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SLAGEN, Norway (Reuters) - Archaeologists exhumed the body of a Viking queen on Monday, hoping to solve a riddle about whether a woman buried with her 1,200 years ago was a servant killed to be a companion into the afterlife. As a less gruesome alternative, the two women in the grass-covered Oseberg mound in south Norway might be a royal mother and daughter who died of the same disease and were buried together in 834. "We will do DNA tests to try to find out. I don't know of any Viking skeletons that have been analyzed as we plan to...

September 10, 2007 Builder found Vikings washed up at pubJack Malvern Archaeologists believe they have found the only intact Viking boat in Britain beneath the patio of a Merseyside pub. The 10th-century vessel was discovered in the 1930s by builders excavating the basement of the Railway Inn on the Wirral peninsula, but they covered it up because they feared an archaeological dig would disrupt their work. The boat would have been forgotten had one of the builders not reported his discovery to his son, who passed the information on to academics at Nottingham University. Stephen Harding, of the university’s archaeology...

U.S. Marines with Viking Red Section, Mobile Assault Platoon, Regimental Combat Team 2, observe an Iraqi personal security detachment fire AK-47 rifles on a firing range at Camp Gannon. The Iraqis are training to be personal security officers for local judges. Viking Red Marines Train Iraqis to Keep Judges Safe Troops employ visual cues to bridge language barrier. By Cpl. Eric C. Schwartz 2nd Marine Division CAMP GANNON, Husaybah, Iraq, Aug. 31, 2007 — It’s not news to read that politicians, famous athletes and even entertainers have bodyguards protecting them from dangerous people, but in Iraq, their judges need...

Scientists found life on Mars back in the 70s By Roger Highfield, Science Editor Last Updated: 6:01pm BST 23/08/2007 The soil on Mars may indeed be teeming with microbes, according to a new interpretation of data first collected more than 30 years ago. Mars could be home to “extremophiles” The search for life on Mars appeared to hit a dead end in 1976 when Viking landers touched down on the red planet and failed to detect biological activity. There was another flurry of excitement a decade later, when Nasa thought it had found evidence of life in a Mars meteorite...

More than 1,200 years ago hordes of bloodthirsty Viking raiders descended on Ireland, pillaging monasteries and massacring the inhabitants. Yesterday, one of their more mild-mannered descendants stepped ashore to apologise. The Danish culture minister, Brian Mikkelson, who was in Dublin to participate in celebrations marking the arrival of a replica Norse longboat, apologised for the invasion and destruction inflicted. "In Denmark we are certainly proud of this ship, but we are not proud of the damages to the people of Ireland that followed in the footsteps of the Vikings," Mr Mikkelson declared in his welcoming speech delivered on the dockside...

120 graves and traces of Viking houses discovered near the city of Trondheim. While most parts of Norway have experienced the wettest summer in years, the county known as Nord-Trøndelag, not far from Norway's third largest city Trondheim, has experienced extreme drought. But due to the dry summer, supposedly the driest in a century, more traces from Norway's Viking past have appeared.

Arial photo of what could be traces of Viking graves. PHOTO: NORD-TRØNDELAG LOCAL AUTHORITIES New Viking graves discovered 120 graves and traces of Viking houses discovered near the city of Trondheim.Traces of what could be a Viking Chief's hall. PHOTO: Ørn E. Borgen A reconstructed Viking Chief's hall in the cultural monuments park near the town of Hønefoss. What may be a Viking Chief's hall is among the new findings. PHOTO: Ørn E. Borgen A total of 145 antiquities have been found at 32 different places around Stiklestad in the county of Nord-Trøndelag. PHOTO: JON A. FOSSEIE While most parts...

A replica Viking ship has set sail for Dublin from the Danish port of Roskilde. It is currently crossing the North Sea, in an attempt to recreate the voyages undertaken by early Norsemen. The volunteer crew on the 30m-long (100ft) Sea Stallion from Glendalough are recording their experiences on the journey. Bad weather is already proving a major challenge. Like the vikings the crew have no shelter from the weather, no cleaning facilities and no lavatories.

ROSKILDE, Denmark - A 100-foot-long replica of a Viking longship glided out of a Danish fjord Sunday with 65 crew members determined to sail across the North Sea to Ireland. Roughly 4,000 people watched the Sea Stallion of Glendalough begin the attempt to relive the perilous journey its Viking forebear made some 1,000 years ago. The ship is billed as the world's biggest and most ambitious Viking ship reconstruction. It was modeled after a warship excavated in 1962 from the Roskilde fjord after being buried in the seabed for nearly 950 years. "The Vikings are coming back. Be prepared," skipper...

Norwegian arhaeologists are puzzled by a find which indicates an Inca Indian died and was buried in the Oestfold city of Sarpsborg 1000 years ago. The remains of two elderly men and a baby were discovered during work in a garden, and one of the skulls indicates that the man was an Inca Indian. There is a genetic flaw in the neck, which is believed to be limited to the Incas in Peru, says archaeologist Mona Beate Buckholm. The Norway Post suggests that maybe the Vikings travelled even more widely than hitherto believed? Why could not the Viking settlers in...

