The Birka female Viking warrior was a woman buried in the 10th century in
                    Birka, Sweden and discovered in the 1870s. The grave was assumed to be a battle
                    hardened man for 128 years until DNA analysis proved she was actually a
                    high-ranking professional warrior. Shield-maidens are female warriors that take
                    on male roles including wielding weapons and are depicted in many period
                    figures, tapestries and brooches as well as mentioned by the famous Danish
                    historian of the time, Saxo Grammaticus.

The grave chamber was made of wood and approximately 3.45m long and 1.75m
                    wide. The body was in a sitting position and found earing garments of silk and
                    silver. The grave contained a sword, an axe, a spear, armor-piercing arrows, a
                    battle knife, two shields, two horses, one mare and one stallion. The grave also
                    contained a game set with a board and pieces. This is considered evidence of her
                    strategic thinking and indicating she was an officer who could lead troops into
                    battle.

The Birka settlement is located on the lake island Björkö in
                    eastern-central Sweden. The first permanent settlement dates back to the
                    Germanic Iron Age 400-800 AD. Birka originates around 750 AD in a strategic area
                    the size of 12 hectares built on an ancient defensive earthwork. The population
                    of Birka was between 500 and 1000 people and is considered Sweden's oldest town.
                    Three large burial grounds have been found with 2000 graves of which 1100 have
                    been excavated. 

Birka is one of the earliest urban settlements in Scandinavia and was a key
                    Baltic link through Ladoga and Novgorod to the Byzantine Empire and the Abbasid
                    Califate. As a trading center, Birka offered furs (bear, fox, marten, otter,
                    beaver), reindeer antler, walrus teeth, iron goods and craft products in
                    exchange for goods from Europe and western Asia (such as Rhineland pottery,
                    Chinese silk and Byzantine embroidery). Birka was abandoned in the later 10th
                    century when Sigtuna became the main trading center of the region.

Denmark's glacial period lasted until 13,000 years ago allowing humans to
                    move back into land previoulsy covered by ice and establish permanent
                    habitation. The landscape turned from tundra to light forest and various plants
                    appeared. The first inhabitants of this post-glaical landscape hunted reindeer
                    and other land mammals as well as gathered fruit. By 8300 BC the temperature
                    reached 15 degrees in the summer and aurochs and elk arrived from the south. The
                    oldest known bog body (a human mummified in peat bog) was found here in 8000 BC.
                    By 4500 BC, Denmark became a series of islands and the inhabitatns shifted to a
                    seafood based diet which enabled the population to increase. The fourth largest
                    island, Lolland, was the site of a settlement from 3700 BC.

Excavations at Syltholm on Lolland island revealed a 5700 year old piece of
                    chewed birch pitch which was found preserved by the bog. In neolithic times this
                    area would have been a shallow brackish lagoon protected from the open sea to
                    the south by shifting sandy barrier islands. Palaeolithic people used birch
                    pitch as glue up to 760,000 years ago and it was derived by heating the bark of
                    birch trees. It was thought birch pitch was chewed for medicinal and antiseptic
                    properties like an ancient chewing gum, and the piece found had been imprinted
                    with human teeth marks. A neolithic female's DNA was extracted from the birch
                    pitch revealing surprising information.

Chewed birch pitch is an excellent source of ancient human DNA as DNA gets
                    trapped in the pitch where it is preserved due to its aseptic and hydrophic
                    properties. It was revealed Lola, as this individual was nicknamed, had dark
                    hair, dark skin and blue eyes. This was typical of early european hunter
                    gatherers. It was also discovered that Lola had similiar traits to Neolithic
                    individuals found in Spain, and that collectively they most closely genetically
                    relate to people in Sweden and Finland. These early hunters would subsist mostly
                    on protein and Lola, like her Spanish cousin, was lactose intolerant and unable
                    to digest starch. Her mtDNA haplogroup is K1e which is more commonly associated
                    with early farming communities.

While there are no actual remains of Lola, the birch pitch remained very
                    well preserved in the mud of the bog. Many preserved skeletons and even bodies
                    complete with skin have been found in Denmark and nearby Sweden. One such bog
                    body is the Luttra Woman (shown above) from the same time period in Sweden. The
                    oxygen-poor conditions in these bogs means skin, hair, clothes and even stomach
                    contents can be preserved. The Luttra Woman's stomach for example was full of
                    rasberry seeds when she died at the age of 20-25 years. The Tollund man, another
                    famous bog body, still has his skin preserved complete with facial features and
                    a 3-day beard.

The Carolingian Dynasty was a family of Frankish rulers who established
                    rule over Western Europe after the weakening of the Merovingian kings. Their
                    story begins in 718 AD when a man named Charles Martel (a.k.a. Charles the
                    Hammer) became Duke of the Franks serving the puppet Frankish king Chilperic II.
                    This King died in 720 AD and replaced by Theodoric IV who Charles had appointed
                    himself. By 730 AD the Frankish kingdom grew as Charles conquered many of the
                    German peoples to the East. The Duchy of Aquitaine had broken off and was
                    struggling with its southern neighbor, the Umayyad Caliphate - which was until
                    then the largest and wealthiest empire ever assembled. The Duke of Aquitaine
                    asked Charles for help in exchange for submission to his rule. At the famous
                    battle of Tours, the Franks had a decisive victory against the Caliphate and by
                    740 AD they were no longer a critical threat to Francia. After the puppet king
                    Theodoric IV died, Charles did not replace him but also did not declare himself
                    King. Upon Charles Martel's death his empire was split between his two sons -
                    Pepin and Carloman.

In 743 AD, Pepin and Carloman appointed a new powerless king to fill the
                    vacancy - Childeric III. In 747 AD Carloman renounced his title and became a
                    monk leaving Pepin as the soul ruler. He decided to remove the fake king from
                    power and declared himself King Pepin III, the first king of the new Carolingian
                    Dynasty named after his father Charles. Pepin died in 768 which divided his
                    kingdom beteen his two sons, Charlemagne (Carolus Magnus or Charles the Great)
                    and Carloman I. In 771, Carloman I died of natural causes conveniently enabling
                    Charlemagne to assume sole control of Francia. Charlemagne began a campaign of
                    expansion and began by a successful campaign against the pagan Saxons. He then
                    proceeded to conquer the Lombards, but the Saxons remained relentless under
                    their leader Widukind. By ordering the execution of 4000 Saxon prisoners,
                    Widukind's hand was forced and he accepted baptism in 785 AD. Shortly thereafter
                    Charlemagne conquered much of central and southern Italy as well as Bavaria
                    which put the Franks in contact with the very wealthy Avars.

In 785 Charlemagne began an invasion of Girona and by 799 AD he had
                    conquered Barcelona. By 800 AD Francia was a large empire so became better known
                    as the Carolingian Empire. The running of the Kingdom revolved around the Royal
                    Court which revolved around various administrative palaces, the most notable
                    being in Aachen, Germany. The territory was divided into Counties known as
                    Missatica which were inspected by Charlemagne's emissaries known as Missi
                    Dominici (often a bishop and a count) who would ensure the king's authority
                    remained intact. He focused on numerous church reforms and ensured
                    ecclesiastical power remained intact. Pope Leo III was under threat from his
                    enemies so Charlemagne came to his rescue and was declared Imperator Romanum
                    (the Roman Emperor) - making him the first Emperor of the West since the
                    collapse of the Western Roman Empire. He also saw the learning was revived
                    across the Empire beginning the Carolingian Renaissance. Scholars assembled and
                    schools were established around the kingdom. In 805 he continued his reign of
                    conquest and conquered Bohemia - and was recognized by the Byzantines as the
                    rightful Emperor of the West.

These samples date from Charlemagne's conquest of Iberia known as the
                    Hispanic Marches where the north-eastern territory of the Visigothic kingdom of
                    Hispania was added to Francia, after having been previously conquered by the
                    Umayyad Caliphate. Explicitely this includes the 785 invasion of Girona and the
                    797 invasion of Barcelona. A number of castles were established between 798 and
                    802. The local population of this region was diverse - it included Basques,
                    Hispano-Romans (Goths), Muslims and Jews. These Carolingian samples are from an
                    archaeological site called L'Esquerda in the Province of Barcelona which was a
                    Carolingian settlement built over the ruins of an older Iron Age fortress.
                    Archaeological evidence shows post holes and rock cuts indicating the presence
                    of wooden watchtowers as well as incorporation of a previously built Visigothic
                    defensive wall. L'Esquerda is strongly defended by its natural cliffs
                    overlooking the Ter River and served as a key strategic location. A Carolingian
                    coin depicting Louis the Pious, son of Charlemagne and later co-Emperor was
                    found among many shards of fine Carolingian pottery at the site.

In 1907, two mummies were discovered in Deir Rifeh Egypt in a tomb
                    belonging to a governor and his sons from the 12th Dynasty (almost 4000 years
                    ago). The tomb group is one of the best preserved and best known burials of the
                    Egyptian Middle Kingdom. Although the mummies were heavily decayed, the
                    skeletons were still preserved. Khnum-Nakht was about 40 years old and
                    Nakht-Ankh about 60. 

The two mummies were found to be brothers with the same mother but
                    different fathers. This is confirmed by identical mtDNA and the detected
                    differences in the Y chromosomes. Both suffered from osteoarthtritis and dental
                    attrition. Khnum-Nakht had kyphoscoliosis and Nakht-Ankh had lung lesions from
                    sand pneumoconiosis. 

The Late Period of ancient Egypt lasted from 664 BC to 332 BC. The
                    Pre-Ptolemaic sample JK2134 is an Egyptian Priest of Osiris, buried in the same
                    tomb complex as Iufaa, an Egyptian priest and administer of palaces. Iufaa's
                    mummy was discovered in an unmolested tomb in 1998 which had a white limestone
                    sarcophagus filling the main chamber and represented the first unrobbed shaft
                    tomb since 1941. The tomb contained stone vessels, wooden furniture, pottery and
                    papyrus scrolls. Some of the pottery was from the Aegean and the walls of the
                    tomb were covered with texts from the Book of the Dead.

The Ptolemaic dynasty was established by Alexander the Great's Macedonian
                    general Ptolemy I Soter. Alexandria became the capital and center of trade. The
                    Ptolemies named themselves as pharaohs. The Greeks and the Romans who entered by
                    the north dominated Egypt. The Ptolemaic mummy is from this period. DNA analysis
                    shows light skin and a male haplogroup which is common to southeastern Europe.
                    Cleopatra is also from this time period and descended from Ptolemy I Soter. Her
                    native language was Koine Greek and she was the first Ptolemaic ruler who
                    learned the Egyptian language.

Mummies from the Middle, Late and Ptolemaic Kingdoms

The Roman conquest of Britain began in 43 AD but resistance in the north
                    was fierce. Roman General Quintus Petillius Cerialis led the 9th Legion into the
                    north and founded Eboracum in 71 AD (which became York) Originally Eboracum was
                    intended to be a military fortress aligned along the river Ouse measuring about
                    50 acres in size. This wooden camp was upgraded to stone in 108 AD and
                    garrisoned by the 6th Legion. The famous Emperor Hadrian reportedly visited
                    Eboracum in 122 AD in order to plan his great walled frontier, which would be
                    named after him. Emperor Septimus Severus visited in 208 AD and made it his
                    private base while campaigning against Scotland, and he became the first of
                    three Roman Emperors who would die in Eboracum. In 237, the town became a
                    colonia, the highest legal status any Roman city could attain as Eboracum was
                    the largest town in the north and the capital of Britannia Inferior. This is
                    exactly the time period from when these 7 gladiators hailed.

Detailed analysis of these gladiators from York revealed some fascinating
                    results. The bones showed various degrees of wear and tear as one might expect
                    from the dangerous sport: 6DRIF-18 revealed a spinal fracture of the first
                    vertibrae, 6DRIF-21, 6DRIF-3, and 3DRIF-16 meanwhile have fractured forearms,
                    ankles and wrists. 6DRIF-22 has a skull injury as well as a stab to the neck -
                    his extra vertebrae did not seem to assist with his fate. 6DRIF-23 meanwhile had
                    4 cuts to his jaw and was fully decapitated - clearly not the best fate to have.
                    Last but not least 3DRIF-26 is fascinating indeed - he had a left shoulder
                    injury, fractured ribs, damage wrists - and from a genetic standpoint is a
                    deviation from the rest. His background compared to ancient samples from the
                    time period matches very close to Ptolemaic Egyptians or the Near East.

Constantine came to Eboracum with his father, the emperor Constantius in
                    305 AD. After the emperor died the following July in York, the soldiers
                    proclaimed Constantine to be their leader. Within 20 years, Emperor Constantine
                    united the whole of the Roman Empire and would be known as Constantine the Great
                    who did not just restore peace to the Roman Empire, but also relocated the Roman
                    capital to the newly built Constantinople. The eventual decline of Roman Britain
                    in the early 400s led to significant socioeconomic changes in Britain. The
                    effect of Constantine's religious policy allowed development of Christianity in
                    Roman Britain, which led to the first bishop of York to be named. Today there
                    are numerous visible remains in York from this time period including a Roman
                    Basilica, walls, a tower in the city walls and Roman baths.

The Crusader States (also known as Outremer) were created after the First
                    Crusade (1095-1102) as a way to keep hold of territorial gains by Christian
                    armies in the Middle East. Crusader castles were built all over Outremer to
                    serve not only as defensive structures, but also as administrative and economic
                    centers designed to last for many years to come. The four small Outremer states
                    were the Kingdom of Jerusalem, the County of Edessa, the Country of Tripoli and
                    the Principality of Antioch. This analysis focuses on the former Phoenician and
                    later Roman colony of Sidon / Saida which remained in Arab hands until 1110 when
                    King Baldwin I of Jerusalem and King Sigured I of Norway captured it. The city
                    was then re-captured by the masterful Saladin in 1187, only to be re-taken by
                    German Crusaders in 1197. It remained a key Crusader stronghold until the
                    Saracen invasion of 1249 when it was destroyed - this series of exchanges
                    presented the backdrop for the ill-fated 7th Crusade.

The 7th Crusade was led by Louis IX of France from 1248 to 1254. Jerusalem
                    had recently fallen and there was no popular enthusiasm at the time for a new
                    crsusade, as Europe was involved in many internal conflicts. Bela IV of Hungary
                    was rebuilding his kingdom from ashes after the devastating Mongol invasion of
                    Europe. Henry III of England was struggling at home and Haakon IV of Norway was
                    in the midst of a civil war. Louis IX was almost alone in declaring a new
                    crusade to the east and in 1248 sailed from Aigues-Mortes and Marseilles with an
                    army of 15,000. They sailed for Cyprus but Louis decided to focus first on
                    attacking Egypt. While marching towards Cairo, Louis' main force was attacked by
                    Mameluk Baibars and defeated. In 1250 while attempting to return to a safer
                    location, Louis himself was captured and taken prisoner after his army was
                    annihilated. He was ransomed for 800,000 bezants after which he fled to Acre,
                    one of the safest crusader strongholds in Outremer. The French King re-enforced
                    local defenses and moved north to Sidon.

