ASIA, CHINA, WORLD

Pottery Residues Reveal Changes in Central China’s Neolithic Diet

Pottery Residues Reveal Changes in Central China’s Neolithic Diet

The sustainable development of agriculture has laid a solid foundation for the birth of human civilization and countries. Early agriculture has long been a focus of archaeology.

China is the only country in the world with two independent agricultural systems, that is, rice farming in the south and millet farming in the north.

Research has shown that rice farming prevailed in Jianghan Plain in the Neolithic period, and the millet from the north spread to the region no later than the Youziling Culture period (5800-5100 BP).

Nevertheless, it remains to be unveiled what other plant foods were consumed by prehistoric people and how the paleodiet of plant foods evolved.

In a recent study published in Frontiers in Plant Science, a research team led by Prof. Yang Yuzhang from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has, for the first time, applied starch grain analysis to examine pottery sherds from the Neolithic site of Qujialing, and revealed the resources and structure of plant foods consumed by prehistoric people in the research region.

Pottery Residues Reveal Changes in Central China’s Neolithic Diet

The researchers detected starch grains from the species including job’s tears (Coix lacryma-jobi), lotus roots, acorns, Chinese yam, and legumes on the Qujialing pottery vessels, apart from rice and millet that had been previously identified, indicating the obvious diversity of plant food resources in the late Neolithic period.

Notably, job’s tears and lotus roots in the archaeological work at Qujialing were first identified.

The high frequency of detecting starch grains from lotus roots showed that they had been widely consumed by Chinese ancestors, and that might be related to the local environment surrounded by water with abundant aquatic plant resources.

Based on the findings of previous work on macrofossil remains and phytoliths and by quantitative analysis of the frequency of various starch grains of different phases, the researchers confirmed that rice persistently dominated the paleodiet, and the proportion of food like acorns procured from gathering significantly decreased as agriculture developed in the Qujialing site.

Locations of Qujialing and nearby sites in the middle catchment of Yangtze River.

This study unveiled the economic characteristics and dietary change in the middle catchment of the Yangtze River Basin in Neolithic times, and shed new light on the spread of millet and other crops from the north to south.

EUROPE, NORWAY, WORLD

Medieval Woman’s Life-Sized Model Created in Norway

Medieval Woman’s Life-Sized Model Created in Norway

Medieval Woman’s Life-Sized Model Created in Norway
“Tora” likely lived to be 65 years old in a medieval city in central Norway.

A life-size 3D model of a grinning old woman holding a walking stick looks like a contemporary elder on a stroll through her neighborhood. In reality, this woman lived nearly 800 years ago in Norway, and the model is a sculpted life-sized reconstruction based on her skeleton.

On Oct. 7, Ellen Grav, an archaeologist at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) University Museum, introduced the world to the lifelike model — named “Tora” — via Facebook. Tora’s likeness is now on display as part of an exhibitionat NTNU’s museum. (Tora’s name was selected in a public poll conducted by NRK, a Norwegian broadcast company.)

Tora was born near the end of the 1200s and lived in Trondheim, a city in central Norway. During that time, the medieval metropolis was growing rapidly and was inhabited by craftspeople and traders, according to the museum.

While there are no written records about Tora, archaeologists pieced together a story about this medieval woman’s life based on clues from her skeletal remains and where her body was exhumed.

“We know that she was buried in the churchyard near the street where the merchants lived,” Grav told Live Science in an email. “This suggests that she could have lived in a merchant’s family.”

Archaeologists suspect that the individuals who were buried in this churchyard were quite wealthy.

“Since Tora lived to be roughly 65, which is considered rather old for the period,” Grav said, “we do believe that she must have lived a somewhat good life for her time.”

A spinal deformity in Tora’s skeleton led Grav and her team to conclude that Tora likely walked hunched over. She also had no lower teeth and lived without them for a long period of time before her death. To the archaeologists, the bend in Tova’s back and her missing teeth hinted at “signs of hard work and lifelong wear on the skeleton,” Grav said.

