‘Spectacular' Viking burial site discovered in Denmark
In an accidental find, a 10th-century burial site believed to have belonged to a Viking noble family has been discovered in northern Denmark, packed with a 'spectacular' trove of ancient objects, a museum announced Tuesday. The discovery came when pearls, coins, ceramics and a box containing a gold thread were unearthed during construction work near Lisbjerg, a village located seven kilometers (four miles) north of Aarhus, Denmark's second-largest city.
Archaeologists found the site contained around 30 graves dating from the second half of the 10th century, when the famous King Harald Bluetooth reigned, said the Moesgaard Museum in Aarhus. According to the museum's archaeologist Mads Ravn, the graves are most likely linked to a noble family from the Viking Age -- which lasted between the eighth and 11th centuries -- whose farm was discovered less than a kilometer from the burial site in the late 1980s.
Conservator Helle Strehle holds a Viking Age silver coin discovered at a Viking Age burial site.
An aerial photo shows archaeologists working at a Viking Age burial site in Lisbjerg.
Conservator Helle Strehle places a preserved Viking Age casket discovered at Lisbjerg into an x-ray machine at Moesgaard Museum's labs in Aarhus, Denmark.
Conservator Helle Strehle points to x-ray images on a computer screen showing a preserved Viking Age casket discovered at a Viking Age burial site.
A Moesgaard Museum conservator holds a Viking Age ceramic bowl discovered at a Viking Age burial site.
A Moesgaard Museum archaeologist dusts off two coins at a Viking Age burial site.
Archaeologists work at a Viking Age burial site in Lisbjerg.
'This could have been one of Harald Bluetooth's earls or stewards,' Ravn told AFP. Ravn noted that the king, who introduced Christianity to what is today Denmark, tasked nobles with managing certain regions. Researchers also discovered some human remains, such as teeth and bones, at the site. 'People basically took what was important to them into the grave because they wanted to transfer it to the other world,' the archaeologist said.
One of the graves, which scientists believe belonged to an important woman, contained a box filled with decorative objects and a pair of scissors. The 'magnificent' box is a remarkable find, according to Ravn, with only a few having been discovered before, including one in southeastern Germany. 'It's very rare, there's only three of them we know of,' he said.
The excavations at Lisbjerg are due to be completed this week, after which experts will begin a thorough analysis of the objects recovered. Wooden objects in particular should help them accurately date the burial site. As a royal and commercial center, Aarhus was one of Denmark's most important cities during the Viking Age.— AFP
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Kuwait Times
a day ago
- Kuwait Times
Young Mozambican inventor bringing the blind smart ‘vision'
Young Mozambican inventor bringing the blind smart 'vision' MATOLA, Mozambique: When Armando Ernesto Chau straps on the futuristic smart glasses that a young Mozambican robotics student is developing in the family dining room, he has a vision of a life less confined to his modest home. Chau is the prototype tester for Joao Antonio Rego, a 24-year-old robotics and electronic engineering student driven to provide visually impaired Mozambicans with assistance that goes beyond a simple cane. Since he lost his sight 20 years ago, the 45-year-old father has not worked and rarely leaves his home in Matola, outside the capital Maputo. Rego's electronic glasses — battery-powered devices embedded with sensors that scan for obstacles ahead and emit warning vibrations — offer the promise of new possibilities. 'It is vibrating ... it is those bushes,' Chau said, demonstrating for AFP Rego's Vision Hope 0.2. 'Maybe, there is a window here... yes.' 'Because of these obstacles, it vibrates. So I go back,' he said. 'It stopped. See? Then it says there is something on this side... When I turn, it is quiet.' Resembling a virtual reality eye mask, this is Rego's latest prototype since he launched his Vision Hope project in 2021, winning Mozambique's Young Creative Award for technological innovation the following year. New features include a larger 120-degree range and more accurate sensors, explained Rego, a student at Eduardo Mondlane University. The battery, attached to a strap that is worn over a shoulder, is on a smart system that saves power and warns when it is running low. A GPS allows others to know the whereabouts of the user. Inspiration Rego is already working on improvements in his dining room workshop. 