Vikings.

artifactsmuseum October 31, 2015 No comments

Bold seafarers swept out of Scandinavia a millennium ago and terrorized and explored Europe, western Asia, and eastern Canada. They left us amazing artifacts.From some 250 years most of the world fell prey to raiders called Vikings. Sailing from Scandinavia they terrorized and left their testimony in Europe, Asia and even North America. They dominated Russia and gave it its name, they crossed Atlantic...

Viking ring fortess

artifactsmuseum October 31, 2015 No comments

When the Viking ring (also known as Trelleborg) fortresses were discovered in Denmark, researchers were surprised: to a great extent, it came to light that they had previously underestimated both the Vikings’ organizational and technical capabilities of building military installations that would keep their enemies at a distance.Eight of them have been dated to around 980 CE – the reign of King Gorm...

Swiss knife. Victorinox was't first - the Romans were.

artifactsmuseum October 30, 2015 No comments

Nowadays the Leatherman or Victorinox are the first thaughts when we think of the multi-tool or swiss knife.But history of hand tools that combines several individual functions in a single unit are much older. The oldest known multi-tool was made circa 1900 years ago. An intricately designed Roman implement, which dates back to 200AD, it is made from silver but has an iron blade. It features...

Were ancient romans nanotechnology pioneers? Amazing Lycurgus Cup

artifactsmuseum October 30, 2015 No comments

The Lycurgus Cup, as it is known due to its depiction of a scene involving King Lycurgus of Thrace, is a 1,600-year-old jade green Roman chalice. Like many others.But when you put a source of the light inside it it magically changes colour. It appears jade green when lit from the front but blood-red when lit from behind or inside.It baffled scientists ever since the glass chalice was acquired...

Did the Aztecs really practice human sacrifice?

artifactsmuseum October 29, 2015 No comments

Yes they did. And they were really cruel.The Aztec civilization which flourished in Mesoamerica between 1345 and 1521 CE has gained an infamous reputation for bloodthirsty human sacrifice with lurid tales of the beating heart being ripped from the still-conscious victim, decapitation, skinning and dismemberment. All of these things did happen but it is important to remember that for the Aztecs the...

Death at Trafalgar

artifactsmuseum October 29, 2015 No comments

Shortly before noon on October 21, 1805, a fleet of 27 Royal Navy warships sliced through the seas near the southern coast of Spain. Onboard the flagship HMS Victory, Lord Horatio Nelson paced the main deck, his gazed fixed on the 33 French and Spanish ships floating on the horizon. Traditionally, enemy fleets would face each other in parallel lines. Nelson’s strategy was to arrange his ships...

War elephants

artifactsmuseum October 28, 2015 No comments

It was the arrival of the cannon in the 16th century that finally heralded the end of elephants being used as an instrument of war. Until that time, from as early as 1000BC, they trampled across battlefields around the globe, through wars in places as far flung as Yemen and Sri Lanka. The use of elephants in battle spread from India to Persia, and the first encounter between European forces and...

Viking's unlucky trip to Dorset

artifactsmuseum October 27, 2015 No comments

In 2009 during the construction of the Weymouth Relief Road in Dorset archaeologists from Oxford made one of the most exciting, and disturbing, archaeological discoveries in Britain in recent years.They have found a mass grave of 54 skeletons and 51 heads of men executed some time between AD 910 and 1030. Naked, beheaded, and tangled, the bodies of 51 young males have been identified...

To be immortal - chinese jade burial suites, 2200 years old.

artifactsmuseum October 25, 2015 No comments

Just 15 of the extraordinary head-to-toe jade suits that promised immortality to the Chinese imperial family have ever been found. During the reign of Chinese dynasties, the ancient Chinese believed that when a person dies, he or she entered into the after life. Death was comprehended as a prolongation of life, and an emperor's mausoleum was his after-life palace, mirroring his regal life on...

Oldest carpet in the world: Pazyryk Rug