The Castle of St. Louis is located on the acropolis of the ancient city of
                    Sidon. The land castle incorporated parts of the city walls and had existed
                    since at least 1162. It was restored and fortified by Louis IX to live in
                    between 1250 and 1254 during the Frankish occupation of Sidon. The French king,
                    Louis IX, better known as St. Louis, appears to have spent a long time at the
                    castle which is why it took his name. In 1253 the town was under a Muslim attack
                    and 2000 people were killed. Afterwards, the castle was left in the hands of the
                    Hospitaliers, an elite military organization based in Jerusalem (which later
                    relocated to the island of Rhodes). In 1260 the Mongols sieged the city and
                    castles. Later that year the Knights Templar took charge of the land castle
                    which was reconfirmed in 1283. This would all change in 1291 when the Templars
                    led an evacuation of Sidon after the fall of the major crusader stronghold Acre.

Nine male skeletons were uncovered in a burial pit next to the Castle of
                    St. Louis dating to the 13th century. The men had been killed violently in
                    battle, based on the evidence of blunt force injuries on the skulls and bones.
                    The bodies were dumped in the pit and burned. Carbon-14 dating of the European
                    shoe buckles indicates mid 13th century and a coin found alongside the remains
                    is dated 1250. This confirms the bodies are indeed from this period of the 7th
                    crusade which means they were deposited there following a battle likely in 1253
                    against Muslims or in 1260 against Mongols. The remains suggest the soldiers
                    making up the Crusader armies were genetically divcerse and intermixed with the
                    local population in the Near East - although today there is no lasting effect on
                    the local population. However these bodies clearly show that Europeans, Near
                    Easterners and mixed invdividuals were living and dying side by side in the
                    Crusades.

In the middle of the 12th century after the Wendish Crusade, pagan lands in
                    northern Germany and Poland were annexed by Poles, Danes and Germans. To the
                    east of Pommerania lay the pagan Baltic and Finnic tribes of Livonia (modern day
                    Baltic countries). In 1184, the first Catholic mission entered Livonia and found
                    a few converts to Christianity. After Berthold of Hannover was killed in 1198,
                    Pope Innocent III called for a crusade against these pagans. Riga was
                    established as the center of Christian rule in the region to launch these
                    campaigns. In 1202, the Livonian Brothers of the Sword was created as an order
                    of warrior monks to league the Crusade.

In 1206, the Danes joined the Crusades temporarily but failed to conquer
                    the ancient island of Saaremaa off the coast of Estonia. Unlike in the Holy
                    Land, there were few nobles and monarchs - in order to keep troop numbers for
                    the raids, Albert of Riga visited Germany once per year to find new recruits.
                    Between 1207 and 1209, many Livonian tribes were subdued and converted as their
                    capitals were conquered. Next began the raids against Estonian tribes who
                    fiercely resisted all attacks - until the Christian Kingdom of Novgorod joined
                    in the Crusades severely weakening their forces. The Estonians launched numeroua
                    counterattacks including a failed assault on Riga itself.

The Pope authorized King Valdemar II of Denmark to begin his own crusade on
                    Estonia with thousands of troops, crushing the Estonians at the battle of
                    Lyndanisse in 1219 where the Dannebrog, the Danish flag, fell from the sky and
                    suddenly turned the tide of what was a losing battle. The Danes seized control
                    of northern Estonia. The Swedish Kingdom was also eager to expand into the
                    Eastern Baltic but struggled to take a foothold. King John I of Sweden and
                    bishop Karl of Linkoping conquered Lihula in Western Estonia, but the Oeselians
                    of Saaremaa killed the entire Swedish garrison including the Bishop himself.

The Crusaders began competing with each other and were unsatisifed with the
                    lack of wealth in the region - as a result they began to raise taxes on the
                    conquered lands. A rebellion began in Estonia in 1223 AD - it took decades for
                    the population to be eventually subdued, and much of this was due to competing
                    interests from neighboring powers. The Teutonic order eventually took over
                    governance of the region from the Livonian Brothers of the Sword. The spotlight
                    individual is a 25-35 year old male buried near an Estonian hillfort exactly as
                    shown here. He was buried with a horse harness, weapons and coins from Gotland,
                    Sweden and dates from approximately 1230 AD during these rebellions.

Late Medieval Latvia St Gertrude Plague Victim

Gustav Vasa I helped Sweden break free from the Kalmar Union and win its
                    indepedence against Denmark and Norway. He became King of newly indpendent
                    Sweden (which included Finland), established a new dynasty and led to a
                    reformation of the church making Sweden Lutheran. He vastly strengthened the
                    state and built a modern army which was the envy of the region. Sweden began its
                    own expansion and conquered Estonia. In 1587 the heir to the Swedish throne
                    Sigismund Vasa (shown in this painting) became the new ruler of the Polish
                    Lithuanian Commonwealth in part due to his catholic Polish mother. After his
                    father King John III died, Sigisumund promised to unite Sweden with Poland and
                    Lithuania promising to respect Lutherans as the new King of Sweden - but in 1597
                    Swedish aristocrats led by Sigismund's uncle Duke Charles IX rebelled.

In 1598, Sigismund landed in Sweden with an army of Polish, German and
                    Hungarian mercenaries but was defeated at the battle of Linköping and
                    forced to retreat by superior Swedish forces. Charles IX (shown here insulting
                    the corpse of Sigismund supporter Klaus Fleming), prepared for a counter
                    invasion of the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth with 15000 men conquering Estonia
                    and moved quickly southwards into Livonia. In 1601 the famous Polish military
                    commander Chodkiewicz was called back from Moldavia to defend against the
                    Swedish invasion. He fought a decisive victory in Kokenhausen in 1601 killing
                    3000 Swedes largely due to the famous Winged Hussars cavalary, also known as the
                    Angels of Death. General Zamoyski arrived with an additional 12000 men which
                    forced Charles IX back into Estonia and ultimately a full retreat. A few years
                    later Sweden came back with 4 larger armies with a goal to capture Riga.

Chodkiewicz moved his armies near Kirchholm on hills facing off against the
                    numerically superior Swedes. Through clever planning, tactics and a feint
                    retreat, Chodkiewicz led Charles IX into a trap which decimated the Swedish
                    armies by Winged Hussars and Tatars. This total victory forced Charles IX to
                    flee to his landing camp near Riga. In total the Commonwealth forces only lost
                    100 men with 200 injured while over 8000 Swedes were killed or captured. They
                    abandoned the siege of Riga and fled back across the Baltic Sea to Sweden.
                    Ironically Chodkiewicz's unpaid troops and mercenaries mutinied shortly
                    afterwards and abandoned him preventing him from capitalizing on the total
                    victory - the war ultimately ended in a stalemate for both sides.

During this conflict, both famine and plague hit Riga. The soldiers had
                    consumed all the food and the people of Riga and nearby areas suffered. To make
                    matters worse a plague epidemic hit and made the city a ghost town. Mass grave
                    pits were established including several near St. Gertrude Church, located
                    outside the city walls of the old Riga town. There was also a burial pit and
                    traditional individual graves in this church graveyard from this time. Some
                    bodies were found to have died of natural causes or sieges of the city. However
                    several were analyzed and tested positive for Yersinia Pestis - plague - which
                    had devastated the city in 1601.

Harold Godwinson was the last crowned Anglo-Saxon king of England - and the
                    first English monarch crowned in Westminster Abbey. His short reign 10 months
                    began after the untimely death of his brother-in-law King Edward the Confessor.
                    Harold had been a powerful earl and member of a prominent family with ties to
                    Cnut the Great, the Viking King who united all of England under his rule. In
                    early September Harald Hardrada, the King of Norway, landed an invasion fleet
                    near York and defeated the English earls of Mercia and Northumbria assisted by
                    Harold's brother Tostig. In response Harold force-marched his army from London
                    in four days and surprised the invaders killing both Hardrada and Tostig.

Two weeks later marching south to face another invading army, Harold met
                    his untimely death at the famous Battle of Hastings against William the
                    Conqueror. An arrow reportedly passed into his eye as depicted here - afterwards
                    the corpse was mutilated so it could not be easily recognized. Harold's youngest
                    son, Magnus Haroldsson continued the struggle against the Norman invasion along
                    with his brothers Edmund and Godwin. They sought refuge with their relative King
                    Sweyn II Estridsen of Denmark. A huge Danish fleet of 240-300 ships arrived to
                    fight William. The Normans bought off the Danish with a large sum of money
                    accompanied by harsh wintry weather. The Danes returned to Denmark - and Magnus
                    and his sibilings stayed in Sweyn's court. His sister Gytha was married to
                    Vladimir Monomakh, the prince of Smolensk.

Following the footsteps of previous royal Anglo-Saxon exiles, Magnus is
                    thought to have sought support and care from anti-Normandian coalitions
                    including Poland and Hungary. Grave 609 was discovered near a Romanesque church
                    in Czerska, Poland in 1966. Gallus Anonymus, the famous early medieval
                    historian, described a man named Count Magnus who was likely the man in the
                    grave. Researchers have asserted that Count Magnus was in fact Magnus
                    Haroldsson. The grave belonged to an elite buried in a coffin with rich grave
                    goods who had been 180 cm tall, muscular and lived the correct age. His diet had
                    contained a very untypical diet of large volumes of marine fish evidencing he
                    had been a foreigner. Carbon-14 dating, along with analysis of carbon, nitrogen
                    and strontium isotopes further provide evidence of a match. He had been buried
                    with a steel sword, a spear and a golden ring indicating a man of the
                    knighthood.

Two bowls at the feet indicated Scandinavian origin. The name Magnus was
                    also very rare in the region. Furthermore grave 609 was buried with an emblem
                    which included a dragon - which was the same dragon as found on Magnus
                    Haroldsson's family crest from Wessex. This symbol had never previously appeared
                    in Poland and shortly afterwards began to appear in Mazovian heraldry. Mazovian
                    dukes built a castle in Czerska called the castle of the green dragon. Later the
                    castle became property of the Polish kings and capital of the Piast dukes of the
                    Mazovian dynasty.

Late Iron Age Frisian Boy Aak Uitgeest-Dorregeest Holland

The skeleton of a 9 year old boy from Iron Age Holland was discovered near
                    a burial mound in the town of Uitgeest. He is nicknamed Aak which means made of
                    iron. He is esimated to have lived around 200 BC during the Late Iron Age when
                    most people in this part of Ancient Frisia were farmers. Not much is known about
                    Aak other than he lived during a turbulent time when the Roman Empire was
                    sweeping into Celtic and Germanic lands. Ancient Frisia was a coastal area of
                    low lands and small islands located on the path between the Romans and Germania.

In 28 AD there was a firece battle fought where the Frisii (ancient
                    Frisians) defeated a Roman army led by general Lucius Apronius. The Frisians had
                    experienced enough of having their land confiscated, wives and children forced
                    into bondage and herds decimated. The Frisii proceeded to hang the tax
                    collectors and besiege a key Roman fort. The Roman general dispatched an army to
                    break the siege but was forced into a pitched battle in the Baduhenna Wood. The
                    Frisii victory went noticed by nearby Germanic tribes including the Chauci which
                    invigorated their resistance.

 The famous Roman historian Publius Cornelius Tacitus records in his annals
                    how these woods were aptly named after Baduhenna, an ancient Frisian goddess of
                    war. Unfortunately the Romans eventually subjugated the Frisii. Emperor
                    Constantius Chlorus forced the ancient Frisii to resettle within the Roman
                    Empire and this is the last mention of them on historical record. Any Frisii
                    left in Frisia fell victim to floods, civil strife and piracy. However, not only
                    their genetic legacy lives on but also the Old Frisian language is more closely
                    related to Old English than Old Saxon from Germanic lands.

Not far from where Aak was found, once can visit a recreated late Iron Age
                    farm in Wekeromse Zand. Not only can one be introduced to prehistoric farm life,
                    but there is also a complex of fields nearby called the Celtic Fields. This is
                    where primitive grains such as bucket wheat and spelt used to be cultivated.
                    Aaks face was reconstructed carefully by experts from the Hildes House museum
                    based on the actual remains and the latest technology. They offer 8 individuals
                    on display from the Iron Age to Medieval times reconstructed in the same way.

Danish Viking Clan St. Brice Massacre Oxford

Danish Viking Clan Galgedil Funen Denmark

Beginning in the 8th century, the Danes began a long era of well-organized
                    raids across the coasts and rivers of Europe. Large areas outside Scandinavia
                    were settled by the Danes including what became know as the Danelaw in England,
                    the Netherlands, northern France and Ireland. Two Viking warriors from the same
                    clan separated for more than 1000 years and have finally been reunited at the
                    Danish National Museum in Copenhagen.

Danelaw was established as an area ruled by Vikings and extended across
                    much of England. A group of fairly young Viking warriors was found here buried
                    in a mass grave near the church where they had been killed by orders from King
                    Aethelred II, King of the English. The warrior hilighted here was in his 20s and
                    died from injuries to his head. He had sustained 8 to 10 hits to the head and
                    several stab wounds to the spine.

Galgedil is a large burial ground dating from the early Viking period
                    located on the Danish island of Funen as shown here. The Viking hilighted at
                    this burial site near Otterup was in his 50s and lived in Denmark. He had battle
                    wounds on his skeleton indicating he was an active warrior. 

This is an actual photo of the two warriors who have now been reunited back
                    in their homeland of Denmark. An exhibition will be open in Copenhagen from 2021
                    until 2024. It is not fully clear how exactly these two men were related. it is
                    speculated they were half-brothers, or possibly a grandfather and grandson due
                    to the potential age difference in carbon dating.

Ancient Greek Warrior First Sicilian War Himera Sicily

Ancient Mercenary First Sicilian War Himera Sicily

Sicily was located at the focal point of many trade routes of the known
                    world. Three ancient tribes had inhabited the island - the Elimi, Sicani and
                    Siculi. However the island was strategically located with fertile lands and
                    coastline which brought settlers from Phoenicia and Ancient Greece. As the
                    Phoenician homeland of Tyre collapsed, their once city-state turned empire
                    Carthage set its eyes on conquering nearby Sicily. Carthage was indeed mighty
                    and rich boasting the most powerful navy found anywhere. With their accumulated
                    wealth they could pay for the best troops from their spheres of influence which
                    included fierce Iberian warriors, Gauls, Sardinians, Nubian elephants and North
                    African cavalry. Carthage signed a treaty with fledgling state of Rome, who was
                    then battling the Etruscans to formalize plans for division of influence, and in
                    480 BC dispatched King Hamilcar I with the largest army yet assembled (nearly
                    300,000 soldiers and 5,000 horsemen) to crush several Greek city-states in
                    Sicily as a broader plan to seize the island. The Greek colonies in Sicily
                    meanwhile had become powerful city states with several tyrant kings as their
                    rulers. Two in particular, Gelon and Theron had forged an alliance to claim much
                    of the Sicilian coastline. Against the vast Carthaginian juggernaut headed their
                    way, the Sicilian Greeks were desperate for help - they asked the Greek mainland
                    for help but simultaneously, as fate had it, the mighty Persian Empire led by
                    Xerxes were on their own campaign to crush the Greek homeland. The help that did
                    arrive, as it turned out, were not Greek at all but paid mercenaries from
                    Central and Baltic Europe. Altogether the Greeks managed to amass only 50,000
                    soldiers and several thousand cavalry - they were vastly outnumbered.

