Lair Spindle Whorl: Younger Futhark Runes, Ogham, or Abstract Symbols?

A team from the Glenshee Archaeology Project has found a potential spindle whorl (5 CM in diameter) near a Viking Age longhouse excavation site in Lair, in Glenshee, Scotland. The object appears to be decorated. The team is waiting for specialists to analyze the object for potential Younger Futhark or Ogham inscriptions:

"David Strachan of Perth and Kinross Heritage Trust explained the possible significance of the find.

'Through the ages spindle whorls have often been decorated – and the spinning action would bring life to these shapes, much like the old spinning top toy,' he said.

'While we certainly have abstract shapes on this example, some of the symbols look like they could be writing, perhaps Viking runes or Ogham inscription, a form of early medieval Irish script.'"

(From: Cryptic symbols may hold key to Glenshee’s Viking-age past on thecourier.co.uk)

Notably, another spindle whorl—dubbed the Saltfleetby Spindle Whorl—featuring an inscription containing a very rare mention of the enigmatic god Heimdallr (along with the name of the widely attested god Odin and the rather mysterious figure of Þjálfi)  was found in 2010 in Saltfleetby, England.

Skull Not Modern Homicide But Rather Iron Age, Possible Sacrifice

Initially the subject of a modern homicide investigation, a skull discovered by two walkers in Bergen, Norway has been found to have belonged to a Germanic Iron Age woman. As the skull was found alone, the skull may be the result of ritual, perhaps the result of a sacrificial custom of some sort. Via thelocal.no:

“‘Only a skull has been dug up and there’s no sign of other body parts. This may indicate a decapitation,’ Asle Broen Olsen, at University of Bergen’s Section for Cultural Heritage Management told NRK. ‘It was hardly a part of legal practice. It was more a religious practice, where the person who was sacrificed had not done anything wrong, but was selected to be sacrificed to the gods.’
 
Bergen police were disappointed last week when they realised that the discovery would not help clear up any of their outstanding missing person cases.”

(Read more: “Mystery skull decapitated as sacrifice: experts” on thelocal.no)

New Egtved Girl Discoveries: A Foreign Birth

Major media outlets are reporting on recent discoveries about the origins of the iconic Egtved Girl, specifically that she was born elsewhere before moving to what is now Denmark later in life. For example:

* Glimpse of a Bronze Age girl’s daily life from hair, clothes” at cbs.com
* Prehistoric Danish girl 'probably born in Germany' at bbc.com

Now housed in the National Museum of Denmark, the Egtved Girl (Danish Egtvedpigen) is the partially preserved corpse of a Nordic Bronze Age teenager who was buried in a hollow log in the summer of 1370 BCE (via dendrochronology) and discovered in 1921 in the small city of Egtved on the peninsula of Jutland in Denmark. The Egtved Girl caused something of a sensation when she was discovered particularly due to her surprisingly well preserved clothing. There are many fascinating things about the Egtved Girl, and I encourage you to read more about her on the National Museum of Denmark’s page about her, which you can find here.

New analysis has shown that the Egtved Girl was not born in Denmark, but rather emigrated to Denmark another location, perhaps from what is nowadays the Black Forest in Germany. You can read more about these fascinating discoveries here: “Tracing the Dynamic Life Story of a Bronze Age Female” on nature.com

Thousands of years after her death, the Egtved Girl has come to inspire everything from poetry to music, particularly in Denmark. An image of the Egtved Girl standing before her oak coffin appears widely in grocery  stores and liquor stores all over the U.S. by way of the mass availability of Dogfish Head’s Kvasir, a reconstructed Nordic Bronze Age grog (see detailed discussion at the Livescience report here).

Small Viking Age Dragon Head Found at Birka, Sweden

A small dragon head has been found in the findings-rich site of Birka, historic harbor near Lake Mälaren in Sweden:

Birka, on Lake Mälaren, 40kms from Stockholm, is thought to be Sweden's oldest town and has been the site of excavations since the 17th century. But the discovery of the dragon's head is one of the most exciting finds in recent years.

'We did not understand immediately what we had found - it took a few minutes,' said Sven Kalmring, professor at the Centre for Baltic and Scandinavian Archaeology, who's been digging in the ancient town's port together with the Department of Archaeology at Stockholm University.

The little dragon's head had been on an ancient costume needle but the needle had long disintegrated. 'To the trained eye it's obvious that the dragon is of a design peculiar to Birka,' said Kalmring. 'It's very exciting.'"

Read more: “Viking dragon’s head found at Birka” on thelocal.se

Looking Back at 2014: Additions to the Viking Age Archaeological Record

In 2014, at least a handful of articles were published on Viking Age archaeological discoveries. These articles included such finds as:

* Near Køge, Denmark: An apparently 10th century ring fortress was discovered; "the first discovery of its kind in Denmark in over 60 years".

* Vadstena, Sweden: A "major Viking hall" around 50 meters in length has been detected with ground penetrating radar; "archaeologists have now revealed that [a mound at the site] is a foundation platform for a long building, most likely dating from the Viking Period".

* Arctic Canada: 2014 saw reports on new Viking Age finds in this region, which "may be the earliest evidence of high-temperature nonferrous metalworking in North America to the north of what is now Mexico."

* Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland: The Dumfriesshire Hoard was unearthed, consisting of "more than 100 gold and silver objects from the Viking Age".

I employ "at least" because these articles, by way of social media and word of mouth, are what trickled down to me during the course of the year of 2014. There may well have been more (an issue that I hope that this site will assist in addressing). Over the next few months, I will look back at 2014 and provide posts covering relevant topics that readers may have missed during the year.