Friday 23 July 2010

More Staffordshire Hoard items on show

Nineteen pieces of the Staffordshire Hoard have gone on public display for the first time.

They are on display at the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery in Bethesda Street, Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent.

Museum manager Keith Bloor said the function of many of the items was still being researched

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Tuesday 20 July 2010

Jorvik Viking Centre links up with Orchard Energy to cut energy costs

JORVIK Viking Centre has become the latest tourist attraction to link up with Yorkshire energy specialist Orchard as it looks to cut costs without impacting on visitor experience.

With an annual spend of between £80,000 and £90,000 on electricity alone, the York venue’s director of finance, Peter Nicholson, said energy had become one of its biggest overheads and the obvious place to start when making cutbacks.

He said: “We’re a charity and our main objective is to offer people a good value day out and maintain a strong educational focus.

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Sunday 18 July 2010

Medieval Atmosphere in North Iceland

The annual medieval festival at Gásir, an ancient trading point near Akureyri in north Iceland, will take place this weekend. Booths are currently being set up where people dressed in medieval outfits will sell their handicrafts or demonstrate ancient work methods.

“The market will vibrate with life,” Haraldur Ingi Haraldsson, “mayor” of Gásir, told Morgunbladid. “People will demonstrate sulphur cleaning, clay production and repair of utilities. Bows and arrows will be made and ball games played.”

Gásir is located by Eyjafjördur fjord at the mouth of Hörgá river, 11 kilometers north of Akureyri. It was a trading point in the middle ages and probably the most international location in Iceland at that time—foreign merchants came there to sell their goods.

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Thursday 8 July 2010

Oxford University opens Anglo-Saxon archive to online submissions

Widespread interest in last year's discovery of a hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold in Staffordshire has prompted Oxford University to embark on a mission to create the world's largest online archive about the period.

The university is asking members of the public to upload any stories, poems, writing, art or songs they have composed or heard that relate to Old English and the Anglo-Saxons to Project Woruldhord (Old English for "world-hoard"). Oxford is also keen for translations of Anglo-Saxon texts, pictures and videos of Anglo-Saxon buildings or monuments, recordings of Old English, and even videos of historical re-enactments, to be included in the archive.

"We've just appointed a new professor of poetry, Geoffrey Hill, whose Mercian Hymns [about eighth-century ruler King Offa] harks back to the period," said Dr Stuart Lee, who is running Project Woruldhord. "Many other people have also been inspired by the literature and have written their own work."

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Sunday 4 July 2010

Harald Blauzahns Königshof gefunden

In Jelling im dänischen Jütland haben Archäologen Strukturen freigelegt, die vermutlich zum Königshof von Harald Blauzahn gehören. Der König, nach dem die Funktechnik Bluetooth benannt ist, herrschte im 10. Jahrhundert über Dänemark und Norwegen.

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