Archaeologists Reveal Visigothic Site in Bulgaria

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An 1875 illustration by Henric Trenk of perhaps the most famous find regarding the Goths, the Ring of Pietroassa. The ring was found in what is now Romania in 1875. Image via Wikimedia Commons.

Archaeology in Bulgaria reports that archaeologists in Bulgaria have unearthed numerous finds suggesting that a large settlement of Visigoths, an East Germanic people, once existed in what is now northeast Bulgaria.

The finds center around a Roman fortress—modernly referred to as Kovachevsko Kale—constructed in the 4th century CE, and consists primarily of ceramics.

According to the team at the site, the ceramics types—polished gray pottery and gray-black pottery—reveal a sudden appearance of a large amount of Eastern Germanic peoples during the 4th century, a notable period in Gothic history (and the Migration Period in general).

Beginning in the 4th century and spurred by the westward movement of the Huns, open conflict occurred between the Roman Empire and the Goths, events that are generally considered crucial to the collapse of the Roman Empire.

 

The Viking Society for Northern Research's 2016 Student Conference

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The first page of the first issue of VSNR's Saga-Book, 1896. VSNR was originally known as "Orkney, Shetland and Northern Society, or Viking Club".

The Viking Society for Northern Research (VSNR) is hosting its annual student conference on February 27 at the University of Birmingham (United Kingdom). The conference lasts for a single day and, as the title of the conference implies ("The Vikings, Old Norse, and Popular Culture"), looks to be heavy on analysis of Germanic studies in modern popular culture, with an agenda items such as a lecture on the influence of Norse mythology in the Game of Thrones universe by Carolyne Larrington and a presentation on the role of Old Norse literature in the works of Vladimir Nabokov by Haki Antonsson.

Founded in 1892, the Viking Society for Northern Research is an iconic organization in the field of ancient Germanic studies, particularly medieval Scandinavian studies. The organization publishes a highly regarded journal, Saga-Book, as well as other items, such as translations. In addition to its annual student conference, the Viking Society for Northern Research meets three times a year.

Big Think's "Iceland is Officially Worshiping Norse Gods Again"

Today website Big Think published an article on the revival of North Germanic paganism in Iceland called "Iceland is Officially Worshiping Norse Gods Again". The article featuring a brief interview with Emory University theologian Luke Timothy Johnson. Here is a quote from Johnson as produced in the article:

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A fissure erupts in Fimmvörðuháls, Iceland, 2010. Image via Wikimedia Commons.

"Christian mission has always positioned itself as a rescue operation, that people were in desperate straits, were indeed under the influence of demons. ... It is impossible to read the reflections of Marcus Aurelius ... and not recognize a profound mode of religious expression. ... It is impossible ... not to recognize that [paganism] is the furthest thing possible from the demonic. It is indeed a form of religious expression from which we can learn much, and at the very least we need to respect."

Johnson doesn't comment on Germanic polytheism directly in the short interview, rather he refers to the Christianization of the Roman Empire and Roman polytheism in the article. However, given how misinformed media coverage of Germanic Heathenry as a new religious movement has been in both left- and right-leaning American media—usually landing somewhere between alarmist moral panic to dismissive curiosity—Big Think's article is notable in its approach.

National Geographic and Slavery in the Viking Age

In late December, US publication National Geographic published an article on the topic of slavery in the Viking Age, specifically commenting on "attempts to soften the raiders' reputation". The article claims that not enough focus has been placed on the role of slavery in Viking Age society and that that slavery was "vital to the Viking way of life". A quote from the article:

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A 1908 illustration by W. G. Collingwood from the Poetic Edda poem Rígsþula, in which the enigmatic god Heimsdallr visits an elderly man and woman. After he sleeps between them, the elderly woman is pregnant with the embodiment of a social class, Þræll ('slave, serf, thrall'). Image via Wikimedia Commons.

"The ancient reputation of Vikings as bloodthirsty raiders on cold northern seas has undergone a radical change in recent decades. A kinder, gentler, and more fashionable Viking emerged. ...

But our view of the Norse may be about to alter course again as scholars turn their gaze to a segment of Viking society that has long remained in the shadows."