An artist used silicone for the model’s skin and hand-painted liver stains and other spots on her body.

Grav worked with Thomas Foldberg, a Denmark-based film industry makeup artist, to make Tora as lifelike as possible. Unlike many facial reconstructions that involve using either X-rays or CT scans, Foldberg focused on Tora’s skeleton to help create a 3D model of what this medieval woman may have looked like. For Tora’s skin, Foldberg used silicone and even “hand painted liver stains and other spots” on her body, Grav said.

“Every strand of hair in the eyebrows, lashes and facial hair is attached one by one,” Grav said. “It’s truly amazing artistic work.” 

For Tora’s costume, Marianne Vedeler, a textile professor in the Department of Archaeology at the University of Oslo in Norway, researched archeological finds from the area that dated to when Tora lived. Vedeler then tapped local dressmakers to fashion an outfit for the model.

“Nille Glæsel, an experienced dressmaker of Viking and medieval dresses [based in Norway], made Tora’s dress for us using medieval techniques,” Grav said. “She spun the yarn, weaved the fabric in and colored it with Rubia tinctorum [also known as rose madder]. Then she hand-sewed the dress after [Vedeler’s] reconstruction. She also made the shoes. We do have a lot of findings of shoes from Trondheim, so it was quite easy to know how the shoes should look.” 

As for Tora’s friendly expression, “it was very important for us to give the audience a feeling of a warm meeting, to better connect [them] with the medieval human,” Grav said.

“People always tend to think the medieval ages were dark and heavy, but there was also joy and happiness, people loved each other and some even lived a long life. Tora’s life was hard, but she must have had good days as well. I hope that people learn that they looked like us, had feelings like us and that they were people like us as well.”

EUROPE, SCOTLAND, WORLD

Hoard of Medieval Silver Coins Discovered in Scotland

Hoard of Medieval Silver Coins Discovered in Scotland

Hoard of Medieval Silver Coins Discovered in Scotland
The 8,407 silver coins of the Dunscore Hoard include many medieval silver “Edwardian pennies” like this one found in the English city of Canterbury.

Metal detectorists have unearthed what may be one of the largest hoards of coins ever discovered in Scotland, in a field in the southwest of the country. The hoard is made up of more than 8,400 silver coins that date from the medieval period, mostly from the 13th and 14th centuries.

Ken McNab, a spokesman for the Scottish government, told Live Science that many of the coins are “Edwardian pennies” named after King Edward I, who reigned in England from 1272 to 1307.

Finding any coins in Scotland is rare, and this hoard is especially large. “This is the biggest medieval coin hoard found in Scotland since the 19th century,” McNab told Live Science in an email. 

The metal detectorists unearthed the coins last year in a field near the village of Dunscore, in the Dumfries and Galloway region about 50 miles (80 kilometers) southeast of Glasgow, and reported the hoard to the Treasure Trove Unit of National Museums Scotland, which oversees such finds.

McNab said the site was then investigated by archaeologists from National Museums Scotland, and each coin would now be identified, weighed, measured, and photographed — a lengthy process. 

Medieval kingdom

Scotland and England were independent kingdoms in the medieval period and often fought each other for control of their shared border. However, in 1296 Scotland was finally conquered by the armies of Edward I — earning the king the nickname “Hammer of the Scots.”

But the invasion sparked years of insurrectionist warfare, beginning with the famous rebellion led by William Wallace in 1297, and Edward’s descendants were troubled by uprisings until peace was agreed with the Scottish king Robert the Bruce in 1328, under the Treaty of Edinburgh-Northampton.

During his rule, Edward I reformed the coinage of his realm and introduced distinctive silver pennies with his face on one side and a Christian cross on the other. 

The design influenced English coins for hundreds of years, and today silver pennies from the reigns of Edward I and his son Edward II are much-prized by collectors.

Metal detectorists

Each of the newly discovered medieval coins is likely worth several dollars today, and the entire hoard is thought to be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, quite apart from its archaeological value.

