Nordic Drifter

Divers from Finland have made an unexpected discovery while exploring the depths of the Baltic Sea, finding an incredibly well-preserved shipwreck dating back almost 400 years.

Volunteer divers from the nonprofit Badewanne team more often come across wrecked 20th-century relics sunk during the sea battles of World War I and WWII, so uncovering what appears to be a largely undamaged Dutch merchant vessel from the 17th century was a huge surprise.

The ship, an example of a Dutch ‘fluit’ (or fluyt), was found near the mouth of the Gulf of Finland, in the easternmost waters of the Baltic.

"In late January, the Indigenous Saami reindeer-herding community, Girjas, won a significant legal battle against the Swedish state. The Swedish Supreme Court legally recognised the Indigenous community's ancestral claim to the land they live on and awarded Girjas Saami Village in Gallivare the right to manage hunting and fishing in its territories without the Swedish state's approval.

This landmark ruling comes amid a climate emergency which threatens the lives and livelihoods of billions of people. Indigenous governance of lands and biodiversity are key measures that can help address the climate crisis. As such, Girjas' fight to take back the control of their lands should be seen as urgent climate action, too.

Indigenous communities the world over have the necessary traditional knowledge and experience to survive and thrive without hindering the future of the planet. Yet, they bear the brunt of the climate crisis.

The dominant lifestyles and politics of countries that are currently in control of ancestral Saami lands, from Sweden and Norway to Finland and Russia, have long been threatening Saami culture, food security, traditional livelihoods and the wellbeing of the lands we all depend on. But the threat is more serious now than it has ever been before because of the ongoing climate crisis. 

The ancestral lands of the Saami people make up almost half of Sweden's territories. If it was not for the colonial theft of these lands, Sweden could not have become the prosperous and "progressive" nation that it prides itself to be today.

Archaeologists believe they have found a rare Viking ship burial site in a region of Norway known for its Viking-era treasures, Norwegian officials said Monday.

Using ground-penetrating radar (GPR), experts found a ship-shaped anomaly near other Viking burial mounds in the Borre Park in Vestfold county, southeast of Oslo.

“The GPR data clearly show the shape of a ship, and we can see weak traces of a circular depression around the vessel. This could point to the existence of a mound that was later removed,” Terje Gansum, leader of the department for cultural heritage management in Vestfold county, said in a statement.

The ancient warrior was given a prestigious Viking burial, complete with deadly Viking weapons, a bag of gaming pieces (possibly to represent military command) and two horses, one bridled for riding. This mighty warrior — long thought to be be a man — made headlines in 2017 when researchers in Sweden announced that the individual was, in fact, a woman.

The intense scrutiny that followed caught the researchers by surprise.

The barrage of questions from the public and other scientists was unrelenting: Were the researchers sure they had analyzed the right bones? Was there more than one body in the burial, of which one was surely a man? And if the warrior’s sex was indeed female, is it possible they were a transgender man?

A new Viking ship burial has been discovered in Norway. Using ground-penetrating radar, archaeologists recently found one of the world’s largest Viking ship graves, resting a mere 0.5 meters beneath a farmer’s field. That’s just 1.5 feet!

The digital visualization reveals a large, possibly well-preserved ship, 20 meters long. And it appears to be embedded in a complex of at least eight other burial mounds, and underneath that lay five longhouses. This is not just one find, but a treasure trove of finds.

The Sami people have lived in northern Scandinavia at least as long as the Norwegian, Swedish and Finnish majority, and they are therefore considered indigenous to this area. The Sami people are the minority everywhere except from Central Finnmark, Norway, where most still have Sami as their first language. Most Sami people live in Norway, but they also live in Sweden, Finland, Russia and Ukraine.

Early archaeologists uncovered a sword, an axe, a spear, armour-piercing arrows, a battle knife, two shields, and two horses in the grave, signifying the buried individual’s status of as a “professional warrior”. A set of gaming pieces found in the grave indicates the individual’s “knowledge of tactics and strategy” and role as a high-ranking officer, the scientists said.

The word “Viking” entered the Modern English language in 1807, at a time of growing nationalism and empire building. In the decades that followed, enduring stereotypes about Vikings developed, such as wearing horned helmets and belonging to a society where only men wielded high status.

