Archaeologists at Stockholm University have conducted a detailed study of a historic shipwreck and made a discovery that could shed new light on shipping in the Baltic Sea during the Middle Ages.
The wreck, known since 1969 but never thoroughly explored, now shows that it may have been engaged in battle just before it sank.
The wreck was discovered in 1969 on the seabed off the coast of Maderö, not far from Stockholm. Although several divers have been down to the ship, no proper investigation has been carried out.
However, in May 2022, a group of archaeologists from Stockholm University decided to take a closer look at the wreck, and the results have now been published in the International Journal of Nautical Archaeology. The team took more than 1,000 photographs and several samples from the 15-meter-long ship.
“We don’t know much about the architecture of these ships, so every new wreck we study greatly increases our knowledge”, study author Niklas Eriksson wrote in an email, according to the Miami Herald.
Trees felled in 1467
The shipwreck is about 22 meters underwater, and when the archaeologists took samples of the wood used, they found that the wood came from a tree that was felled in 1467, but was likely imported.
“The different origins of the wood suggest that the Maderö ship was built in a shipyard that brought in and imported materials from a wider area, rather than relying on locally grown wood”, the archaeologists wrote.
The cargo consisted of medieval roof tiles, bricks and special bricks for doors and windows. Analysis shows that these came from Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in Germany.
“The origin of the cargo seems somewhat surprising in this context, as it was assumed that the domestic production of bricks and tiles could meet the demand for construction work”.
Piracy in the Baltic Sea
The ship probably sank during a trading voyage, but archaeologists examined several cannonballs on board and found sulphur on one of the bullets, suggesting that it may have been loaded into a cannon just before the ship sank.
“There was a lot of piracy in the Baltic Sea in the 14th and 15th centuries. At that time, before many state fleets had been formed, large ships often had a dual purpose: to deliver goods and to defend themselves against attackers”, says Eriksson.
There are many indications that the ship was heading for Stockholm, which means it was only a few kilometers from its final destination.
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In just a few years, El Salvador defeated the brutal gang crime that had plagued the country for decades. President Nayib Bukele has been accused of being “undemocratic” by his globalist opponents, but among Salvadorans themselves he has achieved near-heroic status and is now spearheading a Bitcoin revolution.
El Salvador, literally “the Savior” or in other words “the land of the Savior”, formally became an independent country in 1842. The liberation of the Latin American country came after a civil war in the relatively newly formed country of the Central American Federation, which in 1823 had freed itself from the Mexican Empire, a Mexico that just two years earlier, in 1821, had proclaimed its independence from the Spanish crown.
The article was originally published in The Nordic Times on February 2, 2025.
Despite its name, the tiny nation would have to wait patiently for its salvation. El Salvador would come to be dominated by corrupt forces and has been known more than any other in modern times as part of Central America’s so-called “banana republics”, not only because of the presence of US-based corporate giants where the country went so far as to adopt the US dollar as its own currency, but also because El Salvador has long been known as a particular den of brutal and literally devil-worshipping criminal gangs, such as MS-13 and Barrio 18, which still have a strong presence even in the organized crime world.
Before that, the country was mainly associated with the protracted civil war that raged there for 13 long years between 1979 and 1992 in one of the many Cold War proxy conflicts between pro-American and pro-Soviet forces in the country.
Two years after theoutbreak ofthe Salvadoran civil war, Nayib Bukele was born in 1981 in the capital, San Salvador. His father, Armando Bukele Kattán, was a prominent Palestinian businessman and Muslim leader who arranged for his first-born son to study law at the Central American University in El Salvador. Nayib never completed his degree, however, and instead went into business. According to him, this experience would allow him to develop two skills that he later described as crucial to his political career – communicating and leading with clarity.
Bukeles’ political career began in earnest in 2012 when he was elected mayor of Nuevo Cuscatlán, a small municipality outside the capital San Salvador. His successes there – including economic reforms and social programs – led him to become mayor of the capital San Salvador in 2015. During this time, he distinguished himself as a simultaneously pragmatic, outspoken and visionary leader.
Despite the enormous risks involved in challenging the political establishment, which was completely infested by the tentacles of gang crime, Bukele came to increasingly openly criticize them for destroying the country and for betraying their voters.