According to the Scottish newspaper Daily Record, any artifact of archaeological significance, whether made from precious metals or not, technically belongs to the Scottish government and must be reported to the authorities.

The government doesn’t always act on possible claims, however; and McNab said the decision on how to allocate the coins and any remuneration paid to the finders would be considered by the Scottish Archaeological Finds Allocation Panel, which advises a government official known as the King’s and Lord Treasurer’s Remembrancer (KLTR).

McNab added that 12,263 artifacts were recorded by Scotland’s Treasure Trove Unit in 2022, including the 8,407 silver coins from the Dunscore hoard.

MEXICO, NORTH AMERICA, WORLD

Archaeologists Open a Sealed ‘Jaguar God’ Cave Undisturbed For Over 1,000 Years

Archaeologists Open a Sealed ‘Jaguar God’ Cave Undisturbed For Over 1,000 Years

Archaeologists Open a Sealed 'Jaguar God' Cave Undisturbed For Over 1,000 Years

Luis Un was just a boy when he first visited the cave.

It was 1966, and farmers had stumbled upon the hidden cavern by chance. They alerted a prominent Mexican archaeologist, who promptly sealed the entrance. Decades passed, the strange place was forgotten. But not by Luis Un.

Last year, Un, now a 68-year-old, led archaeologists back to this undisturbed secret under the ancient Maya city of Chichén Itzá, along the north edge of Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula.

What it contains, researchers announced this week, amounts to the most important such discovery in the region since the 1950s: hundreds of incredibly well-preserved Maya artefacts protected within an archaeological treasure trove called Balamkú (“the cave of the jaguar god”).

“Balamkú will help rewrite the story of Chichén Itzá,” says archaeologist Guillermo de Anda from Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History, and the director of the Great Maya Aquifer Project (GAM).

“The hundreds of archaeological artefacts, belonging to seven [ritual offering chambers] documented so far, are in an extraordinary state of preservation.”

According to the team, in the Late Classic (700–800 CE) and Terminal Classic (800–1000 CE) periods of Maya civilisation, droughts in the Yucatán region obliged its ancient inhabitants to look elsewhere for water.

In natural sinkholes called cenotes and the sprawling cave systems branching off from them, the Maya found not just vital groundwater, but something else too: divinity.

“For the ancient Maya, caves and cenotes were considered openings to the underworld,” anthropologist Holley Moyes from the University of California, Merced, who wasn’t involved with the team, explained to National Geographic.

“They represent some of the most sacred spaces for the Maya, ones that also influenced site planning and social organisation. They are fundamental, hugely important, to the Maya experience.”

Because of this, these giant underwater caves inhabited long ago can yield just as many secrets about the mysterious culture as the equally epic Maya dwellings above the ground.

One of the most famous of those structures is El Castillo – aka the Temple of Kukulcána, a stunning pyramid that forms one of the central landmarks of Chichén Itzá. It stands less than three kilometres (under two miles) from the newly explored cave.

This close proximity makes Balamkú, and the more than 200 artefacts it contains a truly important find.

“Because the context remained sealed for centuries, it contains invaluable information related to the formation and fall of the ancient ‘City of Water Wizards’, and about [those] who were the founders of this iconic site,” de Anda says.

The items found so far include incense holders, food containers, and drinking vessels – many bearing the iconography of Tlāloc, the god of water (and fertility) who appears in different forms across ancient Mesoamerican cultures.

Some of the artefacts contain ancient traces of food, bone, minerals, and seeds. By analysing these, the researchers could learn even more about the people who once inhabited this long-hidden space.

We can likely expect even more discoveries, since the worm-like cave extends for hundreds of metres which are yet to be explored in depth.

Part of the reason the artefacts are so well preserved is because Balamkú is such an inaccessible recess and natural hiding place – calling for the archaeologists to stoop and crawl as they travel through it, especially in stretches that are only 40 centimetres high.

