Vikings Return from the Grave

The remains of two female Vikings were rediscovered on Tuesday, as their coffin was opened at the Vikingship museum at Bygdoey. The two women originate from the Oseberg ship, which was stationed at the Oseberg farm in the fall of 834.

The grave was first opened in 1914, but the two women were buried again in 1948. The archeologists at the time did not have sufficient knowledge and equipment, and decided to put the remains in a more sustainable grave and rebury them in specially made coffins of metal.
A team of very excited archeologists and press were gathered today at the museum to witness the opening of the coffin. It took Ragnar Loechen and his team about one hour to get it open, after it had been squeezed together in order to fit into the original sarcophagus.

Viking woman had roots near the Black Sea

Picture from the excavation in 1904.








The bones of a women found in one of Norway's most famous Viking graves suggest her ancestors came from the area around the Black Sea.
She were first found in 1904, when the Oseberg Viking ship was excavated, and analysed by a university.

The analysis data was withheld, however, and the woman's remains were returned to the Oseberg burial mound in 1947.

The term Viking commonly denotes the ship-borne warriors and traders of Norsemen (literally, men from the north) who originated in Scandinavia and raided the coasts of the British Isles and mainland Europe as far east as the Volga River in Russia from the late 8th-11th century. This period (generally dated 793–1066) is often referred to as the Viking Age. The term Viking has also denoted entire populations of Viking Age Scandinavia and their settlements, as an expanded meaning.