Although Mimisbrunnr.info aims to be as objective as possible, the reader benefits from some commentary on some of these claims. Last I was aware, these comments regarding a 'kinder, gentler Viking Age' were in response to the monastery-derived image of vikings as a mindless "pagans", carrying the torch of earlier material, such as saint hagiographies, that portrayed Christianization as a sort of light bringer of culture to non-Christian peoples. The article also lacks discussion about how the notion and function of slavery differed from the modern era and how widespread slavery was during the period beyond Germanic Europe, particularly in Arabic society (in light of the mention of Ahmad ibn Fadlan).

In addition, the article makes rather speculative comments regarding polygamy during the Viking Age, for which there is no clear evidence.

Still, the article is worth a read, particularly regarding the discussion on grooved teeth that have been discovered in sites such as around what is now Lund, Sweden. For more, albeit brief, discussing regarding slavery during the Viking Age, see this National Museum of Denmark article.

Colorful New Finds at Iron Age Site in Ørland, Norway

An apparently wealthy Iron Age settlement has been found in Ørland, Norway. Archaeologists in Norway have long suspected that Ørland may yield notable new finds—the site is between three notable bodies of water—but they have not had access to the site. This situation has recently changed. New facilities have been ordered to make room at the Ørland Main Air Station for recent acquisitions by the Royal Norwegian Air Force (Luftsforsvaret) and Norwegian laws requires that an archaeological survey must be conducted before construction can begin.

The suspicions of archaeologists were confirmed when the digs began and a settlement from around 500 CE was discovered. Both the size of the site and the workforce used for the dig are notable—the area to be examined is sizable and around 20 individuals will be working in the field. Archaeologists have 40 weeks to work at the site.

The site has already yielded a variety of notable finds, including colorful glass items. Gemini reports:

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"Synne H. Rostad operates a standing sieve to sift out smaller bones and objects from the dirt." Photo by Åge Hojem, NTNU University Museum, via Gemini press release.

This, Ystgaard says, is a bonanza, because the size of the area allows archaeologists to see how different longhouses, garbage pits and other finds relate to each other.

“We’re really able to put things in context because the area is so big,” she said. The size of the dig also means there are lots of archaeologists at work, and for a long time.

…

... the team has also found lots of old animal and fish bones – mainly because the soil in the area is made from ground-up seashells, which isn’t very acidic. Normally, soil in Norway tends to be more acidic, and eats away at bones.

“Nothing like this has been examined anywhere in Norway before,” Ystgaard said.

There are enough bones to figure out what kinds of animals they came from, and how the actual animal varieties relate to today’s wild and domesticated animals, she said. The archaeologists have also found fish remains, from both salmon and cod, and the bones from seabirds, too.

The middens have also provided others surprises.  One was a delicate blue glass bead and several amber beads, too, suggesting the former residents liked their bling. Another was the remains of a green drinking glass that was characteristic of imports from the Rhine Valley in Germany.

This last is also a testament to how well off the former residents of this area were, Ystgaard said. “It says something that people had enough wealth to trade for glass."

Julius Caesar's Massacre of the Usipetes and Tencteri and Recent Archaeological Developments

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The Tusculum Portrait, a copy of a contemporaneous portrait of Julius Caesar. Photograph via Wikimedia Commons.

Recent discoveries in the Netherlands have shed new light on a massacre ordered in 55 BCE by Roman general Julius Caesar.

The massacre remained obscure until December of 2015, when a group of archaeologists at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam announced that they had discovered the site of the massacre in the present-day Netherlands. The discovery has led to significant media attention. For example, the Guardian reports:

The tribes were massacred in the fighting with the Roman general in 55BC, on a battle site now in Kessel, in the southern province of Brabant.

Skeletons, spearheads, swords and a helmet have been unearthed at the site over the past three decades. But now carbon dating as well as other historical and geochemical analysis have proved the items dated to the 1st century BC, the VU University in Amsterdam said.

“It is the first time the presence of Caesar and his troops on Dutch soil has been explicitly shown,” said Nico Roymans, an archaeologist at the institution.

A report at Past Horizons features photographs of items from the excavation sites.

