Thursday, April 7, 2022

Old cemetery changing ideas about Vikings in England

“Don’t expect to find Erik the Pussycat at the end of this new research. The Viking job description always included violent combat and pillaging.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/digging-up-viking-history-britain-180979790/?utm_source=join1440&utm_medium=email

And, let’s get at least a little “now” politics into the research. The idea of Vikings as raiding and leaving is “a controversial position to stake out in these days of Brexit.” Yes, no doubt the North Sea men and women would have been pleased with a European Union, but only one that recognized Scandinavian superiority, much as Germany and France require today.

The tax for bribes was called “danegeld” for a reason.

A good piece overall and an example of work that collides with established archaeology’s “We know for a fact” that things were a certain way.

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