#History Of Bluetooth

[coochiequeens]

Women's history just got richer

By Mindy Weisberger, CNN

More than 1,000 years ago, carvers in what is now Denmark set their chisels to rock to etch runestones — monuments to Viking leaders naming their deeds and achievements. Two groups of runestones mention a woman named Thyra, and new analysis of the carvings suggests that the runes on both sets of stones were inscribed by the same artisan and refer to the same woman: a Viking queen of considerable power.

Researchers from Denmark and Sweden used 3D scans to analyze carvings on the runestones, finding telltale clues that marked the individual style of the person who carved them. That carver’s repeated mention of Thyra’s name — a rare occurrence for Viking-era women — suggested that Thyra was a powerful sovereign who likely played a pivotal role in the birth of the Danish realm, the scientists reported Wednesday in the journal Antiquity.

“To learn more about the rune-carver and those named on the stone is fascinating,” said Dr. Katherine Cross, a lecturer at York St. John University in the UK who researches and teaches the history of early medieval northern Europe. She was not involved in the study.

“We can only understand early medieval sources once we can think about who made them and why,” Cross told CNN in an email.

One set of runes came from a pair of monuments known as the Jelling stones, erected in the town of Jelling around 965. The larger Jelling stone is often referred to as “Denmark’s birth certificate,” as it’s the first monument to name the land as its people pivoted to Christianity, according to the National Museum of Denmark in Copenhagen.

Both Jelling runestones also named a royal figure: Queen Thyra, mother of then-reigning King Harald Bluetooth. The smaller stone was raised in her honor by her husband (and Harald’s father) King Gorm, calling her “Denmark’s strength/salvation” (or “Denmark’s adornment,” depending on the translation, the researchers noted in the study). Harald commissioned the larger stone, to honor both of his royal parents.

In another set of four Viking-era monuments, known collectively as the Bække-Læborg group, two runestones mention a woman named Thyra. Those stones are associated with a carver named Ravnunge-Tue, but experts disagreed on whether that Thyra was Harald’s mother, said lead study author Dr. Lisbeth Imer, a curator and senior researcher at the National Museum of Denmark specializing in the study of runes and ancient inscriptions.

Before the new investigation, it was unknown who had carved the Jelling stones. Confirming that their carver was Ravnunge-Tue would strengthen the connection between the Jelling and Bække-Læborg runestones, Imer told CNN in an email.

“Then it is much more reasonable to suggest that it was in fact the same Thyra,” she said.

A question of style

Some details in ancient runestones that indicate a carver’s individual style are visible to a trained expert’s eye, such as the language or the basic shape of the runes. Other details are harder to detect, Imer said.

“What you cannot see with the naked eye is the carving technique,” she said.

To get a closer look at the carvings, the researchers took scans of the stones and created 3D digital models, then measured the runes’ grooves with a software tool that weighed variables such as angle, depth and cutting rhythm. Together, these variables can create a unique profile for a carver.

“Every rune carver develops his own motor skill and holds the tools in a certain angle, strikes with a certain strength,” Imer said. “The motor skill is individual and other individuals cannot copy that.”

When the researchers compared runes from Jelling 2 (the larger of the two Jelling stones) and the Læborg stone from the Bække-Læborg group, they found striking similarities, such as height of the runes, straightness of the main staves and length and placement of rune branches.

“In the Læborg and Jelling inscriptions you can follow the cutting rhythm of Ravnunge-Tue as one deep stroke of the chisel followed by two not so deep ones: DAK, dak-dak, DAK, dak-dak,” Imer said via email. “It is ALMOST like hearing the heartbeat of a person that lived so long ago.”

Jelling 1 was more eroded, so its markings were harder to analyze. But if the Læborg runestone was Ravnunge-Tue’s handiwork, Jelling 2 was likely his as well, Imer said. It would mean that the Queen Thyra mentioned twice in the Bække-Læborg group — on Læborg and on the stone Bække 1 — was the same person commemorated on the Jelling stones, the study authors concluded.

In recent years, archaeologists have revised prior interpretations of Viking warrior burials as exclusively male, finding that Viking women were fighters, too. The new findings add to the picture of influential Viking women holding prominent roles in statecraft as well as on the battlefield.

“This research highlights how Viking-Age women wielded power through political authority and patronage, not just violence,” Cross said.

What’s more, the fact that Thyra is mentioned on four runestones offers strong evidence of her importance, Imer added. Fewer than 10 runestones in Denmark from the pre-Christian era mention women at all — and four of those are of Queen Thyra.

