SURTSHELLIR CAVE, ICELAND — Archaeologists digging in a Viking cave in Iceland have discovered rare artifacts from Iraq in a huge stone boat. <br /><br />They say the stone boat was used to burn animals to strengthen a god that had to fight to save the world. Here are the details:<br /><br />Archaeologists were surprised to find artifacts from as far away as Iraq and Turkey while digging in an ancient Viking site in Iceland. <br /><br />Located in the Surtshellir cave, the ancient site is located in a lava pipe of a volcano that erupted almost 1,100 years ago. <br /><br />At the time of that eruption, the Vikings had recently colonized Iceland. <br /><br />In a study published in the Journal of Archaeological Science, researchers theorize that the effects of this cataclysmic eruption must have been deeply unsettling for the Vikings. <br /><br />They say that, after the lava cooled, the Vikings entered the cave and constructed a boat-shaped structure out of rocks. <br /><br />Within this structure, the Vikings burned animal bones at high temperatures as a sacrifice. <br /><br />This may have been done to appease Surtr, a giant who Vikings believed would kill the last of the gods in the battle of Ragnarök and then engulf the world in flames.<br /><br />Another possibility is that the burnt offerings were meant to strengthen Freyr, a Viking fertility god, in the hopes that he could defeat Surtr and stop the fiery end of the world.<br /><br />Yep, the Vikings sure had some dark ideas floating around in those heads of theirs. <br /><br />Thank goodness we live in a time when we don't have to burn stuff in dark caves to feed imaginary giants — just so they won't burn us and our world.