Poseidon favored the Greeks and sent a fierce storm which sunk many of the
                    Carthaginian ships - including all of their chariots and most of their horses.
                    Hamilcar had to pause to regroup providing valuable time for Gelon and Theron to
                    collect their forces. Hamilcar strategically built two camps - one by the sea
                    for his naval forces and one on a hill west of Himera for his land forces - both
                    connected by a protective palisade to transfer resources back and forth.
                    Hamilcar took the initiative and defeated a force of Greek hoplites in a pitched
                    battle close to the city. The Greek forces were forced into retreat behind their
                    defensive walls. The Carthaginians pillaged the nearby countryside with apparent
                    impunity - however this included sending the reduced Carthaginian cavalry which
                    by chance encountered the fresh Greek forces of Gelon just arriving from the
                    East. Despite a huge army, Hamilcar had made a critical mistake in losing his
                    valuable cavalry and dispatched a message to his Ionian Greek allies to the
                    south for more. Gelon intercepted the messengers and cleverly did the unexpected
                    - he sent part of his own cavalry to come from the South and disguised them as
                    Ionian Greeks. These badly needed re-enforcements were welcomed into the naval
                    camp of Hamilcar with open arms where they settled in and waited to spring the
                    trap. Keep in mind Carthage was a mighty naval Empire but for land troops relied
                    mostly on foreign mercenaries - they were unable to recognize the concealed
                    enemy troops until too late.

A few hours later the main forces of Gelon arrived and faced the more
                    numerous Carthaginian land forces in a massive pitched battle which was
                    effectively a standstill with the battle swaying back and forth creating massive
                    casualties on both sides. Mass military graves were discovered here west of
                    Himera which we hilight in this DNA Spolight. Bodies contained deep wounds
                    caused by spears, swords, daggers, and arrows.At this critical moment the sea
                    camp trap was sprung - with utter precision the Greek cavalry rushed and killed
                    Hamilcar himself who was performing a sacrificial ritual and set fire to his
                    ships - only a few escaped. Thereupon the cavalry raised the signals and the all
                    remaining Greek forces engaged. The Carthaginians were demoralised having lost
                    their great leader and seeing their fleet burning in the distance. Nonetheless
                    the elite Iberian mercenaries of Carthage held strong and actually managed to
                    reverse the battle briefly - however the army of Theron previously waiting
                    inside Himera arrived now and flanked them - the Carthaginians were entirely in
                    disarray and fled in all directions. Gelon had given the order to take no
                    prisoners so there followed a massive slaughter of all Carthaginians in their
                    flight - no less than 150000 were slain in this manner - many out of water to
                    drink and with no ships to flee to. The few who did escape and find ships once
                    again met the wrath of Poseidon. A massive storm appeared from nowhere and sunk
                    what was left of the once mighty fleet. Only a handful of Carthaginians returned
                    and the first Battle of Himera marked a spectacular defeat for the Carthaginians
                    who took decades to rebuild their forces.

The victory was celebrated endlessly across the entire Greek world - who
                    had simultaneously and unbelievably defied annihilation against both the mighty
                    Carthaginians from the West and the unstoppable Persian Empire from the East.
                    Conspiracy of superpowers? Possibly. The Greeks were satisfied with their
                    victory and decided not to harshly punish the Carthaginian invaders - Carthage
                    was expecting a counter-invasion at home and was shocked to end up paying only
                    2000 talents of silver to make peace. This DNA spotlight focuses on the Greek
                    warriors who fell in this battle, as well as their mercenary allies from the
                    North. All these bodies were recovered from mass graves which had honoured the
                    fallen - ethnic Greek graves were more private and mercenaries were buried in
                    larger yet respectful graves. Greeks were proud of their ethnic group and
                    legends - as a result stories of the event mention only the Greek warriors but
                    DNA and archaeology show the true story was a combined effort by the outnumbered
                    Greeks. However peace would not be lasting... the First Sicilian Wars later was
                    followed by the Second. And a few hundred years later as Rome had grown strong,
                    began the famous Carthaginian Punic Wars against the Roman Republic - which were
                    also fought over Sicilian soil. Shown here are the ruins of Himera as seen today
                    - not far from modern Palermo. The skeletons above are from one of the many mass
                    graves found containing Greek soldiers and their allies.

In central Poland near the Vistula river an incredible cemetery was
                    uncovered in Bodzia and excavated between 2007-2009. More than 58 graves,
                    weapons and riches were discovered with artifacts mostly of foreign origin. This
                    chamber burial site was typical for the Viking Age and it is surmised this
                    cemetery was part of a trade settlement connecting the Baltic Sea to the
                    Byzantine Empire. The graves appear to have been surrounded by wooden palisades.
                    Grave VK156 was found with a battle-knife, tools and an iron knife. His son
                    VK153 meanwhile was buried with a battle axe. The richest grave however is shown
                    here which contained a man and a woman who both died approximately the same time
                    around 1015-1020 AD. The man on the left was buried with numerous items
                    including an exquisite Viking sword.

The sword found here is classified as a Petersen Type Z sword with a
                    distinctive five-lobed pommel and downturned spatulate guard. The find weighs
                    about 855 grams with a length of 1 meter. It had a luxurious silver-encrusted
                    hilt decorated in Scandinavian Mammen style with a riveted scabbard made of
                    leather and wood. Further analysis of the materials and crafting showed the
                    scabbard came from late 10th century Scandinavia. Similiar swords with the same
                    design have only been found in Viking Sweden and Norway, although numerous Type
                    Z swords have been found in Poland. He was also buried with a knife made of
                    antler and iron bow shears. However, the most fascinating and explicit piece of
                    evidence found is the man's bronze belt. This belt was engraved with a very
                    specific emblem - a two-pronged mark topped by a cross. 

This is the mark of the infamous Sviatopolk the Accursed (pictured here).
                    Sviatopolk, of the Rurikid Dynasty, had died a violent death in his 30s in the
                    year 1019. His father was Vladimir the Great of the Kievan Rus. Sviatopolk held
                    the throne in the early 11th century and had his own brothers murdered to
                    maintain his power. It is possible this grave belonged to a high-ranking member
                    of Sviatopolks personal guard - or was even Sviatopolks himself. Tooth analysis
                    showed the man in the grave was not local - and for this very rich and unique
                    cemetery - his grave was the richest by far. Carbon dating of the body is almost
                    an exact match for Sviatopolk and the man in the grave also had died of a
                    violent death as sharp-edge mark trauma was found on the left parietal bone and
                    left mandibular branch. Furthermore Sviatopolk had retreated from Kiev to
                    Poland, the site of this grave, the year before being killed. Genetically this
                    body exactly matches that of an early Kievan Rus Viking. 

Sviatopolk was married to the daughter of Boneslaw I, the first King of
                    Poland (seen here riding the horse on the left) and Emnilda of Lusatia a Polish
                    noblewoman. The elite female grave is carbon dated to roughly 1020,
                    corresponding to the death of Boneslaws daughter. She was buried with a whorls
                    made of beautiful Volhynian slate. However most unique is the fact a stone had
                    been placed over her face immobilizing her head. This exceptional act would
                    protect the living from the return of the unwanted dead - and would be used to
                    incapacitate the dead who were thought to be vampires. This ritual was known to
                    be done to those considered dangerous during their lifetime. Also found in her
                    grave was a coin minted from Viking Sigtuna circa 1017 with the image of Cnut
                    the Great - Viking ruler of England Denmark and Norway. Other than her rich
                    burial goods and correct age, the woman genetically matches the expected profile
                    of Sviatopolks wife. Given the evidence, it seems quite plausible this double
                    grave did indeed belong to Sviatopolk and his wife.

The Vendel Period pre-dated the Viking Age in Sweden between 550-800 AD as
                    ships sailed east to explore the waterways of eastern Europe. The saga of
                    Swedish Viking Ingvar the Far-travelled was thought to be a tale rather than a
                    real story based on events. However a series of runestones in central Sweden
                    tell the story about a great expedition east led by the Viking chieftain Ingvar.
                    The Ynglinga saga states that Ingvar was a great warrior who patrolled the
                    shores of his kingdom fighting Danes and Estonians. He made peace with the Danes
                    so he could focus on Estonia landing at a palce called Stein. The Estonians
                    assembled a great army inland and attacked King Ingvar in a great battle. The
                    Estonian forces were too powerful and Ingvar fell while the Swedish forces
                    retreated. The saga says the famous warrior was buried in a mound on the shores
                    of Estonia.

Two Vendel Age ships were uncovered at Salme Estonia which tell the tale of
                    a great battle 50-100 years before the famous Viking raid on Lindisfarne. The
                    Battle of Salme began with an attack from bowmen. The rain of arrows hit the
                    ships and the men causing the first casualties. Fierce close combat ensued with
                    swords clashing. The remains show broken bones and skulls and dismemberments -
                    clearly the attackers were very strong and experienced swordsmen. The Swedes
                    were themselves caught in an unexpected attack. Some were struck from their
                    backs, some were attacked by multiple enemies at the same time. Wounds on the
                    skeletons depict the Estonians first tactic was to to target their arm or
                    shoulder rendering them unable to fight. These wounded warriors were finished
                    off with a blow to the head.

Here one can see the beach where the battle took place, as well as the
                    monument where the ships were found. These ships were clinker-built between
                    650-700 AD in Scandinavia - one was 12 meters long and the second over 17 meters
                    long. Neither had a mast or sails - but rather had been rowed across the Baltic.
                    The sides of the ships were covered in embedded arrowheads. After losing too
                    many oarsmen to the Estonian archers, the raiders pulled their ships aground and
                    tried to defend themselves behind them. The ships were buried with the skeletal
                    remains of 41 warriors including a variety of weapons and tools. It appears the
                    Estonians allowed the Scandinavians to ritually bury their dead afterwards in
                    the boats. The dead warriors, along with their belongings, were placed in the
                    ships and were in turn filled with sand and gravel from the beach.

Bodies from the larger ship hilighted in this Spotlight likely belonged to
                    noble birth as many had expensive bronze sword-hilts. The first 4 samples shown
                    were all brothers having identical male and female haplogroups. The grave goods
                    were of Scandinavian design and the isotropic ratios of strontium and oxygen in
                    the teeth combined with the artifacts show these early Vikings had come from the
                    Stockholm region. The saga of Ingvar ends: the fair-haired Swedish king laid
                    low. On Estlands strand, oer Swedish graves. The East Sea sings her song of
                    waves; King Ingvars dirge is oceans roar. Resounding on the rock-ribbed shore.
                    Nonetheless the few survivors were allowed to bury their dead comrades on the
                    beach with honorable ship burials. Could it be these ships themselves belong to
                    Ingvar and he was among the ancient samples uncovered? You decide!

Black Plague Victim Rostov-on-Don Fortress

Catherine the Great was Empress of Russia from 1762 to 1796 and also the
                    country's longest ruling female leader. During her reign, Russia grew larger and
                    became one of the world's great powers. She is shown here wearing the uniform of
                    the famous Preobrazhensky Regiment. Catherine possessed considerable charm, a
                    lively intelligence, and extraordinary energy. Her true passion was ambition.

One of her key successes was the Russo-Turkish War of 1768-1774 - this was
                    a continuation of a long-running conflict between the Russian and Ottoman
                    Empires. The end result included territorial gains on the Pontic-Caspian Steppes
                    as well as seizing control of two key ports near the Black Sea. The weakened
                    Ottoman Empire enabled Russia to maintain hegemony over the Polish-Lithuanian
                    Commonwealth as well as seize control of the Crimea.

The southern border of Russia was guarded by the newly built fortress of
                    Rostov-on-don which was the strongest fortress in Southern Russia. It was
                    strategically located and built in a star shape surrounded by a moat and housing
                    238 guns. The famous naval admiral Fyodor Fyodorovich Ushakov, known for having
                    won every single engagement he participated in, began his service here. The
                    famous general Alexander Suvorov, who was a close favorite of Empress Catherine
                    with victories against Napoleon and the Ottomans, had also spent time here.

A terrible plague swept through Russia during this time. It is believed to
                    have started in Moldavia and spread during the Russo-Turkish War northwards
                    through Ukraine and into Moscow. The plague killed up to 1/3 of the population
                    of Moscow and led to the Plague Riots of 1771 shown in this image. As the plague
                    spread shops and businesses were forced to close down paralyzing the economy.
                    Our samples contain two plague victims buried inside the fortress of
                    Rostov-on-Don, as well as another victim buried in nearby Azov City.

Erik Torvaldsson, later known as Erik the Red, was born in Norway around
                    950 AD but emigrated to Iceland after his father Thorvald Asvaldsson was exhiled
                    after being convicted of murder. Erik's family had settled a nice plot of land
                    in a northern fjord. However after his thralls (personal serfs) were killed for
                    starting a landslide on a neighbor's property, he took revenge and slew his
                    neighbor as well as another man. Convicted for murder, Erik was banished from
                    Iceland. Instead of returning to Norway, from where his own father was banished
                    earlier, Erik decided to sail further west.

An old norse word Hillingar was used to refer to arctic mirages which would
                    appear on the horizon as relatively hot air rose off of ice sheets which would
                    reveal distant land located beyond the horizon to wayward seafarers. It is even
                    thought that Erik had seen Greenland from such a Hillingar all the way from
                    Iceland and other Viking navigators used this technique to find land hidden
                    beyond the horizon. Erik discovered the western coast of Greenland and spent his
                    3 years of banishment exploring the island before returning to Iceland with news
                    of his discoveries and a strong desire to return in force.

Erik sailed with 25 ships from Iceland but only 14 reached Greenland. Most
                    of the immigrants to Greenland were themselves Icelanders as there were land
                    shortages in Iceland. Erik's farmstead was located on some of the finest land in
                    Greenland. Shown here is a reconstruction of a church found on his farm of
                    Brattahlið at Eriksfjord. Note Erik himself remained a staunch pagan but his
                    wife Thojdhild and many other Vikings had recently converted to Christianity.
                    The ancient samples listed in this spotlight were found in graves around this
                    church. Most were found in a mass grave and 3 had head wounds caused by a sword
                    or axe - it is thought they were victims of combat.

The ruins of Brattahlið can be found in the town of Qassiarsuk. Note
                    that many of the Norse buildings in Greenland were built of stone rather than
                    wood, due to the lack of this resources. The settlements were built a bit inland
                    to avoid the harsh sea and wind. Greenland's settlements prospered for some time
                    to become key exporters of walrus ivory and polar bear furs to mainland Europe.
                    Erik's son Leif Eriksson would take in his father's footsteps as an explorer and
                    become the first known European to set foot on continental North America 500
                    years before Christopher Columbus. 

The Hanseatic League was a merchant union between many of the great trading
                    cities across the North and Baltic seas formed during the late Medieval period.
                    Numerous guilds in northern german cities called Hanse established business
                    partnerships to protect trade and business interests. In 1241 the cities of
                    Lübeck and Hamburg formed a formal trading relationship which connected the
                    fishing routes of the Baltic and North Seas with inland salt mines. As the
                    Hanses grew and more cities joined, they became fierce competition with
                    Scandinavia who had previously controlled these trade routes.

The League was effectively a conglomerate of different merchant houses and
                    city states forming a highly structured defensive and trade alliance. It had an
                    army as well as tax system. The capital of Lübeck eventually began hosting
                    the Diet, or Hanseatic Parliament, where topics like war and peace with
                    neighboring territories were discussed. Visby on the Swedish island of Gotland
                    joined the League and became the leading trade centre in the Baltic. Hanseatic
                    traders were often exempt from local taxes and laws when performing trade in
                    Scandinavia and Russia.