In chapters 13 and 14 of book 4 of his Commentarii de Bello Gallico, Julius Caesar describes how he ordered a massacre of the children and women of the Usipetes and the Tencteri during a truce. These two peoples had fled the territory of the Suebi, a large confederation of Germanic peoples. Plutarch records that Roman statesman Cato the Younger—a contemporary and major critic of Julius Caesar—responded to news of the massacre by saying that Rome should turn Caesar over to the remaining Usipetes and Tenchtheri (see chapter 51 of Plutarch's biography on Cato the Younger).

This, of course, didn't happen—history would certainly have turned out differently if it somehow had!—and Caesar went on to play a pivotal role in the conversion of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire. Whether the Usipetes and the Tencteri were Germanic or Celtic peoples (or both) is unclear. While Caesar describes them as Germanic and they lived among the Suebi, their names appear to be Celtic.

An FBI Operation, Germanic Heathenry, and Media Representation

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The god Bragi sings while the goddess Iðunn reclines in an 1895 illustration by Lorenz Frølich. From Wikimedia Commons.

Media misrepresentation is a problem for minority religions in the United States. New religious movements and minority religions generally receive little media attention until some negative event occurs. In these cases, provided details regarding an associated minority religion can often be misleading or outright fabrications. Wicca, for example, experienced exactly these issues—likely resulting in the conviction (and subsequent placement on death row) of Damien Echols, for example—until a shift in its media representation occurred largely in the 1990s and into the 2000s.*

Germanic Heathenry is a religion (or a group of religions) often grouped together with Wicca as a "Neopagan religion". Germanic Heathenry has seen an explosion of adherents over the last few decades and it may well be eclipsing Wicca in terms of both media representation and number of adherents. However, no such media shift as seen with Wicca has so far occurred with coverage of Germanic Heathenry. Signs of change regarding this situation may be appearing via positive media reports about Iceland's Ásatrúarfélagið and by way of the efforts of some dedicated heathens and educators such as Karl E. H. Seigfried, but all too often a misleadingly hyper-masculine, prison-associated, and white supremacist version of the religion dominates media attention of the topic.

Recently such an example has been given renewed attention due to media reports around an undercover FBI operation that resulted in charges that two men in Virginia were planning to attack black churches and Jewish synagogues as well as a variety of other felonies. However, as Heather Greene at The Wild Hunt writes, the fact that the accused plotters claimed a form of Germanic Heathenry as their religion has become a media angle:

As written in the FBI report by Special Agent James Rudisill, “Doyle and Chaney … ascribe to a white supremacy extremist version of the Asatru faith.”

After news broke, the Asatru angle quickly went from a footnote in a long FBI report to a news maker and, in some cases, even a headline. A Richmond Times-Dispatch article, one of the first, clarified to its readers, “Asatru is a pagan religion.” And, the media cycle moved from there.

Some news agencies, such as CNN and ABC, did not ever mention the men’s religious affiliation, choosing to focus on the foiled crime. Others offered varying degrees of explanation from simply quoting the FBI document verbatim to inserting some limited facts about the religion. The Washington Post, for example, simply added “neo-pagan” into the FBI quote. Then, others went further exploring the white supremacy connection to Asatru. The Daily Beast went so far as to interview such a group with the added commentary, “Because pagans gonna pagan.”

Readers are encouraged to read the rest of The Wild Hunt's article here.

END NOTES
* See for example Pike, Sarah M. 2012. "Wicca in the News" in Winston, Diane (editor). The Oxford Handbook of Religion and the American News Media, pp. 289-303. Oxford University Press.

Babbel.com Feature on Old Norse Influence on English

Online language learning resource Babbel.com has published a feature on the influence of the Old Norse lexicon, most famous as the language of the vikings, on Modern English. From the article:

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Two figures from a Vendel Period plate from Öland, Sweden, probably not discussing cake.  Image from Wikimedia Commons.

Thanks to the cross-cultural fermentation that occured [sic] in the Danelaw – and later when England was temporarily absorbed into Canute the Great’s North Sea Kingdom – the English language is much closer to that of its Scandinavian neighbors than many acknowledge. By the time that the Norman conquest brought the irreversible influence of French, Old English had already been transformed beyond its Anglo-Saxon roots.

The article goes on to list 139 words from Old Norse found in modern English, from names for days and animals to words regarding war, violence, society, and culture. Also, cake.

The article also links to a fascinating 2012 study claiming English is a Scandinavian language, and a list of Yorkshire dialect words from Old Norse.