How many Viking did you compass up in the last year ? Zero ? Well , archeologist working with Denmark ’s Museum Odense found more than 50 viking graves in just six months . Pretty , pretty , pretty , pretty full exit — and the Vikings had kickshaw , too .
Vikings were seafarers , bargainer , and plunderer that settled northwestern Europe in the 8th through 11th centuries . The latterly unwrap graves appointment to the 9th and tenth 100 and were line up in Åsum , just east of Odense , Denmark , on a more or less half - acre internet site ( 2,000 square meter ) .
The graves were found during digging done in advance of plans to update the local electric grid . The burying contained artifacts that originate well beyond Denmark , affirm that Vikings were well - traveled and monger . One of the grave belonged to a woman buried in a wagon — a patrol wagon “ she likely move in , ” according to Michael Borre Lundø , an archaeologist and curator of the Museum Odense , in amuseum release .
A recently excavated Viking burial.Photo: Skelet fra udgravning i Åsum
“ She was given a beautiful glass bead necklace , an atomic number 26 cay , a knife with a silver - threaded handle , and , most notably , a small shard of drinking glass that may have served as an amulet , ” Lundø added . “ At the foot of the wagon , there was a finely dress wooden bureau , the content of which we still do not know . ” A mystery chest ! The allure ! A key and a wooden chest notice in the same tomb … I know what I would do next , though the release did not express the research worker ’ next whole tone .
That ’s not all , though . An contiguous tomb to the char in the wagon contained a bronze brooch , a scarlet glass bead , an iron knife , and a piece of crystallization . The crystal , Lundø noted , was likely import from Norway ; if the crystal was not trade for , one of the Vikings in the burial ground may have brought it to Denmark themselves .
Beyond the material goods , there ’s a literal opening of genomic revelation to number . “ The graves in Åsum are so well - preserved that it may be possible , for the first time , to conduct special aDNA analytic thinking on most of the skeletons — stand for DNA analytic thinking on ancient material , ” say Sarah Croix , an archaeologist at Aarhus University , in the same release . “ It will be fabulously exciting to learn where these people amount from and whether the same families were buried here across multiple generations . ”
“ It is truly unusual to find so many well - preserved skeletons at once , ” Lundø contribute .
If ancient DNA analysis can be performed , the work would supply to an increasing consistency of work delineate the genetic background of Viking . Last twelvemonth , a squad of paleogeneticists studied nearly 300 ancient genomes from Scandinavia and equate them with the genetics of New Scandinavians to understand gene flow across northerly Europe . The Åsum universe could add more data to use in succeeding comparative genetical analyses .
The 50 - rum Stephanie Graf date to when Gorm the Old and Queen Thyra rule Northern Denmark . Thyra is known for being the mother of Harald Bluetooth , the rule who devote the wireless technology its name .
Bluetooth reportedly had a blueish - gray dead tooth , hence his name . “ Bluetooth ” was a irregular computer code name for the short - range tech to part , but it dumbfound , and the Younger Futhark runes that make up the Viking leader ’s initial ᚼ and ᛒ were combined to make the Bluetooth logo . The more you love !
Last year , a squad of archaeologists studying two group of runestones in the regionconcludedthat Queen Thyra may have been of even more importance in the society than previously screw , given the act of times the queen appeared to be mentioned in the rune . But as Gizmodo head out at the time , the stones were raise by Bluetooth himself , so perhaps the new king just really love his mom .
More analysis to issue forth will hopefully yield information about the familial background of the Åsum universe . And we obviously still call for to live what ’s in that honest-to-god wooden bureau !
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