Vikings, features and articles | Educational Science

Dec 7, 2014

Viking Women Colonized New Lands, Too

Vikings may have been family men who traveled with their wives to new lands, according to a new study of ancient Viking DNA. Maternal DNA from ancient Norsemen closely matches that of modern-day people in the North Atlantic isles, particularly from the Orkney and Shetland Islands. The findings suggest that...

Dec 11, 2014

Beer and Beef: Why the Vikings' Elaborate Feasts Died Out

Vikings have a reputation for their ruthless marauding ways, but new evidence from an ongoing archaeological dig shows that the Vikings who settled in Iceland spent more time brewing beer and basting beef than pillaging and plundering. These meals of beef and booze were served during elaborate feasts that were...

Feb 23, 2015

Vikings Were 'Global Investors,' Not Just Pillagers

This article was originally published on The Conversation. The publication contributed this article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. The connections between technology, urban trading, and international economics which have come to define modern living are nothing new. Back in the first millennium AD, the Vikings were expert...

Mar 17, 2015

'For Allah' Inscription Found on Viking Era Ring

Ancient tales about Viking expeditions to Islamic countries had some elements of truth, according to recent analysis of a ring recovered from a 9th century Swedish grave. Featuring a pink-violet colored stone with an inscription that reads “for Allah” or “to Allah,” the silver ring was found during the 1872-1895...

May 16, 2015

Vikings Traded First (Then Plundered), Study Suggests

The Viking Age may not have started with the plundering of England, but with the peaceful trading of handcrafted combs made out of reindeer antlers, a new study suggests. Until now, researchers thought the Viking Age began in June 793, when Norwegian Vikings raided Lindisfarne, an island off the northeast...

Apr 1, 2016

Possible Viking Settlement in Canada Revealed in Satellite Images

Scientists have uncovered what may be a previously unknown Viking settlement in Newfoundland, Canada, news sources report. The newly identified site, known as Point Rosee, contains a hearthstone that was likely used for working iron, making it only the second known pre-Columbian, iron-processing site in North America, the researchers told...

Apr 18, 2016

In Photos: Viking Outposts Possibly Found in Canada

3 sites (Image credit: Map by Schuyler Erle, modified by Owen Jarus, CC Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported)The only certain Viking site in the New World is located at L'Anse aux Meadows on the northern tip of Newfoundland. That site was excavated in the 1960s and would have served as an outpost...

Apr 18, 2016

Searching for the Vikings: 3 Sites Possibly Found in Canada

Three archaeological sites that may have been used by Vikings around 1,000 years ago were excavated recently in Canada. If confirmed, the discoveries would add to the single known Viking settlement in the New World, located at L'Anse aux Meadows on the northern tip of Newfoundland. Excavated in the 1960s,...

Apr 21, 2016

Oldest Viking Crucifix Uncovered in Denmark

A solid-gold cross depicting Jesus with his arms outstretched may be Denmark's oldest crucifix, dating back more than 1,100 years. The gorgeous pendant was unearthed in March by a hobbyist with a metal detector. Found in a field on the island of Funen, Denmark, the Viking jewelry piece may have...

Jul 21, 2016

Photos: 10th-century Viking tomb unearthed in Denmark

Mighty axe (Image credit: Silkeborg Museum)This 1,000-year-old Viking ax, among the largest ever found, was discovered by archaeologists in an unusual 10th-century tomb near Silkeborg in central Denmark. The wooden tomb was built about 950 A.D., around graves containing a Viking man and woman. The man was buried with only...

Jul 21, 2016

Mighty Viking Ax Discovered in Tomb of Medieval 'Power Couple'

Archaeologists have discovered one of the largest Viking axes ever found, in the tomb of a 10th-century power couple in Denmark. Kirsten Nellemann Nielsen, an archaeologist at the Silkeborg Museum who is leading excavations at the site near the town of Haarup, said Danish axes like the one found in...

Nov 8, 2016

The Real Reason for Viking Raids: Shortage of Eligible Women?

For all their infamous raiding and plundering, the Vikings who attacked from Scandinavia might have been just a bunch of lonely-hearted bachelors, new research suggests. During the Viking Age, which archaeological discoveries and written texts suggested lasted from about A.D. 750 to 1050, shipborne crews from Scandinavia went viking —...

Nov 22, 2016

Altar of Miracle-Making Viking King Discovered in Norway

The original shrine to a Viking-king-turned-saint has been discovered in Norway, archaeologists say. The Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research (NIKU) announced Nov. 11 that its researchers had discovered the foundations of a wooden church where the body of King Olaf Haraldsson was taken immediately after he was declared a...

Dec 2, 2016

1,000-Year-Old Viking Toolbox Found at Mysterious Danish Fortress

This story was updated on Dec. 7 at 4:10 p.m. ET. A Viking toolbox found in Denmark has been opened for the first time in 1,000 years, revealing an extraordinary set of iron hand tools that may have been used to make Viking ships and houses, according to archaeologists. The...

Dec 2, 2016

Photos: Viking-Age Tools Uncovered at Ring-Shaped Fortress in Denmark

Ancient tools (Image credit: Danish Castle Center)Archaeologists have discovered a 1,000-year-old set of iron tools at the Viking fortress of Borgring, on the island of Zeeland in eastern Denmark. The researchers think the tools belonged to a master craftsman who occupied a workroom in a gatehouse of the fortress late...