{"id":10390,"date":"2019-04-22T16:31:42","date_gmt":"2019-04-22T22:31:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=10390"},"modified":"2019-04-22T16:36:24","modified_gmt":"2019-04-22T22:36:24","slug":"norse-chess-pieces-reveal-an-ancient-whale-hunt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=10390","title":{"rendered":"Norse “Chess” Pieces Reveal an Ancient Whale Hunt"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Researchers discovered hnefatafl game pieces made of whale bone in upper- and middle-class Vendel graves. (Rudolf Gustavsson in Smithsonian)<\/p><\/div>\n

The ancient Norse loved the game of hnefatafl<\/em>, in which a king’s faithful followers try to protect him against raiding forces, which pretty well describes so much of early medieval politics.<\/p>\n

An article in Smithsonian<\/em>, however, suggests that these game pieces “were the product of early industrial whaling. If so, the pieces would be evidence of the earliest-known cases of whaling in what is today Scandinavia, and a sign of the growing trade routes and coastal resource use that paved the way for future Viking expansion.”<\/p>\n

Read the rest: “Viking Chess Pieces May Reveal Early Whale Hunts in Northern Europe<\/a>.” The Sami are part of the story too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The ancient Norse loved the game of hnefatafl, in which a king’s faithful followers try to protect him against raiding forces, which pretty well describes so much of early medieval politics. An article in Smithsonian, however, suggests that these game pieces “were the product of early industrial whaling. If so, the pieces would be evidence […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[100,134,361,362,81],"class_list":["post-10390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-history","tag-norse","tag-sami","tag-whales","tag-wildlife"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-2HA","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8334,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=8334","url_meta":{"origin":10390,"position":0},"title":"Jared Diamond Was Wrong\u2014The Greenland Norse Adapted","author":"Chas S. 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