Norse Power! Deodorant that makes you smell like a Viking

"A team of scent scientists" have developed a new body spray deodorant that promises to give you that medieval warrior smell! Norse Power is an actual product, created by <b><a href="http://www.visityork.org/">Visit York</a></b> and the <b><a href="http://jorvik-viking-centre.co.uk/">Jorvik Viking Centre</a></b> and it helps recreate what a Viking probably smelled like.<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_aUL7s9JRl3RKvWzb-GP5Bwf8voY1IJUFcfgkz24K6FHu5v7rzw6ge64lS9oJ1vdcyOtL1McGPVscMLvE7z51R-mXVRcSlyjV0tSD7gGFZuHNyZGRP8sr_NV4yQceGT-NERzgRxh8JFY/s1600/NorsePower.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_aUL7s9JRl3RKvWzb-GP5Bwf8voY1IJUFcfgkz24K6FHu5v7rzw6ge64lS9oJ1vdcyOtL1McGPVscMLvE7z51R-mXVRcSlyjV0tSD7gGFZuHNyZGRP8sr_NV4yQceGT-NERzgRxh8JFY/s1600/NorsePower.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo courtesy Visit York</td></tr></tbody></table>What do you get in a bottle of Norse Power Deodorant For Men?<br /><br /><ul><li><i>Mead </i>(imbibed generously by Viking warriors after a hard day’s raiding)</li><li><i>Blood and gore</i> (spilled on the battlefields as the marauding Vikings conquered all in their path)</li><li><i>Smoke </i>(from the settlements razed by Vikings during raids)</li><li><i>Seawater </i>(From the journey by longship to British shores)</li><li><i>Mud </i>(Vikings often travelled by foot over the sodden terrain)</li><li><i>Human sweat</i> (which would have been deep soaked into a warrior’s clothes after a hard day’s raiding)</li><li><i>Animal meat, fruits and nuts</i> (the essential ingredients of a hearty Viking feast)</li><li><i>Fresh pine</i> (from traversing the many forests of Britain in search of places to conquer)</li></ul><br />Michelle Brown, Marketing Manager of Visit York, explains, "Historical research indicates that the Vikings were quite particular about personal hygiene, especially when compared to the Anglo Saxons. But even so, this only meant washing once a week, which by today’s standards isn’t exactly the height of cleanliness! And for a Viking raider, who’d travelled hundreds of miles over land and sea, and spent their days fighting bloody skirmishes, it’s fair to say they wouldn’t always have carried the most alluring aromas around with them.<br /><br />"With Norse Power we wanted to try and capture the sort of smells that would have been part and parcel of the lives of Viking warriors around the time that York was the Norse capital of England. But more than that, with all of the bath products, deodorants, perfumes and aftershaves available today, we wanted to give male visitors to York the unique chance to cast aside their allegiance to modern aromas and instead embrace the smells from an era of true warriors!"<br /><br />There might be a few bottles of Norse Power still left at the Visit York Visitor Centre - go to <b><a href="http://www.visityork.org/">http://www.visityork.org/</a></b> for more information.

Norse Power! Deodorant that makes you smell like a Viking

"A team of scent scientists" have developed a new body spray deodorant that promises to give you that medieval warrior smell! Nors...

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400-Year-Old Playing Cards Reveal Royal Secret

