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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The annual medieval festival at Gásir, an ancient trading point near Akureyri in north Iceland, will take place this weekend. Booths are currently being set up where people dressed in medieval outfits will sell their handicrafts or demonstrate ancient work methods.

“The market will vibrate with life,” Haraldur Ingi Haraldsson, “mayor” of Gásir, told Morgunbladid. “People will demonstrate sulphur cleaning, clay production and repair of utilities. Bows and arrows will be made and ball games played.”

Gásir is located by Eyjafjördur fjord at the mouth of Hörgá river, 11 kilometers north of Akureyri. It was a trading point in the middle ages and probably the most international location in Iceland at that time—foreign merchants came there to sell their goods.

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Widespread interest in last year's discovery of a hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold in Staffordshire has prompted Oxford University to embark on a mission to create the world's largest online archive about the period.

The university is asking members of the public to upload any stories, poems, writing, art or songs they have composed or heard that relate to Old English and the Anglo-Saxons to Project Woruldhord (Old English for "world-hoard"). Oxford is also keen for translations of Anglo-Saxon texts, pictures and videos of Anglo-Saxon buildings or monuments, recordings of Old English, and even videos of historical re-enactments, to be included in the archive.

"We've just appointed a new professor of poetry, Geoffrey Hill, whose Mercian Hymns [about eighth-century ruler King Offa] harks back to the period," said Dr Stuart Lee, who is running Project Woruldhord. "Many other people have also been inspired by the literature and have written their own work."

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In Jelling im dänischen Jütland haben Archäologen Strukturen freigelegt, die vermutlich zum Königshof von Harald Blauzahn gehören. Der König, nach dem die Funktechnik Bluetooth benannt ist, herrschte im 10. Jahrhundert über Dänemark und Norwegen.

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The Lewis Chessmen Unmasked exhibition in Edinburgh brings together the British Museum and the National Museum of Scotland’s collections of the Lewis Chessmen – a set of medieval gaming pieces, originating most likely from Trondheim in the 12th or 13th century, which were discovered on the Hebridean island of Lewis sometime between 1780 and 1831.

Individually hand-carved from walrus ivory, and numbering 93 pieces in total – 82 of which are held by the British Museum, the remaining 11 by the National Museum of Scotland – the Lewis Chessmen are world famous for their mysterious origins, unique design and curious, almost comical expressions, which range from moody kings to a frightened-looking warder biting down on his shield. They even made a cameo in the film Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.

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In what they describe as a ‘sensational’ discovery, archaeologists from Århus find the remains of 10th century king’s royal residence

After speculating for centuries about its location, the royal residence of Harald Bluetooth has finally been discovered close to the ancient Jellinge complex with its famous runic stones in southern Jutland.

The remains of the ancient wooden buildings were uncovered in the north-eastern corner of the Jellinge complex which consists of royal burial mounds, standing stones in the form of a ship and runic stones.

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Looks like Harald Bluetooth’s palace has actually been located by Danish archeologists.  Pretty major find.  Of course I’m more partial to his son Svein Forkbeard, but a find is a find.

Three ancient birchbark manuscripts and a seal have been discovered at Troitsky archeological pit in Veliki Novgorod.

On June, 17th a schoolgirl named Elizaveta Godunova taking part in the digging found two manuscripts. One of them is a three-line fragment 28 cm long. As roughly estimated by experts it dates back to the early 13th century and, probably, represents a bill of debt, since it monetary units of Old Russia are specified in it. The manuscript has been given the number 974.

Data concerning the second manuscript under the number 975 are still specified, but, according to archeologists, these are two independent documents, not related to each other.

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