Ancient Incan in Norway

[Spin Echo]

Huh

Incan bones found in Østfold
Archeologists in Sarpsborg have found one thousand year old skeletal remains that appear to be Incan.
The skeletal remains were found during conservations work at St. Nicolas church in Sarpsborg, a city 73 kilometers (45 miles) southeast of Oslo, NRK (Norwegian Broadcasting) reports.

When archeologists were to move some rose bushes they made the surprising discovery of the remains of two older men and a baby.

"When we were about to take hold under the rose bush the skeletal remains slid out. It was quite surprising," Mona Beate Buckholm, archeologist at the Borgarsyssel Museum, told NRK.

One of the skulls had characteristics that indicate he was an Inca, the South American people centered in Peru.

"There is a bone in the neck that hasn't grown and this is an inherited characteristic only found among Inca Indians in Peru. This is sensational," Buckholm said.

The archeologists now plan to try and find out what the man was doing in Østfold, and how he came there.

While I'm a little skeptical to the skeleton actually belonging to an Incan, apparently it's pretty rare that you'd get two random mutations of that sort (neck bone not growing) occuring in different populations.

[Zadius]

What the hell? 1000 years ago is about the time the Vikings landed in North America... but the Inca are from South America. Weird.

[Bounty]

If they're only identified as Incan by the bone mutation, chances are they aren't Incan at all.

Even if they were, indeed, Incan, there's little reason to think they came to Norway while they were still alive. Bodies do get moved around after their death; there may be a good story here, but there's no indication that this will rewrite history.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

My prediction? A Norwegian sailing captain (they had a huge merchant marine) brought back some desert-mummified corpses from Peru to exhibit as curios to make an extra buck in the 1870s, and after that gig ran out of steam, just buried them in an unused place in an old churchyard. There's a Ye Olde Curio Shoppe in Seattle which has a couple mummified bodies in it that have been on displace since the early 20th century, and back in the 19th century there was even a whole industry of importing Egyptian mummies for amusement purposes. They were also reputedly used as fuel in railroad locomotives near Cairo, and there was an urban legend of the period which attested to the idea that the paper used to wrap meat you bought at the deli had been recycled from mummy wrap.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

This book is an awesome one on the subject--It even goes to describe how mummies were ground up to be used in premium artist's paints in the 19th century.

[wolveraptor]

I agree with Duchess. There's no reason to assume that the Incan died where and when he was buried. The skeleton easily could've been moved from its original location. The fact that it was found so near the surface by a relatively recent structure suggests just that.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

I agree with Duchess. There's no reason to assume that the Incan died where and when he was buried. The skeleton easily could've been moved from its original location. The fact that it was found so near the surface by a relatively recent structure suggests just that.

Seriously. They were found at the root level of a rose-bush. Modern burials are at least three times deeper--this suggests they were buried in haste without any care.

[Howedar]

Not that I disagree with your general point, but what bearing does a modern grave depth have on a discussion of a thousand-year-old body?

[The Duchess of Zeon]

Not that I disagree with your general point, but what bearing does a modern grave depth have on a discussion of a thousand-year-old body?

Even a freshly buried corpse should be six feet under.

With time the depth underground will only increase as layers of other archaeological material are built up; that's how a lot of initial dating of finds is done. What this tells you is that the bodies were not just buried in the modern period but were buried haphazardly then--even an ancient haphazard burial would be deeper than that today in a built-up city location.

[Howedar]

Oh. Of course.

[Elfdart]

There is that phenomenon known as erosion, however.

This bullshit has a very similar aroma to that of Kennewick Man being a long lost caucasian.

[Spin Echo]

My prediction? A Norwegian sailing captain (they had a huge merchant marine) brought back some desert-mummified corpses from Peru to exhibit as curios to make an extra buck in the 1870s, and after that gig ran out of steam, just buried them in an unused place in an old churchyard. There's a Ye Olde Curio Shoppe in Seattle which has a couple mummified bodies in it that have been on displace since the early 20th century, and back in the 19th century there was even a whole industry of importing Egyptian mummies for amusement purposes. They were also reputedly used as fuel in railroad locomotives near Cairo, and there was an urban legend of the period which attested to the idea that the paper used to wrap meat you bought at the deli had been recycled from mummy wrap.

That explanation makes much more sense. I could believe that a Micmac, or maybe even an Iroquois, could have been brought back over to Norway during the viking times. An Andean, on the other hand, was stretching the bounds on incredibility.

The image of long ships sailing up the Amazon and kidnapping natives is kinda cool though (Yes, yes I know the Incas lived in the Andean mountains, that's not the point)

[Zwinmar]

Huh

.

"When we were about to take hold under the rose bush the skeletal remains slid out. It was quite surprising," Mona Beate Buckholm, archeologist at the Borgarsyssel Museum, told NRK.

something that was buried that many years ago would not have 'just slid out'

[The Duchess of Zeon]

There is that phenomenon known as erosion, however.

This bullshit has a very similar aroma to that of Kennewick Man being a long lost caucasian.

Humans are filthy in their own cities; if you'll notice in Israel, Egypt, etc, there's a bunch of cities and archaeological places that start off as "Tel". That little word means "mound" in several semitic languages. Most city sites there, inhabited for up to nearly ten thousand years in the case of places like Jericho, have had so much rubbish and debris pile up on them that they have become noticeable hill-features in the terrain. Not nearly so bad in Norway, of course, but plenty enough to counteract most effects of erosion in an urban area.

[Elfdart]

But how long was this area inhabited, let one urban? I'll wager this place is a suburb or small town that until maybe a century ago was probably farmland or woods.

[Elfdart]

Another thing:

My youngest nephew had a blue birthmark around his tailbone when he was a baby. No one in the family had any idea what it was until the doctor told my brother that it's a rare kind of birthmark that usually disappears in a few years. However, it's fairly common among infants of Central Asian descent. Now neither my brother nor my sister-in-law has any Asian ancestry, and the kid is definitely theirs, so the logical conclusion is that my nephew's blue tailbone was simply a fluke in the families' DNA.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

Another thing:

My youngest nephew had a blue birthmark around his tailbone when he was a baby. No one in the family had any idea what it was until the doctor told my brother that it's a rare kind of birthmark that usually disappears in a few years. However, it's fairly common among infants of Central Asian descent. Now neither my brother nor my sister-in-law has any Asian ancestry, and the kid is definitely theirs, so the logical conclusion is that my nephew's blue tailbone was simply a fluke in the families' DNA.

The two male adults and one male child thing is kinda weird, though.

You may, however, well be right.