Swedish archaeologists have uncovered signs of a Viking precursor to Mickey Mouse. Among the objects found during excavations at Uppåkra in southern Sweden is an iron age figure bearing a strong resemblance to the classic cartoon character.

Viking graves to be re-openedA worker welded together the aluminium casket in which the Vikings' remains were re-buried in 1948. The Viking graves that contained the famous ships Oseberg and Gokstad will be re-opened in September, in an effort to gain new knowledge from the remains of the two women and one man buried in them.Grave robbers plundered the Viking mounds centuries ago. This photo was taken in 1904. These leather shoes were found in the Oseberg ship and probably belonged to the older of the two women buried with the ship. The burial mound containing the famed Oseberg ship...

ROSKILDE, Denmark - On the skipper's command, deckhands haul in tarred ropes to lower the flax sail. Oars splash into the water. The crew, grimacing with strain, pull with steady strokes sending the sleek Viking longship gliding through the fjord. A thousand years ago, the curved-prow warship might have spewed out hordes of bloodthirsty Norsemen ready to pillage and burn. This time, the spoils are adventure rather than plunder. The Sea Stallion of Glendalough is billed as the world's biggest and most ambitious Viking ship reconstruction, modeled after a warship excavated in 1962 from the Roskilde fjord after being buried...

The Secretary General of the UN has asked Sweden’s Prime Minister to send troops to Darfur as part of a future peace-keeping mission. After the meeting with Ban Ki Moon in New York on Monday, Fredrik Reinfeldt said neutral Sweden is considering whether it could create a unit with Norway to send to the Sudanese province. But he says they would need to see what the force would look like, what the security situation would be and who would be leading the mission. The Swedish Prime Minister is meeting American President George W. Bush in Washington Tuesday as he continues...

- Would this world benefit from more Viking offspring? The article: "Women in Sweden have become less "inclined to use contraceptives. Sales of the morning-after pill have been on the increase, as have the number of abortions, while fewer women are using the contraceptive pill to prevent unwanted pregnancies, Sveriges Radio reports. Apoteket, Sweden's state-owned pharmaceutical retailer, noted an 11 percent increase in sales of morning-after pills in 2006 compared to the previous year. The number of abortions was up one and a half percent on figures for 2005, while the number of women using the contraceptive pill is reported...

The sun was not necessary for Vikings to navigate, say researchers Vikings may have used a special crystal called a sunstone to help navigate the seas even when the sun was obscured by fog or cloud, a study has suggested. Researchers from Hungary ran a test with sunstones in the Arctic ocean, and found that the crystals can reveal the sun's position even in bad weather. This would have allowed the Vikings to navigate successfully, they say. The sunstone theory has been around for 40 years, but some academics have treated it with extreme scepticism. Researcher Gabor Horvath from...

Irish river find may be first discovery of Viking ship by Andrew Bushe Fri Jan 26, 5:29 PM ETAFP/Scanpix/File Photo: A replica of a Viking ship sails off Oslo in 2006. An ancient boat discovered... " DUBLIN (AFP) - An ancient boat discovered in a riverbed north of Dublin may be the first Viking longship found in the country, Environment and Heritage Minister Dick Roche said. The wreck in the River Boyne, close to the northeastern port of Drogheda, was described by Roche as potentially an "enormously exciting discovery". The vessel, nine metres (30 feet) wide by 16 metres long,...

New Viking treasures found Archaeologists have made a major discovery in Western Norway, unearthing well-preserved Viking graves from the 9th century full of riches.Glass beads covered with gold are among the items found in the Viking graves. PHOTO: JONAS HAAR FRIESTAD Workers at the excavation site are awed by what they've found. PHOTO: JONAS HAAR FRIESTAD The Viking treasures were found at Frøyland in Rogaland County. Local newspaper Stavanger Aftenblad reported Monday that items recovered from the graves indicate they belonged to wealthy Vikings of the time. In one of the graves, belonging to a woman, archaeologists found jewellery, many...

New centre will dispel Viking myths Who were the Vikings? For most people, thoughts of raping and pillaging probably spring to mind, as do images of busty women called Brunnhilda with blonde plaits and horned helmets. The Vikings sailed from the Nordic countries to Britain, Ireland, North America, Russia and even Turkey. Yet for visitors to Scandinavia and locals alike, there are currently precious few opportunities to find out the truth about the extraordinary people who spread their culture over most of the known world. This could soon change, as plans have now been unveiled to start an interactive museum...

Viking longships' last voyage strikes fear into the heart of archaeologists WALTER GIBBS IN OSLO A ROW has broken out in Norway over a decision to move three ancient Viking ships, which may not survive the journey. The University of Oslo has decided to move three longships, probably by lorry and barge, to a new museum, despite dire warnings that the thousand-year-old oak vessels could fall apart en route. A retired curator of Oslo's current Viking Ship Museum has said that the delicately preserved ships, two of which are nearly 80ft long, were almost equal in archaeological importance to the...