Archaeologists Find Pre-Viking Ship Burial

[Äike]

Archaeologists Find Pre-Viking Ship Burial (http://news.err.ee/culture/0bcffca2-67c1-4a53-babf-38898ec74b40)

Another ship burial discovered this year in the village of Salme may turn out to be a pre-viking era battleground burial, an unparalleled find in Europe. So far, 16 skeletons of men killed in battle have been discovered on the site.

There is no doubt that a fierce struggle took place some 1,250 years ago near what is now the village of Salme on the island of Saaremaa, said Jüri Peets, professor of archaeology at Tallinn University. "Our estimate is 30 casualties, plus the same amount of injured. The skeletons bear sword marks. This shows the battle took place on land - you can't reach the enemy with a sword from a boat. There were also arrowheads found in the skeletons and in a shield."

The remains of the men-at-arms have been preserved as if by a miracle - at some point, three cable pipes were laid straight through the hull, narrowly missing the ancient treasure.

Such a mass grave of warriors from that period has never before been discovered anywhere in Europe. This, and the large amount of artifacts found, make the discovery exceptional, said Peets.

The foreign warriors were buried with their belongings. For example, the findings included a gilded bronze sword handle. The archaeologists plan to extract a tooth from one of the skulls and submit it to a DNA-analysis to find out where the unwelcome visitors might have arrived from.

The estimated length of the ship is 18 meters and the width 3.5 meters. The excavations will continue next year by the village schoolhouse, where the bow of the ship is expected to be.

In 2008, a smaller ship with an estimated length of 10 meters was discovered during excavations in Salme.

[esaima]

It is interesting.

[Motörhead Remember Me]

Really intresting.

Keep us updated if there are more news from this. I wonder what in their armament made the archeologists determine they were foreigners? A lot of the armament around the Baltics sea are similar and ship burials have been found in Finland as well.

[Äike]

Another ship burial discovered this year in the village of Salme may turn out to be a pre-viking era battleground burial, an unparalleled find in Europe. So far, 16 skeletons of men killed in battle have been discovered on the site.

By recent data, 10 more skeletons have been discovered and more will probably be discovered. Thus a total of 26 skeletons have been found.

[Äike]

There's a Wikipedia article about the Salme ships (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salme_ships).


Salme ships
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Salme ships are two pre-Viking era clinker-built ships that were discovered near Salme village in Saaremaa, Estonia. Both ships were used for ship burial around AD 750 and contained the remains of about two dozen warriors killed in battle, as well as numerous weapons and other artifacts.

Discovery

The ships were discovered in 2008 during earth removal for infrastructure construction. An archaeological expedition has been working on site since 2008. It is possible that at least one more ship is yet to be discovered during future excavations.

Location

The ships were located near the ancient coastline, about 1.5 m above water level. The location is 230 m from modern coastline and 4 meters above modern water level.[1]

The ships

Both Salme ships are clinker-built. One of the ships is 11.5 m long and 2 m wide, the second one 14-16 m long and 2.5 m wide.

The Human remains

26 skeletal remains were discovered in the two ships. Most of them belonged to 30-40 years old males, who had been killed in battle. The dead had been placed in three rows in the two ships.[2]

Grave goods

About two dozen swords of various types, remains of shields, spear heads and dozens of arrowheads were found in the burial. Most of them had been deliberately deformed to discourage grave robbery.

Smaller objects included one small socketed axe, knives, whetstones, a bone comb with ornaments, a bear-claw necklace, and numerous gaming pieces made of whale bone and antler with three dice.

The skeletal remains of two ritually sacrificed dogs were found in the burial.

Interpretation

According to Jüri Peets, the lead archaeologist at the site, the ships and the dead are of Scandinavian origin. According to the most likely scenario, a war party of Scandinavians attempted to carry out a raid against the Oeselians, but were attacked by Oeselian ships. The sides of the two ships contain numerous embedded arrowheads, some of which are of the three-pointed type used to carry burning materials to set enemy ships aflame. After losing too many oarsmen to the Estonian archers, the raiders pulled their ships aground and tried to defend themselves behind them. It appears that after the battle the Oeselians allowed either the survivors or some other group of Scandinavians to ritually bury their dead. The burial is unusual because the ships were not covered with mounds. The site was eventually forgotten by the local inhabitants after it had become overblown by sand and covered with vegetation.

Estonian Vikings>Scandinavian Vikings>Europe ;)

3/8 of my great-grandparents are from Saaremaa(paternal grandmother is 100% saarlane and maternal line also has some Saaremaa ancestry).

Maybe some of my ancestors killed those Scandinavian Vikings and then organized a raid to the coast of Denmark/Sweden for revenge. :p