EAST LOTHIAN, SCOTLAND—Human bones unearthed in Auldhame in 2005 may be the remains of Olaf Guthfrithsson, the King of Dublin and Northumbria from 934 to 941, or a member of his entourage, according to an announcement made by Fiona Hyslop, Scotland’s Cabinet Secretary for Culture and External Affairs. Olaf Guthfrithsson, a Viking king of Ireland, sacked the churches at Auldhame and nearby Tyninghame, which were both part of a complex of churches dedicated to eighth-century St. Balthere, shortly before his death. “Whilst there is no way to prove the identity of the young man buried at Auldhame, the date of the burial and the equipment make it very likely that this death was connected with Olaf’s attack on the locale,” Alex Woolf of the University of St. Andrews and a historical consultant on the project told BBC. “Since we have a single furnished burial in what was probably perceived as St. Balthere’s original foundation, there is a strong likelihood that the king’s followers hoped that by burying him in the saint’s cemetery he might have benefited from some sort of post-mortem penance,” he explained.
