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Minnesota Vikings cornerback Josh Robinson compared gay marriage to pedophilia and incest in a series of Twitter posts on Friday following the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marriage. The landmark Supreme Court decision effectively legalizes same-sex marriage in all 50 states. The Court's 2013 decision ruling the crux of the Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional and subsequent decisions from lower courts laid the groundwork for Friday's decision in Obergefell v. Hodges. While a number of athletes praised the Court's decision, Robinson questioned whether the logic that has led to the legalization of gay...

TREASURE dating back to the time of the Vikings has been found in a Bridlington field. The Viking finger ring has a silver content of 98% which, combined with its age, meets the criteria for it to be officially classed as treasure. The ring, found by Paul Rennoldson, has been sent to the British Museum in London where it will be valued. Alan Worth, chairman of the Bridlington Metal Detecting Society, said finding any items dating back to the Viking age was very rare. "The Vikings were around in about 700AD which is an incredibly long time ago," said Mr...

Irish Viking trade centre unearthed Almost 6,000 artefacts and a Viking chieftain's grave have been discovered One of the Vikings' most important trading centres has been discovered in Ireland. The settlement at Woodstown in County Waterford is estimated to be about 1,200 years old. It was discovered during archaeological excavations for a road by-pass for Waterford city, which was founded by the Vikings. The Irish government said the settlement was one of the most important early Viking age trading centres discovered in the country. Its working group, which includes archaeologists from Ireland's museum and monuments service, said it was of...

An analysis of DNA from a Viking gravesite near a 1000 year-old church in southern Greenland shows that those buried there had strong Celtic bloodlines... The analysis -- performed by Danish researchers on bones from skeletons found during excavations in south Greenland -- revealed that the settlers' Nordic blood was mixed with Celtic blood, probably originating from the British Isles. Danish archaeologists are currently conducting the first regional study of southern Greenland's original settlers, whose colonies date back to the year 985. The skeletons disinterred outside the old church also date back to just a few years after that period....

Several pieces of Viking jewelry, some of which contain gold, have been uncovered at a farm site in Denmark that dates as far back as 1,300 years. Although the Vikings have a popular reputation as being raiders, they were also farmers, traders and explorers, and the craftsmanship seen in this jewelry demonstrates their artistic skills. Archaeologists working with volunteers used metal detectors to find the jewelry in different spots throughout a farmstead on Zealand, the largest island in Denmark. The remains of the site, which is now called Vestervang, date from the late seventh to the early 11th centuries.

600-Year-Old American Indian Historical Account Has Old Norse WordsBy Larry Stroud, Guard Associate EditorPublished on Thursday March 15, 2007 Vikings and Algonquins. The first American multi-culturalists? BIG BAY, Mich. — Two experts on ancient America may have solved not only the mysterious disappearance of Norse from the Western Settlement of Greenland in the 1300s, but also are deciphering Delaware (Lenape) Indian history, which they’re finding is written in the Old Norse language. The history tells how some of the Delaware’s ancestors migrated west to America across a frozen sea and intermarried with the Delaware and other Algonquin Indians. Myron Paine,...

Twelve boats, dating from 2,500 BC to the 11th century AD, along with other Viking artifacts have been discovered in Lough Corrib in Connemara, County Galway. Archaeologists have used radiocarbon dating to establish that one of the boats dates from 2,500 BC. Other items that were found include several battle axes and other weapons... The 4,500-year-old log boat settled into the mud when it sank and was covered over time. A mixture of organic sediment and lake water assisted in the preservation process. Even the seats in the boats are preserved... The oldest of the vessels is the Annaghkeen log...

I am of Viking ancestry. In my part of the World, things like fighting spirit, balls and an appetite for destuction matter much. We also dispose of some decent brain power. Bohr and Nobel both were Scandinavians. My tiny Sweden is furthermore the only nation that successfully has took Moscow (- in 1610 Swedish field marshal De la Gardie entered Moscow and was cheered by large crowds. Everyone knows Swedish rule equals law and order. We might be a boring bunch, but we wholeheartedly hate chaos, injustice, disorder and crime. Leave it to us, we'll fix it.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1w7e46pHuc

Archaeologists from the University of York have played a key role in Anglo-Danish research which has suggested the dawn of the Viking Age may have been much earlier -- and less violent -- than previously believed. The study by Dr Steve Ashby, of the Department of Archaeology at York, working with colleagues from York and Aarhus University, identified the first signs of the Viking Age around 70 years before the first raid on England. Previously, the start of the Viking Age has been dated to a June 793 raid by Norwegian Vikings on Lindisfarne. But the new research published in...

A DNA study of Britons has shown that genetically there is not a unique Celtic group of people in the UK. According to the data, those of Celtic ancestry in Scotland and Cornwall are more similar to the English than they are to other Celtic groups. The study also describes distinct genetic differences across the UK, which reflect regional identities. And it shows that the invading Anglo Saxons did not wipe out the Britons of 1,500 years ago, but mixed with them. Published in the Journal Nature, the findings emerge from a detailed DNA analysis of 2,000 mostly middle-aged Caucasian...