There’s also not a lot of oxygen in the caves, and snakes to contend with. But nobody is complaining.

“The place is extraordinary,” de Anda told The New York Times.

“Now comes a stage of documentation, protection, and conservation of this marvellous and unique place.”

In addition, the team will continue to search further, looking for a possible underground link to the nearby pyramid.

“Let’s hope this leads us there,” de Anda told Associated Press.

“That is part of the reason why we are entering these sites, to find a connection to the cenote under the Castillo.”

Whether or not one turns up, the rediscovered cave and the objects inside it already serve as a priceless lifeline: a rare, tangible connection between a vanished culture and the explorers of today, both young and old.

“I couldn’t speak, I started to cry,” de Anda told National Geographic, recounting the experience of entering the cave for the first time.

“You almost feel the presence of the Maya who deposited these things in there.”

CANADA, NORTH AMERICA, WORLD

Discovery of Giant Dinosaur Fossil with Skin in Southern Alberta Excites Paleontologists

Discovery of Giant Dinosaur Fossil with Skin in Southern Alberta Excites Paleontologists

Bone hunters from around the world regularly travel to Dinosaur Provincial Park in the southern Alberta badlands — but the recent discovery of a hadrosaur fossil is causing a lot more excitement than usual.

Kaskie volunteers in a field school at the park run by Brian Pickles, a professor from the University of Reading in England. He and his colleagues bring students from the United Kingdom and Australia to learn and test field techniques in Alberta.

Kaskie came across a cliff and noticed a fossilized bone sticking out of it. Upon closer inspection, she realized it was larger and more intact than anything she had ever seen.

Discovery of Giant Dinosaur Fossil with Skin in Southern Alberta Excites Paleontologists
Calgary-based biologist and dino enthusiast Teri Kaskie was actually looking for Tyrannosaurus rex teeth when she made the discovery.

“I instantly went up to Brian and, like, you need to come to take a look at this! And as it turned out, it was something really cool,” Kaskie said.

What she found was a young hadrosaur so well preserved that it still had skin on it. Pickles knew it was a significant find and brought it to the attention of the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology in Drumheller, Alta.

Experts say hadrosaur skeletons are common in the area, but to find one as well preserved as Kaskie did is very rare.”We took so many photos. We sent them to the Royal Tyrrell Museum staff [and said], ‘Hey, I think we found something really big here,’” said Pickles.

Skin on fossils ‘quite rare’When it comes to dinosaurs, Alberta has a rich fossil heritage, according to Caleb Brown, curator of dinosaur systematics and evolution at the Royal Tyrrell Museum.

“Dinosaur Provincial Park is kind of the crown jewel of that. There’s no other place in the world that has the same abundance of dinosaur fossils and the same diversity of dinosaur fossils in a very small area,” he added.

Hadrosaurs were herbivorous duck-billed dinosaurs, commonly referred to as the cows of the Cretaceous period.

According to Brown, around 400 to 500 dinosaur skeletons or skulls have been excavated from the area. So, finding dinosaur bones in the area is not hard. But finding one where all the bones are still in the same position they would be in life is uncommon.

“And finding one that has a lot of skin on it is quite rare.”

NORTH AMERICA, U.S.A, WORLD

Discovered the Oldest Forest in the World, dating back 386 million years

Discovered the Oldest Forest in the World, dating back 386 million years

Ruins of an ancient forest have been identified at a quarry near Cairo, New York, USA. The fossils have been dated to 386 million years old, making them the oldest known fossils.

According to scientists, the new site not only tells us more about how Earth’s climate has changed over time, but also evidence that forests evolved 2 to 3 million years earlier than previously thought. before. The findings were published recently in the journal Current Biology and New Scientist.

“Charles was just walking across the floor of the quarry and he noticed these large root structures are very special,” said Christopher Berry at Cardiff University in the UK – the find involved Charles Ver Straeten at the New State Museum York, who discovered the first fossils in 2008.

