Comments on: “Arab” Found in Danish Iron-Age Grave

By: Craig

Craig — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 20:12:25 +0000

Ayayaya…. that last comment got all screwed up, didn’t it? And I have another comment that vanished into the ether :(

By: Craig

Craig — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 20:10:53 +0000

The skeleton came from Bøgebjerggård, an Iron Age site on the southern part of the island of Sjælland (Zealand).

Aha! Not even Jutland! It was teh island of Zealand! Zealand and the south shore of the Baltic are the ancestral homeland of the Anglii, who still lived there 2000 years ago. Danish, my ass. Those are Anglo-Saxon remains they’ve been studying.

BTW, Tololy, you might get a kick out of this link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Offa_of_Mercia

Many surviving coins from Offa’s reign carry elegant depictions of him and the artistic quality of these images exceeds that of the contemporary Frankish coinage. Some of his coins carry images of his wife, Cynethryth—the only Anglo-Saxon queen ever depicted on a coin. Only three gold coins of Offa’s have survived: one is a copy of an Abbasid dinar of 774, and carries Arabic text on one side of the coin, with “Offa Rex” on the other side. The gold coins are of uncertain use but may have been struck to be used as alms or for gifts to Rome.

Arabic coins in England 1400 years ago! A friend of mine pointed that out to me, as proof that Offa was a Muslim :)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angles

Ancient Angeln preceded all modern national distinctions and was, therefore, probably not coterminous with the modern culture of the same region. (this means that the people who live there NOW are not the same as the people who lived there THEN)

Nice try, Danish bastards! Those are MY Arab ancestors, not yours!

BTW, Tololy, you might get a kick out of this link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Offa_of_Mercia

Only three gold coins of Offa’s have survived: one is a copy of an Abbasid dinar of 774, and carries Arabic text on one side of the coin, with “Offa Rex” on the other side.

By: Craig

Craig — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 16:19:46 +0000

Hi Tololy!

Well, that’s a bit misleading though, since “Denmark” didn’t even exist as a country until about 900 AD. The Jutland peninsula was inhabited by tribes that became “Angles” and “Jutes” 2000 years ago. As far as the remains, they could have been “Roman” lol. A few Romans did make it that far north.

Vincent, these remains predate the Vikings by quite a bit! 2000 years ago was the peak of the Roman Empire, the time of Augustus Caesar. Augustus Caesar’s misguided and disastrous attempt to invade Germany occurred in 9 AD, for instance.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Teutoburg_Forest

1999 years ago. BTW, theer were no “Arabs” 2000 years ago, as there were no “Danes”. I wish this kind of study would be a little more precise. In my opinion, they lose scientific credibility when they use inappropriate terms like “Dane” and “Arab” when discussing a time period that predates both.

By: Vincent

Vincent — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 22:09:13 +0000

I wouldn’t say it’s too uncommon… people in those days sometimes got around a lot more than we might think.
Look at the example of Harald Hardrade, who was a king of Norway. He fought battles in North Africa, Syria, and Italy, as well as serving the Byzantine Emperor for a time. He eventually died trying to invade England in 1066.
Given his travels, it hardly seems unlikely that people from other parts of the world might’ve made their way to Denmark.