The body at the bottom of the well, with the rubble clearly visible above it. Image: The Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research
Posted on 06/12/2016 6:41:13 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
Archaeologists working in Trondheim in Norway are amazed by the discovery of a human skeleton in the bottom of an abandoned castle well. The skeleton provides evidence that confirms dramatic historical events mentioned in the Sagas.
The location and contents of the well are mentioned in Sverre's Saga, a chronicle of one of the kings of Norway, and one of very few historical manuscripts describing events in the Norwegian Viking age and medieval period.
Scholars have questioned the chronicle's trustworthiness as a historical document. But now, at least one part of the saga seems to hold truth -- down to the tiniest detail...
In 1197 King Sverre Sigurdsson and his Birkebeiner-mercenaries were attacked and defeated in his castle stronghold, Sverresborg, by his rivals, the Baglers. According to the Saga, the Baglers burned down buildings and destroyed the castle's fresh water supply by throwing one of King Sverre's dead men into the well, and then filling it with stones.
Now, following a trial excavation in the well, archaeologists can confirm this dramatic story. Archaeologists managed to retrieve part of the skeleton they found in the well in 2014. A fragment of bone produced a radiocarbon date that confirmed that the individual lived and died at the end of the 12th century, the same time as the incident described in the Saga...
The excavation of the stone debris down to the very first stone that hit the Birkebeiner's body has given the archaeologists additional insight into the nature of events in 1197. In addition, it exposed the timber posts and lining for the large castle well.
(Excerpt) Read more at pasthorizonspr.com ...
The body at the bottom of the well, with the rubble clearly visible above it. Image: The Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research
Interesting
The 800-year-old body found in a Norwegian well supports accuracy of Sverris Saga
7 November, 2014
http://www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-archaeology/800-year-old-body-found-norwegian-well-sverris-saga-103243
Sverres saga (in Norwegian, I guess)
http://heimskringla.no/wiki/Sverres_saga
Sverissaga — The Saga of King Sverri of Norway
Text transcribed by Kaye Janet. Coding by Alfta Lothursdottir
http://northvegr.org/sagas%20annd%20epics/kings%20sagas/the%20saga%20of%20king%20sverri%20of%20norway/index.html
They found the body of Arne Sacknussen?
They followed his initials he marked on the stones on the way down
Thanks for your posts....
I always find it interesting that ancient manuscripts are taken at face value even with scant evidence by non religious historians, but a biblical manuscript is always assumed false....
It is interesting how so many of those old stories have some truth in them.
Schliemann found Troy by using an alignment told by Homer.
Ya, boot the trip vas very hard on Gertrude!
That was a deep cut in the turf!
That was not a very nice thing to do!
Still looking for the bodies of the wolves and the sword ping.
Second link looks pretty interesting, and in English.
You’re posts are always great. Thanx.
Thanks for posting that!
I spent a number of years in Iceland with the US military and put a lot of faith in the accuracy of the historical sagas. The Saga of the Greenlanders has also been proven in some detail, and actually refutes modern “Global Warming” theory.
I would have missed this one, though.
Whoops, wrong topic... [blush]
Gertrude is now extrude?
Mostly, neither one is -- but there's a bias toward Egyptian and Mesopotamian records in the ancient chronology of the eastern Med, even though the OT is heavily a sequential chronicle. * The surviving description(s?) of the Temple of the Oracle of Delphi (Apollo was the deity there) was "debunked" around 1900 by some French nimrod, and his ****ty work was taken at face value until the 1990s -- at that time a geologist mapped the site, without paying attention to the old work on it (it was outside his specialty) and found that it conformed, then a couple of American scientists / scholars got involved and verified the entire ancient description in detail.
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