The researchers found three types of trees at the site – evidence that the ancient forests consisted of several different species of trees. One of them, belonging to the genus Archeopteris, has roots reaching up to 11 meters long. This species is similar to modern conifers and was the first known to have evolved flattened green leaves.

At an abandoned quarry near the town of Cairo, New York, scientists suddenly discovered the remains of the oldest forest that has ever existed in Earth’s history.

This discovery is considered a turning point in the history of the formation of life on the planet. When old trees develop clusters of roots like these, they consume them to remove carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere and lock it in.

Previously, the oldest Archaeopteris fossils found were dated to no more than 365 million years old, Berry said. Exactly when this plant evolved into a modern tree is still unclear.

But now, the discovery in Cairo suggests that Archaeopteris began its transition about 20 million years ago, said Patricia Gensel, a paleontologist at the University of North Carolina.

“The size of those root systems has really changed the way we look,” she said. By 20 years ago, researchers thought that trees with such large and complex root systems did not develop so early in geological history.

Archaeopteris not only incubates and nurtures the life, the creatures around him, but also helps promote the process of life evolving and covering all over the Earth.

“Archaeopteris seems to reveal the beginnings of the future of what forests will eventually become,” said William Stein, a biologist at Binghamton University in New York and lead author of the new study.

Based on what we know from earlier fossil body fossil evidence of Archaeopteris, and now from the root evidence that we’ve added, these plants have evolved very rapidly relative to plants. Although still significantly different from modern tree species, Archaeopteris seems to indicate the future evolutionary path of forests at that time.”

Stein and his team also discovered evidence of “scaly plants” of the class Lycopsida – trees that are only thought to have existed in the Carboniferous period millions of years later, at the end of the Devonian period. The new findings therefore provide evidence that forests evolved much earlier than previously known.

Christopher Berry, a paleontologist at Cardiff University, UK, said the quarry floor the team found was about half the size of a rugby field. It was a layer cut across just below the surface of the ancient forest.

In fact, when looking at the age of the forest, we can know that at the time when it was most powerful, on Earth there were no birds, terrestrial vertebrates and even animals. dinosaur. These species only appeared and developed 150 million years after this forest appeared.

However, this forest is not a place where no animals live. Instead, it is likely inhabited by millipedes and other insects. “It’s funny to think about a forest without big animals,” Chris Berry, a paleontologist at Cardiff University and a co-author of the new study, told The Guardian.

Forests and their evolution have played a central role in shaping our planet’s climate and ecosystems. By capturing carbon dioxide, forests have reduced levels of greenhouse gases to modern-day levels, significantly cooling the planet.

According to Sandy Hetherington at the University of Oxford, fossil research can help provide clues about the relationship between deforestation and modern climate change.

“Understanding how this has happened in the past is important for predicting what will happen in the future due to climate change and deforestation,” she said.

AFRICA, EGYPT, WORLD

Two mysterious ‘secret chambers’ were discovered inside Egypt’s Great Pyramid using cosmic rays and space particles

Two mysterious ‘secret chambers’ were discovered inside Egypt’s Great Pyramid using cosmic rays and space particles

Two secret chambers have been discovered in Egypt’s 4,500-year-old Great Pyramid of Giza. Researchers confirmed they had found the mysterious cavaties after scanning the centuries-old tomb using revolutionary radiography equipment.

The Scan Pyramids project made the latest discovery after being able to demonstrate the efficiency of non-evasive Muons technology at the Bent Pyramid in Dahshour this May.

Last year thermal scanning identified a major anomaly in the Great Pyramid, sparking a debate over whether there was a long-running network of tunnels hidden away inside.

But now the mystery has been answered as the Ministry of Antiquities announced on Thursday that ‘two anomalies were found in the pyramid built under King Khufu.

They are now looking to conduct further tests on the 146m-high monument to determine its function, nature, and size.