“Runestones in Denmark were mostly erected in honour of men, but Thyra is commemorated on more runestones than any other person in Viking Age Denmark,” Imer said. “She must have held extreme power and social position.”

Mindy Weisberger is a science writer and media producer whose work has appeared in Live Science, Scientific American and How It Works magazine.

[city-of-ladies]

"Therefore, the references to Thyra on both groups of stones likely refer to the same person – the Danish Queen and mother of Harald Bluetooth. This indicates that she was a particularly powerful and celebrated individual. It is likely that she held land and authority in her own right, not only through her husband. “No other Viking man or woman in Denmark has been mentioned on that many runestones,” says Dr Imer, “and it underlines her undeniable importance for the assembling of the realm under the rule of her son, Harald Bluetooth.”

Importantly, this means that women likely had more influence in Viking-Age Denmark than previously believed. It indicates that Viking women may have been able to hold power in their own right and rule on behalf of their husbands or under-age sons. It also has important implications for our knowledge on the formation of the Danish state. The authors conclude:

If we accept that runestones were granite manifestations of status, lineage and power, we may suggest that Thyra was indeed of royal, Jutlandic descent. Both Gorm and Harald refer to her in the runestone texts and Ravnunge-Tue describes her as his dróttning, that is, ‘lady’ or ‘queen’. Combined with the designation of Thyra as Danmarkaʀ bót, ‘Denmark’s strength/salvation’, these honours point towards a powerful woman who held status, land and authority in her own right. The combination of the present analyses and the geographical distribution of the runestones indicates that Thyra was one of the key figures—or even the key figure—for the assembling of the Danish realm, in which she herself may have played an active part.""

[i-have-no-enemies]

So, I love history and I love Vinland saga, so let’s piece some of it together, shall we??

In the beginning of Vinland saga Leif tells Thorfinn about the king of Norway, who was the reason that so many had to flee to Iceland, well, that King was Harold Bluetooth.

Harold Bluetooth is also the man who created the Jomsvikings.

Harold Bluetooth had a brother named Strut-Harald.

Strut-Harald had three children, two of which are… Sagvaldi, and Thorkell.

And as we know, Sigvaldi had children, one of which was Helga, who later gave birth to Ylva, and then Thorfinn.

We already knew that Thorfinn was some kind of royalty, we knew as much because he is Thorkell’s grand nephew, and he is a Jarl, but I just find this family tree incredible, especially because that story made Thorfinn so angry, and at the time he had no idea that he was not the defendant of those that fled, but the descendant of the one who made others flee.

[ancientorigins]

An amateur detectorist has discovered Viking bounty in a Danish cornfield, including a rare coin trove & silver jewelry, revealing global Viking trade & raiding.

[blueiskewl]

'Very Rare' 1,000-Year-Old Viking Coin Hoard Unearthed in Denmark

Nearly 300 silver coins believed to be more than 1,000 years old have been discovered near a Viking fortress site in northwestern Denmark, a museum said Thursday.

The rare trove -- lying in two spots not far apart -- was unearthed by a young girl who was metal detecting in a cornfield last autumn.

"A hoard like this is very rare," Lars Christian Norbach, director of the North Jutland museum where the artefacts will go on display, told AFP.

The silver coins were found about five miles from the Fyrkat Viking ringfort near the town of Hobro. Notably, because they both have cross inscriptions, they are believed to date back to the 980s, the museum said.

The trove includes Danish, Arab and Germanic coins as well as pieces of jewellery originating from Scotland or Ireland, according to archaeologists.

Norbach said the finds were from the same period as the fort, built by King Harald Bluetooth, and would offer more insight into the history of the Vikings.

"The two silver treasures in themselves represent an absolutely fantastic story, but to find them buried in a settlement just eight kilometers from Harald Bluetooth's Viking castle Fyrkat is incredibly exciting," museum archaeologist and curator Torben Trier Christiansen said in a statement.

King Harald's earlier coins did not feature a cross, so he likely introduced the cross coins as propaganda in connection with his Christianization of the Danes, the museum said.

There could be a link between the treasure -- which the Vikings would bury during wars -- and the fort which burned down during the same period, Norbach said.

Archaeologists have said they will continue digging next autumn after the harvest.

They hope to find the burial sites and homes of the troves' one-time owners.

The Vikings believed that burying their treasure allowed them to find it again after death.

The artefacts will go on public display from July at the Aalborg Historical Museum.

The girl who made the discovery is due to receive financial compensation, the amount of which has not been made public.