Unfortunately being the center of trade also meant lots of visitors from
                    distant lands. Lübeck was ravaged by six pestilences in the 14th century
                    alone. In 1367, en epidemic outbreak of enteric paratyphoid fever spread in the
                    city. Typhoid fever is an infection caused by the bacterium Salmonella enterica
                    serovar and only affects humans. DNA analysis shows the strain that hit this
                    Hanseatic capital was very close to one that struck Norway in 1200 AD. 

The samples for this spotlight were found in a mass grave with over 800
                    skeletal remains attached to the Heilige Geist Hospital (HGH) shown here.
                    Completed in 1286, this was one of the oldest social care facilities in the
                    world, one of the most important structures from the Middle Ages in Europe and
                    even had residents until 1970. The site can be visited today and is one of the
                    top sites in Lübeck.

On Ridgeway Hill in the County of Dorset, a mass burial was found with the
                    remains of 54 males. These individuals had all been executed in a gruesome
                    manner with their decapitated heads dumped together in a large pit.
                    Interestingly enough all of the sharp blade wounds had been struck from the
                    front, meaning these individuals had faced their enemy. Radiocarbon dating
                    showed the bodies were from 890-1030 AD. Strontium isotopes found in the bones
                    show these individuals were originally from Scandinavia.

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, which had been written around 890 AD, provides a
                    year-by-year account of all the major happenings in Anlgo Saxon England.
                    Aethelred the Unready had been king from 978-1016 AD - it is quite possible
                    these bodies died during his reign. Initially the king had paid Viking raiders
                    off with over 10,000 pounds to stop raiding their lands. Later they began hiring
                    Norse mercenaries to fight off the invading Vikings - however these mercenaries
                    would switch sides frequently and proved too risky.

It is surmised the individuals in the Ridgeway Hill Burial were that of a
                    raiding ship - as Viking longships carried around 60 people. The hip bones and
                    shoulder bones also show that of physiques consistent with ship rowers. Unlike
                    the known victims of the Saint Brice day massacre, these individuals appear to
                    have been methodically killed. These victims are all in their late teens and
                    early twenties with minimal evidence of existing war wounds.

Shown here is the actual dig site - three of the bodies were missing heads
                    - probably these had been impaled on spikes to scare off other would-be
                    attackers. The killers also showed respect for the Viking invaders as they were
                    killed by sharp forged sword while facing their enemy rather than from behind.
                    Some bodies even showed signs of trying to block the swords blows with their
                    hands. One of these individuals even had filed down front teeth, which was the
                    same custom used by Harald Bluetooth.

Elite Charioteer Briton Pocklington Yorkshire England

Julius Caesar provided vivid accounts of chariot use by the Britons who
                    opposed his attempted landing in 55 BC (now evidenced to be at Pegwell Bay in
                    Kent). He states how the barbarians sent forward almost 4000 charioteers to
                    block his men as they tried to land - they would drive about in all directions
                    and throw their weapons breaking the ranks of their enemy. Once the chariots
                    worked their way into the enemy, the Celtic warriors would leap from their
                    chariots and engage on foot. 

There are 30 chariot burials now known from Britain with almost all found
                    in East Yorkshire. The second century Roman geographer Ptolemy says the people
                    inhabiting this region of Britain were called the Parisi - a Briton Celtic
                    tribe. In England, chariot burials are almost entirely confined to the Iron Age
                    Parisi. Similar burial rites were used by the people of the Aisne-Marne region
                    of northern France, and it is perhaps no coincidence the French capital is named
                    Paris. 

The Pocklington Iron Age burial ground was uncovered in 2014 in the East
                    Riding of Yorkshire during housing development. Excavations began immediately
                    and in 2017 the first of two rare chariot burials were revealed. The chariot
                    burial shown in this spotlight held the remains of a high-status male who was
                    buried with a fully upright chariot and two upright horses as well as a
                    well-preserved shield and highly decorated brooch. The skeleton of the warrior
                    was placed in a crouched position in the cart of the chariot.

Altogether 87 burials were found at Pocklington - three of which are from
                    the Bronze Age. So far 35 have yielded high quality DNA which you can be
                    compared to. Many include grave goods such as swords, jewerly and other
                    historical items. One elite female grave contains rare jewellery including a
                    copper-alloy bracelet on each wrist - one with a coral inlay as well as a brooch
                    decorated with coral. Another grave of interest contains 5 spears and a shield.
                    One of the most exciting graves discovered was a man buried with the magnificent
                    bronze shield shown here.

The Centocelle Necropolis is associated with the large imperial property Ad
                    Duas Lauros - a sprawling Roman imperial villa in which Helena, the mother of
                    Emperor Constantine I had lived. The Mausoleum of Helena, part of the Ad Duas
                    Lauros complex, was originally designed by Constantine I to be his own personal
                    tomb - but later became the tomb of his mother. The building is on a circular
                    plan with two cylinders and an original height of 25.42 meters. The lower
                    cylinder has an octagonal shape with eight arcaded windows designed to allow in
                    light. After the death of Helena, the Ad Duas Lauros was assigned to the Roman
                    popes. The Sarcophagus of Helena was moved to the Lateran (currently in the
                    Vatican) in the 11th century where it can be seen today.

Previously the cemetery of the equites singulares Augusti (the personal
                    cavalry of the emperor) was housed where the mausoleum was built. However the
                    cavalry sided with Roman Emperor Maxentius against Constantine during the famous
                    Battle of the Milvian bridge in 312 AD. This was the famous battle where
                    Constantine had a vision of Christ and had his armies paint their shields with a
                    Chi-Rho emblem. His inspired soldiers annihilated the army of Maxentius who
                    while escaping drowned in the Tiber River. His body was later fished from the
                    river and decapitated - his head paraded through Rome before being sent to
                    Africa. As a result of the actions of the equites singulares, Constantine had
                    their cemetery destroyed and replaced by his newly built Mausoleum.

Below the Mausoleum lies the Catacombs of Marcellinus and Peter which
                    pre-date the Mausoleum, being constructed around 200 AD (located today below the
                    modern church of Santi Marcellino e Pietro ad Duas Lauros). These catacombs have
                    a mixture of pagan and Christian imagery - surprisingly very mixed - one room
                    even depicts Peter striking water from a rock next to Orpheus playing a lyre. In
                    another room containing one of the most famous frescoes of Christian art, the
                    Cuble of the Saints Eponymous, is adorned with Christ sitting on a throne
                    dressed in a purple tunic - like a Roman emperor. Skeletons buried within the
                    catacombs appear to have undergone complex burial rites consisting of being
                    covered in plaster or amber and wrapped in textiles.

The area of the Centocelle Archaeological Park is a vast green area of 136
                    hectares in the Rome V Municipality. The Villa ad Duas Lauros is the most famous
                    villa in this region of Ancient Rome. The complex began construction during the
                    Roman Republic and this continued until the end of the Western Roman Empire. The
                    garden was originally decorated with sculptures such as the two-faced Eros of
                    Centocelle. There was a theatrical section with a large room and a square
                    courtyard with surrounding porch. A total of 61 human remains were found in the
                    necropolis for the villa from which we have collected our ancient samples. The
                    identities of these individuals is not clear, other than their ties to the
                    villa.

Imperial Rome Casal Bertone Tannery Mausoleum

Imperial Rome Casal Bertone Tannery Necropolis

Imperial Rome Anatolian Girl Casal Bertone Tannery Mausoleum

The workshop of a tanner was key to life in Rome as this is where animal
                    hides were prepared to produce leather. An amazing ornamented table was
                    discovered in the tannery garden of Pompeii and shown here. It depicts a skull
                    with a butterfly symbolising the fluttering of the disembodied soul and the
                    flight of time. On the right side of a scale/level is a beggars tattered robe
                    and on the left is a mantle of royal purple. The plumb line on the level hangs
                    straight down showing that fate sooner or later equalises the lots of all
                    mankind. Nearby in the tannery is etched the phrase: Mors Orem villeins, Vivite,
                    alt, venio. Death plucks my ear and says Live for I come. 

Casal Bertone was in Roman times, like today, a suburb just outside the
                    Aurelian walls of Rome. The Porta Maggiore shown here was a key gate into the
                    city and just 1.2 km from our archaeological site. There was a villa, a Roman
                    road, a nymphaeum and cemetery with mausoleum - but what stands out the most was
                    a huge 1055 square meter tannery complex - three times larger than any other
                    near Rome. Key to the tannery operations was water - the nearby ditch provided
                    the necessary water and was fed by the spring waters of the Fosso della
                    Marranella - the only natural lake in Rome which in ancient times flowed
                    directly into the Tiber.

With Rome being one of the most complex and advanced civilisations in
                    history, there were highly efficient social structures in place that allowed for
                    specialised and high production of items. Leather was critical for the Roman
                    army as it was needed for sandals, boots, armour, chariots and horse equipment.
                    Hides for leather came from butchers and the tanning process produced some very
                    unpleasant smells - this is why the tannery in Casal Bertone was located outside
                    the city walls. This tannery was vast with 97 tubs up to 1 meter in diameter.
                    Workers were buried in a nearby necropolis. The bodies show signs of heavy labor
                    and trauma and these individuals appear to be from different ethnic backgrounds
                    around the empire.

The process of the Chouara Tannery in Fez Morocco remains the same as that
                    in Ancient Rome. The vats and layout remain unchanged as does the process and
                    materials. Hides of cows, sheep, goats and camels are processing by soaking in a
                    series of white liquids made of cow urine, pigeon faces, quicklime, salt and
                    water. This softens the skins for a few days before they are placed into dyes.
                    Poppy is used for red, indigo for blue, henna for orange. Emperors would wear
                    Roman Tyrian purple which was produced from secretions of predatory sea snails.
                    Once dyeing was complete, the skins would be dried in the sun.

Faras was a major city located in Lower Nubia along the Nile River near the
                    border of modern Egypt and Sudan. Following the collapse of the Kingdom of Kush,
                    the nomadic Noba people settled into the area - this is the origin of the term
                    Nubia. In 543 AD, the city adopted Christianity after encountering a mission
                    dispatched by Byzantine Empress Theodora. The cathedral shown here was founded
                    by bishop Aetious in 620 AD. The paintings found therein are the best surviving
                    examples of Christian Nubian art, as well as depict portraits of monarchs and
                    bishops providing us a treasure trove of historical evidence regarding this
                    period of Medieval Nubia. The inscriptions record the names and dates of the 30
                    Bishops and Metropolitans of the Diocese from 620 AD to 1372 AD.

Shown here is Bishop Petros with Saint Peter the Apostle. This mud plaster
                    is dated between 957-999 AD and is considered one of the best portraits found in
                    Faras. The dark-skinned bishop is wearing his liturgical robes with a white
                    handkerchief wrapped around the index finger of his right palm which points at a
                    Gospel Book. His long white robe has vertical green stripes his vestments are
                    adorned with green and red jewels. His head is wrapped in a turban typical of
                    the Coptic Church hierarchs. The greek inscription above states: Saint Peter the
                    Apostle Martyr of the Cross Abba Petros Bishop and Metropolitan of Pachoras may
                    he live many years. The portrait originally appeared as part of a larger
                    composition next to King Georgious II of Makuria.

This striking image produced on mud plaster shows Christ and a young Nubian
                    ruler and dates to the mid 12th century AD. It was discovered on the southern
                    chapel at Faras. The Makurian Kings ruled from Dongola which became the capital
                    in the mid 6th century with the arrival of Christianity. Initially there were
                    several independent kingdoms which gradually merged into a single one over time.
                    The throne room located in Dongola has provided some information as to the names
                    of these kings but archaeological work remains underway today in the region to
                    uncover this lost history. The Nubian ruler shown here has not yet been
                    identified but based on the dating could be related to King Georgios V who ruled
                    a single united kingdom from 1130-1155 AD. 

This image depicts Bishop Marianos and dates between 1005-1039 AD. This is
                    one of the most beautiful and well-preserved portraits of ecclesiastical
                    officials in Nubia. Marianos was bishop of Faras between 1005-1036 AD and is
                    shown as a middle-aged man with a dark, wide and short beard. He is wearing
                    flamboyant liturgical vestments. This portrait was discovered on the eastern
                    wall of the Southern Chapel and found alongside images of other Nubian
                    clergymen. In 1964 the cathedral of Faras disappeared forever under the rising
                    waters of Lake Nubia. Of the 169 uncovered paintings found in the sands of
                    Sudan, 120 were recovered with 67 on display in the Polish National Museum /
                    Faras Gallery in Warsaw - thanks to the generous efforts of Wojciech Pawlowski -
                    and the remainder on display in the Sudan National Museum in Khartoum.

Enslaved Adult Female Laborer Catoctin Iron-Working Furnace Antebellum
                    Maryland

Enslaved Teenage Male Laborer Catoctin Iron-Working Furnace Antebellum
                    Maryland

Enslaved Laborer Catoctin Iron-Working Furnace Antebellum Maryland

The Johnson brothers named James, Baker, Roger and Thomas bought land at
                    the foot of the Catoctin Ridge in Maryland and built an iron furnace.
                    Discoveries of large iron ore deposits gave rise to a thriving iron smelting
                    industry. By 1776 the Catoctin furnace was churning out tools and household
                    items. Within a few years this included iron munitions for the Continental Army
                    including large quantities of cannonballs. Skilled workers operated the furnace
                    and historical evidence shows African slaves were chosen with backgrounds in
                    iron manufacturing - making up approximately half of the workforce.

As production was in full swing, the Battle of Yorktown raged nearby. This
                    was the turning point in the Revolutionary War which led to defeat for British
                    General Cornwallis at the hands of the American Continental Army and the end of
                    the war. This painting shows General Washington and French general Rochambeau
                    giving their last orders before the battle. Key to the success of this battle
                    was the ammunition and cannonballs produced by none other than the Catoctin
                    Furnace. The furnace was known for its high quality products and is believed to
                    be the source of armour plating for the USS Monitor, the famous ironclad of the
                    Civil War years later.

The furnace complex is large and consists of many buildings - shown here
                    are the ruins of the Ironmasters house - which had 18 rooms and offered a
                    commanding view of daily furnace operations. In 1979 archaeologists discovered
                    35 sets of remains nearby in an unmarked cemetery for African slave ironworkers.
                    Genetic tests confirm they were either first or second generation African
                    immigrants who died between 1790 and 1840. DNA evidence reveals an equal number
                    of men and women arranged in related groups who either arrived together from
                    Africa or quickly formed families upon settlement. 

Evidence also indicates many laborers were skilled smelters and blacksmiths
                    who knew how to operate the Catoctin furnace effectively. Surviving documents
                    reveal these iron workers were provided cash and supplies for overtime work.
                    Visible here are remains from the dig and reconstructed busts of a teenage boy
                    and 30 year old woman - both can be seen in the Museum bringing you face to face
                    with the past. Today the Catoctin Furnace welcomes visitors and includes
                    numerous restored buildings which can be visited. The nearby Collier Log House
                    was home to furnace workers and their families for over two centuries. The
                    Museum of the Ironworker was a workers stone house built in the 1820 which today
                    displays numerous artifacts and of course the two forensic facial
                    reconstructions hilighted in this DNA Spotlight.