Mysterious ‘secret chambers’ have been found in Eygpt’s 4,500-year-old Pyramid of Giza
Two mysterious 'secret chambers' were discovered inside Egypt's Great Pyramid using cosmic rays and space particles
Muons emulsion plate setup in Khufus lower chamber

The pyramid, also known as the Pyramid of Khufu, named after the son of Pharaoh Snefru, is considered one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.

It has three known chambers, and like other pyramids in Egypt was intended as a pharaoh’s tomb.

Operation Scan Pyramids scientists said: “We are now able to confirm the existence of a ‘void’ hidden behind the north face, that could have the form of at least one corridor going inside the Great Pyramid.”

Scientists using muons emulsion plates in the Khufus Pyramid’s Queen Chamber

Another ‘cavity’ was discovered on the pyramid’s northeast flank but there is currently no link between the two cavities, according to Mehdi Tayoubi, founder of the Heritage Innovation Preservation Institute (HIP).

He told Seeker: “Such void is shaped like a corridor and could go up inside the pyramid.”

The international Scan Pyramids team is lead by the Faculty of Engineering at Cairo University, and the Paris-based HIP Institute.

The Scan Pyramids team with Ministry of Antiquities Dr Khaled El-Enan and Egyptologist Dr Zahi Hawass

They launched their mission in October last year to search for hidden rooms inside Khufu and its neighbor Khafre in Giza, as well as the Bent and Red pyramids in Dahshur, all south of Cairo.

The project applies a mix of infrared thermography, muon radiography imaging, and 3D reconstruction – all of which the researchers say are non-invasive and non-destructive techniques.

Scan Pyramids explained in a statement that muons are “similar to X-rays which can penetrate the body and allow bone imaging and ‘can go through hundreds of meters of stone before being absorbed.

The stunning 3D images give a glimpse into the ancient temple.

“Judiciously placed detectors – for example inside a pyramid, below a potential, unknown chamber – can then record particle tracks and discern cavities from denser regions.”

In May scientists from the project released images and details of what they found at the Bent Pyramid, located at the royal necropolis of Dahshur.

They uncovered two entrances, one on the north side and one on the west side. They open onto two corridors, which in turn lead to a pair of burial chambers, one on top of the other.

It is the earliest to be built under the Old Kingdom Pharaoh Sneferu and is thought to be the first attempt at a smooth-sided structure. It had been thought the body of Pharaoh Sneferu was entombed inside the pyramid.

However, the scans scotched that theory – with no suitable chamber found inside the monument.

But Mehdi Tayoubi, president of the Heritage Innovation Preservation Institute, told Discovery: “Nevertheless, this is indeed a scientific breakthrough as it validates the muography principle applied to Egyptian pyramids.

“It paves the way to new investigations.”

WORLD

Scientists Just Revealed They Found Thor & Odin Temple & Said this was Hiding Inside It

Scientists Just Revealed They Found Thor & Odin Temple & Said this was Hiding Inside It

The god house (shown here in a digital reconstruction) was strongly built of beams and walls of wood; some lasted for hundreds of years. It included a central tower, patterned on Christian churches seen in lands further south.

The remains of a 1,200-year-old pagan temple to the Old Norse gods such as Thor and Odin have been discovered in Norway — a rare relic of the Viking religion built a few centuries before Christianity became dominant there.

Archaeologists say the large wooden building — about 45 feet (14 meters) long, 26 feet (8 m) wide, and up to 40 feet (12 m) high — is thought to date from the end of the eighth century and was used for worship and sacrifices to gods during the midsummer and midwinter solstices.

Old Norse culture was famous and feared by some a century later, after bands of Norse sailors and warriors known as the Vikings started trading, raiding and colonizing throughout Europe and into Iceland, Greenland and Canada.

This is the first Old Norse temple found in the country, said archaeologist Søren Diinhoff of the University Museum of Bergen.

“This is the first time we’ve found one of these very special, very beautiful buildings,” Diinhoff told Live Science. “We know them from Sweden and we know them from Denmark. … This shows that they also existed in Norway.”

