Romans in Denmark?

[Jodee]

In yesterday's news - a special and rare find, a Roman burial site of about 30 graves appears to be found in Ishøj, outside Copenhagen. The article give little detail, the site's placement kept secret to protect the finds -

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/10/10/ap/tech/main3355336.shtml

(English)

http://www.dr.dk/Nyheder/Indland/2007/10/10/10132250.htm

(Danish) (the photo is from an unrelated excavation)

Jodee

[rainbow]

Thanks for the info.
Those Romans went just about everywhere and I'm not surprised they were in Denmark. They were in present-day Belgium or Holland too. Maybe they sent supplies and relief soldiers to Hadrian's Wall by sea from Denmark instead of just over land thru England.
I made a thread about Roman descendants in Liqian, China. Liqian is Chinese for "Rome".

[Jim Honeychuck]

Thanks for the info.
T
I made a thread about Roman descendants in Liqian, China. Liqian is Chinese for "Rome".

Subsequent DNA testing found no evidence to support Roman descent. http://www.citeulike.org/user/Archae...rticle/1440603

The association of that character "li," which means "a pure black horse," with "Rome" is very tenuous. The explanation (in Chinese) is here http://news.xinhuanet.com/newscenter...nt_3133288.htm , but as it is now a moot point I won't translate it unless somebody really needs it for some reason.

Jim

[Jodee]

Thanks for the info.
Those Romans went just about everywhere and I'm not surprised they were in Denmark. They were in present-day Belgium or Holland too. Maybe they sent supplies and relief soldiers to Hadrian's Wall by sea from Denmark instead of just over land thru England.

Hi Rainbow,

Just a hunch, but perhaps some of those relief soldiers were even Danes.

Aside from the usual trade relationship, it seems that the southern Scandinavia tribes had a somewhat friendly rapport with Rome indicted by all those Roman military finds in Denmark. It seems likely that some Danish tribesmen participated in the late Roman wars against other Germanic tribes.

Gee i read an article about a group of Danish archaeologists looking for a link between Vikings and Iran awhile back – don’t know if a connection was ever found….

Jodee

[F.E.C.]

Hi Rainbow,
Aside from the usual trade relationship, it seems that the southern Scandinavia tribes had a somewhat friendly rapport with Rome indicted by all those Roman military finds in Denmark. It seems likely that some Danish tribesmen participated in the late Roman wars against other Germanic tribes.

As an Italian R1b1c9* whose closest match is a Dane I find this info very interesting!

[Jodee]

As an Italian R1b1c9* whose closest match is a Dane I find this info very interesting!

Here's a link to the Roman Iron Age (abt 0-400 AD) in connection to Denmark -

http://www.denmark.dk/en/menu/AboutDenmark/History/Prehistory/TheRomanIronAge/

Jodee

[Eki]

Here's a link to the Roman Iron Age (abt 0-400 AD) in connection to Denmark -

http://www.denmark.dk/en/menu/AboutDenmark/History/Prehistory/TheRomanIronAge/

Jodee

I think these conflicts might be behind the regional differences in Nordic Y-DNA still seen today. Like some animal species, I think human males can be more territorial than females:

The main body of the war booty finds from Thorsbjerg, Vimose, Illerup and Nydam date back to the late Roman period. They bear witness to conflicts between regional communities immediately prior to the Migration period.

[Jodee]

Update

Hi,

Here's an update on the Ishøj gravesite find - forgive me if I haven't translated this correctly!

Here's what they found:
about 30 graves
a prince grave
the prince with set of teeth
58 pieces of glass (mentioned in the article that the pieces of glass were used with a board game)
silver clasp
costume needle with glass something?
"circus cup" from gladiator fights (the newspaper article mentions that it's of clear glass, decorated with pictures of gladiator matches)
bronze mouth? cow horn drinking horn
heavy twisted gold ring
earthenware pot with food
slaughtered animal

If i've read the article right, seems they are hoping to do DNA testing! The prince's skeleton and teeth are in good condition! They hope to be able to determine if he's a Dane or from elsewhere. He was buried about 200AD. So far they feel this confirms that there was a network of princes and magnates, also some sort of direct connection to the Romans.

You can see the original article here (in Danish) http://politiken.dk/videnskab/article401616.ece

There are a couple photos on the page - one of the earthenware pot used with food for traveling to the "otherworld" and the other a picture of a similar circus cup - the one just found needs to be pieced together.

Jodee

[Jodee]

Here's what they found:
about 30 graves
a prince's grave.......seems they are hoping to do DNA testing! The prince's skeleton and teeth are in good condition! They hope to be able to determine if he's a Dane or from elsewhere. He was buried about 200AD....

Yay! Seems they have collected two or three of the prince's teeth for DNA testing and are awaiting analysis -

Jodee