Bukele meets the people.
In 2017, Bukele was expelled from his then-party, the FMLN, following internal conflicts, and founded his own party, Nuevas Ideas, which would become the platform for his daring campaign to run for president on a message of renewal and modernization. Despite difficult obstacles put in his way by political opponents, Bukele eventually won the 2019 elections by a historic margin, becoming the first president since 1992 not to belong to the two dominant parties, the socialist-oriented FMLN or the more bourgeois-conservative ARENA.
“They can kill anybody”
However, the difficulties were not over despite the electoral victory of the Salvadoran president, with his opponents sparing no means to stop him. They still controlled the Supreme Court and 90% of the legislature.
– I had to veto everything, and they override my vetoes. And they enact, they approved over 70 laws that I veto, Bukele explains in an interview with American journalist Tucker Carlson.
The only solution Bukele saw was to also win a majority in the country’s Congress, which he would also succeed in doing. Today, only the electoral court, controlled by the liberal opposition, tried unsuccessfully to have the president impeached and jailed, which Bukele himself believes failed only because of the establishment’s fear of a large-scale popular revolt if he were to be removed from office.
Bukele tells Carlson that his first priority was to fulfill his election promise to tackle organized crime once and for all.
– You can’t do anything unless you have peace. And once you achieve peace, then you can struggle for the other things, like infrastructure, wealth, well being, quality of life. So we had to start with peace. And in the case of El Salvador, we were literally the murder capital of the world, says Bukele.
Bukele salutes the Salvadoran army.
One of the first things he did was to double the number of soldiers in the country’s army, equip them with modern equipment and then systematically deploy them to fight organized crime with a determination that had previously been lacking. The gangs, understandably, did not appreciate this and tried to fight back – including a murder wave that killed 87 people in the small country in just three days.
– They can kill anybody. And if the state goes after them, the state has no intention of killing or harming anybody but the gang members. So you have 70,000 objectives, which were the 70,000 gang members, but they have 6 million possible targets (the population of the country). So it was almost an impossible task, said the president.
El Salvador’s new high-security prison CECOT, Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo – or “terrorist prison” in English, houses the most serious gang members with a capacity for 40,000 prisoners. Life in the prison is extremely strict, with the only leisure time consisting of simple exercise and services by priests.
Even independent analysts point out that El Salvador is a very different country today than it was when Mr. Bukeles took office and that, according to the country’s official statistics, it has become the least crime-ridden of the American continents, including Canada and the United States.
– We’re safer than any other country in the western hemisphere. If I would have said that five years ago, they would say that I was crazy, right?
Mr. Bukele himself stresses that his government has not had access to any magic recipes, but that it has been able to solve the problem of gang crime because it had the political will and determination to actually do it.
– There’s always going to be crime, people breaking laws, but violent crime, people murdering and raping each other, is a voluntary decision that a government makes. Why would a government choose to have that? he asks.
Massive popular support
Politically, Bukeles’ El Salvador has also broken the mold on covid policy, with the government choosing to encourage healthy eating and exercise, rather than forcing the controversial covid vaccines on the population with covid passes. It was also one of the few countries to offer the drug hydroxychloroquine as an alternative treatment for COVID-19, something that Bukele pointed out was used by most world leaders themselves.
The focus of Bukele’s policies has been to push for economic reforms and, as part of this, he has made El Salvador the first country in the world to accept Bitcoin as legal tender – meaning that it will be accepted as valid payment for all forms of debt and transactions. Enthusiasts of the new crypto-economy are now gathering in El Salvador, which many believe could become a new “tiger economy” in the Americas.
In the Western media, Bukele has been portrayed as something of a “dictator” who has rejected “human rights” in the context of mass arrests of suspected gang members and periods of prolonged military surveillance of specific areas of the country. Both domestic and international critics have accused the president of trying to centralize power, create a police state and undermine so-called democratic institutions and principles.
When he was re-elected in 2024 in a spectacular landslide with 84.6% of the vote, he responded to these criticisms in his much-publicized acceptance speech to the population by putting their rights before those of organized criminals.