Anna of Antioch House of Arpad and Chatillon

Kerak castle is located in Jordan and one of the largest castles of the
                    Levant. Due to its ideal location east of the Dead Sea, it controlled trade
                    routes from Damascus to Egypt and Mecca. Representing the latest in Crusader
                    castle technology, Kerak castle had sloping walls and an immense entry system of
                    winding tunnels which could stop any siege. Raynald of Chatillon - the Prince of
                    Antioch and Lord of Oultrejordain - gained possession of Kerak castle through
                    marriage and used it as a launching point to harass trade camel trains and even
                    threaten Mecca itself. Raynald is the infamous father of Anna of Antioch - the
                    focus of our spotlight. As portrayed in the film Kingdom of Heaven, Raynald was
                    Known as the truce breaker - he would frequently attack caravans between Egypt
                    and Syria becoming one of the wealthiest barons of the realm. Raynald was the
                    only Christian leader who pursued an offensive policy against Saladin through
                    vicious acts of plunder.

At the Battle of Montgisard depicted in this painting, Raynald led the
                    armies of then 16 year old leper King Baldwin IV to victory over Saladin - who
                    was forced to flee to Cairo with only 10 percent of his army left - Saladin
                    swore he would never forgive Raynald. Raynald in turn was appointed regent by
                    King Baldwin IV in 1177. In 1186 one of the caravan attacks led to the death of
                    Saladins sister. Saladin demanded the return of her body and Raynald executed
                    the messengers. Infuriated Saladin declared war and had amassed a much larger
                    army than ever before with about 30,000 strong versus the still formidable
                    Christian army of approximately 7000. By this time King Baldwin had passed away
                    and his successor was Guy of Lusignan - who had married Sibylla, the sister of
                    Baldwin IV.

The Battle of Hattin marks a turning point in history. Saladin began by
                    ravaging the countryside and sending horse archers to probe Christian defenses.
                    Ultimately luring the powerful enemy out of their safe defensive positions
                    during a heat wave, Saladin was able to harass his enemy as they marched in the
                    hot countryside without water to drink. During the night they set fires to their
                    camps and exchaust them further with guerilla attacks. The next day the tired
                    out Christian forces are once again dispersed and very thirsty - desperate for a
                    drink they rush up the hillside of the Horns of Hattin to find water - which of
                    course is not there on arrival thanks to a perfectly executed trap. Overheated
                    and barely able to lift their swords the Christians struggle to put up a fight.
                    King Guy himself surrenders unable to lift his sword. The army is crushed and
                    could not be replaced - without it Christian towns, castles and cities became
                    defenseless.

Raynald of Chatillon was captured and personally killed by Saladin. Kerak
                    castle which had survived multiple sieges in the past was without reenforcements
                    and fell to Saladin. By 1188 only Tyre and Acre hold out and spur on the 4th
                    Crusade. Raynald had three children - Anna of Antioch was the eldest and lived
                    in Constantinople marrying Bela III - who became the famous king of Hungary. His
                    second daughter Alice married an Italian nobleman and he had a son named Baldwin
                    who died leading a Byzantine cavalry regiment. Anna was ultimately buried in the
                    Royal Basilica in Budapest next to Bela III - their skeletons were found intact
                    and her DNA analyzed. Shown here is a facial reconstruction of how she looked.
                    She had at least 6 children - 4 of which became prominent in the royal houses of
                    Bohemia, Byzantium and Hungary. She is the known ancestor of Hungarian, Piast,
                    Luxembourg, Habsburg and Pfemyslid families. Perhaps you too are related!

Anna of Antioch and the Kingdom of Heaven

Ladislaus was the second son of future King Bela I of Hungary and his wife
                    Richeza who was daughter of King Mieszko II of Poland. He was born and raised in
                    exile in Poland along with his two brothers as his father began a rebellion to
                    seize the crown of Hungary in 1060. In 1063 Bela died and his nephew Solomon
                    returned from the Holy Roman Empire with support from German troops to take back
                    the crown. Ladislaus and his two brothers Geza and Lamport signed a treaty with
                    Solomon to keep control of their fathers duchy in order to avoid a civil war
                    leaving Solomon as King. This did not last for long as the King hoped to seize
                    more lands.

Realizing things were turning for the worse, Ladislaus attempted to find
                    re-enforcments and succeeded in bringing Czech troops from Moravia. However by
                    the time they arrived, Solomon had defeated Ladislaus's older brother Geza at
                    the Battle of Kemej in 1074. Ladislaus had a vision of victory and decisively
                    defeated Solomon at the Battle of Mogyorod - having been defeated the former
                    King fled west to seek more assistance from Henry IV of Germany. Meanwhile Geza
                    was crowned king and Ladislaus became his advisor. However in 1077 Geza died and
                    Ladislaus was proclaimed King of Hungary. His first actions introduced draconian
                    measures to consolidate power and secure the lands.

Ladislaus's sister Helen who was married to the Croatian King Demetrius
                    Zvonimir asked for Ladislaus's help after their king and his heir died with a
                    war of succession underway. In 1091 Ladislaus invaded Croatia and seized control
                    of the entire land from the River Drava to the Iron Alps. However a local
                    nobelman Petar Svacic fought him off in the Gvozd Mountains preventing the
                    complete conquest of Croatia. However not long after the Cumans, a Turkic
                    nomadic people invaded Transylvania and then the territory between the Danube
                    and Tisza rivers. They attempted to take back many prisoners and treasures from
                    Hungary before Kind Ladislaus arrived and defeated them at the Temes river.
                    Ladislaus offered the invaders to convert to Christianity and many did settling
                    in Jaszsag. As for their chieftain Ladislaus had him killed.

It is thought the Cumans were incited by the Byzantines to attack Hungary -
                    but an alternate theory is it was the Rus. Regardless of cause Ladislaus had
                    established a large kingdom and expanded the power of the Pope at the same time.
                    It was said he had agreed to lead a Crusader Army to Jerusaelem but Ladislaus
                    died beforehand in 1095 near the Hungarian-Bohemian border. Ladislaus was
                    canonized and his head and right hand became relics in the Gyor Cathedral. His
                    official legend attributes numerous miracles attributed to him including curing
                    a plague by shooting an arrow into the sky and hitting a magical herb. Ladislaus
                    had a daughter Piroska shown here in a mosaic from the Hagia Sophia became
                    Empress Irene of the Byzantine Empire. She was venerated a saint and in turn had
                    8 children who have left their own legacy. Perhaps you are related?

Stora Kronan Shipwreck Battle of Oland Sweden

The Swedish Flagship Stora Kronan (Great Crown in English) was the
                    mightiest warship ever built by the Swedish Empire and a floating palace - no
                    expense was spared in building her - the 3rd largest ship ever built at the
                    time. She had been designed to scare of the Danes and Dutch as well as impress -
                    built by the top English ship builder Francis Sheldon. As a state of the art
                    Ship of the Line, she had 3 gundecks designed for 126 cannons - mostly large 24
                    pounders and above, making her one of the deadliest and heaviest armed ships
                    ever made. With fresh memories of its predecessor, the ill-fated infamous
                    warship Vasa which sunk just 50 years earlier on its maiden voyage, the Stora
                    Kronan was constructed with a deep hull to sail and when properly ballasted not
                    be top-heavy in open sea. She was about twice as large as the Vasa shown here in
                    this video with twice as many cannons - but in terms of luxury was built to the
                    highest standard. The Vasa is the worlds only preserved 17th century ship -
                    which can be visited today in Stockholm.

The Stora Kronan launched in the year 1672 during the peak of the Swedish
                    Empire after the great King Charles X had died. Sweden was ruled by a regency
                    council led by the former Queen, until the young Charles XI was old enough to
                    assume power the same year. Sweden was indeed at its height as a European power
                    - it had finally defeated Denmark, one of its main rivals for hegemony in the
                    Baltic, and had expanded into Norway, Livonia, Ingria, Karelia and parts of the
                    Holy Roman Empire including Bremen. Also in 1672 Louis XIV of France attacked
                    the Dutch Republic and allied with Sweden - pressuring it to attack northern
                    Germany and invade Brandenburg. Sweden and France were now at war with the Holy
                    Roman Empire, the Dutch Republic and Denmark. The seemingly invincible Swedish
                    army suffered an unexpected defeat in Brandenburg at the Battle of Fehrbellin.

A great fleet was then assembled to support troop transports to reinforce
                    Swedish Pomerania - this included large ships of the line including the
                    Svärdet (sword), Äpplet (orb), Nyckeln (key) and the mighty flagship
                    Stora Kronan. Sweden had rarely fought in naval engagements - and with very few
                    victories. Swedish crews lacked the professionailsm of Danish and Norwegian
                    sailors and there was an overall lack of professional officers. The Stora Kronan
                    had over 800 people onboard including 500 sailors and 300 soldiers who came from
                    all parts of the Swedish Empire. Admiral Gustaf Otto Stenbock was in charge but
                    after reaching Gotland decided it was too cold and stormy and headed back
                    towards Stockholm. King Charles was furious and replaced the famed Admiral with
                    the treasury official Lorentz Creutz who came from a Swedish noble family with
                    roots in Finland. Creutz lacked any naval or military expertise - he had spent
                    the previous years as a commisioner of witchcraft in Dalarna - which was the
                    hillbilly country of Sweden. He had conducted trials for witchcraft leading to
                    the deaths of 20 women burned at the stake.

 It is not known why Creutz accepted the role as Admiral of the fleet, but
                    nonetheless his crew was not impressed. The sea around Stockholm froze leaving
                    the Stora Kronan unable to depart southwards to face the Danish fleet until
                    Spring when they encountered a joint Danish Dutch fleet. Unfortunately for the
                    Dutch, their own flagship pulled up beside the Stora Kronan which then opened
                    fire with its massive cannon broadsides. The cannons were loaded with barshot
                    which shredded the Dutch ship into pieces - leaving holes large enough to drive
                    a wagon through. The fleets disengaged and back to port for resupplying. The
                    Stora Kronan departed Stockholm fully loaded but without enough ballast.
                    separated but the Danes were able to track the Swedes off the coast of the
                    island Öland and re-engaged. Creutz told his sailmasters they had to shut
                    the gunports and lash the guns, or their ship would suffer the fate of the ship
                    Vasa - as fate had it this is exactly what occured as battle commenced. The
                    flagship fell to its side and a heavy wind capsized her. Water gushed in and men
                    were trapped like rats in the decks whipped by loose cannons. A single lantern
                    fell on the ground and a fire ignited the gunpowder - the ship exploded in a
                    massive fireball as shown here.

Within minutes 800 men had lost their lives - 40 men survived the sinking
                    by falling into the sea before the explosion. One lieutenant miraculously
                    survived by being blasted by the explosion into the rigging of the nearby ship
                    Dragon. Lorentz Creutz was not amongst the survivors - his body was taken back
                    to Finland and buried in a family grave. The sea battle continued but ended up
                    in a major loss - the costliest naval defeat in Swedish history. They had lost
                    the most expensive warship ever built as well as the war chests full of coin now
                    at the bottom of the sea. The furious king Charles XI began an inquiry to find
                    out who was responsible for the loss of the ship - three of the 40 survivors
                    were charged but later acquited. The Danes and Dutch made landfall and attacked
                    and burned the Swedish countryside. Fortunately for Sweden, it turned out
                    Charles XI was an exceptionally good commander on land - he won a decisive
                    victory at Lund - where 40% of the combatants perished - one of the bloodiest
                    battles per capita on European soil ever. As early as 1679 Sweden used diving
                    bells to recover some of the cannons from the wreck. Remains of the men who
                    perished are still being found as shown in this photo. The sailors in this
                    spotlight are from the wreck - are you related?

The Flagship Stora Kronan and the Battle of Öland

Ludwig van Beethoven Wiener Zentralfriedhof

In December 1770 Ludwig van Beethoven was born in Bonn at Bonngasse 20 and
                    baptized with the name of his famous grandfather - a successful musician from
                    Flemish Belgium - and he was given this name in hopes to surpass his famous
                    ancestor. Recognizing he had a prodigy his hands, Ludwigs father Johan van
                    Beethoven tried to present his talented son at his first show at the age of 7.
                    His father pushed him hard and would wake him in the middle of the night to
                    practice his music. By the age of 16 Beethoven was employed as court organist in
                    Bonn by the brother of Emperor Josef of Vienna. The same year he visited Vienna,
                    met Mozart and returned home shortly before his mother died. His father become
                    an alcoholic and forced to retire from his job in service of the Court. Ludwig
                    was forced into adulthood, making real money and had to take care of his two
                    younger brothers. In 1792 at the age of 21 Beethoven arrives in Vienna - the
                    cultural capital - a city overflowing with music in hopes to expand his future.
                    Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart had died just the year before and the great composer
                    Haydn was ageing - destiny had prepared a place for Beethoven. Music is
                    everywhere - and in less than a year he creates a big name for himself.
                    Beethoven catches the attention of the famous composer Haydn who is amazed at
                    the young talent who arrived from Bonn and begins studying with him.

One of the most important things for Beethoven was making contact with the
                    aristocrats - who hosted concerts in their palaces on a weekly basis. They would
                    meet regularly and host the best musicians of the town. He would seek sponsors
                    who would let him make music the way he wanted rather than what was expected of
                    him. Aristocratic patrons such as Joseph Franz von Lobkowitz around the same age
                    as Beethoven would seek fun in their palaces and inviting a wild child like
                    Beethoven made life exciting. These patrons were critical for Beethovens
                    finances. However by his mid 20s Beethoven noticed his hearing was disappearing.
                    He had to site closer and closer to the stage to hear the notes and music. This
                    began with the high frequency notes such as piccolos, flutes and top of the
                    violin while maintaining the lower frequencies. This would distort what he was
                    hearing. He became isolated from conversations and began avoiding people. Losing
                    hearing, the one important element of his senses was the cruelest form of
                    torture. This is when he wrote his famous Moonlight Sonata as the music
                    reflected his own mortality. The ideas came faster to him than he could digest
                    them - he changed the course of music. He stood between 2 generations - one foot
                    firmly ground in Mozart / enlightenment and Goethe. His other part was a member
                    of romanticism - he transformed music from enlightenment into romanticism.

At 41 his personal love relationships had been a disaster - typically he
                    chased after aristocratic ladies who were not available. At this time he wrote a
                    10 page love letter to his mysterious immortal beloved. He wrote how she is not
                    completely his and he is not completely hers. Both of his brothers moved to
                    Vienna and he is helping his family with their relationships and living costs.
                    In November 1815 his brother Kaspar dies of Tuberculosis and Beethoven appeals
                    to the high courts to get guardianship of his nephew Karl. By 1825 however their
                    relationship became strained. The nephew of Beethoven slipped away from his
                    control and began a military career. He retired in 1832 and had four daughters
                    and one son also named Ludwig. This Ludwig fled to Munich, claimed he was the
                    grandson of Ludwig van Beethoven, and worked for King Ludwig II of Bavaria who
                    gave him a healthy salary. Eventually he got into legal troubles and moved to
                    America changing his name to von Haven. Meanwhile our Spotlight Ludwig van
                    Beethoven never married - it is thought his immortal beloved could be Josephine
                    von Brunswik or Antonie Brentano. Regardless of his troubled personal life,
                    Beethoven focused on his career and saw himself as a musical equivalent to
                    Napoleon Bonaparte trying to liberate music from old fashioned styles.

