For a century, archeologists have been looking for a gate through a wall built by the Vikings in northern Europe. This summer, it was found. Researchers now believe the extensive barrier was built to protect an important trading route.

Their attacks out of nowhere in rapid longboats have led many to call Vikings the inventors of the Blitzkrieg. "Like wild hornets," reads an ancient description, the Vikings would plunder monasteries and entire cities from Ireland to Spain. The fact that the Vikings, who have since found their place as droll comic book characters, were also avid masons is slightly less well known.

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By combining meteorology and archaeology, Norwegian scientists may discover old sea routes and mooring sites, and boost our knowledge of maritime culture dating from the ancient period to the end of the Middle Ages.

“Archaeology has a long-standing tradition in protecting areas on land. But unfortunately, there is little attention to cultural monuments at the sea-shore and under water,” says meteorologist Marianne Nitter at the University of Stavanger’s Museum of Archaeology.

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The BBC’s most excellent History of the World in 100 Objects today features the Vale of York Viking Hoard.

A gold ring once worn by a Viking was unearthed by a metal detector in a farmer's field in Yorkshire, a treasure trove inquest in Wakefield heard yesterday.

Dating back around 1,000 years, the large gold ring was found last April on pasture land in the Aberford area, east of Leeds. The finger ring, which is 90 per cent gold, was found by a man scouring the land with a metal detector with the permission of the landowner.

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“Thunderstones” positively identified in Viking graves.

Ya, we can probably file this in the “well, duh” file, but it’s nice to have good science to back things up.

Long dismissed as accidental additions to Viking graves, prehistoric "thunderstones"—fist-size stone tools resembling the Norse god Thor's hammerhead—were actually purposely placed as good-luck talismans, archaeologists say.

Using fire-starting rock such as flint, Stone Age people originally created the stones to serve as axes. But the Vikings, whose Iron Age heyday lasted from about A.D. 800 to 1050, saw the primitive tools as lightning repellent.

Because the axes predate the Viking age by thousands of years, archaeologists have long seen the stones as random artifacts, perhaps stirred up from earlier, lower burials or dropped in centuries after the Viking era.

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Archaeologists from North America and the UK have been excavating an early Medieval site in the Isle of Man.

The team, along with local volunteers, is investigating Port y Candas, near the Ballacraine crossroads.

Archaeologist Harold Mytum said the site was of "international importance" as it is one of the few pre-Viking settlements known on the island.

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WALKERS from across the country joined the annual St Olav Wirral Viking Walk from Neston to Chester.

The 13-mile trek started out from the historic St Mary’s and St Helen’s church, in Neston, which is famous for its Viking burial stone and finished at St Olav’s church in Chester.

The pilgrimage is held each year to commemorate St Olav, the “Viking Saint” and patron saint of Scandinavia, and to celebrate Wirral’s links with the Vikings.

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Nineteen pieces of the Staffordshire Hoard have gone on public display for the first time.

They are on display at the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery in Bethesda Street, Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent.

Museum manager Keith Bloor said the function of many of the items was still being researched

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JORVIK Viking Centre has become the latest tourist attraction to link up with Yorkshire energy specialist Orchard as it looks to cut costs without impacting on visitor experience.

With an annual spend of between £80,000 and £90,000 on electricity alone, the York venue’s director of finance, Peter Nicholson, said energy had become one of its biggest overheads and the obvious place to start when making cutbacks.

He said: “We’re a charity and our main objective is to offer people a good value day out and maintain a strong educational focus.

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