The Settlement Museum

OOPS! I thought I posted this in Iceland, but Justin pointed out it was still in drafts. So here you go:

Around 15 years ago, an ancient Icelandic long house was unearthed in central Reykjavik. The ancientest long house, in fact.

I think Iceland may be the first place I’ve visited that knows precisely when it was first settled by humans: 871 AD. And one wall of this settlement is dated at 871 ± 2. Soooooo, pretty ancient.

They have now built a museum AROUND the archaeological site.

This spindle whorl has “Vilborg owns me” carved it in Viking runes. The museum points out this was NOT a normal thing to transcribe. I think Vilborg had just had enough of damn spindle whorl thieves.

Neato map showing how long ago homo sapiens settled each piece of the globe. Iceland is darn recent. There was no one here at all till 871.

Curling up in a Viking burial. Pretty cramped, but hey, at least I’d have my horses with me in the afterlife.

1 thought on “The Settlement Museum”

  1. I once labelled n ordinary smallish wrench which I used for my bike. It still went walkabout. I feel for Vilborg.

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