Beethovens rage and temper led to his demise - after visiting his brother
                    Johann he got into an argument and demanded to head back to Vienna in the middle
                    of winter. This involved travelling in an open cart in December. Beethoven fell
                    ill, summoned a doctor and friends. From bed he composed his last piece named We
                    all make mistakes but everyone makes them differently. His last request was for
                    wine from the Rhine - eventually the bottles finally came. Upon their arrival
                    his last words were pity too late - and then Beethoven fell into a coma and
                    never woke up again. The main cause of his death proved to be cirrhosis of the
                    liver - typically caused by chronic alcohol abuse. His funeral was the 29th of
                    March, 18000 people showed up to follow the funeral procession. Beethoven is
                    buried like an aristocrat which he always wanted to be in a moral and ethical
                    way. Beethoven is a composer of the human soul - who personally transformed
                    music from the era of Enlightenment to Romanticism. Despite losing his ability
                    to hear, the quality of his work seemingly only improved. Today his music
                    appears everywhere and he is best known for his 9th Symphony, Moonlight Sonata,
                    Fidelio, Pathetique, Piano Concerto No. 4, Hammerklavier, Grosse Fugue, Eroica
                    and Missa Solemnis.

Elite Grave I Late Bronze Age Canaanite Megiddo

Elite Grave II Late Bronze Age Canaanite Megiddo

Late Bronze Age Outlier Canaanite Megiddo

The Ancient city of Megiddo, also known today as Tel Megiddo in modern
                    Israel, was first known in the Akkadian language used in Assyria as Magiddu.
                    Described in the Book of Revelation as the site of the apocalyptic battle of
                    Armageddon (Revelation 16:16), Megiddo was one of the strongest and most
                    important Canaanite cities. Today experts know the ancient Canaanites were
                    divided into independent city states, such as Megiddo, Hazor, and Acre. Most of
                    the texts about them come from outsiders or later sources. The Canaanite people
                    were also the forebearers of later peoples of the Levant region. Megiddo was an
                    important Canaanite city state during the Bronze Age, approximately 3500 BC to
                    1200 BC DNA analysis reveals that the city population included migrants from the
                    distant Caucasus Mountains. The ruins today include the remains of palaces,
                    temples, gates and sophisticated water system with origins going back as far as
                    7000 BC. Megiddo was important in the ancient world - it guarded the western
                    branch of a narrow pass on the most important trade route of the ancient Fertile
                    Crescent, linking Egypt with Mesopotamia and Asia Minor (Anatolia) and known
                    today as Via Maris.

By the mid 16th century BC, the Hittites, Mitanni and Babylonians had begun
                    threatening Egypt. International trade was threatened and Canaan was
                    unfortunately located in the crosshairs. Egyptian armies clashed with these
                    ever-powerful neighbors in the Near East and Canaan was the crossroads between.
                    In 1457 a coalition of Canaanite states led by the King of Kadesh rebelled
                    against their Egyptian overlords and this culminated in the Battle of Megiddo -
                    the oldest recorded Battle in History! The King of Kadesh assembled a vast
                    coalition of Canaanites, Anatolians and Mesopotamians - an army of 15000
                    infantry, chariots and archers to fend of the Egyptians. Thutmose III was
                    technically the ruler of Egypt in 1479 BC but his stepmother - the famous
                    Hatshepsut - also his aunt - was his regent and effectively in power. In 1458
                    BC, when she died, Thutmose III became sole ruler and sent his armies to fight
                    the Canaanites. The fortress city of Megiddo became the target, as it controlled
                    the access between Egypt and Mesopotamia. Thutmose dispatched an army of 200000
                    men in the spring of 1457 BC and marched them towards Canaan.

On the great temple of Amon at Karnak in Egypt - shown here - the events of
                    the battle of Megiddo were described in great detail - and serving as the first
                    such record in history. Despite warnings of an ambush Thutmose insisted on the
                    direct narrow pass to Megiddo, which spread his army into a 20 kilometres long
                    column - a risky move indeed. He took the King of Kadesh by surprise and setup
                    camp outside Megiddo. The Canaanites defenders fled as they discovered the
                    Pharaoh himself was leading the charge. However Thutmose made a critical mistake
                    by pillaging the countryside allowing the Canaanites to flee into the city walls
                    - a long siege ensued. Months later and out of food, the citizens of Megiddo
                    surrendered. Not long after the remaining Canaanite cities fell and the region
                    fell under Egyptian rule. The spoils obtained included chariots made of gold,
                    892 regular chariots, Bronze armor, 502 bows, 2000 horses and 20,000 cattle. The
                    citizens were spared but rather than kill the princes, they were captured and
                    sent to Egypt to assimilate and adopt Egyptian culture. Later they would return
                    to the region and promote the Egyptian agenda. The victory at Megiddo was quite
                    important - it not only crushed the Canaanite rebellion but added much of the
                    Levant as Egyptian territory and marked the resurgence of Egyptian military
                    strength which lasted until the end of the Bronze Age.

Many DNA samples have been recovered from the site - among the most
                    interesting are those of two brothers found in elite graves near the grand
                    palace. The individuals were adorned with gold, silver and bronze jewellery and
                    dozens of ceramic vessels with food offerings and bone inlays were found inside
                    the tomb. Both showed signs of disease, one had a misshapen nose, and both
                    showed signs of surgery on their skulls. One brother had survived the surgery
                    and the other not - but they clearly had access to advanced medicine given their
                    social status. Megiddo was later conquered by the Egyptians, rebuilt by the
                    Israelites under King Solomon, once again placed under Egyptian rule, and
                    finally became part of the Assyrian Empire before being abandoned. The name
                    Megiddo appears 12 times in the Bible. The city of Megiddo was under the tribe
                    Menashe and is mentioned in the context of the tribes failure to inherit the
                    city. In the days of King Solomon, the city became the governors center.
                    Additionally, it is mentioned in the construction activities that Solomon
                    carried out in the town. Assyrian and Aramaic sources also mention Megiddo. The
                    city certainly has a turbulent past - being conquered no less than 25 times
                    according to archaeological evidence. Today it can be visited and explored and
                    perhaps you too have ancestral ties to the city of Armageddon (Har-Megiddo - the
                    mountain of Megiddo).

Ancient Dorian Halikarnassos Aegean Coast

Near East Outlier Dorian Halikarnassos Aegean Coast

Halikarnassos was an ancient Dorian Greek city in Anatolia - today known as
                    the coastal city of Bodrum in Turkey. In this city stood one of the Seven
                    Wonders of the Ancient World - The Mausoleum of Halikarnassos. Unlike most other
                    Greek city states, Halikarnassos retained a monarchy. The city was a Dorian
                    colony - founded by one of the four main ethnic groups of Classical Greece. This
                    is evidenced by the coins depicting the head of Medusa, Athena or Poseidon which
                    suggests the mother cities were Troezen and Argos in the Peleponnese. King
                    Mausoleus became ruler of the larger state of Caria and moved its capital to
                    Halikarnassos. He began many construction works including a massive foritified
                    palace on one side of the harbor with clear views out to sea and inland to the
                    hills.

Mausolus and his sister, wife and successor Artemisia began embellishing
                    the city with statues, temples and buildings of gleaming marble. In 353 BC when
                    King Mausoleus died, Artemisia ordered construction of a magnicent tomb for the
                    former King and herself. The structure was designed by the Greek architects
                    Satyros and Pythius of Priene. It was an elevated tomb structure copying design
                    elements of nearby tombs in Lycia, a territory Mausoleus had invaded and
                    conquered in 360 BC. The 45 meter tall building had 4 side adorned with
                    sculptures and reliefs. Although she died herself in 351 BC before the building
                    was complete, the workmen continued to work on the tomb - Pliny the Elder
                    explains how the building was a memorial of sculptors art. When completed in 350
                    BC, the building was simply known as the Mausoleum.

The building had five parts - a podium, an enclosure of columns above, a
                    pyramid, a pedestal and topped by a chariot group. One aspect unique to this
                    structure is the statues were of people and animals rather than the gods of
                    Ancient Greece. Extremely detailed sculptural friezes decorated the Mausoleum
                    including many such as the one shown here depicting the battle between the
                    Greeks and Amazons - a nation of all female warriors. There were 5 or 6 levels
                    of free standing statues accented by these friezes. A jar of calcite was also
                    discovered at the tomb with the quadrilingual signature or Achaemenid ruler
                    Xerxes I - the vase contained an inscription in Old Persian, Egyptian,
                    Babylonian and Elamite with the words Xerxes: The Great King. This jar was
                    possibly offered by Xerxes to the Carian rulers who had kept it as a precious
                    object.

The Mausoleum stood intact for 16 centuries. However a series of
                    earthquakes between 1200-1400 AD shattered the columns and sent the bronze
                    chariot on top to the ground. The Knights Hospitaller who invaded the region
                    built Bodrum Castle and used the stones of the Mausoleum. Up until 1522, the
                    Knights contonued breaking up the remaining portions of the tomb in an attempt
                    to bolster the castle defences up until the arrival of the Ottomans led by
                    Suleiman the Magnificent. Although much of the site is now covered by the town
                    of Bodrum above, the Mausoleum remains can be visited today and appear as shown
                    here. Huge blocks of green stone from the tomb are visible today in the castle
                    walls across the harbor. Many statues and friezes from the Mausoleum can be
                    visited at the British Museum in London.

Griffin Warrior Elite Palace of Nestor Pylos Ancient Greece

Mycenaean Palace of Nestor Pylos Ancient Greece

Pylos, located in southwest Greece was an important center of Ancient
                    Greece - described in Homers Odyssey and Iliad as Nestors kingdom of sandy
                    Pylos. High up on the hills above with a commanding view of the Mediterranean
                    Sea an ancient site was discovered - the Palace of Nestor. Not only representing
                    the best preserved Mycenaean Greek palace ever discovered, the primary structure
                    consisted of a two-storey building with store rooms, workshops, baths, light
                    wells, reception rooms and a working sewage system. Touch
                    here to see the a 3-D rendering of the extraordinary palace - built by King
                    Nestor, son of Neleus, who was an Argonaut portrayed in Homeric epics. He had
                    led Pylos to the Trojan War with 90 ships and was highly respected by the
                    Achaeans who had ultimately defeated the Trojans. Keep in mind all of these
                    events pre-dated classical Greece by several hundred years.

It appears the palatial complex was destroyed by a fire in 1200 BC. Over
                    1000 tablets were discovered with Linear B text - which led to a breakthrough in
                    understanding this ancient language which was shown to be an archaic form of
                    Greek. The deciphered tablets confirmed the palace had served as the
                    administrative, political and financial center of Mycenaean Messinia serving a
                    population of 50,000 people in ancient times. The complex had over 105 ground
                    floor apartments with four main buildings. The large rectangular throne room
                    being the most important. The halls were decorated with remarkable wall
                    paintings and the palatial floors covered with pictorial representations. The
                    storerooms and pantries contained thousands of unused cermamic wine cups as well
                    as workshops for production of leather and perfumed oils.

Incredibly an untouched tomb was discovered nearby containing the richly
                    furnished grave of a Mycenaean warrior. The Griffin Warrior was named after the
                    artifacts uncovered - which included a griffin decorated ivory plaque, bronze
                    weapons, armor, basins, gold and silver cups, hundreds of beads of amethyst,
                    gold, amber, carnelian - as well as 50 stone seals including intricately carved
                    lions, bulls and goddesses - this was the richest Mycenaean grave uncovered in a
                    hundred years! The skeleton was of a man in his early 30s whose skeletal remains
                    indicate he had very strong muscles. DNA analysis enabled a computerized facial
                    reconstruction of his skull shown here. The richly decorated ring amazingly
                    depicts the Griffin Warrior himself fighting his enemies and wielding the same
                    sword he was buried with.

The Mycenaeans were the very first Greek organized society whose kingdom
                    exploded out of nowhere on the Greek mainland in 1600 BC. Unimaginable treaures
                    started to appear in Greek tombs at this time - just like in the case of the
                    Griffin Warrior. Clear is as the Minoan civilization on Crete collapsed, the
                    mainland Greek civilization flourished. It is believed the Mycenaeans sacked
                    Knossos - the capital of the Minoans and brought their treasures back to the
                    mainland. The Griffin warrior may have himself taken part. The ruins of the
                    palace were recently re-opened to the public complete with a protective shelter
                    overhead and an elevated walkway. Many of the archaeological findings from
                    inside the Palace are kept at the Archaeological Museum of Chora nearby as well
                    as the Archaeological Museum of Messinia. Are you
                    related to the Griffin Warrior or any of the other Ancient Mycenaeans found in
                    the Palace of Nestor? If so take pride and plan a visit!

Post Viking Age Hedeby Schleswig Rathausmarkt Southern Jutland

Hedeby was founded in 770 AD as an important Viking Age stronghold in
                    Southern Jutland. Second to Birka in Sweden, it was the most important Viking
                    trade center in Europe. Its old Norse name Heidabyr means heath settlement. It
                    began as a series of jetties and workshops constructed by Danish Vikings - the
                    first written records date from 804 AD. Hedeby was located at the crossroads of
                    Saxon, Slavic and Frisian territories at the end of the Schlei River in a series
                    of bays connecting to the Baltic Sea. The city quickly attained great wealth as
                    a mercantile settlement with extensive trading ties to western Europe,
                    Scandinavia, Slavic lands, the Byzantine east as well as the Arab World. Trade
                    was flowing but these were dangerous times.

 By 790 AD, the Franks were busy expanding northwards against the Frisians
                    and Saxons. They were allied with the Slavic Obotrites who had defeated the
                    Saxons in 798 AD at the battle of Bornhoved. The great Charlemagne, King of the
                    Franks, handed over Saxon lands to the Obotrites putting them on the Danish
                    doorstep. However the Danes had been preparing for such a challenge - behold the
                    Danevirke - a combination of walls, ramparts and marshland running across the
                    Jutland Peninsula built specifically to mark the end of Danish lands as well as
                    keep out invaders. The ramparts were up to 5 meters high and about 30 km long
                    and coupled with the impassable moorland further west his sealed off Jutland
                    from the South.

In response to the arrival of the Obotrites, King Gudfred of Denmark
                    extended the Danevirke fortifications and in 807 AD he led an invasion to
                    destroy the Polabian Slavic settlement of Reric (of course relocating the
                    merchants to Hedeby) and to kill the Obotrite leader Drozko. Gudfred proceeded
                    to plunder the Frisian coast before dying himself a few years later. The
                    Danevirke enabled the Viking metropolis Hedeby to grow as it secured the trade
                    routes. By 1050 Hedeby was set ablaze by the Viking King Harald Hardrada during
                    a conflict with King Sweyn II of Denmark. and what remained was razed by a
                    Slavic army in 1066. Longships sunk to the bottom of the harbor and runestones
                    toppled to the ground.

