This session explores Viking and Anglo Saxon ship burials between the seventh and tenth centuries presented at The British Museum.
Like Father Like Son? Henry III’s Tomb at Westminster Abbey as a Case Study in Late Thirteenth-Century English Kingship
June 7, 2014 By
Who was this king, and who made this grand monument to him? An inscription around the edge of the upper tomb chest identifies its occupant as Henry III, the English king who died in 1272 after a reign of fifty-six years.
10th-century Viking king may have been discovered in Scotland
June 6, 2014 By
These might be the remains of Olaf Guthfrithsson, King of Dublin and Northumbria from 934 to 941.
‘Warrior-women’ in Viking Age Scandinavia? A preliminary archaeological study
June 3, 2014 By
This paper seeks to provide a new contribution to the debates on Viking Age women by focusing on a rather controversial notion of ‘female warriors’. The core of the article comprises a preliminary survey of archaeological evidence for female graves with weapons (axes, spears, swords and arrowheads) from Viking Age Scandinavia.
The Headless Norsemen: Decapitation in Viking Age Scandinavia
June 3, 2014 By
I will concentrate my attention only on single and double decapitation burials and mostly those from the area of Scandinavia. What did similar practices mean? What kinds of individuals were subject to decapitation? Were they criminals, slaves, aggressors, deserters swathed in infamy or perhaps unfortunate victims of bloody attacks?
‘Vampire’ skeleton discovered in Poland
May 14, 2014 By
Archaeologists working in northwestern Poland have unearthed the remains of man who was buried with a rock jammed into his jaw and a stake driven into his leg.
Archaeologists discover London’s Black Death mass grave
March 31, 2014 By
Skeletons discovered last year in London were victims of the Black Death, according to new research announced yesterday. Furthermore, archaeologists believe that have found an emergency burial ground created in 1348 for victim of the pandemic.
Writing conquest: traditions of Anglo-Saxon invasion and resistance in the twelfth century
March 2, 2014 By
Writing Conquest examines the ways in which Latin, Old English, and Middle English twelfth-century historical and pseudo-historical texts remembered and reconstructed three formative moments of Anglo-Saxon invasion and resistance…
Medieval Mass Grave discovered underneath the Uffizi Gallery in Florence
February 17, 2014 By
Workers doing renovations at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy have uncovered what seems to be the remains of a mass grave from the fifth-century AD.
Bright Beginnings: Jewish Christian Relations in the Holy Land, AD 400-700
February 11, 2014 By
This paper shows that Christian and Jewish relations in the Holy Land between the fourth and seventh centuries, according to the archaeological evidence, were characterized by peaceful co-existence.
Remains of Blanche Mortimer discovered in lead coffin
February 5, 2014 By
The discovery of a body inside a church memorial has caused amazement in the world of archaeology and surprised experts.
‘Royal’ pediculosis in Renaissance Italy: lice in the mummy of the King of Naples Ferdinand II of Aragon (1467-1496)
February 3, 2014 By
Pediculosis seems to have afflicted humans since the most ancient times and lice have been found in several ancient human remains. Examination of the head hair and pubic hair of the artificial mummy of Ferdinand II of Aragon (1467-1496), King of Naples, revealed a double infestation with two different species of lice…
A Reburial fit for a King
December 23, 2013 By
An Oxford University academic has put together an authentic order of service for the planned reburial of Richard III.
Viking slaves were beheaded and buried as grave gifts, archaeological find suggests
December 15, 2013 By
An archaeological research project on the northern Norwegian island of Flakstad has revealed new details about the lives and deaths of people who live during the Viking era
Medieval Mass Grave discovered in England
December 2, 2013 By
An archaeological dig near Durham Cathedral in England has uncovered at least 18 bodies ‘piled one top of another’ in what appears to be a mass grave dating back to the Middle Ages.
Danse Macabre’ Around the Tomb and Bones of Margaret of York
October 24, 2013 By
Over 500 years ago on 23 November 1503, at Malines, in present day Belgium, died Margaret of York, sister to Edward IV and Richard III of England and third and last wife of Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, whom she survived by a quarter of a century.
Viking Age Queens: The example of Oseberg
September 30, 2013 By
The Oseberg ship burial is a Viking Age burial mound containing a double female inhumation, which is located in the Oslofjord area in Norway.
The diagnosis and context of a facial deformity from an Anglo-Saxon cemetery at Spofforth, North Yorkshire
September 28, 2013 By
Osteological analysis of the complete skeletal population identified one individual, Skeleton 177, who presented an abnormal and pathological swelling to the left facial bones. The following discussion describes these pathological lesions and presents a differential diagnosis based on visual, radiographic and histological examination.
Research uncovers how Christianity changed Anglo-Saxon burial practices
September 3, 2013 By
During the 670s and 680s there was a dramatic change in how people were buried in Anglo-Saxon England, according to a new study released by English Heritage.
Post-mortem Ablation of the Heart: a Medieval Funerary Practice
July 24, 2013 By
In the Middle Ages the heart represented the whole body. Unlike modern man for whom the brain is the centre of higher function, medieval Christians saw the heart as the moral and intel- lectual centre. Saint Augustine contributed much to this attitude by describing the heart not only as the seat of intelligence, will power, memory, emotion, and other feelings but also as the authentic and indivisible source of life.
Infant Burials and Christianization: The View from East Central Europe
May 19, 2013 By
This was the second paper in the Early Medieval Europe I series given at KZOO and another fabulous archaeology paper. It contrasted infant grave sites in early converted medieval Poland and Anglo Saxon England.
Magic for the dead? The archaeology of magic in later medieval burials
April 28, 2013 By
Was this magic healing or protective? Did it aim to safeguard the living or conjure the dead? Who were the recipients of such magical rites — and who was responsible for performing them?
Unusual Life, Unusual Death and the Fate of the Corpse: A Case Study from Dynastic Europe
April 23, 2013 By
This article explores how deviant behaviour in life, deviant circumstances of death, and young age at death affected mortuary treatment among historically documented individuals from Medieval and Post-Medieval European dynasties.
The Dangerous Dead: The Early Medieval deviant burial at Southwell, Nottinghamshire in a wider context
October 30, 2012 By
This was the deviant burial, which had been buried (or reburied) intact along with a further leg and lower arm bone…Without speculating wildly on the implications of the iron studs, it is known that treatment of this sort was accorded to bodies which had died unnaturally or when there was some reason to fear the supernatural’.
What actually is a deviant burial? Comparing German-language and Anglophone research on deviant burials
November 1, 2011 By
‘Deviant burials’ are generally associated with bizarre practices like decapitations and strange body positions.
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