'I want the next version to have sensors capable of detecting very thin obstacles like wires and threads,' he told AFP. 'The coating also needs to be waterproof,' he said. Slim and serious, Rego was inspired to help when, years ago, he saw a visually impaired woman fall in a busy street in downtown Maputo, said his mother, Helena Inacio. 'Seeing that woman on the ground disturbed him. He vowed that he would create glasses,' she told AFP. She had asked: ''Glasses for what? So that blind people can see?' He said, 'No, to give direction.'' 'I thought it was fantasy,' Inacio said. Rego moved his lab out of his bedroom for better ventilation after a health scare led a doctor to warn about the risks of fumes from his soldering work. 'I had health problems and after an X-ray, they said there were some spots on my lungs which might have been caused by chemical fumes, like tin. It was temporary, but I must always take precautions,' he said. Rego's own vision is to secure partnerships that will allow him to one day produce and distribute his glasses across his impoverished country, where nearly 2.7 million people suffer vision loss, according to the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness. Chau, who lost his sight after falling ill in 2005 and undergoing treatment in hospital, has made some suggestions for the next iteration. 'I told him to first improve the roadside verification system,' he said. He would also like a sensor that can detect the pools of stagnant water that are common in his area. And, if possible, a way for detected obstacles to be identified. 'A system that communicates... about what kind of obstacle is in front of me, if it is a human being, a car,' he said. 'If the glasses are made the way I suggest, it will help us a lot, me and many other visually impaired people out there,' said Chau. — AFP When they are in production and he can get his own pair, the glasses will give Chau a new lease of life, said his wife, Felizarda Nhampule. 'Sometimes he stays here at home alone while I go out and do my errands. Sometimes he wants to go out somewhere but can't,' she said. 'With the glasses, he will be able to visit his friends and get rid of the boredom of staying at home. In case of an emergency, he can go and seek help from neighbors,' she told AFP, flashing a smile. 'So these glasses will be a great help to him and to us as a family.'- AFP
Kuwait Times
18-06-2025
- Kuwait Times
‘Spectacular' Viking burial site discovered in Denmark
In an accidental find, a 10th-century burial site believed to have belonged to a Viking noble family has been discovered in northern Denmark, packed with a 'spectacular' trove of ancient objects, a museum announced Tuesday. The discovery came when pearls, coins, ceramics and a box containing a gold thread were unearthed during construction work near Lisbjerg, a village located seven kilometers (four miles) north of Aarhus, Denmark's second-largest city. Archaeologists found the site contained around 30 graves dating from the second half of the 10th century, when the famous King Harald Bluetooth reigned, said the Moesgaard Museum in Aarhus. According to the museum's archaeologist Mads Ravn, the graves are most likely linked to a noble family from the Viking Age -- which lasted between the eighth and 11th centuries -- whose farm was discovered less than a kilometer from the burial site in the late 1980s. Conservator Helle Strehle holds a Viking Age silver coin discovered at a Viking Age burial site. An aerial photo shows archaeologists working at a Viking Age burial site in Lisbjerg. Conservator Helle Strehle places a preserved Viking Age casket discovered at Lisbjerg into an x-ray machine at Moesgaard Museum's labs in Aarhus, Denmark. Conservator Helle Strehle points to x-ray images on a computer screen showing a preserved Viking Age casket discovered at a Viking Age burial site. A Moesgaard Museum conservator holds a Viking Age ceramic bowl discovered at a Viking Age burial site. A Moesgaard Museum archaeologist dusts off two coins at a Viking Age burial site. Archaeologists work at a Viking Age burial site in Lisbjerg. 'This could have been one of Harald Bluetooth's earls or stewards,' Ravn told AFP. Ravn noted that the king, who introduced Christianity to what is today Denmark, tasked nobles with managing certain regions. Researchers also discovered some human remains, such as teeth and bones, at the site. 'People basically took what was important to them into the grave because they wanted to transfer it to the other world,' the archaeologist said. One of the graves, which scientists believe belonged to an important woman, contained a box filled with decorative objects and a pair of scissors. The 'magnificent' box is a remarkable find, according to Ravn, with only a few having been discovered before, including one in southeastern Germany. 'It's very rare, there's only three of them we know of,' he said. The excavations at Lisbjerg are due to be completed this week, after which experts will begin a thorough analysis of the objects recovered. Wooden objects in particular should help them accurately date the burial site. As a royal and commercial center, Aarhus was one of Denmark's most important cities during the Viking Age.— AFP