– We are the safest country in the American continent. And what did they tell us? “You’re violating human rights”. Whose human rights? The rights of honest people? No. Perhaps we have prioritized the rights of the honest people over the criminals’ rights. That is all we have done, and that’s what you say is a human rights violation, Bukele declared.
Bukele with his wife Gabriela Roberta Rodríguez de Bukele. Photo: Casa Presidencial El Salvador
In an ironic response to similar epithets directed at him, he has referred to himself on Twitter/X as the “World’s coolest dictator”. The President has also become known for his extensive use of social media, particularly X, which he uses to communicate directly with the people, and sometimes to consult with the public on his decision-making.
This digital presence has made him very popular also among younger generations, who often see him as a modern leader of a very different type than the political establishment that ruled the country in the past.
The warning to the West
Bukele expresses personal criticism of the soft approach to criminals in the West, of which he considers El Salvador to be a part, pointing out that they are often seen as individuals with rights that need to be protected – even if they are violent killers and organized gang members. This attitude, according to Bukele, ultimately leads to a point where civilization itself begins to crumble.
– So western civilization reached the peak. We can all agree that we’re in the decline. So that is happening because we’re not maintaining, we’re not giving the correct maintenance to the civilization, he says, explaining that we are no longer striving to do things as well and grandly as possible.
– Democracy works, but if you don’t maintain it, it will fall like the wall.So what we have right now is a huge erosion of Western civilization, Bukele concludes.
He points out that governments today seem mostly interested in appeasing individual constituencies to get their votes – for example, by giving them large sums of money or other generous promises, and that they no longer seem to care about what is good for the nation as a whole.
– You cannot go on. I mean, it’s like obvious. It’s like somebody eats too much, right? I mean, you can be a little fat, right? It’s fine. But then if somebody’s morbidly fat, somebody will come and say, okay, you mean you have to stop, right? Because, you know, your heart would. Your heart can’t take it anymore.
US taxpayers should know that their government is using their money to fund communist movements against a democratic elected (and with a 90% approval rating) government in El Salvador.
One focus for the outspoken president, now that the gangs have been defeated, is to attract investors and tourists to the country – rather than being a haven for murderers and violent criminals. “There is enough money when no one steals“ is one of many similar quotes that sum up Bukele’s vision for the country’s future and have made him so popular with his own people.
Bukele often posts pictures showing how the country’s military and police fight organized crime. Photo: Nayib Bukele/FB
Many also argue that the success is an expression of the rise of a new generation of national populist leaders in a near-global revolt against the globalist “rainbow empire” characterized by gender ideology, demographic upheaval, coddling of violent criminals, and a huge gap between the political establishment and the population at large.
The Salvadoran president has also not been shy about explicitly criticizing influential globalists such as George Soros and others who he says have pushed for these kinds of developments in the West, and still have too much power over politics in many countries.
In his victory speech to the people in 2024, Bukele also articulated the importance for small nations to be alert to the actors of global politics, with El Salvador being just one example of many nations that have suffered in the wake of various factions of globalist-oriented actors and great powers.
– The civil war in El Salvador, which officially left over 85,000 Salvadorans dead, and displaced over 1 million people, was sponsored by two separate powers. There was a conflict between the West and the Soviet Union, and they wanted to fight, but not on their own soil. They didn’t want to provide the cannon fodder. So they decided to fight in other places around the world, and one of those places that they chose to fight was here in El Salvador. They tricked us. They told us to kill each other and we did as they said.
Bukele concluded by adding his view that there are now powerful players on the global stage who fear the example El Salvador has already shown.
– We will continue to do the impossible, and El Salvador will continue to set an example for the world.
According to sources, Leif Eriksson was born in Iceland around the year 970, the son of Erik the Red, a Norwegian explorer who founded the first Norse settlement in Greenland. During Leif’s childhood and youth, large parts of the world were still mysterious and unexplored, but according to the Greenlandic saga, the Icelander Bjarni Herjolfsson had already encountered fog in 986 and drifted off course while sailing from Iceland to his father in Greenland. According to legend, he sighted three unknown lands, which he named Helluland, Markland, and Vinland – which were later identified as parts of eastern Canada. He never landed, however, but continued his journey to Greenland, where he is said to have spoken of his discoveries.
