Culture

Uncovering the Past

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As some Pagans and Heathens reconstruct or revive ancient religions they often rely on the work of historians, primary texts, anthropologists and archaeologists. For this reason, when something new pops up that challenges long held academic ideas on cultural or religious practice, we pay attention. Here are some recaps of finds making waves in archaeological circles. Paved roads in Latium may have facilitated pilgrimages
Le FERRIERE, Italy – Young Rome had to compete for power with other cities in central Italy (Latium). Archaeologists have been excavating one such city, Satricum.

Culture

Agents of Faith: an Exhibition

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Votive offerings are a universal phenomenon that help define sacred space. In many ways, they are irreligious, focused within an emotional moment followed by supplication or remembrance. They are acts of promise or faith that maintain a connection to a person or an event. While they sometimes anticipatory in nature and offered in the hopes a request to be fulfilled, they are typically constructed and offered after the fact. Indeed, the word votive in English derives from the Latin votivus, meaning “vow.”

archaeology

Column: Thor’s Hammer in Iceland – an Interview with Ragnheiður Gló Gylfadóttir

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Pagan Perspectives

A farmstead from the Viking Age was found earlier this month by a local resident in Þjórsárdalur, a valley in the southern highlands of Iceland. Bergur Þór Björnsson is the great-grandson of the man who discovered the region’s most recently found Viking-era farm back in 1920. With his new find, the total number of known farms stands at twenty-one. Archaeologists from Fornleifastofnun Ísland (“the Institute of Archaeology in Iceland”) were called to the scene and soon found several small objects. Among them was a Thor’s hammer amulet, only the second ever found in Iceland.