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During the tenth century AD, Harald Bluetooth ruled Denmark from the royal seat at Jelling. The two extant Jelling mounds are traditionally associated with Harald's parents, Gorm and Thyra, about whom we know little. Unusually, the name Thyra appears on both Jelling runestones and on several others from the region. If all refer to the same person, she would be commemorated on more runestones than anyone else in Viking-Age Denmark. The authors use 3D-scanning to study rune carving techniques, combined with analyses of orthography and language, concluding that the Jelling 2 and Laeborg stones are linked by the hand of the carver Ravnunge-Tue. The results suggest Thyra played a pivotal role in the emergence of the Danish state. Keywords: Denmark, Viking Age, runestones, 3D-scanning, orthography, royal genealogy, Introduction Despite the Vikings' reputation for raiding and trading, the Viking Age in Denmark (c. AD 800-1050) was a time of state formation. A key figure in this process was [...]

Debate surrounds the identity of the Europeans who settled Iceland and Greenland in the early medieval period. Historical sources record settlers travelling from Norway to Iceland and then Greenland, but recent analyses of biological data suggest that some settlers had British and Irish ancestry. Here, the authors test these hypotheses with 3D-shape analyses of human crania from Scandinavia, Britain and Ireland, and one of the Norse colonies in Greenland. Results suggest that some 63 per cent of the ancestry of the Greenlandic individuals can be traced to Britain and Ireland and 37 per cent to Scandinavia. These findings add further weight to the idea that the European settlers who colonised Iceland and later Greenland were of mixed ancestry. Keywords: North Atlantic, Viking Age, migration, ancestry, cranial base, photogrammetry, geometric morphometrics, Introduction There is general agreement that Iceland was not permanently settled until the late ninth century AD (Vesteinsson & McGovern 2012). Once settlement began, most habitable areas of the island [...]

A massive tenth-century AD ring fortress was recently identified at Borgring, south of Copenhagen in Denmark. The combination of high-resolution LiDAR mapping, geophysical survey and targeted small-scale excavation has demonstrated that the site belongs to a rare class of monuments--the Trelleborg-type ring fortress. Borgring is the first such monument to be found in Denmark in over six decades, and provides an opportunity to investigate a type-site of Viking Age military organisation and conflict. The authors argue that Borgring complements a varied group of fortification structures in late Viking Age Denmark, part of a military network close to contemporaneous European ideas of military kingship and defence. Keywords: Scandinavia, Borgring, Viking Age, military monuments, LiDAR, geophysical survey, Viking Age ring fortresses The ring fortresses of Trelleborg type are enigmas in the archaeology of Viking Age Scandinavia. Comprising massive, timber-framed earth-and-turf ramparts, approximately 140-250m in diameter, together with [...]

A rare, intact Viking boat burial in western Scotland contained a rich assemblage of grave goods, providing clues to the identity and origins of both the interred individual and the people who gathered to create the site. The burial evokes the mundane and the exotic, past and present, as well as local, national and international identities. Isotopic analysis of the teeth hints at a possible Scandinavian origin for the deceased, while Scottish, Irish and Scandinavian connections are attested by the grave goods. Weapons indicate a warrior of high status; other objects imply connections to daily life, cooking and work, farming and food production. The burial site is itself rich in symbolic associations, being close to a Neolithic burial cairn, the stones of which may have been incorporated into the grave. Keywords: Scotland, Viking, boat burial, identity, isotopic analysis, Introduction Viking boat burials are iconic archaeological discoveries. Wonderfully preserved examples discovered at Oseberg and Gokstad in Norway have sparked the imagination, and both archaeologists and the general public remain [...]