The story of the world’s oldest mummies is a fascinating one. Their discovery by the archaeologist Peter Glob in Danish peat bog in 1950 led to a string of research findings, which broadened our knowledge of Viking history and culture.

The Mummies

In 1950, a pair of remarkably well preserved bodies were found in a peat bog on the Danish island of Zealand. They were dated to approximately 1100 A.D., and are believed to have been buried at that time. The bodies were clothed in woolen garments and wrapped with leather belts. The leather was so well preserved that archaeologists were even able to identify the type of skin used: sheepskin, cowhide, and antlers from an elk or reindeer (Glob 1969).

In addition to the two bodies, several artifacts were found at the site, including two wooden staffs with metal rings attached at either end (Glob 1969). One was decorated with an inscription which read: “Thorwald owns this staff,” while the other had an inscription which read: “Denmark owns this staff.” These artifacts suggest that Thorwald may have been some sort of ruler or leader in Denmark during his lifetime.

The Vikings are known for their epic voyages across Europe, but it is less well-known that they also travelled to the arctic, as far as Greenland and North America. Their presence has been found in a number of places, including New York.

What makes the finds so interesting is that some of them are mummies and testaments to a long forgotten culture. The mummies have shocked historians by showing such good health and hygiene that they would put many modern Europeans to shame.

The mummies were discovered in Qilakitsoq in north west Greenland and were remarkably well preserved, owing to the freezing temperatures. One of the females was pregnant at the time of her death, while another was wrapped up so tightly in skins that archaeologists thought she had been bound.

The mummies were found close to each other in what appeared to be a family group on an island in the Uummannaq Fjord system. The bodies were wrapped up in reindeer skins and covered with a layer of sheepskin and sealskin before being laid out together in a cave on their backs.

The Tale of the Mummified Vikings

A few years ago, a tiny mummified body was found in an Icelandic cave. The child’s remains were dated to sometime between 870 and 980 AD, and it’s believed that the baby died in infancy. About a century after this child died, Iceland stopped being pagan and converted to Christianity.

But only about half of the country did so willingly. The other half had been forcibly converted by violence or threats of violence.

Now, new analysis of the remains has revealed something curious: The tiny human was buried with a Thor’s hammer pendant around its neck. For those who don’t know, Thor was the Norse god of thunder and war, and he brandished a hammer that could level mountains and strike lightning down upon his enemies (among other things). This is an image that has permeated popular culture for over a hundred years now – what with Marvel’s Thor and all – but it wasn’t too long ago that Thor was considered just another mythical part of Norse culture from thousands of years ago.

So how did this little baby end up with Thor’s hammer around its neck? Well, it turns out that when Iceland’s citizens were being forced to convert to Christianity, many of them hid symbols of their old

For the last two years, archaeologists from the Museum of Cultural History in Oslo have been excavating a site called Gjellestad. It is just a short distance from the E18 highway, which links Oslo to eastern Norway.

The dig revealed one of the most important Iron Age finds in Norway in recent years: A huge longhouse, measuring 150 feet (45 meters) long and 30 feet (9 meters) wide. In front of the house was an equally large post that may have been used as a place of sacrifice. The longhouse has been dated to around 500 AD, which makes it at least 200 years older than the Viking Age we associate with warriors and dragon ships.

The archaeologists also found more than 700 artifacts inside and outside the house, including three well-preserved skeletons from a burial mound that had been erected beside the building. One of them—the mummy of a woman dressed for battle—made international headlines when she was discovered in 2018.

Her name is Jorunn, though we know her only by her nickname: “the bog mummy.” She has since become an instant celebrity among Norwegian schoolchildren, and she’s even starred in her own music video (see below). I’ve met Jorunn several times during my

In 2010, a team of researchers went to a glacier in the Ötztal Alps with a mummy named Otzi. He had died 5,300 years ago and was one of the oldest mummies ever found. Back then, scientists could not have foreseen the incredible journey that this mummy would make from his burial site high in the mountains to the research laboratories around the world. Today, Otzi is the most studied mummy on Earth. He has become a celebrity and even has his own Facebook fan page with over 100,000 fans.

The mummified remains of “Otzi” is seen at the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology in Bolzano, northern Italy in this undated handout picture released by the museum on May 6, 2013.

It is an amazing story that gives us an insight into Europe’s prehistory.

This particular mummy has been treated so poorly that it has become a symbol of all things wrong in archaeology and paleontology. It is a story about how greed, stupidity and ignorance can destroy scientific evidence.

But let us first go back to where it all started – with one of the most important archaeological discoveries of our time – when two hikers found this mummy on September 19th 1991:

The two young men were found in the summer of 1986. A couple of local reindeer herders, both Sami, were out on an expedition in the mountains not far from their homes in the far north of Norway. They were looking for a reindeer that had strayed from the herd and they finally found it trapped in some marshland. As they approached the animal, they noticed two other things. Something that looked like a piece of old, dead wood and something that looked like a stone slab. Both objects would turn out to be much older than either reindeer herder could have imagined.

One of them picked up the wooden object and discovered it was a walking stick or staff. The other picked up the stone slab and discovered it was actually a human skull – with hair still attached. It was at this point that they decided to call on the police in Tromsø and report their find.

The mystery of the Oseberg ship, revealed by modern science

The Oseberg ship is a truly unique find. It was buried as a part of a large burial mound at the farmstead of Avaldsnes on Norway’s west coast in about AD 834. The ship, 21.5 meters long and 5 meters wide, was made from oak and birch and had 16 pairs of oars. Inside the ship were found the remains of two women and many items placed in the burial to supply the deceased in their afterlife. DNA analyses have shown that one of the women was 80 years or older when she died, while the other was 50-55 years old. These findings have been published in Norsk arkeologisk årbok (Norwegian Archaeological Review).

The two women were also accompanied by a number of animals, including dogs, horses and cows, as well as birds. The adult horses were sacrificed young, while most of the dogs seem to have lived longer lives.

The women’s clothes, tapestries and domestic utensils are preserved and provide us with information about how people lived during this period. In addition to these items, there are also many sacrifices which are very well preserved: textiles, beds,