During the 19th century, Vikings were praised as prototypes and ancestor figures for European colonists. The idea took root of a Germanic master race, fed by crude scientific theories and nurtured by Nazi ideology in the 1930s. These theories have long been debunked, although the notion of the ethnic purity of the Vikings still seems to have popular appeal – and it is embraced by white supremacists.

More than a millennium ago, people in the Viking Age city of Haithabu dined on a dish of freeze-dried cod and tossed the bones aside. It was a relatively unremarkable meal, except for one thing. The DNA in those bones was preserved into the present day, and scientists in Norway have just sequenced it. What they found has confirmed the truth of stories from the Icelandic sagas about Vikings sailing exceptionally long routes to trade with other groups.

While most archaeologists and historians can agree that Denmark’s five Viking ring fortresses were most likely built by Harold Bluetooth around 980 CE, they remain divided regarding their purpose.

Was it to defend the kingdom? A demonstration of power? Or to cement the Christianisation of the Danes?

Many archaeologists think that the fortresses were built with just one goal in mind, and then disappeared more or less as fast as they had appeared in the first place.

But newly discovered pieces of ceramic pottery found in the main gates of Denmark’s fifth Viking ring fortress, “Borgring,” are now challenging this theory. 

Yesterday archaeologists discovered a second boat burial at an archaeological site at Dysnes ness in Eyjafjörður fjord in North Iceland. On Tuesday a burial site where a Viking age chief was buried in his boat, along with his sword and dog had been discovered. Two other graves dating to the Viking age have been found at the site. Archaeologists working at the site are optimistic to find more, as the dig has only just started. Neither boat burial has been disturbed by grave robbers, as many Viking age burial sites have been. Most Viking Age burial sites seem to have been opened up relatively early, only decades after the burial, and valuables, especially swords, removed. The reasons for such grave robbing are not known.

Russenorsk (eller “Moja på tvoja”) is an extinct dual-source pidgin language formerly used in the Arctic, which combined elements of Russian and Norwegian, and which was created by Russian traders and Norwegian fishermen from northern Norway and the Russian Kola peninsula. It was used extensively in Northern Norway for about 150 years in the Pomor trade. Russenorsk is important as a test case for theories concerning pidgin languages since it was used far away from most of the other documented pidgins of the world.

Russenorsk had a rudimentary grammar and a restricted vocabulary, mostly composed of words essential to Arctic fishing and trade and did not particularly deal with unrelated issues.

Corpora of Russenorsk consist of lists of individual words and phrases as well as records of dialogues compiled by linguists such as Just Knut Qvigstad. The corpora include c. 400 words, of which about half are hapax legomena.

The origin of its vocabulary is generally held to be approximately 40% Russian and 50% Norwegian, with the remaining 10% from Dutch, Low German, French, English, Sami, and Swedish.

Kak sprek? Moje niet forsto. - What are you talking about? I don’t understand.

Eta grot dyr. Værsegod, på minder prodaj! - It is very expensive. Please lower the price!

Kak pris? Mangeli kosta? - What is the price? How much?

Davai paa moia malenka tabaska presentom. - Give me some free cigarettes.

Archaeologists in Norway claim to have discovered a church where the Viking King, Olaf Haraldsson was first enshrined as a saint.

Archaeologists working on a site near Trondheim have unearthed the foundations of a wooden stave church and the altar where Olaf may have been enshrined immediately after being declared a saint. The discovery gives credibility to Norse saga accounts surrounding important events of that era.

Director of the project, Anna Petersén said “This is a unique site in Norwegian history in terms of religion, culture and politics. Much of the Norwegian national identity has been established on the cult of sainthood surrounding St. Olaf, and it was here it all began!

Archaeologists in Norway claim to have discovered a church where the Viking King, Olaf Haraldsson was first enshrined as a saint.

Archaeologists working on a site near Trondheim have unearthed the foundations of a wooden stave church and the altar where Olaf may have been enshrined immediately after being declared a saint. The discovery gives credibility to Norse saga accounts surrounding important events of that era.

Director of the project, Anna Petersén said “This is a unique site in Norwegian history in terms of religion, culture and politics. Much of the Norwegian national identity has been established on the cult of sainthood surrounding St. Olaf, and it was here it all began!