After watching Neil Oliver on BBC television on Tuesday night, 18th September, talk about the Vikings and their impact on Ireland, Britain, and Russia etc, coming out with the claim they traded extensively in human flesh – slaves were prized just as much as the rich loot of monasteries, churches, and burial tombs, a story that progressed from there to the Danelaw and Viking York, we now have a story at http://sciencenordic.com/english-inspired-vikings-build-cities … saying it was the English that inspired the Vikings to build towns and cities, presumably following the Danelaw situation in which Neil Oliver envisaged hybridisation between the natives and the newcomers. Danish Vikings left their mark on the English language and places names but England also influenced the Danes in the opposite direction. For example, some of the oldest churches were built in the English style and some of the first Danish bishops were English. Neil Oliver mentioned Viking words adopted into English but it seems it was a two way traffic as English words recurr in Danish, especially those connected with Christianity.
The pyramids of the post have been found in Italy – and are subterranean. They were built in the Etruscan period, it seems, and one has been found underneath a wine cellar – the cellar was actually an adaption from a filled in pyramid shaped underground gallery. They are carved into the rock of a plateau made from tufa – the remains of a long ago volcanic eruption. The deepest level so far reached, digging into the fill, is the 5th century BC, but a flight of stairs cut out of one of the walls are still going downwards and there is a lot of rubble and fill to remove before the bottom is reached. It is thought there are a number of these subterranean constructs, tombs or otherwise. The Etruscans flourished between 900 and 300BC and were eventually absorbed by the Romans (see http://news.discovery.com/history/etruscan-pyramids-120918.html). For another link on the Etruscan pyramid tombs go www.pasthorizonspr.com/index.php/archives/09/2012/etruscan-pyramidal-cha…