A summary of ancient Norse practices on personal hygiene, bathing, treatment of disease, and battle wounds. Both the saga literature and forensic studies of skeletal remains suggest that battle injuries could be horrific …. The femur (leg bone) shown to the right is from another man who died of battle injuries in the 11th century. [...]

The ongoing excacations at the Mesolithic site of Star Carr in Yorkshire has turned up what is now thought to be the oldest house in Britain—10,500 years. Archaeologists describe finding “red deer skull tops which were worn as masks.” “And the artefacts of antler, particularly the antler head-dresses, are intriguing as they suggest ritual activities.” [...]

Robots are set to explore the Great Pyramid. Just think, ever since the Napoleon’s scientists put ancient Egypt back on the map of the public imagination during his 1798–1801 campaign, we remain fascinated by this structure. No one knows what the shafts are for. In 1992, a camera sent up the shaft leading from the [...]

The BBC describes an ongoing project in France to build a 13th-century castle using local materials and the tools and techniques of that era. I am always fascinated by what people learn by building old things in old ways, be they ships (like Tim Severin’s “Brendan boat”) or buildings or whatever.

Maybe the work crews were smaller than we think. I found that I, working alone, could easily move a 2400 lb. block 300 ft. per hour with little effort, and a 10,000 lb. block at 70 ft. per hour. I also stood two 8 ft., 2400 lb. blocks on end and placed another 2400 lb. [...]

Although some British Pagans have demanded NAGPRA-style reburial for Neolithic (and thus “Pagan” in some sense) human remains found at the famous ceremonial site of Avebury, English Heritage have decided against doing so. These Neolithic human remains were excavated in the Avebury area by Alexander Keiller between 1929 and 1935. In 2006, Paul Davies of [...]

Noted Classics professor Mary Beard visits the sewers and cesspits of Herculaneum, it being one of the two Roman towns buried by the famous eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE. A lot of the sieved organic remains are now being studied in Oxford, and they certainly show that the residents were consuming  eggs, nuts, [...]

… like a mass grave. Maybe it helps if said grave is 1,000 years old. To find out that the young men executed were Vikings is a thrilling development. Any mass grave is a relatively rare find, but to find one on this scale, from this period of history, is extremely unusual.

Make sure that you get the night-time garments (or lack of) right.

• “Hard versus Soft Polytheism is a False Dichotomy.” • A recently discovered statue described as the god Odin and welcomed by some reconstructionist Norse Pagans, is–by Viking Period artistic conventions–either a woman or the goddess Freya, says a Swedish archaeologist.  • The Necronomicon: “It’s like the Bible but different” (YouTube video). Via Plutonica.net. • [...]