WIEJKOWO, Poland (AP) — Greater than 1,000 years after his dying in what’s now Poland, a European king whose nickname lives on by way of wi-fi expertise is on the heart of an archaeological dispute.
Chronicles from the Center Ages say King Harald “Bluetooth” Gormsson of Denmark acquired his nickname courtesy of a tooth, most likely useless, that regarded bluish. One chronicle from the time additionally says the Viking king was buried in Roskilde, in Denmark, within the late tenth century.
However a Swedish archaeologist and a Polish researcher just lately claimed in separate publications that they’ve pinpointed his most possible burial web site within the village of Wiejkowo, in an space of northwestern Poland that had ties to the Vikings in Harald’s instances.
Marek Kryda, writer of the e book “Viking Poland,” informed The Related Press {that a} “pagan mound” which he claims he has situated beneath Wiejkowo’s Nineteenth-century Roman Catholic church most likely holds the king’s stays. Kryda stated geological satellite tv for pc pictures out there on a Polish authorities portal revealed a rotund form that regarded like a Viking burial mound.
However Swedish archaeologist Sven Rosborn, says Kryda is mistaken as a result of Harald, who transformed from paganism to Christianity and based church buildings within the space, should have obtained an acceptable grave someplace within the churchyard. Wiejkowo’s Church of The Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary stands atop a small spherical knoll.
Historians on the Danish Nationwide Museum in Copenhagen say they’re conversant in the “suggestion” that Wiejkowo is Harald’s burial place.
Rosborn detailed his analysis within the 2021 e book ”The Viking King’s Golden Treasure” and Kryda challenged a few of the Swede’s findings in his personal e book revealed this 12 months.
Harald, who died in 985, most likely in Jomsborg — which is believed to be the Polish city of Wolin now — was one of many final Viking kings to rule over what’s now Denmark, northern Germany, and elements of Sweden and Norway. He unfold Christianity in his kingdom.
Swedish telecommunications firm Ericsson named its Bluetooth wi-fi hyperlink expertise after the king, reflecting how he united a lot of Scandinavia throughout his lifetime. The brand for the expertise is designed from the Scandinavian runic letters for the king’s initials, HB.
Rosborn, the previous director of Sweden’s Malmo Metropolis Museum, was spurred on his quest in 2014 when an 11-year-old lady sought his opinion a few small, dirty coin-like object with old-looking textual content that had been in her household’s possession for many years.
Consultants have decided that the solid gold disc that sparked Maja Sielski’s curiosity dated from the tenth century. The Latin inscription on what’s now often called the “Curmsun disc” says: “Harald Gormsson (Curmsun in Latin) king of Danes, Scania, Jomsborg, city Aldinburg.”
Sielski’s household, who moved to Sweden from Poland in 1986, stated the disc got here from a trove present in 1841 in a tomb beneath the Wiejkowo church, which changed a medieval chapel.
The Sielski household got here into the possession of the disc, together with the Wiejkowo parish archives that contained medieval parchment chronicles in Latin, in 1945 as the previous German space was changing into a part of Poland on account of World Battle II.
A member of the family who knew Latin understood the worth of the chronicles — which dated way back to the tenth century — and translated a few of them into Polish. They point out Harald, one other truth linking the Wiejkowo church to him.
The close by Baltic Sea island and city of Wolin cultivates the area’s Viking historical past: it has a runic stone in honor of Harald Bluetooth and holds annual festivals of Slavs and Vikings.
Kryda says the Curmsun disc is “phenomenal” with its significant inscription and insists that it will be value it to look at Wiejkowo as Harald’s burial place, however there aren’t any present plans for any excavations.
