Tie your knickers up. The viking probably brought it back from his travels. This is not a sign that extreme muslim immigration to the nordics has always been the norm.
Don’t know why that was your immediate reaction, but okay.
Because this is Lemmy, and I can read communist minds like they’re an open book at size 22
Communists famously known for their ties to religion…
They do love islam and muslims for some reason
So… Viking who converted to Islam, or loot from a raid, or what?
Clothes and jewellery around the decomposed skeleton showed it to be a female burial dating back to 850 AD.
Or maybe some Viking found himself a Muslim wife?
Loot, trade, conversion - it’s fascinating because the possibilities are really endless.
We have found Damascus steel in viking camps in Sweden, so it is quite possible that this ring was traded for, or looted.
Until we find conclusive proof of conversion to Islam, we should be very careful in reading further into this than simply being an interesting artifact.
I thought it was pretty standard for people to travel around this far, especially the Vikings. They were sought after as mercenaries, afaik, and I imagine this sort of artifact could be part of a pay packet.
There’s Viking graffiti in Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia, for example.
I think that some people will connect the artifact to the current gang issues here in Sweden.
That seems like a huge leap. As a non swede my first impression was that some viking probably “married” a pretty Muslim girl he came across doing what vikings purportedly did.
