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Body In Well Confirms Viking Saga
Past Horizons ^ | June 10, 2016 | editors

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Scholars have questioned the chronicle's trustworthiness as a historical document.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 ...


TOPICS: History; Science; Travel
KEYWORDS: birkebeiner; godsgravesglyphs; norway; saga; sagas; sverresborg; sverresigurdsson; sverressaga; thevikings; trondheim; vikings
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The body at the bottom of the well, with the rubble clearly visible above it. Image: The Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research

The Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage

1 posted on 06/12/2016 6:41:13 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
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To: SunkenCiv

Interesting


2 posted on 06/12/2016 6:44:31 PM PDT by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either satire or opinion. Or both.)
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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


3 posted on 06/12/2016 6:45:00 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (I'll tell you what's wrong with society -- no one drinks from the skulls of their enemies anymore.)
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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


4 posted on 06/12/2016 6:46:37 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (I'll tell you what's wrong with society -- no one drinks from the skulls of their enemies anymore.)
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To: StayAt HomeMother; Ernest_at_the_Beach; decimon; 1010RD; 21twelve; 24Karet; 2ndDivisionVet; ...

5 posted on 06/12/2016 6:46:46 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (I'll tell you what's wrong with society -- no one drinks from the skulls of their enemies anymore.)
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To: SunkenCiv

They found the body of Arne Sacknussen?


6 posted on 06/12/2016 6:47:32 PM PDT by 17th Miss Regt
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To: 17th Miss Regt

They followed his initials he marked on the stones on the way down


7 posted on 06/12/2016 6:52:34 PM PDT by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either satire or opinion. Or both.)
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To: SunkenCiv

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....


8 posted on 06/12/2016 6:52:42 PM PDT by Popman (Christ alone: My Cornerstone..)
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To: SunkenCiv

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.


9 posted on 06/12/2016 6:53:45 PM PDT by yarddog (Romans 8:38-39, For I am persuaded.)
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To: BenLurkin

Ya, boot the trip vas very hard on Gertrude!


10 posted on 06/12/2016 6:55:24 PM PDT by null and void (Hillary Milhouse Clinton: I'm not a c-- c-- c-- crook! Crook, that's the c-word I was looking for!)
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To: 17th Miss Regt

That was a deep cut in the turf!


11 posted on 06/12/2016 7:03:40 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (I'll tell you what's wrong with society -- no one drinks from the skulls of their enemies anymore.)
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To: SunkenCiv

That was not a very nice thing to do!


12 posted on 06/12/2016 7:07:00 PM PDT by amnestynone (We are asked by people who do not tolerate us to tolerate the intolerable in the name of tolerance.)
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To: Salamander

Still looking for the bodies of the wolves and the sword ping.


13 posted on 06/12/2016 7:09:53 PM PDT by shibumi (Vampire Outlaw of the Milky Way)
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To: SunkenCiv

Second link looks pretty interesting, and in English.


14 posted on 06/12/2016 7:10:28 PM PDT by OldNewYork (Operation Wetback II, now with computers)
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To: SunkenCiv

You’re posts are always great. Thanx.


15 posted on 06/12/2016 7:10:36 PM PDT by morphing libertarian
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To: SunkenCiv

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.


16 posted on 06/12/2016 7:14:42 PM PDT by Cincinnatus.45-70 (What do DemocRats enjoy more than a truckload of dead babies? Unloading them with a pitchfork!)
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To: 17th Miss Regt

Whoops, wrong topic... [blush]


17 posted on 06/12/2016 7:14:49 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (I'll tell you what's wrong with society -- no one drinks from the skulls of their enemies anymore.)
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To: SunkenCiv

But did he ever visit North Malden?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hExE6iLxfEw


18 posted on 06/12/2016 7:16:14 PM PDT by Hillarys Gate Cult (Liberals make unrealistic demands on reality and reality doesn't oblige them.)
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To: null and void; BenLurkin

Gertrude is now extrude?


19 posted on 06/12/2016 7:20:03 PM PDT by disndat
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To: Popman
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.

20 posted on 06/12/2016 7:21:25 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (I'll tell you what's wrong with society -- no one drinks from the skulls of their enemies anymore.)
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