This same year marked the offical end of the Viking Age - the population
                    was relocated to the other side of the river and the city of Schleswig was born.
                    Our DNA spotlight samples are from exactly this time period. The Danevirke
                    remains today as shown here and is the largest ground monument in Northern
                    Europe. In 1163 Danish King Valdemar I extended the wall - up to 7 meters tall
                    now - and once again the Danevirke secured the Danish border. Over the centuries
                    that followed the walls would repeatedly be put to use during conflicts as
                    recently as 1850. The Viking Museum is one of the
                    most significant archaeological museums in Germany. Seven reconstructed houses
                    from the Viking Age have been reconstructed directly on the site of Hedeby.

Byzantine Period Underwater Basilica Nicaea Anatolia

Lying just meters under the waves and 20 meters from the coastline emerged
                    an over 1600 year old basilica forgotten just 100 km from Istanbul. Located in
                    what was an ancient Greek city called Nicaea, the early church was clearly of
                    historical significance. Engraved on the ruins was the name St. Neophytos - it
                    was determined this basilica had indeed been built in his honor. Who was Saint
                    Neophytos? He was a Roman citizen born of Christian parents who went to Nicaea
                    in 303 AD and boldly denounced the pagan faith - only to be killed by no less
                    than 16 Roman soldiers. It turns this church was built after 325 AD exactly on
                    the spot where Neophytos had been killed. An earthquake in 740 AD sunk the
                    basilica under the sea where it was forgotten until being rediscovered in 2014.
                    The significance of this basilica cannot be underestimated!

In 325 AD, the First Council of Nicaea met here for the first time
                    representing all of early Christendom. Their main accomplishment was to settle
                    the divine nature of the one God, the Son and his relationship to God the
                    Father, constructing the first part of the Nicene Creed, mandating the uniform
                    obervance of the date of Easter, and establishment of early canon law. This was
                    a key event of early Christianity and had a major impact on development of the
                    religion. The Nicene Creed was defined here to unify the beliefs of mainstream
                    Christianity - and it was attended by Emperor Constantine I and the top bishops
                    shown here in this icon. Constantine I had seized power by defeating the Western
                    Emperor Maxentius in 312 AD and the Eastern emperor in 324 AD unifying the Roman
                    Empire and declaring Christianity as the official religion of the Roman Empire. 

The same year as seizing full power, Constantine renamed the ancient Greek
                    city Byzantium to Constantinople and delcared it the new capital of the Roman
                    Empire. Constantine had humble origins as the son of an Illyrian Roman army
                    officer (later Emperor Constantius) and a Greek Christian of low birth. He had
                    served with distinction in the Roman army under co-emperors Diocoletian and
                    Maximian. He worked his way up the ranks defeating Franks, Alemanni, Goths and
                    Sarmatians. His father Constantius became the Senior Emperor of Rome in 305 and
                    launched a campaign against the Picts in Britain - but died the next year in
                    York. A huge power struggle erupted - which ultimately boiled down to
                    Constantine vs Maxentius (the son of Maximian). The decisive Battle of the
                    Milvian Bridge in October 312 AD (depicted here) led to the death of Maxentius
                    and rise of Constantine.

Shown here are the remains of the Palace of Maximian in Mediolanum - today
                    Milan. It was from this palace that Constantine I had decreed in 313 AD that
                    Christians would be given legal status and a reprieve from persecution.
                    Mediolanum had been the capital of the Western Roman Empire in 286 AD - at the
                    time Emperor Diocletian relocated the capital closer to the frontiers which had
                    been under barbarian attack. Later in 402 AD the capital had to be moved to
                    Ravenna which was easier to defend as Mediolanum fell to the ravages of the
                    Gothic War and Lombards. Perhaps you have ancestral ties to the Spotlight
                    samples shown here from the Basilica of Nicaea - if so this links you not only
                    to fabulous locations you can explore today, the origins of modern Christianity
                    but also to a complex history going back to the power struggles of Ancient Rome.

Bela III is one of the most important monarchs of medieval Hungary and
                    Dalmatia. His rule represented the peak of the Arpadian Dynasty which started
                    when Prince Arpad led the Magyar tribes into the Carpathian Basin as conquerors
                    a few hundred years earlier. He was the second son of King Geza II and following
                    the peace treaty setup between his elder brother King Stephen III and the
                    Byzantine Emperor Manuel I Komnenos, Bela moved to Constantinople in 1163.
                    Emperor Manuel dreamed about making Hungary a vassal state of Byzantium and
                    recreating the glory of Ancient Rome. Instead of using force his plan was to
                    marry prince Bela to his daughter Maria and cleverly declaring him his
                    successor.

The Byzantine emperor had a vision to unite the the lands from the
                    Euphrates River to the Lajta River on the Austro-Hungarian border under one
                    king. When Bela arrived at Manuels Court, he was given the name Alexios
                    replacing his barbarian Magyar name. Alexios was treated by the Imperial Court
                    as the heir apparent to both the Hungarian and the Byzantine thrones. However
                    Bela was also quite clever and his years in Byzantium had been well spent. He
                    observed how efficiently organised the Greek Empire was and learned about
                    administration, finances, the army and diplomacy. This included learning about
                    rich customs and institutions of the world as well as the art of dissimulation
                    which he used to thwart all attempts at making Hungary a Greek vassal.

Stephen III (the brother of Bela) died of poisoning and Bela assumed his
                    right as king of Hungary. The emperor dissolved the marriage between Bela and
                    his daughter and deprived Bela of his high title. The end results was in 1180
                    Emperor Manuel I himself died and Bela seized the opportunity to reoccupy
                    Croatia, Dalmatia, Sirmium under Hungary. Once secured he invaded the Byzantine
                    Empire in 1185. Having signed a peace treaty with the emperor Isaac II Angelos,
                    Bela married Margaret of France - the sister of French King Philip II. Bela send
                    hundreds of his advisors to Paris for education. He adopted the Greek Imperial
                    Court as his model which was luxurious and attracted foreigners - including many
                    French. 

Instead of actively waging war, Bela always insisted he was too cowardly to
                    fight - his successes show he was one of the brightest European kings of this
                    era. He also organised the Royal Chancellery which preserved records of every
                    matter that came before the king. His end came as he saw opportunity in the Holy
                    Land - where his father-in-law, the King of France, along with the King of
                    England and German Emperor had gone to fight the infidels. Unfortunately Bela
                    got sickeon the journey and died. His remains can be found today in the Matthias
                    Church in Buda under a marble monument. Archaeologists found him wearing a
                    silver crown and holding a crusader baton in his hand - with a ring on the
                    finger bearing an Arabian instcription.

Izjaslav Ingvarevych Prince of Dorogobuzh Rurik Dynasty

Izyaslav Ingvarevich was the son of Ingvar Yaroslavich, the Prince of Kiev.
                    In 1220 AD, Izyaslav was appointed to be Prince of Dorogobuzh. During this time
                    period, the Kievan Rus Dynasty had been divided into seperate principalities
                    which were loosely organized. Meanwhile to the East, Genghis Khan had been busy
                    conquering China and Central Asia to build a vast Empire with his eyes starting
                    to look towards the West. 

While the main Mongol army under Genghis Khan was busy ravaging Central
                    Asia, two of his best generals Subutai and Jebe headed west with about 20000
                    men..Their job was to chase down the Khwarazmian Shah as well as learn about the
                    countries of Europe - this information would be leveraged by the Mongol forces
                    later in time. They left a trail of destruction as they moved through Persia,
                    Azerbaijan and then into Georgia which they successfully plundered after facing
                    some resistance.

Subotai was among the most capable Mongol generals - he was an expert at
                    guerilla warfare and feigned retreats. He would employ these skills later during
                    an all out invasion of Europe in the years to come. Meanwhile as the Mongol
                    expedition arrived in Europe, the Rus created an alliance with various other
                    nearby groups to defend against the invaders. Subotai recognized the danger and
                    planned a trap. The combined Rus army defeated the Mongol rearguard easily and
                    believed they were defeating the Mongols as treasure and prisoners were left
                    behind. The Rus pursued the Mongols who were in a feigned retreat for several
                    days which spread out their armies. Meanwhile the Mongols had setup a trap and
                    waited on the banks of the Kalka River. 

Feeling confident the Rus Princes marched their respective troops
                    seperately and hours apart from each other. Mstislav III of Kiev and his Cuman
                    allies attacked the Mongols without waiting for the rest of the Rus army and
                    were defeated. In the ensuing confusion, several other Rus princes were defeated
                    and killed including Izyaslav. Izyaslav was buried in a tomb within a church
                    inside Lutsk Castle as shown here. Izyaslav's skull was found in 1989 aged 30-40
                    years old with an arrowhead stuck inside. Along with the carbon dating performed
                    on both the skull and the tomb, the physical injuries match the description of
                    Izyaslav being killed in battle.

Gleb Svyatoslavich Prince of Novgorod Rurik Dynasty

Rowing down the great rivers of Eastern Europe on the decks of
                    dragon-headed longboats, Swedish Vikings (known by the Slavic tribes as Rus for
                    rowing) found these lands irresistable - there was no centralized control, tons
                    of wealth to trade and raid and very long rivers to navigate. The Norsemen would
                    raid Slavic villages and capture slaves to sell in the southern markets. Before
                    860 AD, the Slavs, Balts and Finns revolted against the Swedish masters. However
                    after falling back into disorganized chaos, the Slavic people asked the
                    Varangian Rus to send a Prince to rule over them and bring back order. Rurik
                    (shown here) was this prince and settled in 862 AD.

Rurik built a stronghold and trade center which became known as Novgorod.
                    After his death, his Varanganian kinsman Oleg (shown above) united all the
                    tribes of the north including Norse, Finnic and Slavic warriors and sailed along
                    the Dnieper River towards Kiev which he seized from local warlords for its
                    strategic location and fertile lands. By 885 AD, Oleg had united most of the
                    Eastern Slavs under his rule based in Kiev. This was the birth of the Kievan Rus
                    state which survived for 3 centuries as one of the most prosperous realms in
                    medieval Europe. Over time, all of the people whether Nordic or Slavic became
                    known as Kievan Rus.

A century later, the Kievan Rus ruler Vladimir the Great wanted to expand
                    ties with Byzantium which led to adopting their religion and alphabet.
                    Vladimir's son Yaroslav the Wise greatly expanded the prosperity of the Kievan
                    Rus state by creating Ukraine's oldest body of codified laws marking the Golden
                    Age. Sviatoslav was the fourth son of Yaroslav the Wise with his wife Ingegerd
                    of Sweden. Yaroslav had bequeathed him the territory of Chernigov Ukraine.
                    Prince Sviatoslav became the Grand Prince of Kiev - in turn he appointed his own
                    son Prince Gleb Syvatoslavich as ruler over Novogrod and Tmutarakan.

Gleb successfully suppressed a rebellion incited by a sorcerer against the
                    bishop of the town. The sorcerer claimed he could foretell the future so Gleb
                    dared him to predict what would happen that very same day. The magician answered
                    he would perform great miracles so Gleb pulled out an axe and killed him on the
                    spot. After his father - who was now the Grand Prince of Kiev - died in 1076,
                    the citizens of the town revolted and dethroned Gleb. He was expelled from
                    Novgorod and killed in battle by the Baltic-Finnic tribe known as the Chudes.
                    His remains were buried in a sarcophagus in the backyard of the Saviour's
                    Chernihiv cathedral in Chernihiv Ukraine - the upper plate of the sarcophagus
                    was approximately 2 meters below the modern surface. Analysis shows he died
                    between 25-35 years of age with sword wounds on his skull.

Elite Female Grave Hassleben Thuringia Germany

An ancient cemetery was discovered in Hassleben Thuringia which remained
                    the richest ancient grave found in Germany for almost a hundred years. Not only
                    was the oldest written Germanic word ever discovered etched onto a comb, but
                    hundreds of Roman coins, ceramic fragments and Roman-style brooches were also
                    discovered. This is no accident as much of our knowledge regarding Thuringia and
                    broader Germania comes from the Roman historian Tacitus. The Elbe Germanic
                    tribes who moved into this region were allies of the Romans who were trading
                    partners, a buffer to the neighbouring Chatti - sworn enemies of Rome, as well
                    as specialised in metalworking of iron and precious metals.

Here you can see the richly outfitted grave of the Princess of Hassleben
                    which demonstrates the influential noble class who had a very close relationship
                    with the Romans. She was a young woman buried with a choker, golden fibulae, a
                    ring, a collier of roman glass beads, roman coins, pottery plates and vessels.
                    In her mouth was a Roman gold coin - known as Charons obol - which would provide
                    payment to Charon the ferryman to allow her soul to reach the world of the dead.
                    Next to her remains lay the skeleton of a small dog - possibly her personal pet.

The grave evidences thriving trade and how Germanic tribes such as the
                    Thuringia began adopting Roman traditions. The ornate fibulae shown here were
                    used for fastening garments, typically on the right shoulders - this was very
                    common in Ancient Rome. A second elite grave was discovered to the south of the
                    Princess. It contained gold jewelry and crockery made of gold and silver. Nearby
                    were golden finger rings, elaborate pendants and the combs shown here. It is
                    assumed these goods were crafted by specialists in the courts of the old
                    Thuringia nobles.

Shown here are some of the ornate three-layer combs crafted from bone which
                    were found at Hassleben. There are many parallels between the graves at
                    Hassleben with those at other sites such as Leuna, Straze, Sakrau, Sanderumgard
                    and Himlingoje - as a result these have been combined into a cultural
                    classification known as the Hassleben-Leuna group. If you share a match with
                    either of these elite burials you are in luck - the princess grave and other
                    findings are part of the permanent exhibition of the Museum for Prehistory and
                    Early History of Thuringia which you can visit today.

Roman Citizen Pompeii Vesuvius Victim Casa del Fabbro

For the people of Pompeii the world reached a horrific end in the Autumn of
                    79 AD. The only surviving
                    eyewitness account of the event consists of two letters written by Pliny the
                    Younger (who was 17 at the time of the eruption) to the Roman historian Tacitus
                    some 25 years later. Observing the first volcanic activity from across the Bay
                    of Naples 29 kilometers away, Pliny the Elder (his uncle) launched a rescue
                    fleet immediately - while Pliny the Younger stayed behind. He wrote of a
                    extraordinary dense cloud rising above mount Vesuvius. His words describe a
                    pine-tree with spreading branches which was sometimes bright and sometimes dark
                    and spotted - impregnated with earth and cinders. After three tremors the sea
                    rolled back upon itself. Flashes appeared through dark clouds and ash fell like
                    a blanket of snow.

Meanwhile for Pliny the Elder things were taking a turn for the worse. As
                    commander fo the Roman fleet at Misenum he went to investigate the phenomenon at
                    close range. He ordered the fleet galleys to evacuate the people on the coast.
                    As he neared the other side of the bay he encountered thick showers of hot
                    cinders, lumps of pumice and pieces of rock. Ignoring the helmsman to turn back
                    Pliny insisted that Fortune favors the brave and continued to Stabiae - a town
                    about 4.5km from Pompeii. Very soon they realized the strong onshore wind
                    prevented any ships from leaving. Pliny and his party saw flames shooting from
                    parts of the mountain - presumed to be burning villages. Forced to stay
                    overnight the crew attempted to approach the beach with pillows tied to their
                    heads to protect from rockfall - however the wind had not changed and exhausted
                    Pliny sat down on a sail for a rest to never stand again.

