Vikings in IRAN? (archaeology)

[Dover]

Danish Archaeologists in Search of Vikings in Iran

Tehran, Jan. 20 (Iranian Cultural Heritage News Agency) – Researchers from the Copenhagen Museum in Denmark have traveled to the coasts of the Caspian Sea, northern Iran, in search of clues of relationships between Iranians and Vikings.

A few years ago, a researcher from the Copenhagen Museum, Nadia Haupt, discovered more than one thousand coins and relics that did not belong to the Danish or other Scandinavian cultures, and therefore set to find out more about the historical roots of the Danish civilization.

The ancient items that took the attention of experts included more than one hundred thousand coins that are not part of the Danish history, Viking shipwrecks that Haupt believes their style of construction and the kind of trade they used to undertake differentiate them from those of their ancestors, clothes and accessories used today in some Scandinavian cities and villages, and red and blue colors included in the clothes of the residents under study.

The findings prompted archeologists and anthropology enthusiasts to find out more about their ancestral roots, and where these items have originally come from. The first hypothesis that these items originated from southwestern Europe such as Spain was overruled with more studies....cont'd

http://www.payvand.com/news/05/jan/1191.html

[DaveinMD]

1. They sure weren't in Philly last week

:-)

[aquart]

2. This writer needed an editor. BADLY.

I can't figure out who the hell wore the red and blue clothing. Although I could point him to the Gobi mummies because they certainly wore red and blue.

I also haven't the smallest clue as to what dates we're talking about here. Why Iran? Why not Iraq?

Sloppy, uninformative, worthless article.

[theresistance]

3. The Vikings ranged right across Russia

making expeditions up Rusian rivers so it wouldn't surprise me they got to the Caspian and then to Iran. Interesting article.

[RaleighNCDUer]

4. I got the impression he was saying there was a pre-Viking

Iranian influence on the Nordic people, which helped give rise to the Vikings. But without any date references, it is worthless. BTW, a link on the link talked about birth of Jesus in 1034 and death in 1070, or something like that, and the timeline saying the dark ages never happened, so I'd take it with a few huge grains of salt.

[muriel_volestrangler]

5. This brief story from the same site is a little clearer

though slightly hyperbolic:

Archaeologists discovered 23 old Persian coins from the Sassanide era on the southeastern Swedish island of Gotland, the press reported here Friday.

The latest find, regarded as the biggest archaeological sensation of the century, contained Persian and Byzantine coins in a Viking treasure box which was hidden on the island.

The oldest Persian coin in the Viking treasure goes back to 538 A.D. and was specially designed for a king of the Sassanide empire.

http://www.payvand.com/news/02/sep/1018.html

So this may be talking about the same era, ie 538-1000 AD. 'The biggest archaeological sensation of the century' wasn't necessarily that big, when the century was only 2 years old.

[gottaB]

7. Haupt's specialty appears to be boat construction

Or maybe it's her passion--

http://www.mac-roskilde.dk/nyhedsbrev1.asp?articleid=99

English page from the Guild of the Hauptspring Boat: http://home6.inet.tele.dk/hjortspr/

That dates to c. 350 bce.

Varangian? Sassanian? Parthian? I wouldn't know.

[Igel]

10. I don't think he was saying this, but

there was an influence of "Iranians" (with a subtle shift in meaning--not Persians, but people speaking a language from the same language family as Iranian). Sarmatians. Held sway over S. Russia for a few centuries BC (see Herodotus).

Russian (Slavic in general) gets their word 'god' from Iranian: bog.

Scythians were probably Iranian, too, but that's a tougher call.

Don't know that the Iranians had much influence west of Poland, but I'm also not sure where Germanic tribes were 400 BC.

[htuttle]

6. Ahmed Ibn-Fadlan wrote about meeting them in the 10th century

He wrote a chronicle, 'The Risala', while he was travelling up the Volga as an ambassador from Bagdhad. The Risala talks as much about meeting the Bulgars, but there's descriptions of meeting the Norse as well.

The movie 'The 13th Warrior' draws a lot of background details from it, but Ibn-Fadlan didn't travel back to Scandanavia with them as in the movie (which is actually a version of Beowolf). While it isn't terribly historically accurate, it's pretty good on it's own. It's interesting to see a portrayal of how the two cultures may have interacted.

[NNadir]

8. One suspects that a race less civilized and more violent than the Vikings

will be in Iran soon.

[lazarus]

9. Well, they're both Aryan

In the good sense of the word, not the Nazi sense. People forget that Iranians (Persians) are closer to European than Arab.