

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Tomorrow: More fascinating stuff!

Researchers in the past have suggested that Vikings may have used rock crystals known as ‘sunstones’ to assist in navigation during overcast conditions. Although there is no official archaeological evidence to support this theory, in early 2007 a team sailing the Arctic Ocean aboard the Swedish icebreaker Oden found that sunstones could indeed “light the way” in foggy or cloudy conditions.

Although the concept of a ‘sunstone’ is known only from an ancient Viking legend, the theory on its usefulness for navigation was first put forth by Danish archaeologist Thorkild Ramskou in 1966.

These rock crystals work as natural polarizing filters, changing brightness and color as they detect the angle of sunlight. Using these changes, Vikings could have determined which angle the light was coming from, and thus determined the sun’s orientation.

Since there is no concrete evidence of these sunstones, the matter is still under dispute. However, with recent studies confirming the reliability of sunstones for navigation in overcast conditions, it does not seem implausible that the Vikings could have made use of such technology for nautical purposes.

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Tomorrow: Swimming in…..the forest?