14,000 Hunting kit found in Scotland  

still it's an interesting artical, I love this old stuff, wish I had the health to have been an archiologist!

isn't that the truth!

Hey, HI Steph! good to see ya, hope I'm earning lots of bucks for ya!

That was long before the Vikings (about 13000 years before in fact) During the last ice age, practically the whole of the north sea was dry land because as the ice caps spread, the sea level fell due to the immense amounts of water being locked up in the ice. The the article says that the tools show simularities with tools belonging to a culture which existed in the region of what is now Denmark and North Germany and that the people who left them, may have come from that region.

Yes, I'm sorry... it's just that I always associate Vikings with Danes and Germanic people.

I was reading up on that area of North Sea that they call Doggerland. It not only mentions how the sea gradually covered that up and the artifacts trawled from the area, but also, the link in the south. I thought you might be interested....

http://sci.tech-archive.n...

Thanks Darkwing, that was a very interesting article which I enjoyed reading. It's facinating to see how modern technology is being used to recreate a lost landscape.

really, the Vikings were only 1,000 yrs ago, we're talking 13,000 years before that, they weren't talking any indo-european language then, probably the only language they might be related to is Basque...

These people predated the neolithic culture that built Stonehenge, and yes, I read the doggerland artical they referenced in the artical - very interesting

JW... you're more than welcome. I find history that dates back this far very interesting, and at times, quite intriguing.

Yes, I realise it was little over a thousand years ago when the Viking Age reigned, and that very little is known from prior to that time, as nothing of any real consequence was written down in the Dark Ages and beyond. According to the reports on these sites, they were paleolithic people who crossed the Doggerland. They indeed predated the neolithic people, but what amazes me is their intelligence and their ability to make tools, albeit rough ones, all those years ago. I find these times fascinating.

I don't know whether you have the programme over there but I know you're interested in England's history, and there's a programme called Time Team on our TV, with Tony Robinson of Blackadder fame. He works with a team of achaeologists in various parts of the country, and their finds are televised. Very interesting indeed and if you can get it over there, I would recommend it to you. I watch it every night, or early morning, when I go to bed. I love the programme! I don't think they've found anything before neolithic age before now, but plenty of neolithic, iron age, bronze age, Roman and a little Saxon. It's well worth the watch! They are invited to sites and have just three days (three parts to a programme) to put their story together with the finds they make.

No Scots in those days I'm afraid. Scotland was mostly still covered with ice...

I think that it was by someone spotting a flint on the surface of the field. Many archaeological sites are found just by people walking over a ploughed field looking for artifacts lying on the surface. I have done that myself, it's called "field walking" usually one finds shards of pottery in on the soil, a concentration of which would indicate a settlement of some kind, for the earlier periods, Neolithic and Mesolithic, people look for worked flints. The best thing that I found when doing this was a Bronze Age axe which was just lying on the surface of the ground.

Wow! Bronze Age, huh?

What jw says is true, even in the fossil "biz" for dinosaurs they just look around until they find a site to start a dig. "Lucy" was first discovered by someone walking and looking for fossils.

There are Anasazi sites in the southwest that are only "walked" not yet excavated.

Though I doubt that Romans made it to Hawaii, I do know that Roman traders reached China and traded regularly with India and ports on the East African coast. I have also seen reports that Roman amphorae have been found off the coast of Brazil - presumably from a wreck. It's not impossible that a merchant ship was driven off course by storms and ended up on the coast of Brazil.

You may have your doubts however the artifacts are currently in the Smithsonian. You further validated my statement that the ancients traveled and traded much more than we know. So it is not hard to conceive that artifacts from Denmark and Germany to find its way to Scotland. Beside, at one point in time wasn't the British Isles connected to Europe? How about runes found in Davenport Iowa?

I'm not saying that they are not genuine, but they might have been taken there by a collector sometime in the last 100 years or so.

As I said in another comment, during the Ice Age, the whole of the present North Sea was dry land which was gradually inundated as the sea levels rose after about 12,000 BC. The last connection was at the strait of Dover and offhand I can't remember just when that happened.

The Vikings were great seafarers and travellers, they colonised Iceland and Greenland and went on to attempt a settlment on the American mainland. Remains of a farm was found and excavated in Newfoundland a long time ago. The attempted settlement was abandoned due to the hostility of the natives and the Greenland settlement died in the 14th century AD when the climate got much colder and sea ice off Greenland made it impossible for ships to get through. The story is told in the Grenlandiya saga and the Vinland saga. It's not impossible that they might have got as far as Ohio.

Sorry, Iowa.

There is debate as to when the Hawaiian Islands were first populated however the items that I refer to are pre-500AD. And yes as far as Iowa, runes Vikings. There is even evidence they went down the Mississippi past Ohio. So again my point is only that items traveled with people to far flung locales.

Can you give me a link to information about it? I'm particularly interested in the coins that you mentioned as they will give a good indication as to the nature of the find - truely anciently deposited or from someone's collection. The context of the find will also give clues.