Funded isotopes project boost in search for Brunanburh

Some really good news just come from the National Environmental Research Council (NERC) - they have approved extension of the pilot isotope study on Viking Age iron objects (using iron, lead and strontium isotopes) from Bebington, Meols and Fulford to over 100 objects including 30 from Torksey and additional objects from Scandinavia: https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/ncmh/documents/dna/neif-application-october-2021.pdf

For provenancing or sourcing the objects, the databases need to be greatly expanded. To assist with this we have organized a joint meeting of the Royal Society of Chemistry and Antiquaries Society to be held at Burlington House, London, June 13th 2022. The web site is:

https://www.rsc.org/events/detail/44249/advances-in-isotope-ratio-and-related-analyses-for-mapping-migrations-from-prehistory-to-the-viking-age

The figure below shows some very early results.

Still a long way to go before we can properly "source" or provenance objects and address the question that everyone wants to know whether the Bebington finds relate to the Battle of Brunanburh, but this is a great boost.

Here is a related YouTube recording of a lecture "Viking Wirral after the Battle of Brunanburh" given on behalf of Wirral Libraries earlier in the year, titled https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGm7ukgxbvg&list=PLN1ANYZrllJ0uQ_dya-elo6FM8hvxAzrt&index=25

It considers both cases - if the battle took place on Wirral and if it did not.

In Old Wirral Norse: Til árs ok friðar! - may the following year be plentiful and prosperous!

Steve and Sue

Comments

  1. Steve HardingDecember 28, 2021 at 8:18 PM

    The project is being run by Steve Harding and Mark Pearce of the University of Nottingham (Steve also University of Oslo), Chas Jones of the Fulford Battlefield Trust and Jane Evans of the British Geological Survey, Notts, with significant input from Jean Milot (Lyon), Julian Richards & Dawn Hadley (York) and Michelle Cutajar and Liz Bailey (Nottingham)

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