The article was originally published in The Nordic Times on June 9, 2024.
According to the saga, 15 years later Bjarni sold his ship to Leif Eriksson, who set out with 35 men to find the land described by the Icelander. Eriksson followed the route described and eventually reached North America – probably first the island now known as Baffin Island or the northern parts of Labrador.
Eriksson continued to explore the new continent and set up a winter camp in a milder climate while sending his men to explore the surrounding area. According to legend, they discovered that vines and grapes grew there – hence the name Vinland. Eriksson and his crew built a small settlement there, Leifsbudir, which was later used by other vikings who followed in his footsteps.
Eriksson himself returned to Greenland after the winter, according to the sources with a cargo of timber and grapes. On his way home he also rescued a shipwrecked Icelandic crew – which may have been the reason for his nickname “Leif the Lucky”.
Statue of Leif Eriksson in Minnesota. Photo: Mulad
Eriksson never returned to the newly discovered continent, but died as a chieftain in Greenland sometime between 1018 and 1025. His discoveries, however, became very significant, and other Norsemen soon decided to seek out the lands he and his crew had described. For example, Leif Eriksson’s brother Thorvald is said to have later sailed to the newly discovered land, but soon came into conflict and was killed by what were then called “skraelings” – meaning Native Americans or Inuit. According to the saga of Erik the Red, Thorfinn Karlsefni also sailed with 160 men and women, livestock and supplies, and set up camp at Leifsbudir and tried to build a community there. However, after accidents and conflicts (both internal and with the natives), plans for a permanent Norse settlement in North America were eventually abandoned.
How much truth there is in the sagas is difficult to say for sure today. What is certain, however, is that the Norse settled in North America sometime between 990 and 1050. At L’Anse aux Meadows, in the northern parts of Canadian Newfoundland, the remains of a viking settlement were discovered in the 1960s, including at least eight house foundations, tools, metal remains, sewing needles, and the remains of a forge. It was also estimated that the settlement was only used for a few years before it was abandoned – which fits well with Norse sagas.
Reconstruction of the viking settlement at L’Anse aux Meadows. Photo: Dylan Kereluk/CC BY 2.0
When the French colonized North America in the 17th century, they also heard of an Indian legend that told of a kingdom far to the north, where blond men sat on vast riches of gold and furs – but that it was almost certainly doomed to be reached. It has at least been hypothesized that the stories originated from real encounters with Norsemen hundreds of years earlier.
While Leif Eriksson and the Norse explorers may not have made any major long-term changes to the North American continent, they certainly contributed to our understanding of world exploration. The adventurous spirit and nautical skills of the vikings were extraordinary, and their voyages expanded the world view in Europe long before the explorations of the Renaissance.
Leif Eriksson’s discovery of America. Painting by Christian Krohg (1893)
The date of Leif Eriksson’s landing in the New World, October 9th, is now celebrated in parts of the USA as Leif Eriksson Day, as a tribute to the achievements of the vikings and the Nordic contributions to world history. The celebration is not only a recognition of Eriksson’s achievements, but also of the exchange and meeting of two worlds.
Although there are still many unanswered questions about Eriksson’s time in Vinland, his legacy has lived on in many ways. Interest in viking voyages and culture has become an area of academic research, as well as popular fascination with Leif Eriksson’s adventurous spirit, which drove him and his crew across the world.
New research suggests that Vikings hunted walrus far north in Arctic North America, much further than previously thought.This suggests that the Vikings encountered indigenous peoples long before Columbus “discovered” North America.
During the Viking Age, demand for walrus tusks was high in Europe. The Vikings played a major role in the trade of walrus ivory and it is known that walruses were hunted in Iceland and around Greenland.
This article was originally published on November 9, 2024.
In a new study, published in Science Advances, researchers from Lund University and the University of Copenhagen, among others, have examined several ivory finds using DNA. The researchers used a so-called genetic “fingerprint” to reconstruct exactly where the walrus trade items came from.
