1,100 year-old Denmark crucifix ‘may change history’

www.thelocal.dk ^ | 03-17-2016 | Staff

[Hugin]

It can be considered a crucifix because to do so would discredit Christianity? Don't you get it?

Um, no. That makes no sense to me. Care to explain?

[Vigilanteman]

Don’t forget that one major branch of the Norse was already converted to Christianity and living in Normandy for a century before the date of this crucifix if it is, indeed, a crucifix.

[Red Badger]

Most likely Dane Geld..........................

[Cementjungle]

[katana]

The Danes were raiding monasteries and Christian Saxon villages along the English coast in the 700's. This crucifix, if that's what it is and not a pagan figure that coincidentally is cross shaped, could have been taken (maybe with its owner as a slave) in a raid. In other words, it may or it may not change history.

[TXnMA]

Apparently, a nice example of the "Gold Granulation" art form!

FWIW, the artifacts from King Tut's tomb include many superb examples of "Granulation" -- which, I understand, depends on the fact that tiny spheres and wires of gold can be bonded (welded) together using only heat and pressure (no solder required).

FYI, the same ("thermocompression bonding") principle was, for many years, the sole means of bonding gold wires between integrated circuits and the packages that connected them to "the outside world"...

[TXnMA]

You might be interested in my #46, which explains both how it was made, and the finely-detailed, "granular", "scaled", or "mail-like" texture.

The "Gold Thermocompression Ball Bonding" method of construction was discovered and highly refined by the time of the great Egyptian dynasties...

or even the 6th-century BCE Phoenicians:

...and -- in the 20th-21st centuries Anno Domini:

[dp0622]

Mithras has ALWAYS been one of the things that stood in the way of stronger faith!!

atheists say it was copied in Christianity.

your answer makes a lot of sense. Very well stated.

[dp0622]

I was afraid it might sound sacrilegious but I didn’t mean it that way.

just looked like one to me :)

MUCH better than the ones we made in school!

[IronJack]

The article says that the artifact may have originated before Christ, meaning that the notion of a crucifix being a holy relic commemorating Christ’s execution is invalid, that cross-shaped relics existed before Him and that their symbolism is not dependent on His existence.

[IronJack]

RETRACTION:

Reading the article more carefully, it states that the artifact may predate the time Christianity was thought to have been practiced IN DENMARK.

I guess I'm so used to revisionist historians undermining Christianity that I let my paranoia get the better of me.

My apologies.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Red Badger. They had it goin' on up there in Scandinavia.

• Persian Coins From Sassanid Era (224-640AD) Discovered In Sweden
• Danish Archaeologists In Search Of Vikings In Iran
• Buddha statue from 6th c found in Viking hoard in Helgo, Sweden
• Graves Hint At Contact With Romans (Sweden)
• Crystal Amulet Poses Question On Early Christianity (Denmark - 100AD)
• Report: Ancient Roman graveyard found in suburban Copenhagen
• Swedes Find Viking-Era Arab Coins
• Two Iron Age Sites Discovered in Finland
• New Iron Age Sites Discovered in Finland [Roman era]
• The Viking's Jötunvillur Runic Code is Solved
• A Viking Burial Described by Arab Writer Ahmad ibn Fadlan
• Scandinavian trade 'triggered' the Viking Age

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks TXnMA! Oh, and here's a link that managed to escape first time through.

• Why was a 9th century Viking woman buried with a ring that says 'for Allah' on it?

[SunkenCiv]

The discovery of Christian artefacts from this period in Denmark is particularly remarkable as it predates the Jelling Stone, the giant carved rune stone from the year 965 that is considered to be the earliest Danish representation of Jesus on the cross.

• Possible Third Jellinge Stone Found (Viking Era) [2006]

[Jamestown1630]

It always make me laugh, because they’re still dating from Christ, no matter what they call it...

-JT

[MNJohnnie]

Facinating.

[MNJohnnie]

No BCE is not the same as BC CE/BCE abbreviation - Common Era or Current Era, abbreviated CE, is a calendar era that is often used as an alternative naming of the Anno Domini system ("in the year of the Lord"), abbreviated AD. The system uses BCE as an abbreviation for "before the Common (or Current) Era" and CE as an abbreviation for "Common Era". ‎

[truth_seeker]

“Do you know of any hard evidence that Leif Ericsson was Christian, or is it mostly anecdotal?”

I do not. Only read it a few times.

On another note, I watched a three episode program from the UK, about the Celts. It follows a premise that they made up a greater contribution to culture, language, even Christianity, than the lack of written record suggests.

They cited the Catholic church. They said when visitors came in the 500-700 period, they were amazed how advanced the church was.

There is a book titled “How the Irish Saved Civilization,” along a similar line.

[Jamestown1630]

I have a reproduction of an ancient Celtic cross that’s styled very much like it - except for the flat area behind the hands and feet, indicating the wood of the cross, it doesn’t look like later ones, and has little to indicate that the figure is affixed to a cross. Look beneath the hands and feet - the figure is obviously lying on a flat surface.

-JT

[laplata]

That’s interesting. Thanks.