this post was submitted on 12 Jan 2025
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Historical Artifacts

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Just a community for everyone to share artifacts, reconstructions, or replicas for the historically-inclined to admire!

Generally, an artifact should be 100+ years old, but this is a flexible requirement if you find something rare and suitably linked to an era of history, not a strict rule. Anything over 100 is fair game regardless of rarity.

Generally speaking, ruins should go to !historyruins@lemmy.world

Illustrations of the past should go to !historyillustrations@lemmy.world

Photos of the past should go to !HistoryPorn@lemmy.world

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Ring engraved with 'for Allah' found in a Viking grave, Sweden, dated mid-800s AD (lemmy.world)
submitted 4 months ago by PugJesus@lemmy.world to c/historyartifacts@lemmy.world
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https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/archaeology/engraved-ring-found-in-sweden-suggests-contact-between-viking-age-scandinavians-and-islamic-civilisation-10118283.html

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[–] grue@lemmy.world 41 points 4 months ago (5 children)

So... Viking who converted to Islam, or loot from a raid, or what?

Clothes and jewellery around the decomposed skeleton showed it to be a female burial dating back to 850 AD.

Or maybe some Viking found himself a Muslim wife?

[–] stoy@lemmy.zip 32 points 4 months ago (1 children)

We have found Damascus steel in viking camps in Sweden, so it is quite possible that this ring was traded for, or looted.

Until we find conclusive proof of conversion to Islam, we should be very careful in reading further into this than simply being an interesting artifact.

[–] gazter@aussie.zone 13 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I thought it was pretty standard for people to travel around this far, especially the Vikings. They were sought after as mercenaries, afaik, and I imagine this sort of artifact could be part of a pay packet.

There's Viking graffiti in Istanbul's Hagia Sophia, for example.

[–] stoy@lemmy.zip 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I think that some people will connect the artifact to the current gang issues here in Sweden.

[–] GregorGizeh@lemmy.zip 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

That seems like a huge leap. As a non swede my first impression was that some viking probably "married" a pretty Muslim girl he came across doing what vikings purportedly did.

[–] stoy@lemmy.zip 2 points 4 months ago

Thats fair, as a Swede I have been used to people constantly taking shots at us lately about migration and gang crime

[–] PugJesus@lemmy.world 23 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Loot, trade, conversion - it's fascinating because the possibilities are really endless.

[–] j4k3@lemmy.world 10 points 4 months ago

I'm gambling on booty for booty

[–] ladicius@lemmy.world 5 points 4 months ago

Slave trade. Wife is a loose term in that context.

[–] Valmond@lemmy.world 2 points 4 months ago

Guess a genetic analysis (if bone sizes isn't enough) would check that quickly.