The Archaeological Chronicles - The New World

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You think you’re acting like a man

You’re playing dirty, you don’t deserve this

We’ll never fall that deep again

Don’t say you need me, I’m not that easy

Oh, yeah, I’m already fed up

’bout time you let go, swallow your ego

They say that game, you need to stop

I’m taking charge, oh, going commando

--

Mari

Zuuri and I continued our daily training for weeks. I was progressing greatly.

Kai’ine brought me books from the Flint Castle’s library every evening, after his duties in the capitol.

They never told me their position in society, but it wasn’t hard to guess that since they were considered ‘Supremes’, made them some sort of leaders.

Zuuri cared little for regal and political things, he enjoyed discussing prehistory with me instead.

And before I knew it, our quite mundane routine had been going on for a month.

I had been on Ter’ais for an entire month.

It scared me to think about that I was actually getting used to this place. I caught myself enjoying the nature, the beautiful flowers in the garden, the glassed villa and how much knowledge they actually had.

It seemed like peace was all that mattered, so the rebellions were a topic we avoided talking about.

The glassed villa would have scared the shit out of me, if I lived there alone. I don’t enjoy big window surfaces that portrays the darkness of the night.

Who knew what might pop up in those windows.

I always closed my curtains when nightfall came, back home. I didn’t like the idea that someone could see me, or that I could see them.

Now, on the other hand, I was living with an alien that literally breathes power.

I have no idea of their actual extent of power, but according to the small things I’ve seen, they are much stronger than anything that roamed out there in the darkness.

It is also worth mentioning that Kai’ine was probably the scariest being I’ve ever encountered, and I’ve gotten quite used to him and his weird habits.

So, if I can get used to him, I think I can get used to the darkness as well.

He can be quite rough himself, but he killed a man that tried to choke me. That has to count for something? If someone is going to kill me, at least I know it will be him.

I pulled the duvet closer to my chin. These beings – daque – were an abnormally hot species. Which meant their homes were freezing cold. Kai’ine usually modified the temperature so that I wouldn’t freeze to death during the night.

Their season of summer was ending, so the days grew colder by each passing day.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath of fresh, crisp air. Today was different. We slept in, for some reason. Another thing I’ve noticed about him is that he never sleeps in.

Never.

I stay up late almost every night, reading a new book of ancient human history. So, the mornings aren’t the greatest for me, but he always wants me to get up at the same time as him.

Believe me, I protest, but it’s hard to do anything about it when I wake up in the bath most mornings.

This means, horrifyingly, that I’ve gotten so used to his presence that I don’t even wake up when he carries me to the bathroom.

My muscles were sore from all the training, but I really enjoyed it. It was freeing to be able to move so freely without any issues with either my knees or my lungs.

I’ve always been energetic and always needed to stay active to burn some of it off. Or else I wouldn’t be able to sleep at night.

‘’Mai’yri,’’ Kai’ine calls from the outside of the duvet.

I had buried myself under it, enjoying being able to snooze in the mornings. I reply with a tired hum. More like a groan probably.

‘’Besides books, what do you enjoy?’’ he asks.

I frown. That was random. ‘’Sleeping,’’ I answer with a groan as I turn away from him.

A silent chuckle leaves his mouth. I can feel the bed vibrating from it.

‘’Besides from that, too,’’ he says as he rises from the bed.

‘’Mountains. Ocean. Dogs. Designer handbags. Running. Eating. Chocolate,’’ I answer. Tiredly.

‘’You do not seem like the type to like designer handbags,’’ he answers with another chuckle as he lifts me from the bed.

‘’No!’’ I groan, pulling the duvet with me. When the air hits my bare legs and arms, a shiver runs down my spine.

‘’I’m high maintenance. I like both knitted sweaters as much as I like Louis Vuitton,’’ I shrug as I’m placed down on the tiled bathroom floor.

He fills the tub with hot water.

‘’Did you go mountain hiking often on earth?’’ he asks as he reaches his hand out for me to take.

He guides me down in the bathtub, placing me between his feet.

As always.

‘’During the summers. We went to northern Norway. My favorite place,’’ I explain, idly playing with the water.

‘’Do you have any pictures of it?’’ he asks as he reaches for the soap.

I nod, slipping out of the bathtub, wrapping a towel around me as I pad quickly towards the nightstand. I pick up my phone and rush back into the hot water.

I slide it open and locate the picture folder of northern Norway. I slide through some pictures of it, showing him the area, and the mountains I climbed.

A picture of me looking displeased as we were on a boat, fishing for haddock. I slide past it, but he slides back to it before I can react.

A laugh leaves his mouth. ‘’Why are you displeased?’’.

I sink further into the water in the bathtub, a little embarrassed.

‘’This was right about the moment where we found out that we had a big haddock on the hook. It was too big for the boat, according to my own opinion, but my cousin disagreed,’’ I explain.