<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8erkJmGOBB6VWZ9WvfAKkcYVGuqM-5BVbeHWg-33-_5Dn0Esl0FnBk4B9MAbgyNkXc4b-JB5KoE-y8G6ce1eIeSMTDYtYgAMsfNH0NOShgNDVHc85kzNgpB2_Dh6z1Sl1JNGFZecB6PQ/s1600/card.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8erkJmGOBB6VWZ9WvfAKkcYVGuqM-5BVbeHWg-33-_5Dn0Esl0FnBk4B9MAbgyNkXc4b-JB5KoE-y8G6ce1eIeSMTDYtYgAMsfNH0NOShgNDVHc85kzNgpB2_Dh6z1Sl1JNGFZecB6PQ/s320/card.jpg" width="181" /></a></div>Call it a card player's dream. A complete set of 52 silver playing cards gilded in gold and dating back 400 years has been discovered.<br /><br />Created in Germany around 1616, the cards were engraved by a man named Michael Frömmer, who created at least one other set of silver cards.<br /><br />According to a story, backed up by a 19th-century brass plate, the cards were at one point owned by a Portuguese princess who fled the country, cards in hand, after Napoleon's armies invaded in 1807.<br /><br />At the time they were created in 1616 no standardized cards existed; different parts of Europe had their own card styles. This particular set uses a suit seen in Italy, with swords, coins, batons and cups in values from ace to 10. Each of these suits has three face cards — king, knight (also known as cavalier) and knave. There are no jokers.<br /><br /><b><a href="http://www.livescience.com/25111-ancient-playing-cards-princess.html" target="_blank">Click here to read this article from LiveScience</a></b><br />

400-Year-Old Playing Cards Reveal Royal Secret

Call it a card player's dream. A complete set of 52 silver playing cards gilded in gold and dating back 400 years has been discovered. C...

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Archaeological dig in Northern Ireland uncovers huge haul of medieval artefacts

Archaeologists have been impressed by the huge treasure trove of artefacts that have been discovered so far during excavations of a crannog in Northern Ireland. They are providing a “snap-shot” of life in Ireland between the 9th century AD to the 17th Century, and further work may reveal more items that could date back even centuries earlier.<br /><br /><br />The crannog – an artificial island in a lake – is located in County Fermanagh in the southwest corner of Norther Irland. Digging began in June, and has revealed a small settlement of about four or five houses. It is believed that the island was occupied between the years 600 AD to 1600 AD. The waterlogged site is turning up many kinds of objects related to daily life in the Middle Ages.<br /><br />Some of the most striking finds are a wooden bowl that has a cross carved into its base, a unique find from an excavation in Ireland, parts of wooden vessels with interlace decoration, and exquisite combs made from antler and bone, status symbols of their day that date to between 1000 and 1100 AD.<br /><br /><b><a href="http://www.medievalists.net/2012/11/29/archaeological-dig-in-northern-ireland-uncovers-huge-haul-of-medieval-artefacts/" target="_blank">Click here to read this article from Medievalists.net</a></b><br />

Archaeological dig in Northern Ireland uncovers huge haul of medieval artefacts

Archaeologists have been impressed by the huge treasure trove of artefacts that have been discovered so far during excavations of a crannog ...

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Medieval underwear points to racy history

<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh28ixrqN9bizphMCjGTjt8IkFOR9KOut0h7jeOqIbUl037HT0oWRwY9jX75kqic2JxHX0pT7nNWJ7vO1bOCqOsl9aopenJt2SXXw_f0I9nMHXSBdHRyqhA_X_TPvXmhXRqJW7GFtUf1X4/s1600/medievalunderwear.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="257" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh28ixrqN9bizphMCjGTjt8IkFOR9KOut0h7jeOqIbUl037HT0oWRwY9jX75kqic2JxHX0pT7nNWJ7vO1bOCqOsl9aopenJt2SXXw_f0I9nMHXSBdHRyqhA_X_TPvXmhXRqJW7GFtUf1X4/s320/medievalunderwear.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Underwear dating from medieval times that was found under flooring of an Austrian castle is hardly racy by the standards of today.<br /><br />But the discovery does suggest that women in 15th-century Europe took pride in their appearance, and perhaps not just the privileged classes.<br /><br />The University of Innsbruck announced this summer that "the world's oldest brassieres" had been found at Longberg Castle in Tyrol, western Austria.<br /><br />The cotton garments were decorated, much like today, with lace and embroidery. It might not be a stretch to suggest that such underwear was designed for those "special occasions," scholars say.<br /><br />At the heart of Tyrol, an area lined with precipitous alpine peaks, is the city of Innsbruck. The items were found during renovations of the castle in summer 2008. The castle lies to the south of the city.<br /><br />Four brassieres were found amid a heap of cotton material, clothing and leather footwear under the third floor.<br /><br />Carbon dating by the university's archaeological research team dated the garments to between 1440 and 1485, making them the oldest in existence.<br /><br /><b><a href="http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_news/social_affairs/AJ201211140001" target="_blank">Click here to read this article from The Asahi Shimbun</a></b><br /><br />See also <b><a href="http://www.medievalists.net/2012/07/17/medieval-lingerie-discovery-in-austria-reveals-what-really-was-worn-under-those-tunics/" target="_blank">Medieval lingerie? Discovery in Austria reveals what really was worn under those tunics</a></b><br />

Medieval underwear points to racy history

Underwear dating from medieval times that was found under flooring of an Austrian castle is hardly racy by the standards of today. But the d...