– We extracted ancient DNA from walruses collected in a variety of locations in the North Atlantic Arctic.With this information in place, we were then able to match the genetic profiles of walrus items traded by Greenland Norwegians to Europe back to very specific Arctic hunting grounds, said Morten Tange Olsen, associate professor at the Globe Institute in Copenhagen in a press release.
“Remote hunting grounds”
The findings show that between 950 and 1250, the Vikings hunted walrus much further up around the North American Arctic than previously thought. The ivory tested comes from stocks in the sea between Greenland and Canada, and possibly from the interior of the Canadian Arctic. The results surprised the researchers, as it was previously thought that the Vikings hunted around their settlements in southwest Greenland.
– What really surprised us was that much of the walrus ivory exported back to Europe came from very remote hunting grounds deep in the High Arctic, that is, north of where the tundra ends, says Peter Jordan, professor of archaeology at Lund University.
Sailing that far required great seafaring skills, so researchers wondered if it was possible that the Vikings may have had this type of seafaring knowledge. To find answers, they used reconstructed sailing routes, and the researchers also made experimental voyages in traditional clinker-built Norwegian boats. According to the researchers, the Vikings had sufficient resources and knowledge to make these voyages.
Encountering indigenous people centuries before Columbus
At this time, the hunting grounds of the High Arctic were inhabited by the so-called Thule Inuit and possibly other Arctic indigenous peoples. They also hunted walrus. The study strengthens the theory that the Vikings had contact with North American peoples centuries before Christopher Columbus “discovered” North America.
– We will never know exactly, but on a more human level, these encounters in the vast and frightening landscapes should have aroused both curiosity and fascination, says Jordan:
– We need to do much more research to understand these interactions and motivations, especially from an indigenous perspective as well as a more “Eurocentric” Nordic perspective.
It should be noted that encounters – and conflicts – between Norse and North American Indians or Inuit are already mentioned in the old Icelandic sagas, although it is not always easy to determine the veracity of the stories.
In recent years, hardly any other political leader has been highlighted by the media and political establishment and praised so unanimously as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky –who in the current narrative has come to characterize the epitome of a modern patriotic folk hero.
Who is he and why is he so immensely popular with the Western power elite?
Since the start of the war in Ukraine, Western establishment media have effectively acted as megaphones for Volodymyr Zelensky’s statements and pronouncements to a global audience.
Among the wave of photographs of Ukraine’s president, images of him in military garb have become among the most iconic – with the narrative that this is a leader who personally stands up for the Ukrainian people against Russia, who cares about his soldiers and who is not afraid to face the enemy.
The article was originally published in The Nordic Times on February 8, 2025.
Born in 1978 to a Jewish family in Kryvoj Rog, Ukraine, the father was a scientist and professor of computer engineering and the mother was an engineer. Volodymyr Zelensky’s grandfather Simon was also an infantryman and later a colonel in the Red Army.
The Ukrainian President himself says that his Jewish family, like most in the Soviet Union, was not particularly religious, but that he got his “moral compass” from the Jewish tradition and that one of the traits he says he has inherited is that he does not tolerate any lies.
Volodymyr Zelensky graduated from the Kiev National Economic University in 2002 with a law degree but has never worked as a lawyer, choosing instead to focus on a career as a comedian and actor, including with the production team Kvartal 95, which has produced and starred in a wide range of TV programs, shows and films since the mid-90s. These have included the group’s homoerotic portrayal of the traditional Cossacks, an East Slavic ethnic group with strong ties to both Ukraine and Russia that have become symbolic in both countries of national history and spirit.
From TV president to real life
In 2015 – four years before Zelensky became president in real life – he starred for three seasons in the TV series “Servant of the People”, in which he plays a history teacher who, by chance, becomes president of Ukraine with the mission of fighting oligarchs and corruption. During the war in Ukraine, a large number of TV channels around the world – including Sweden’s SVT – bought the series.
In March 2018, members of Zelensky’s production team Kvartal 95 announced the registration of a political party called “Servants of the People” – the same party name under which Zelensky’s character came to power in the TV series. On December 31, Zelenskyj also announced on live television that he is running for president with the hope of defeating incumbent Petro Poroshenko.
