Archaeologists unearth 'unparalleled' pre-Christian temple in Norway

[dipsydoodle]

This is from 2012 :

A fascinating discovery is shedding light upon pre-Christian Scandinavian religion and early Christian inroads into Norway. In the Norwegian press, this highly important find is being called "unparalleled," "first of its kind" and "unique," said to have been "deliberately and carefully hidden" - from invading and destructive Christians.

Located at the site of Ranheim, about 10 kilometers north of the Norwegian city of Trondheim, the astonishing discovery was unearthed while excavating foundations for new houses and includes a "gudehovet" or "god temple." Occupied from the 6th or 5th century BCE until the 10th century AD/CE, the site shows signs of usage for animal sacrifice, a common practice among different peoples in antiquity, including the biblical Israelites. (E.g., Num 7:17-88) Over 1,000 years ago, the site was dismantled and covered by a thick layer of peat, evidently to protect it from marauding Christian invaders. These native Norse religionists apparently then fled to other places, such as Iceland, where they could re-erect their altars and re-establish the old religion.

>

When archaeologists began excavation work last year, the site was thought at first to be a flat burial mound with a "master's grave" and one or more secondary graves.

"But as we dug, the mound appeared more and more strange," says Rønne.

"Approximately in the middle of the excavation, we had to admit that it was not a burial mound but a sacrificial altar, in the Norse sources called a 'horg.' It was made up of both round 'dome rocks' and stone slabs. During our work, we found two glass beads, and also some burned bones and traces of a wooden box that had been filled with red-brown sand/gravel and a cracked boiling stone. Among the bones, we found part of a skull and several human teeth. However, we found no 'gold old men,' small human figures of thin gold, which were often used in connection with sacrifices."

http://www.freethoughtnation.com/contributing-writers/63-acharya-s/666-ancient-unparalleled-pre-christian-temple-discovered-in-norway.html

[Myrina]

1. Whenever they find these places, and ALWAYS label them 'temples' or 'places of worship',

I have to ask ... did they not have schools? Or markets/"grocery stores"? Or auditoriums/theatres?

Could not a 'sacrifical altar' really have been a speaker's podium? A lectern?

Why does everything gotta be religious? Why???

[Blue_Tires]

5. Some ancient cultures had multiple uses for a building...

[MicaelS]

9. Did you read the part about animal sacrfices?

Occupied from the 6th or 5th century BCE until the 10th century AD/CE, the site shows signs of usage for animal sacrifice, a common practice among different peoples in antiquity, including the biblical Israelites.

[muriel_volestrangler]

10. No, they didn't have schools, auditoriums or theatres

They weren't that sort of civilisation. Yes, they had markets, but the archaeologists reckon they can tell the difference between a market and a temple.

[bowens43]

2. Meet the old gods...same as the new gods.....

[d_r]

3. I never thought about this before

but I wonder how much the pre-columbian Scandinavian settlements in North America were driven by escape from religious persecution?

[The Stranger]

4. Did Native Americans conduct animal sacrifice?

Their whole world view and theology seems diametrically opposed to it.

Yet it was so prevalent in the more "civilized" East.

[d_r]

6. sometimes

Native Americans had many different belief systems. Don't forget the Aztecs, for example.

[Igel]

13. No one worldview.

No one religion.

Hundreds of ethnicities, many of whom were perfectly happy to commit genocide and enslave other Native Americans.

Or to side with the invading Europeans for protection. Whether against the Aztecs, against another tribe in Massachussetts, or against the Apaches as they conquered Texas.

Just as there is no "Asian culture" but a bunch of different cultures that, when their bearers arrive in the US, are treated the same and therefore adopt a new self-identification based upon being treated the same and defined the same by the dominant culture(s) in the US, so also with the North American Native Americans (although to a slightly lesser extent). Still, it's easy to create a homogeneous worldview, romanticize it, and project it back.

There's enough work with folk tales and cultural narratives to show that they can preserve ideas and traditions over thousands of years.

There's also enough work with folk tales and cultural narratives to show that they can, in just 2-3 generations, be thoroughly revised and reshaped as needed.

In both cases, though, they're billed as traditional, ancient, etc., etc., by those who bear the traditions and are responsible for transmitting it.

[RussBLib]

7. "Christian invaders"

Sorta what's going on in the Congress right now.

[antues]

8. :)

Yet it was so prevalent in the more "civilized" East.

[Uncle Joe]

11. Good find.

Thanks for the thread, dipsydoodle.

[undeterred]

12. So what exactly is "marauding"?

Do only invaders do it?

[struggle4progress]

14. This might be an interesting story, but Acharya S is a crackpot, and her link

comes from a 2011 Norwegian newspaper story, which also says the site has been destroyed for housing. The excavations apparently took place in 2010

... Preben Rønne at Science Museum / NTNU in Trondheim ... led the excavations ...
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Publisert: 23.des. 2011 11:36 Oppdatert: 23.des. 2011 11:36