The Greece Runestones comprise about 30 runestones containing information related to voyages made by Norsemen to "Greece", which refers to the Byzantine Empire. They were made during the Viking Age and until c. 1100. The stones were engraved in the Old Norse language with Scandinavian runes, and all of them are found in modern-day Sweden, the majority of which reside in Uppland (18 runestones) and Södermanland (7 runestones). Most of the stones were carved in memory of members of the Varangian Guard who never returned home, but a few stones mention men who returned with wealth. The only group of runestones that refer to expeditions abroad that are comparable in number are those that mention expeditions to England, the England Runestones. The stones vary in size from the small whetstone from Timans, to the boulder in Ed which is 18 m (59 ft) in circumference. Most of them are adorned with various runestone styles that were in use during the 11th century, and especially styles that were part of the Ringerike style (eight or nine stones) and the Urnes style (eight stones). The runestones have been continuously identified by scholars beginning with Johannes Bureus in the late 16th century, with many stones discovered during a national search for historic monuments in the late 17th century. Several stones were also documented by Richard Dybeck in the 19th century. The last stone to be found was in Nolinge, near Stockholm, in 1952.
Read the rest of this article: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greece_Runestones> _______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries: 1841: The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that captive Africans who seized control of La Amistad, the trans-Atlantic slave-trading ship carrying them, had been taken into slavery illegally. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amistad_%281841%29> 1842: Nabucco, an opera by Italian Romantic composer Giuseppe Verdi (pictured), premiered at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nabucco> 1862: American Civil War: In the world's first major battle between two powered ironclad warships, the USS Monitor and the CSS Virginia fought to a draw near the mouth of Hampton Roads in Virginia. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Hampton_Roads> 1945: World War II: A bomb raid on Tokyo by American B-29 heavy bombers started a firestorm, killing over 100,000 people. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_Tokyo_in_World_War_II> 1959: Barbie, the world's best-selling doll, debuted at the American International Toy Fair in New York City. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbie> _____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day: bougainvillea (n): Any of several South American flowering shrubs or lianas, of the genus Bougainvillea, having three showy, colorful bracts attached below each group of three inconspicuous flowers <http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bougainvillea> ___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day: If you're a singer you lose your voice. A baseball player loses his arm. A writer gets more knowledge, and if he's good, the older he gets, the better he writes. --Mickey Spillane <http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mickey_Spillane> _______________________________________________ Wikipedia Daily Article mailing list. To unsubscribe, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/daily-article-l Questions or comments? Contact [email protected]