I slide two pictures forth, showing a picture of the gigantic haddock. ’’It’s so ugly,’’ I gag.

‘’You do not like fish?’’ he chuckles.

‘’Well, I do. I just don’t like them bigger than me,’’ I say as I lock the phone and places it on the tiled floor beside the tub.

‘’Scandinavia is beautiful,’’ he muses as he massages shampoo into my hair. ‘’It often reminds me of Zone three. I have a meeting there next week. If you want, I can take you hiking in the mountains after it?’’ he suggests.

I crane my neck to face him. ‘’Do you mean it?’’ I ask. Not daring to hope.

He could be fucking with me for all I know.

He nods, expressionlessly.

Trying my best to hide my satisfaction and happiness, I have to turn away from him. I don’t want him to see how happy that actually made me.

He could use it against me, at some point.

After the bath, we head downstairs. The twins are seated at the kitchen table, waiting for us.

‘’Zuuri! Zuki!’’ I call happily as I rush towards them. ‘’How are the barrack puppies?’’ I ask Zuki.

‘’They are just fine, nearly ready to leave the nest,’’ she answer. Glowing eyes.

I nod happily as I hoist myself up on the counter, reaching for the cereal in the top shelf. I pour myself a big bowl and start eating mindlessly.

‘’We are training today, right?’’ I ask Zuuri, with my mouth full of cereal.

‘’Of course. Zuki is joining us today. Can you tell me about the Iron Age after we’re done training?’’

I nod enthusiastically.

‘’That’s the period I’m best at!’’ I state as I jump down from the stool and place the, now, empty bowl in the sink.

The twins head out to the garden, ready to start training.

I’m grasped by the upper arm as I’m pulled back from exiting the patio doors. I look up at Kai’ine in question.

‘’Be careful,’’ he warns. I roll my eyes and tug myself free. Without success.

‘’I am serious,’’ he says in a stern voice.

‘’Yes! I get it. Let me go,’’ I whine as I tug against his hold.

He releases me with one final look as I rush outside.

‘’Are you guys coming to Zone three next week, as well?’’ I ask, panting.

The twins are no easy match and Zuki is rougher than Zuuri. It’s good, I guess. I’ll learn more from it.

The brothers in this family keeps babying me.

‘’We are,’’ Zuki replies as she charges for me.

Not prepared for the blow, I only miss it by millimeters. Zuuri charges close after his sister. I’m flopped to the ground, on by back, once again. I groan in annoyance.

Zuki helps me to my feet.

’’You need to focus on our weak points, not yours,’’ she explains.

I nod in understanding as I wipe sweat from my forehead.

She charges for me again, with Zuuri taking me down from another angle. In a complete and utter automatic reaction, I kick Zuki’s legs in, making her fall to the ground. I take Zuuri’s neck in a hold underneath my arm and flip him over. Landing on his back. We are just as surprised as I stand gaping, them on the ground.

I squeal loudly. ‘’I did it!’’ I scream as I throw my hands in the air. ‘’I did it, guys!’’ I repeat as I jump around in happiness.

They get up in union and both place each of their thumb on both sides of my temple. Some sort of acknowledgement maybe?

‘’You did,’’ Zuuri confirms.

‘’Great work!’’ he praises.

Kai’ine appear out of nowhere. ‘’What happened?’’ he asks, serious tone.

I take a hold of his wrists and shake it violently.

‘’I took them down!’’ I squeal. ‘’I took them both down!’’.

I would never be able to decipher the look that crossed his eyes in that short moment, but it was gone before I knew it.

‘’Little Viking,’’ is his only reply.

I’m not sure if it was a statement or a praise. And to be frank, I don’t even care. Because I knocked two Supreme beings down in the dirt.

Ten points for me!

‘’You have gotten a lot better since our first encounter,’’ Zuki adds with the ghost of a smile on her lips.

‘’Next time I’ll hit your heart,’’ I threaten in a joking manner.

A laugh leaves her mouth. Her loose, long, white hair flowing freely.

‘’We will see about that, human,’’ she jokes.

‘’Let us do this a few more times and then we’ll call it a day,’’ Zuuri says as he returns to his original fighting stance.

***

After a quick shower I leap down the stairs. Dinner is already on the table, and the siblings are all seated.

‘’Iron Age, yes,’’ I say as I reach for the salt.

Well, I think it’s salt, at least.

‘’Where do I begin? The Iron Age is very much more than the Viking Age. The Viking Age was actually the last period in the Iron Age, marking the start of the middle ages after the end of the Viking Jarl’s and their power.

The Iron Age in Norway is considered to start approximately around five hundred before our timeline. Like the Bronze Age, the Iron Age is marked to start when Iron became an important aspect of everyday life.