The Norse began building these large “god houses,” as they’re called, in the sixth century. The god houses were much more complex than the simple sites, often outdoors, that the people previously used to worship the Old Norse gods.

“It is a stronger expression of belief than all the small cult places,” he said. “This is probably something to do with a certain class of the society, who built these as a real ideological show.”

The god house was the religious link between local people and the Old Norse gods. The gods were said to live in the realm of Asgard, which was connected to the earthly realm Midgard by a “rainbow bridge” called Bifröst.
The remains of the ancient god house were found at Ose, a seaside village near the town of Ørsta in western Norway, on land earmarked for a housing development.
Excavations at the site revealed the remains of two longhouses – probably family farms – from more than 2000 years ago, before the god house was built at the end of the eighth century A.D.
The Old Norse “god house” was built from wood about 1200 years ago to worship gods like Odin, Thor, and Freyr. Post-holes that show its distinctive shape, including its central tower, have been unearthed at the site.
The interior of the god house (shown here in a digital reconstruction) at Ose may have been lit by hearths for sacrificial fires and had wooden statues of the Old Norse gods, such as the war god Odin, the storm god Thor, and the fertility god Freyr.
The site is beside the coast among mountains and inlets, about 150 miles south-west of the modern city of Trondheim. Boathouses would have been built along the shore in ancient times.

God house

Archaeologists unearthed the foundations of the ancient building last month at Ose, a seaside village near the town of Ørsta in western Norway, ahead of preparations for a new housing development. 

Their excavations revealed traces of early agricultural settlements dating to between 2,000 and 2,500 years ago, including the remains of two longhouses that would have each been the center of a small farm for a family and their animals, Diinhoff said.

The remains of the god house at Ose, however, are from a later time when the area began to be dominated by an elite group of wealthy families — a distinction that arose as Scandinavian societies began to interact with the more stratified societies of the Roman Empire and the Germanic tribes of northern Europe.

“When the new socially differentiated society set in, in the Roman Iron Age, the leading families took control of the cult,” he said.

Norse religious worship became more ideological and organized, and god houses at Ose were patterned on Christian basilicas that travelers had seen in southern lands, he said.

As a result, Old Norse temples featured a distinctive high tower above the pitched roof, which was a copy of the towers of early Christian churches, he said.

Although the wooden building is now long-gone, the post-holes that remain show its shape, including the round central posts of its tower — a very distinctive construction that was only ever used in god houses, Diinhoff said. “It would have been very impressive.”

The Old Norse “god house” was built from wood about 1200 years ago to worship gods like Odin, Thor and Freyr. Post-holes that show its distinctive shape, including its central tower, have been unearthed at the site.

Ancient worship

The purpose of the site is also revealed by a concentration of cooking pits where food for religious feasts was prepared, and numerous bones — the remains of animal sacrifices.

A large white “phallus” stone, roughly representing the male genital organ, was also found nearby several years ago and was probably part of the Old Norse fertility rituals, Diinhoff said.

Ceremonies would have been held in the god house for important festivals on the religious calendar, such as the midsummer and midwinter solstices — the shortest and longest nights of the year, respectively.

Meat, drink and sometimes precious metals like gold would have been offered to wooden figurines within the building that represented the Old Norse gods — in particular the war god Odin, the storm god Thor, and the fertility god Freyr, who were commonly worshipped in the Old Norse religion and gave their names in English to Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

As the gods could only partake of the festival food in spirit, the physical food and drink would be enjoyed by their worshippers. “You would have a good mood, a lot of eating and a lot of drinking,” Diinhoff said. “I think they would have had a good time.”

The Old Norse religion was suppressed from the 11th century, when Norway’s kings forcibly imposed the Christian religion and tore down or burned buildings like the god house at Ose to enforce worship in the new Christian churches.

So far, there’s no evidence that the god house at Ose was part of that purge, Diinhoff said. 

Further work could reveal the house was among the pagan buildings destroyed at the time. “It would be ideal if we could explain that,” he said. “But we’re not there yet.”

All In One Magazine