neil-gaiman:medievalpoc:libraryoftheancients:hufflepuffrave:medievalpoc:Ring brings ancient Viking,
neil-gaiman:medievalpoc:libraryoftheancients:hufflepuffrave:medievalpoc:Ring brings ancient Viking, Islamic civilizations closer togetherMore than a century after its discovery in a ninth century woman’s grave, an engraved ring has revealed evidence of close contacts between Viking Age Scandinavians and the Islamic world.An inscription on the glass inset reads either “for Allah” or “to Allah” in an ancient Arabic script, the researchers report February 23 in Scanning.Scandinavians traded for fancy glass objects from Egypt and Mesopotamia as early as 3,400 years ago (SN: 1/24/15, p. 8). Thus, seagoing Scandinavians could have acquired glass items from Islamic traders in the same part of the world more than 2,000 years later rather than waiting for such desirable pieces to move north through trade networks.Read More Yeah this is incredibly cool but I love how whenever they find something like this everyone is always super surprised that ancient people like…interacted with each other. This one is always especially funny to me because in one of my classes on the Vikings, I read a first hand account of some Muslim people encountering the Vikings and commenting on their lifestyle and habits and such. And as long as the dominant sociocultural and educational narrative maintains that European cultures were created in complete (geographical/religious/racial) isolation in order to bolster white supremacy, findings that oppose this narrative will continue to be sensationalized. And it’s worth bearing in mind that the Vikings were buying their best swords from the areas that are now Iran and Afghanistan: http://www.theguardian.com/science/2008/dec/27/archaeology-vikings-swordWe think of the ancient world as a place where nobody went anywhere, but people travelled, met, loved and fought and all that went with it, and goods (and gods) travelled with them… -- source link
#history#archaeology