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Inscription reveals ancient Jewish toilet in Cologne

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3mg-R4HKuH7CBn4juYAAQEmL0PF8_Fv6aChyCqOQIzo4R6WbhfTfgF0I4Gr2TPVReQzpSMm5QTmHM5e1gCfh5Of4YB4ocGpugpQCUiNTG6dAN-Av4afU-KPGWsiwc4CPQEAqfjblCC6E/s1600/2933897599.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="185" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3mg-R4HKuH7CBn4juYAAQEmL0PF8_Fv6aChyCqOQIzo4R6WbhfTfgF0I4Gr2TPVReQzpSMm5QTmHM5e1gCfh5Of4YB4ocGpugpQCUiNTG6dAN-Av4afU-KPGWsiwc4CPQEAqfjblCC6E/s320/2933897599.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div>Archaeologists in Cologne, Germany have uncovered a fascinating 13th-century Hebrew inscription on a lintel stone in the basement of a home near the city’s ancient synagogue. The Hebrew inscription reads “This is the window through which the feces are to be taken out.”<br /><br /> The inscription was discovered in December 2011 on the lintel above a walled-up window in the cellar of Lyvermann House, which was built in about 1266 and belonged to a wealthy Jewish family that lived right near the synagogue. Behind the wall was a cesspool, six meters deep.<br /><br /> According to Prof. David Assaf of Tel Aviv University’s Jewish History Department, “Such a serious-amusing inscription has never been found anywhere, not before and not since.”<br /><br /><b><a href="http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/jewish-world-news/inscription-reveals-ancient-jewish-toilet-in-cologne.premium-1.456380" target="_blank">Click here to read this article from Haaretz</a></b>

Inscription reveals ancient Jewish toilet in Cologne

Archaeologists in Cologne, Germany have uncovered a fascinating 13th-century Hebrew inscription on a lintel stone in the basement of a home ...

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Oar walking, underwater wrestling and horse fighting – historian examines the sports and games of the Vikings

<br />Playing ball games is an activity played by children around the world. While today’s parents might worry that their sons and daughters might get scrapes and bruises, in the Viking world such a game could end with an axe being driven into an opponent’s head.<br /><br />This detail comes from a new article, ‘What the Vikings did for fun? Sports and pastimes in medieval northern Europe’, which was published last month in the journal World Archaeology. In it Leszek Gardeła of the University of Aberdeen uses saga accounts and archaeological evidence to see what men, women and children from Scandinavia and Iceland amused themselves with during the Viking-era, and found that their were several popular pastimes.<br /><br /><b><a href="http://www.medievalists.net/2012/07/02/oar-walking-underwater-wrestling-and-horse-fighting-historian-examines-the-sports-and-games-of-the-vikings/" target="_blank">Click here to read this article from Medievalists.net</a></b><br />

Oar walking, underwater wrestling and horse fighting – historian examines the sports and games of the Vikings

Playing ball games is an activity played by children around the world. While today’s parents might worry that their sons and daughters might...

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Message in ancient bottle?

