They are SURE that is a Viking? I grew up staring at that Polish eagle.
Posted on 12/17/2011 5:27:43 PM PST by SunkenCiv
The burial ground holds not only a hoard of precious objects but also hints of human sacrifice -- and several dozen graves of a mysterious people with links to both the Vikings and the rulers of the founding states of eastern Europe.
Researchers are especially intrigued by the Young Warrior, who died a violent death in his 20s. The man's jaw is fractured, his skull laced with cut marks. The sword provides further evidence of a martial life.
Objects in the warrior's grave suggest he had ties to one of the region's earliest Slavic monarchs, said the project leader Andrzej Buko, head of the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology at the Polish Academy of Sciences.
But the north-south orientation of the man's body is a Scandinavian custom. Slavic graves were oriented east-west, Buko says.
Buried just below the Young Warrior -- probably at the same time -- Buko said-is a woman in her early 20s who may have met a similarly violent end. Though evidence is scanty, Buko guesses she was killed to be buried with the man, "because it's very hard to suppose she died at the same moment as the warrior."
Alongside the warrior is a second woman (right), also in her early 20s. The timing of her death is unclear.
Archaeologists stumbled upon the cemetery, which dates to the late 10th and early 11th centuries, after surveying a highway-construction site near the village of Bodzia, roughly 90 miles (150 kilometers) northwest of Warsaw. The find is reported in this month's issue of the journal Antiquity.
"The best discoveries are not planned, and so it was in this case," Buko said. "Among many other things, we discovered this marvelous cemetery."
(Excerpt) Read more at news.nationalgeographic.com ...
I read the whole thing on National Geo and got to thinking.
Maybe the warrior isn’t just someone close to King Sviatopolk the Accursed. Maybe the body IS Sviatopolk the Accursed.
After all, he was buried in Poland. Nyuk,nyuk,nyuk!
After having National Geo. in my life for over 40 years, I dropped it about 10 years ago when they cut down stories on mummies and jumped head first into the man-made global warming garbage. They can go to hell.
They are SURE that is a Viking? I grew up staring at that Polish eagle.
...it is possible that they were killed at the same time, at home, in a raid.
&&&
My thoughts exactly. When I read his comment “...it’s very hard to suppose she died at the same moment....” it struck me as nonsense.
I certainly am not knowledgeable in this area, so, unless there have been other similar archaeological finds which indicate that the woman was killed to be buried with the man, his comment here makes no sense.
That scene was taken, in rough Hollywood fashion, from an actual account by an Arab ambassador to the Vikings in Ukraine who witnessed such a funeral.
The eagle came from the Roman legions; the Varangians picked it up because of their service with the eastern remnant of the empire.
Try telling that to the little old ladies in their babushkas that I grew up with. :)
Vikings believed that death was predetermined. It followed one about like a vulture.
Thanks! Can’t really argue the negative of that one. :’)
is this that odd? Harald III spent considerable time in Novgorod before and ofter going to Constantinople, and brought his first wife from there. One wonders if these people were related to his travels in some way.
I’ve read an account of a Viking female slave being sacrificed to be sent off to Valhalla with her master. Supposedly, she volunteered for the honor.
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