Archaeologists Strike Gold In Secret Spot (Norway)

Aftenposten ^ | 12-20-2004

[blam]

GGG Ping.

[atchoo]

Everytime I am in a rush to get out of the sauna, I lose my cuff-links.

I just want to know how I can get them back.

[squarebarb]

They would still have been pagans at the time.

In fact, terrorists raiding the coasts of England? Or was that later?

[Cicero]

The first Viking raid on the British Isles was in 789.

[JimSEA]

Remarkable workmanship! It helps put the Viking civilization in context -- blunting our view of the "savages" which we get by being on the recieving end of their raids. Great posts today!

[muawiyah]

These things are probably in Scandinavia as a result of trade across along traditional trade routes to the Black Sea and the Middle East.

Western Europe at the time was still a rat hole. No self-respecting Scandinavian raider would sully himself with a raid in that impoverished, desolate wasteland.

[Paladin2]

Vikings were not terrorists. They were just on a cruise that went bad. It's not their fault. They're victims because they didn't get to write the PC history. They were just there to buck up the Brits to stand up to the French.

[blam]

"Great posts today!"

Thanks, good to hear from you. Merry Christmas to you and the missus.

[muawiyah]

This is pre-Viking. So no cudoes to "Viking Civilization". They had to first develop a better boat to move out of the coastal fjords and the raiding way of life. That happened along about the 8th century (700's) with the arrival of the "longship" which was very seaworthy and had a tremendous cargo-carrying capacity.

There had been a regular trade in slaves along the inland traderoutes to the Black Sea for centuries, so these pieces could very well have been produced by a Greek or Levantine goldsmith purchased somewhere on the Danish coast.

The Scandinavians didn't take over these trade routes until the 900s when they became the "Russ".

[Grut]

And to think that it all ended in lutefisk!

[festus]

Are they up on Ebay yet ?

[Eastbound]

She's cute. Looks like they are holding hands.

[Eastbound]

Looks like Freddy Flinstone and Wilma.

[dagnabbit]

I think Oslo teenagers lick these things at raves.

[rwfromkansas]

This was getting close to the Islamic Golden Age, ironically what really helped bring Europe into the modern world by translating scientific texts of the Greeks etc.

The Church kept their copies hidden from view.

Europe really was backwards at this time, and it is ironic that it was the Muslim contact that helped them become more advanced, while now it is the Muslims who are backwards.

[rwfromkansas]

With the ulama basically suppressing Islamic itjihad and inquiry since basically the 1700's...

[muawiyah]

In the 500s and 600s the "Church" barely existed and certainly wasn't in the business of hiding anything. Remember, the Dark Ages began in 538, Western Europe had a tremendous population crash, the economy failed, and the first guys to come out of it lived in Mecca!~

Western Europe was to be pretty much a dump for the next 500 years!

[muawiyah]

Make that since 1000AD. That's when they froze the Sharia (Law). Shortly afterward the Seljuk Turks began conquest of the Islamic Caliphate changing it's character forever.

Our friends the Scanderhoovians were still pretty much pagan right up to near modern times. The last Viking King was cremated in the ancient ceremonies on the Volga in the mid 1700s for example.

It's not surprising to see the Scanderhoovians in the most recently civilized areas of Sweden, Finland and Norway retreat into paganism which they now call secularism. The return of human sacrifice is probably quite near.

[WritableSpace]

blunting our view of the "savages" which we get by being on the recieving end of their raids. Great posts today!

I know, my Norwegian great-grandparents and my Irish grand-parents are at war within me. :)