Norse Parliament Site Discovered in Scotland

News October 23, 2013

(Copyright Oliver J O'Grady)
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Excavations Viking Thing
(Copyright Oliver J O'Grady)

DINGWALL, SCOTLANDArchaeologists excavating at a parking lot in northern Scotland have unearthed the remains of a man-made mound where a “thing,” or Norse parliament, gathered in the eleventh century. Historians believe a Viking earl known as Thorfinn the Mighty ordered the thing mound constructed after he rose to power by defeating other local lords, possibly including the historical MacBeth. The parking lot was known to be the site of the town of Dingwall’s “moothill,” or medieval assembly place. The discovery confirms the Moothill of Dingwall was linked to the earlier Viking thing mound. 

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