Kuwait Times
17-06-2025
- Kuwait Times
Startups show off ocean-preserving tech at Paris trade fair
PARIS: Harnessing ocean currents to boost fuel efficiency of vessels, or tracking whales using sensor data and AI — startups at Paris trade fair Vivatech have been showing off the latest innovations aimed at protecting the environment. Recently developed AI programs capable of learning from vast datasets have boosted projects trying to understand and predict real-world phenomena, several company founders told AFP. 'We have to use AI because in the natural world there are too many variables' to deal with manually, said Emily Charry Tissier, a biologist and founder of Canadian startup Whale Seeker, which is developing technology to track sea mammals. Powered by 'neural network' systems that ape the functioning of the human brain, the learning systems behind today's AI models 'can calculate a weather forecast 1,000 times faster than a standard digital model running on a supercomputer', agreed oceanographer Alexandre Stegner. He flagged an AI model developed by his firm, Amphitrite, that he said could predict ocean currents by crunching 'several layers of satellite data corresponding to different physical variables'. It can forecast currents up to 10 days in advance, he said, offering sea captains 'a simple way to save fuel' by slightly changing course and using currents to gain a speed boost of up to four knots. That could save operators money on fuel, reduce the carbon emissions from shipping, and avoid the classic solution of telling sea captains to reduce their speed. Global protection push Technologies like these were being shown off in the halls of Vivatech as the UN Ocean Conference (UNOC) drew to a close hundreds of kilometres to the south in French Mediterranean city Nice. The conference has pushed a treaty to protect 60 percent of the world's oceans closer to becoming law, with 55 signatures — just five shy of the number required for its enactment. New technologies could be 'a very good thing' for the oceans, said Andre Abreu, International Affairs Director at the Paris-based Tara Ocean Foundation. But he warned that innovation should not be harnessed to allow more fish to be caught. 'That would mean shooting ourselves in the foot' on goals like preserving marine biodiversity, he said. That ambiguity can be seen in technology from OceanEyes, a Japanese startup using AI analysis of satellite data to predict sea conditions. The company hopes to cut the time fishing boats spend tracking down a catch. 'A big problem in Japan is the efficiency of the fishery operations. Many fishers spend a lot of time searching for fish in the water,' said boss Yusuke Tanaka. With less fuel burnt, operators will save money and greenhouse emissions can be slashed. Anticipating concerns about overfishing, OceanEyes said it also aimed to help vessels comply with recently updated Japanese regulations that oblige fishers to 'ensure sustainable use of marine resources'. 'Can' vs 'should' Whale Seeker's Tissier said technology could be used in a considered way to find sustainable solutions. 'I'd like the market to recognise its own limits—not the limits of what we can do, but what we should do,' she told AFP. That attitude pushed her to refuse to work with a company that wanted to use whale detection to identify nearby fish to catch. But startups cannot grow without funding and, in the context of oceans, investments are likely to come from big firms keen to make a saving—from fishing and ship management companies to haulage and logistics giants. This could well limit their ability to stand on principle. Stegner called for 'regulations that would push the maritime sector to reduce carbon emissions'. But Charry Tissier said the initiative could come from business. 'Technology is developing so much faster than regulation... what I'd like is for big companies to decide for themselves to be responsible,' she said. — AFP