[wanna-bewitch-you]

@wearewatcher I NEED puppet history to do an episode about Hedy Lamarr

[alexanderpearce]

what i would be listening to driving up to macquarie harbour if i had time to burn a cd tomorrow

[y0ur-maj3sty]

[arolesbianism]

Also holy shit it's so nice having a phone that doesn't die in like 2 hours like I was able to watch a video on it while I ate smth and it didn't immediately drop to 40% I can actually use my phone again yayyyyy

[mascrapping]

History of the Cricut Company

The Cricut machine has become a popular tool in the crafting and DIY community, allowing for precision cutting of various materials with ease. The machine has revolutionized the world of crafting, but where did it all begin? In this blog post, we’ll dive into the history of Cricut and how it has evolved over the years. Cricut was founded in 1969 by David Watkins in California, USA. The company…

[ancientorigins]

When archaeologists in Denmark identified the foundations of a huge Viking Hall they knew the find was substantial. But they didn’t expect that this building would be the largest Viking hall discovered in over a decade.

[blueiskewl]

Viking-Era Silver Coins and Jewelry in Finnish Field

Amateur metal detectors have found a Viking-era cache of silver coins and jewelry in a field in Mynämäki in southwest Finland, the Finnish Heritage Agency has reported in a press release.

The discovery was made in early May, with the agency stating that the coins and pieces of jewellery are believed to be from the tenth century. According to the press release, there were 12 coins minted by the Viking king Harald Bluetooth, of which only a few had previously been found in Finland.

"Yes it was shaking in my hands. This was my most spectacular discovery to date and the first intact cache I've found," said Oskari Heikkilä, the metal detector who made the discovery.

After he realised what he found, Heikkilä stopped digging, left the rest of the objects in place and reported his discovery to the Finnish Heritage Agency. The following week, the agency began trial excavations.

The agency said that based on archaeological research, the objects may have originally been in a leather bag due to their close concentration when discovered. Small pieces of Iron Age pottery were also found in the excavation area. The findings suggest that the site may have been inhabited.

The field area where the cache was found has been entered into the registry of ancient remains, meaning no further metal detecting or excavations may be carried out without the permission of the Finnish Heritage Agency. The discovery is now part of the agency's archaeological collections.

Mynämäki is known for its many Iron Age sites and finds, and it is in the centre of the Iron Age region of Southwest Finland.

[ammg-old2]

After the local government decided to build an observation tower atop a sandy hill on Wolin, an island in the Baltic Sea, a Polish archaeologist was called in to check the site before construction and look for buried artifacts from the spot’s macabre past.

Hangmen’s Hill, a public park, had in earlier times been an execution ground, a cemetery and, some believe, a place for human sacrifices — so who knew what grisly discoveries were in store?

But what the archaeologist, Wojciech Filipowiak, found when he started digging caused more excitement than distaste: charcoaled wood indicating the remains of a 10th-century stronghold that could help solve one of the great riddles of the Viking Age.

Was a fearsome fortress mentioned in ancient texts a literary fantasy or a historical reality?

It has long been known that Nordic warriors established outposts more than a millennium ago on Poland’s Baltic coast, enslaving indigenous Slavic peoples to supply a booming slave trade, as well trading in salt, amber and other commodities.

Not known, however, was the location of the Vikings’ biggest settlement in the area, a town and military stronghold that early 12th-century texts called Jomsborg and linked to a possibly mythical mercenary order known as Jomsvikings.

Some modern scholars believe that Jomsborg was never a real place, but instead a legend handed down and embroidered through the ages. The findings at Hangmen’s Hill on Wolin Island might alter that view.

“It is very exciting,” said Dr. Filipowiak, a scholar in Wolin with the archaeology and ethnology section of Poland’s Academy of Sciences. “It could solve a mystery going back more than 500 years: Where is Jomsborg?”

Interest in Vikings, once largely confined to a niche field of academic study, has surged in recent years as television series like “Game of Thrones,” movies, graphic novels and video games have embraced — and distorted — Norse themes, clothing and symbols. The Viking Age, or at least a rough approximation of it, has become a fixture of popular culture.

This has been good news for the tourism business in Wolin. “Vikings are sexy and attract a lot of interest,” said Ewa Grzybowska, the mayor of Wolin, which includes a town and a wider island district with same name.

But the mayor bemoaned that far fewer visitors come to her domain than to a nearby beach resort. She said more money was needed to carry out excavation work and develop Wolin as a world-class destination for Viking researchers and amateur enthusiasts.