The remains of a man and a woman were recovered from the Casa del Fabbro or
                    Craftsmans House in 1933. Here is a detailed image showing the actual remains
                    and how they were found (Photo from Notizie degli Scavi di Antichita, 1934, p.
                    286, fig. 10). They were found slumped in the corner of the dining room as it
                    having a meal. The man was about 35-40 years old and the woman about 50. Despite
                    a volcanic explosion, thermal shock and ash it was now for the first time
                    possible to extract DNA from these remains which are highlighted in this DNA
                    Spotlight. There were gaps in the DNA of the woman but the man yielded an entire
                    genome sequence - the first time this has ever been possible at Pompeii. It
                    turns out these residents likely stayed at home unable to run away from their
                    impending fate as DNA sequences show the man had tuberculosis and the woman had
                    been affected by osteoarthritis.

1044 casts have been made from impressions of bodies at Pompeii so far - 38
                    percent of these were found in ash fall deposits and mostly inside buildings.
                    The remaining victims outside were likely killed in the pyroclastic surge
                    deposits. The first pyroclastic surge which reached Pompeii brought temperatures
                    of 300 degrees celcius which would killed within a fraction of a second. The
                    Casa del Fabbro is located as shown above quite close to the Great Theatre of
                    Pompeii in the direction of the Amphitheatre. Note the actual date of the
                    eruption is not fully known - originally recorded as the 24th of August 79 in
                    historical records (written 25 years after the event) charcoal inscriptions have
                    been found at the site dated the 17th of October. Furthermore the prevailing
                    beach winds flow to the west away from the beach in August which conflicts with
                    the account of Pliny. Furthermore traces of fruit and braziers found are
                    indicative of Autumn and not Summer.

The mysterious Guanches arrived on the Canary Islands at least 3000 years
                    ago and originated from the Berber region of North Africa. They brought goats,
                    pigs, and dogs with them from the mainland and are thought to have largely
                    relied off goat herding and grain crops. No metal has been found in Guanches
                    settlements so all tools were made of wood, stone and bone. Jewlery was crafted
                    from bone, clay beads and shells. Many people lived in caves or circular houses
                    made of stone with thatched rooves. 9 kingdoms were formed on Tenerife and
                    during times of war combat ensued using wooden javelins, maces, obsidian knives
                    and shields from the dragon tree. In some areas people are believed to have
                    worshipped the sun and the mother godess. In Tenerife during the summer solstice
                    the Guanches would kill livestock and throw them into a fire as an offering to
                    the gods.

Just 600 meters south of the northern coast of the Gran Canaria island lie
                    the Caves of Valeron. This was the largest pre-Hispanic collective granary,
                    pre-dated Roman times and was used by the locals until the island was conquered
                    by the Spanish at the end of the 15th century. It was dug out of the cliffs
                    using stone and wooden tools and hidden from the sea with extremely steep access
                    slopes. Each cave had doors made of wood or stone which would protect the
                    granary contents. Numerous idols, paintings, ceramics, bones and ashes have been
                    found within the cave system as well. Over a dozen similiar caves have been
                    found on the same island although this cave complex was the largest distributed
                    on 8 levels with over 350 storage chambers.

The Pyramids of Guimar are six rectangular pyramid-shaped terraces built
                    from lava stone on the island of Tenerife. The famous adventurer Thor Heyerdahl
                    hypothesised that the pyramids formed a temporal and geographic stopping point
                    on voyages between the ancient Egyptian and Mayan civilizations. However these
                    pyramids have more recently been dated to the 19th century. They had been in
                    reality constructed by the local population using classical methods of materials
                    and construction as found in other sites on Tenerife. Interestingly, the outside
                    wall aligns to the sunset on Summer solstice, whereas the stairs on the western
                    side face the rising sun on Winter solstice. The border edge covered up a
                    natural lava cave which has yielded Guanches artifacts dating from 600-1000 AD. 

The conquest of the Canary Islands took place between 1402 and 1496 by
                    Castilian nobility and the Spanish crown itself. The first phase was carried out
                    by several Norman nobles including Jean de Bethencourt. He owned textile
                    factories and dye works which greatly benfited from the orchil lichen found in
                    the Canaries. By 1405 the island of Lanzarote was captured as the native kings
                    of the island surrendered leaving Bethencourt the absolute owner of the island.
                    The island of El Hierro fell in 1405 as there was no resistance by the scattered
                    Guanche population who in turn were largely sold as slaves. This island was
                    repopulated by Norman and Castilian settlers. The island of La Gomera was
                    incorporated as a fiefdom but had frequent uprisings. These were snuffed out and
                    200 rebels were sold into slavery in Spain. The largest islands of Gran Canaria,
                    La Palma and Tenerife were conquered as part of the Conquista Realenga operated
                    and supported directly by the Spanish Crown and the conquest came to a
                    completion.

Silver mining played a key role in the Swedish economy during the 16th-18th
                    centuries, of which the Sala mine in east central Sweden was the most important.
                    King Gustav Eriksson Vasa, shown here, called this mine Treasury of the Kingdom
                    for the amount of silver it produced - which ultimately totaled about 450 tons
                    of silver along with 36000 tons of lead. This silver was critical for the
                    monetary system and ultimately helped King Gustav Vasa to secure his crown and
                    help Sweden claim sovereignty independent of Denmark - as well as fuel the
                    economy of the Kingdom of Sweden and later Swedish Empire.

By the 1530s and 1540s, production of silver reached its peak when 3500 kg
                    of pure silver were extracted each year. People toiled day and night in harsh
                    conditions - many of these were forced labor who were prisoners from Sweden's
                    conflicts with Denmark, Russia or Poland. Written sources also show common
                    criminal convicts from Sweden-Finland were also exploited. King Eric, son of
                    Gustav Vasa, ordered that the most dangerous mining work should be done only by
                    prisoners of war. Prisoner discipline was harsh and two mine managers were
                    condemned to death for giving prisoners too much freedom.

Several key mining shafts were added in the 1600s including the Queen
                    Christina shaft shown here. Horses would be lowered by special harness deep
                    underground where they would work and live only to see sunshine twice per year.
                    Landless manual laborers also came to the mines from Sweden and present day
                    Finland to work. Specialits also arrived from from Germany, the Netherlands and
                    Austria to help engineer and expand the facility. In the 17th century a series
                    of waterways and pumps were added to keep the water level constant enabling
                    mining as deep as 260 meters.

A village Salberget was located in close vicinity of the mine, and the
                    cemetary of its church was used between the 15th and 17th centuries. The site
                    was excavated between 2004-2011 revealing 102 skeletons in 93 graves. The
                    cemetery had been used for a variety of social groups including miners, foreign
                    specialists and forced labor - either prisoners of war or individuals convictim
                    of crimes. 80 of the graves were men, women and children buried in shrouds.
                    However 22 were earthen burials of younger men wearing every day clothes, and
                    they seemed to have a high degree of perimorten fractures. One of these men was
                    found buried with an iron collar around his neck as shown. The Spotlight samples
                    are from this group of forced laborers.

Stonehenge was built in Neolithic times (circa 2300 BC) and drew ailing
                    pilgrims from around Europe for what they believed to be its healing properties,
                    according to recent research. Pilgrims would wear amulets crafted using pieces
                    of the rocks at the monument. One dig uncovered masses of fragments carved out
                    of the bluestones which were used to create amulets. Stonehenge could be
                    compared to Lourdes in France today. Many of the ancient skeletons found nearby
                    seem to show signs of serious disease or injury and many show signs of coming
                    from far away. The outer stones are what most people associate with the
                    monument. There is also a competing theory that the temple was a meeting point
                    between the land of the living and the dead. In either case, this massive
                    monument would attract visitors from far and wide as archaeogenetics discovers. 

The Amesbury Archer was a Bronze Age man found near Stonehenge from around
                    2300 BC. His skull was damaged and his knee badly hurt. The nickname The Archer
                    stemmed from the fact he was buried with many arrowheads - as well as the
                    greatest number of artifacts from this period in Britain. This included five
                    funerary pots, three copper knives, sixteen flint arrowheads, metalworking
                    tools, a portable anvil, and some boars's tusks. It is thought his he originates
                    from an alpine region of centrla Europe. A second burial with similiar equipment
                    called the Companion was found 3 meters to the east. His background is quite
                    different as he appears to be more local to the island. The companion died in
                    his 20s whereas The Archer was in his 40s. It is thought that perhaps they were
                    pilgrims to Stonehenge to draw in the healing properties of the bluestones.

The Boscombe Bowmen consisted of 7 burials (3 males, a teenage male and 3
                    children) who were buried with flint arrowheads and contemporaries of the
                    Amesbury Archer from the same exact time period of 2300 BC. There were also
                    boar's tusks, a bone toggle, flint tools and eight Beaker vessels in the grave.
                    Lead isotope analysis of the bodies shows they grew up in areas of Wales or the
                    Lake District and moved later in life. Genetically they appear to be similiar to
                    the Bell Beaker peoples found in Iberia. Nearby was buried another interesting
                    sample referred to as Amber Boy who was a teenager buried with a necklace of
                    over 90 amber beads. The amber seems to have come from the Baltic Sea and the
                    boy may have come from the Mediterranean Sea. This suggests that Amber Boy held
                    a significant status and had travelled from far away to come to Stonehenge.

Cheddar Man is the oldest complete skeleton ever found in Britain dating
                    from 7100 BC. DNA analysis shows he was a typical Western European
                    Hunter-Gatherer with green eyes, dark hair and dark skin. Brown eyes, light skin
                    and lactose tolerance came later to Britain via immigration from Neolithic
                    farmers who carried these gene mutations. Cheddar Man's mtDNA group is U5b1
                    which is the most common group for these hunter-gatherers. Around this time an
                    Ice Age had just finished and the land had become green again. Herds of ancient
                    aurochs (wild cattle) and red deer roamed the land. It is thought Cheddar Man
                    may have been part of a migration of hunter gathering tribes who crossed the
                    land bridge in the North Sea known as Doggerland. 

Louis XVI was the last king of France before the monarchy fell during the
                    French Revolution. His reign began with attempts to reform the French government
                    according to ideas of the Enlightenment - including efforts such as removing
                    land taxes, abolishing serfdom and increased tolerance for non-Catholics. French
                    nobility opposed the implementation of thse reforms. Louis was able to implement
                    changes regarding deregulation of the grain market, but this resulted in
                    increased bread prices which combined with periods of bad harvests led to
                    unrest. His support for the North American colonists seeking independence from
                    Great Britain led to a financial crisis and further debt. France's middle and
                    lower classes became discontent and angry towards the monarchy. This led to the
                    storming of the Bastille and the start of the French Revolution. News spread
                    quickly throughout France and popular sovereignty took hold with a complete
                    disregard for claims of royal authority.

On 10 August 1792, armed revolutionaries stormed the Tuileries Palace which
                    was defended by Swiss guards forcing Louis to seek shelter with the suspended
                    Legislative Assembly - Louis was placed under a strong guard. A few weeks later
                    on 20. September the Battle of Valmy proved to be a key turning point where the
                    army of France defeated Prussian troops as they attempted to march on Paris. The
                    new French government gained a huge psychological victory and this was a
                    vindication for the French revolutionaries. The National Convention declared the
                    end of the monarchy and established the First French Republic. In January 1793,
                    Louis was executed. This combined with anti-clerical policies led to the Revolt
                    in the Vendee, a counter-revolution which is considered to be the first modern
                    genocide. Monarchists and Catholics took up arms against the French Republic.

The French Royalist Forces (Catholic and Royal Army) were the royalist
                    armies in western France composed of insurgents who opposed the French
                    revolution. During 1793 the War in the Vendée was a counter-revolution
                    which began with youths killing the commander of the National Guard. Violence
                    spread and several hundred pro-Revolutionary citizens were massacred. The
                    Republic responded quickly by sending 45,000 troops to try and stop the
                    violence. Insurgents seized several towns including Fontenay-le-Comte and Saumur
                    as well as captured massive supplies of arms and cannons. In response, the
                    Republican army began a scorched earth policy destroying farms, burning forests,
                    razing villages and massacring 20,000 to 50,000 Vendean civilians. Meanwhile
                    Marie Antoinette was executed and the next day the insurgents suffered their
                    first defeat at the Battle of Cholet.

The Battle of Le Mans took place on the 12 and 13 December 1793. The
                    Catholic and Royal Army numbered less than 20,000 men and was trailed by
                    thousands of wounded, women and children. They suffered from cold and famine and
                    were ravaged by disease desperate to obtain supplies. After capturing Le Mans on
                    10 December, they spread out around the city to collect provisions. Two days
                    later, the Republican troops under Francois-Joseph Westermann and Francois
                    Muller arrived at the gates of the city. They camped outside and waited for
                    their full forces of 20,000 men to arrive. Attacking by nightfall, they
                    overhwhelmed the insurgents and only lost 30 men compared to the 15,000 dead on
                    the other side. Our samples are from this battle - among the bodies are Louis XV
                    silver crown coins, emblems of the 12th regiment dragoons, and small gold
                    crosses. The samples are all males between the ages of 20 and 40 years old,
                    likely all soldiers who died in the fighting.

Viking Age Warrior Ronvik Nordland Norway

The area around Bodø in Norway is mentioned in the Saga of King Olav
                    Tryggvason - the great grandson of King Harald I Fairhair. In 991 he joined
                    raids on England - that year English King Aethelred II the Unready sued for
                    peace agreeing to pay large sums of tribute. Olav invaded again in 994 with
                    Danish King Sweyn I Forkbeard. Already having become a Christian, Olav was
                    confirmed in 994 in Hampshire with Aethelred becoming his godfather. The next
                    year the Norwegian King Haakon the Great died and Olav became the new king. He
                    forcefully began imposing Christianity on his realm having success in Shteland,
                    Faroe, the Orkney Islands, Iceland and Greenland. However Norway itself was a
                    challenge and resisted.

Olav Tryggvason travelled to Bodø to christen Raud the Strong, a
                    pagan priest and seafaring warrior who was strongly opposed to Christianity.
                    Raud the Strong was a Norse priest and landowner who had built a beautiful
                    longship with a dragons head carved into its bow nicknamed The Dragon. Olav
                    defeated Raud in a sea battle and chased him to the Godey Isles where Olav gave
                    an ultimatum that if Raud accepted a Christian baptism he could keep his lands
                    and ship. Raud refused the King and met a gruesome end - Raud was bound to a
                    beam of wood with his face pointed upward. A drinking horn was placed in his
                    mouth and a snake placed inside with a red-hot iron placed at the top forcing
                    the snake into Raud's mouth and down his throat gnawing its way out.

Olav seized all of Rauds possessions and his men were all baptized. The
                    precious ship The Dragon was handed over to the King and this is how the famous
                    Viking ships got their distinctive shape. Later Olav founded the seat of
                    government in Trondheim. Olav also baptized the famous explorer Leif Ericson who
                    took a priest with him back to Greenland. Olav himself met his death in the
                    Battle of Svolder in 1000 AD at the hands of Danish king Sweyn I, the Swedish
                    king Olaf Skötkonung and Eric the Norwegian earl of Lade. After his death
                    large portions of Norway fell to foreign rule. Strangely enough rumors persisted
                    Olav somehow survived the battle and fled - there were sightings in Rome,
                    Jerusalem and elsewhere in Europe for decades to come.