[MR] History Blog: Oldest Iceland Viking Ship Carving

[Garth Groff and Sally Sanford]

Noble Friends, especially Vikings,

Today the History Blog reports on the discovery of a stone carved with the
image of a Viking ship at an excavation in Iceland.The tiny sandstone
pebble depicts a Viking ship in full sail.

The stone was found at Stöð, Stöðvarfjörður, in eastern Iceland where an
ongoing excavation has unearthed what may be the country's earliest Viking
settlement so far. The remains have been dated to around 800 CE, some 74
years before the "official" occupation recorded in the *Landnámabók*, or
"Book of Settlements". The Stöð site is thought to have been a fishing or
whaling camp, and might have been occupied only seasonally. Perhaps the
archaeologists are being cautious, as the Stöð site is already upsetting
accepted history. Excavations at Stöð have yielded enormous longhouses,
with coins, beads, spindle whorls (which suggest the presence of women) and
other artefacts.

The story is at https://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/67544 .

A slightly earlier story on the excavation and its finds is at
https://www.icelandreview.com/culture/viking-age-excavation-could-rewrite-the-story-of-icelands-settlement/
.

Some Stöð artefacts can be viewed at
http://viking.archeurope.com/settlement/iceland/stod-stodvarfjordur/ .

Yours Aye,


Mungo Napier, Laird of Mallard Lodge  🦆
Working to keep Merry Rose relevant for 16 years.