Pointing out of her window in City Hall to a square that is believed to contain a treasure of unexcavated early medieval artifacts, she said: “Wherever you go here, there is a piece of history.”

That history, however, has often been a source of discord.

Nazi archaeologists scoured Wolin, which was part of Germany until 1945, for evidence of the presence of Vikings — and for proof of what the Nazis believed was the superiority of the Nordic race and its dominance in the early medieval period over local Slavic peoples, who later came to identify themselves as Poles and claimed the land for Poland.

When Poland took control of Wolin after World War II, Polish archaeologists hunted for artifacts that would enhance their country’s hold on former German lands and help reinforce a sense of national identity.

Schools in Wolin organized re-enactments of Viking invasions of Poland’s Baltic coast and, for decades after World War II, “far more kids wanted to be Slavs defending the island,” said Karolina Kokora, director of Wolin’s history museum.

That changed after Poland ditched communism and began turning West, away from Russia and its emphasis on Slavic pride. “After 1989, everyone wanted to be a Viking,” Ms. Kokora recalled.

Public fascination with Vikings has also led to a surge in historical sleuthing by amateurs.

Among them is Marek Kryda, a Polish American amateur historian and author of a polemical 2019 book that denounced Polish archaeology as a morass of ethnic chauvinism mostly blind to the role Vikings played in the early formation of Poland.

Mr. Kryda set off a storm of controversy last summer in Poland after he announced in The Daily Mail, a British tabloid, that he had located the likely grave of Harald Bluetooth, the historical Danish Viking king who once ruled in this area.

The consensus view among historians is that Harald probably died in the region at the end of the 10th century but had been buried in Denmark.

Mr. Marek said he had placed Harald’s likely burial mound in Wiejkowo, a tiny village inland from Wolin, by using satellite imaging. Dr. Filipowiak dismissed that as “pseudoscience.”

The furor over where Harald Bluetooth is buried has turned the Viking king — celebrated as a unifier of feuding Nordic fiefs and the inspiration for the name of a wireless technology designed to unite devices — into an agent of noisy division.

Ms. Grzybowska, the mayor, said she was not qualified to judge whether Harald was buried in her district but added that she would be delighted if true. “It would add special splendor and grandeur to our island,” she said.

Ms. Grzybowska’s district has a Slavs and Viking Village, dotted with thatched wooden huts and a stone inscribed with runes celebrating Harald Bluetooth. But these are modern fakes — representations of a distant Viking past that excites the imagination but has been hard to pin down with certainty despite the decades of digging by archaeologists looking for traces of Jomsborg.

Ms. Kokora, the museum director, described the elusive 10th-century settlement as a “medieval New York on the Baltic” — a trading entrepôt with a mixed population of Vikings, Germanic people and Slavs — that had mysteriously vanished from the map, leaving only whiffs of its existence in archaic texts.

It is said to have had thousands of inhabitants, a fortress and a long pier to accommodate the Viking ships that sailed to and from Scandinavia and as far as North America. Traces of enslaved Slavs traded along the Baltic coast in the first millennium have been found thousands of miles away in Morocco.

Sifting through shards of excavated pottery on a cluttered table in her museum, Ms. Kokora said the Vikings hadn’t bothered much with making pots and were not very good at it. “They just took from the Slavs,” she said.

In the 1930s, German archaeologists, eager to challenge Polish claims that the area had originally been settled mainly by Slavs, excavated a mound on the opposite side of town from Hangmen’s Hill in the hope of finding traces of Jomsborg — and proof that Scandinavians, an important pillar of the Nazi ideology of Aryan supremacy, had been there first. They found some artifacts but no evidence of a Viking stronghold.

Parts of Hangmen’s Hill had been excavated before Dr. Filipowiak started digging, but not the area selected for construction. The archaeologist said his serendipitous find of what he thinks could be the ramparts of 10th-century Jomsborg’s stronghold still needed more analysis, but he believes there is already “80 percent certainty” that this is the site.

The debate over Jomsborg’s location — or if it really existed — has been “a very long discussion,” Dr. Filipowiak said. “Hopefully, I can help end it.”

[doctornanitesreblogs]

Something funny from history...

King Herald was called Herald Bluetooth behind his back because he had a rotten tooth, inspite his insistence that his subjects call him "Herald the Good".

[phenikas]

The disappearance of a jack hole to plug your headphones into in new phones is the beginning of my villain era

[got-eggs]

My mother bout to do a disservice to old radios everywhere