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixsRno0_5tBaQkl1NxmuBROtiUkIm57Vi48WFEj87jsKtwQ-Mpac-P8VUGADqCLYr97blqVJCBlisDfBYgbmY12oXBPFIwR4qeFpegVN68v4OHQrGT-gL_I1GAh31NcSQyO1I5i5XuaQU/s1600/Glass%2520bottle%2520Woking%2520collection.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixsRno0_5tBaQkl1NxmuBROtiUkIm57Vi48WFEj87jsKtwQ-Mpac-P8VUGADqCLYr97blqVJCBlisDfBYgbmY12oXBPFIwR4qeFpegVN68v4OHQrGT-gL_I1GAh31NcSQyO1I5i5XuaQU/s1600/Glass%2520bottle%2520Woking%2520collection.jpeg" /></a></div>Could Cleopatra have used these ancient glass bottles? Were these 3,000 year old figures ‘servants’ in the afterlife? Questions which excited staff at Swansea University Egypt Centre are hoping to solve when they study a valuable collection of over 30 ancient Egyptian objects which has travelled from Surrey to Swansea, and arrived at the centre today.<br /><br /> The artefacts, donated by Woking College, includes two glass bottles (perhaps for scent or make-up) from late in Egyptian history (c100BC-AD200), around the time of Cleopatra and several shabtis (servant figurines) which the ancient Egyptians believed would do work for their deceased owners in the afterlife. One of the shabtis is an ‘overseer shabti’. Shabtis, mirroring real life work teams, were organised in gangs of 10. Each gang would be overseen by a foreman, or overseer. The shabtis are around 3,000 years old.<br /><br /> Other objects include amulets, including an amulet of Sekhmet (a fiery, female goddess with a feline head) and another amulet of Shu (who separated heaven and earth); a head of the god Bes (protector of children and women in childbirth); a pendant in the shape of a lotus or papyrus sceptre; several pottery vessels and a Sokar hawk (Sokar was a god associated with rebirth).<br /><br /><b><a href="http://www.swansea.ac.uk/media-centre/latest-news/messageinancientbottle.php" target="_blank">Click here to read this article from Swansea University</a></b>

Message in ancient bottle?

Could Cleopatra have used these ancient glass bottles? Were these 3,000 year old figures ‘servants’ in the afterlife? Questions which excit...

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Denmark: Dyed clothes came into fashion in early Iron Age

<br />Clothes in the early Iron Age were not grey and dull, as previously assumed. They were colourful and patterned.<br /><br />This new discovery comes as a result of new analyses of 180 textile samples from 26 different bog finds, carried out by Ulla Mannering, a senior researcher and archaeologist at the Danish National Research Foundation’s Centre for Textile Research at the National Museum.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8AR4afd-hk6FVhRqbkNdQgMAusxep5Y5xsRD_L7Zl0_QNIdSld08oLmTqwNX6pMatWbRdjA_R9HmC9bo7L6l73oO0FGol1ZUUe1RGNwvu7Sx6DC8ZEy0-n-gMDRLctoQdjUCXOz5P3ts/s1600/danishtextiles.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8AR4afd-hk6FVhRqbkNdQgMAusxep5Y5xsRD_L7Zl0_QNIdSld08oLmTqwNX6pMatWbRdjA_R9HmC9bo7L6l73oO0FGol1ZUUe1RGNwvu7Sx6DC8ZEy0-n-gMDRLctoQdjUCXOz5P3ts/s400/danishtextiles.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><br />“The beginning of the Iron Age sparked a revolution in fashion in which clothes became coloured and patterned,” she says.<br /><br />The conventional theory has so far been that colourful textiles only emerged in the centuries after the birth of Christ.<br /><br /><br />“But our analyses show – quite surprisingly – that colour and pattern came into fashion in the earliest part of the Iron Age. That’s 500 years earlier than previously thought.”<br /><br />The new analyses also show that the bodies, buried in an ancient sacrificial bog, from which the textiles were taken are older than previously thought. Most of them date back to the centuries leading up to Christ’s birth, which makes them more than 2,000 years old.<br /><br /><b><a href="http://sciencenordic.com/dyed-clothes-came-fashion-early-iron-age" target="_blank">Click here to read this article from ScienceNordic</a></b><br /><br /><b><a href="http://ctr.hum.ku.dk/" target="_blank">Click here to visit the Danish National Research Foundation’s Centre for Textile Research website</a></b><br /><br />

Denmark: Dyed clothes came into fashion in early Iron Age

Clothes in the early Iron Age were not grey and dull, as previously assumed. They were colourful and patterned. This new discovery comes as ...

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