A new genetic map of Britain shows that there has been little movement between areas of Britain which were former tribal kingdoms in Anglo-Saxon England. Britons are still living in the same 'tribes' that they did in the 7th Century, Oxford University has found after an astonishing study into our genetic make-up. Archaeologists and geneticists were amazed to find that genetically similar individuals inhabit the same areas they did following the Anglo-Saxon invasion, following the fall of the Roman Empire. In fact, a map showing tribes of Britain in 600AD is almost identical to a new chart showing genetic variability...

The Romans, Vikings and Normans may have ruled or invaded the British for hundreds of years, but they left barely a trace on our DNA, the first detailed study of the genetics of British people has revealed. The analysis shows that the Anglo-Saxons were the only conquering force, around 400-500 AD, to substantially alter the country’s genetic makeup, with most white British people now owing almost 30% of their DNA to the ancestors of modern-day Germans.

In August 2014 a hobby archaeologist found a Viking Age sword with metal detector in a field in Skaun, just south of Trondheim in Central Norway. Now, archaeologists have examined the finding and have some exciting news about the owner. Having examined the grave, archaeologists at the NTNU Museum of Natural History and Archaeology in Trondheim tell NRK that it is dated to about the year 950. In addition to the sword, researchers found the remains of a shield. 'We have not managed to find out who owned the sword, but we know that he was a well traveled man",...

The Norwegian archaeologists Helge and Anne Stine Ingstad's famous identification, in 1961, of a Viking settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland, from just after A.D. 1000 is, of course, a notable exception, no longer in dispute. But that discovery has so far gone nowhere. The Norse settlers, who may have numbered as many as 160 and stayed for three years or longer, seem to have made no lasting impression on the aboriginal skraellings that, according to Norse sagas, they encountered, and to have avoided being influenced in turn. The traditions of the Micmac people, modern-day inhabitants of the area, have...

Artifacts included a battle axe, a knife, and a bronze buckle, all associated with burned human bones, initially thought to be dated to around 1000 - 1200 CE before analysis. Similar objects have been discovered in the Baltic Sea area and in Ladoga Karelia. Identical cape buckles have also been found in Gotland. But based on the University of Helsinki analysis, the cremation grave finds date to a time that is significantly earlier -- during the Viking Age between 775-980 CE, based on their application of AMS (Accelerator Mass Spectrometry) techniques... ...in the area between the towns of Loviisa and...

In the autumn of 2010, local amateur archaeologists discovered a large harbor, dating from around 1000-1200 AD, in Ahvenkoski village, at the mouth of western branch of the Kymijoki River in Finland. The findings included a smithy, a iron smelting furnace, forceps, as well as hundreds of iron objects such as boat rivets, similar to those found at Viking settlements in different parts of the Baltic, Scandinavia, Scotland and Iceland. More recently, in August of 2012 and in the same area, a 2 x 3 meter wide late Viking Age or Crusade period cremation grave was uncovered. Artifacts included a...

A small gold plate belonging to Polish family Sielscy from the Swedish Malmoe turned out to be an archaeological sensation. According to the researchers, it is probably a souvenir from the funeral of the Danish King Harald Bluetooth on the island of Wolin, dated to c. 986 AD. The discovery was made by 11 years old Maja Sielska, who diligently did her school homework about the Middle Ages. While looking through pictures of coins from this period in the textbook and on the Internet, the girl saw a plate with mysterious inscriptions similar to the one she had received from...

In what they describe as a 'sensational' discovery, archaeologists from Århus find the remains of 10th century king's royal residence. After speculating for centuries about its location, the royal residence of Harald Bluetooth has finally been discovered close to the ancient Jellinge complex with its famous runic stones in southern Jutland. The remains of the ancient wooden buildings were uncovered in the north-eastern corner of the Jellinge complex which consists of royal burial mounds, standing stones in the form of a ship and runic stones. Harald ruled Denmark between 940 and 985 AD and is reputed to have conquered Norway...

A town that was briefly capital of England is looking to make more of its links with a Viking king who ruled for just 40 days. Sweyn Forkbeard, the nation's shortest reigning monarch, began his rule on Christmas Day, 1001 years ago in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire. Officials want to twin the town with Sweyn's birthplace of Roskilde, Denmark and stage a festival. They also hope to mark his death with a re-enactment of a Viking burial.

Dr Garcia Losquino, who is from the region, was compelled to visit Galicia in Northern Spain unexpectedly when a number of Viking anchors were washed ashore in a storm in March 2014... "On the beach where the anchors were found there was a big mound which locals thought might have been a motte-and-bailey construction, which was used by the later Vikings in France. But with the help of a geographer using tomography we now think this was a longphort -- a Viking construction only found in Ireland during the early Viking age, and very similar to English Viking camps, where...