At the same time, many have pointed out that it was not Zelensky’s own idea to run for office, but that his political career was driven by the Jewish-Ukrainian multi-billionaire and former governor Ihor Kolomojskyj, who wanted to remove the incumbent president Petro Poroshenko. This was partly because he wanted to nationalize PrivatBank, Ukraine’s largest bank – which is also owned by Kolomojskyj.
According to academic analyst Andrew Joyce, Kolomojskyj used his extensive assets and media companies to create “Servant of the People” with the aim of creating a TV series so close to reality that viewers would associate Zelensky as a person and not just his character as the one to fight the widespread corruption in Ukraine – and thus make him the favorite to win the election.
And so it was, Zelensky won the presidential election after an almost entirely virtual campaign and without a detailed ideological platform. Ihor Kolomoyskyi was also rewarded for his efforts when the newly elected president cancelled the nationalization of the big bank and returned it to the notorious oligarch, who has also been accused of financing the far-right Azov Battalion.
Photo: manhai/CC BY 2.0
Criminal oligarchs
Ukrainian media have also reported how Zelensky and his partners may have received up to $40 million from various offshore companies linked to Kolomojskyj.
One consequence of the oligarch’s shady dealings coming to light is that he and his family are no longer allowed to enter the United States, as Kolomojskyj is believed to be involved in widespread fraud and money laundering. However, the links do not appear to have had any major consequences for Zelensky and the president has consistently denied that he is or has been involved in any illegalities, despite repeated accusations.
Viktor Pinchuck, another Jewish oligarch and Ukraine’s second richest man who also aims to liberalize Ukraine and bring the country closer to NATO, the US and the EU, has, according to analysts, put a lot of energy into trying to influence Zelensky and his policies.
Zelensky also has good relations with other oligarchs, such as the Russian-Jewish Roman Abramovich, against whom the West has wanted to impose a series of sanctions because of the war, with Zelensky appealing to US President Joe Biden to stop sanctions against Abramovich.
The fact that Zelensky is praised by US and EU leaders is not difficult to understand in light of the foreign policy he advocates. Among other things, the president wants Ukraine to distance itself from Russia and join the EU and NATO – memberships he says the Ukrainian people have shown they support. An application for EU membership was also submitted in February 2022.
At the same time, the president has shown more totalitarian tendencies – not least in connection with the war in Ukraine, when he suddenly decided to ban large parts of the political opposition in the country, using the country’s martial law.
Earlier in March, 11 Ukrainian political parties were banned on the grounds that they were linked to Russia. These included the Opposition Bloc, the largest opposition party in the Ukrainian parliament and by far the most popular party among the Russian minority in the country. Several Ukrainian media channels with alleged links to Russia were banned at the same time.
Disappointed with Israel
Zelensky’s relationship with Israel appears to be somewhat complex. The president has previously declared that Israel and the Jewish people are “a unique people” and that “the Jews managed to build a country, to elevate it, without anything except people and brains”. He has also praised Israel’s military capabilities and ability to fight its enemies and external threats.
At the same time, he is highly critical of not receiving the support he wants from Israel during the war and is upset that Israel will not share its missile systems with Ukraine.
– Ukraine made the choice to save Jews 80 years ago.Now it’s Israel’s turn to make its choice…Everybody knows that your missile systems are the best…and that you can really help save our people, save the lives of Ukrainians, of Ukrainian Jews.
The Ukrainian president has also expressed anger that Israel has not yet chosen to impose strong enough sanctions on Russia or put pressure on Russian companies, saying that what is happening now in Ukraine is comparable to the Holocaust during the Second World War – and that Israel thus has a moral obligation to intervene.
– Our people are now wandering the world, searching for a place, just as you once wandered, he said in his address to the Knesset.
Zelensky has also attended the infamous globalist think tank World Economic Forum‘s Davos meeting and also the EU Parliament where he has argued that Ukraine should become the obvious “leader” of Eastern and Central Europe. The EU leadership’s support for Zelensky was also evident after his speech to the EU Parliament when he was greeted with a standing ovation.
It is clear that the tributes to Zelensky paradoxically emphasized the national patriotic struggle in a way that is unique in the dominant narrative of the mainstream media over the past 20 years. How the saga of the West’s new folk hero ends remains to be seen.