This also includes a subtle change in material culture. The period is divided into five primary periods. I’ll say them in Norwegian, because I’m not completely certain of the English pronunciations,’’ I explain.

I take another bite of the food as I sort my thoughts out. Where to start, how to explain it correctly.

This is my favorite prehistoric time period, so I don’t want to overwhelm them with too much information at the same time.

’’It all started with Førromersk jernalder. The first five hundred years of the Iron age marked this period. There are little to no grave finds from this period.

This can be explained in several different ways, but the most common theory is that it just wasn’t a funerary practice to add grave goods in the graves during this period.

The dead were burnt, and the bones were collected and put in a ceramic jar, or sorts, and buried without a mound, or connected to an already existing mound.

Agriculture was by this point a well know practice, but the finds of activity in caves around the country proves that they still used fish as a resource. They also hunted bigger mammals,’’ I explain.

’’The Roman age is the next period. This period lasted for approximately four hundred years. Here we can see a distinct increase in burials that are actually visible to the naked eye.

These burials were often marked by a mound or a røys – a cairn. The grave goods are also richer, and it became common to not cremate the dead.

Males were gifted with different things than the females. This is primarily how we identify graves, it’s often the easiest method – even though there are both males and females buried in an ‘untraditional’ way.

Impulses from the Roman empire seemed to have some effect on the society, but not as much as they had in other countries,’’.

Their eyes are glued to me. Fully concentrated on what I’m saying. I won’t lie. That tickles my brain.

There are few things I love more than to talk about the wonders of prehistory.

’’The next period is Folkevandringstid. This period lasted for a short hundred and fifty years. It’s quite hard to separate this period from Romertiden.

This was an uneasy period in prehistory. The many deposit founds of gold proves that it was the same situation in Norway, too. They hid their richness, with the promise to return to it.

Which they obviously never did, for some reason. Bygdeborger, brochs or castles, also proves a period of uneasiness. They had to hide within these fortresses, keeping the enemy out,’’ I say.

Zuki is especially interested in this period, I note. Her eyes glow brightly.

’’The next period is Merovingertid. This period lasted for two hundred and fifty years. This period leads into the late Iron Age. Archeological evidence shows that this was a period of great change.

Material culture, jewelry, clothing and the way animals are presented are examples of that change. A big downfall in graves and grave goods, prove the theory that the Folkevandringstid was a period of turbulence, leaving lesser numbers of people in Norway.

Supposed ‘Ødegårder’ – farms that are deserted – were also a proof of that,’’ I explain as I take another breath.

There is just so much I can say about this magnificent period in time, that I have to choose my words carefully.

’’And then the last period in the Iron Age, the Vikingtid. This period also only lasted for about two hundred and fifty years.

During the Merovingertid, the traffic on the ocean was getting more stable, and the Vikingtid futher expanded this. The raid of the monastery in Lindisfarne at England’s easter coast in the year 793 is typically how we mark the start of the Viking Age.

Written sources from the French, English and Irish, concerning the Vikings is primarily how they are depicted. This can be very misleading.

They weren’t as brutal as many describe them to be. They were in no way more brutal than any other cultural group in the rest of the world.

They also colonized big parts of the Western Isles, rather peacefully. They settled in Orkney, Shetland, Man, Hebrides, Scotland, Ireland, Iceland and Greenland.

Their expansion and the need to move somewhere new cannot only be pictured as their greedy need for more gold. They were traders, farmers and pioneers of their time. Well, according to myself.

Their colonization of England, Ireland and Scotland has affected these countries further development greatly. We can even see that in the English language today. A lot of their words are from old Norse.

That has to mean something. They weren’t only brutes that raped and stole from others. I’m quite tired of that misconception, to be honest,’’ I say. The last part more in a more annoyed tone the rest.

’’The archeological material we have from this period is the most numerous founds compared to all of the earlier periods. The grave goods make up the majority of archaeological finds from this period.

After the Christening of Norway during the early 11th century, the pagan way of burial disappeared and the grave goods with it. The middle ages marked a dark hole in Norwegian history.

Well, that’s not completely true, but the middle ages were a time that marked modernism. Many things changed and Christianity, in my perspective, ruined a lot for the individual development of the people,’’.

We sat in silence for a few moments after that.

‘’That’s all I got,’’ I state as I finish my dinner. ‘’I have to re-read about it if you want it more detailed. It’s been a while since I studied all of the periods,’’ I say with a shrug.

‘’No, that was really good Mai’yri. Thank you,’’ Kai’ine says.

‘’Gosh, I wish our prehistory was as chaotic as yours,’’ Zuuri comments. ‘’There is just so many details! I wish I could pick all of their brains and learn how they made the choices they did,’’ he says, resting his chin in the palms of his hands.

‘’I wish I could, too. I think that’s the thing that interests me the most. How and why they made their choices. What made them change, even if it took several generations, they still changed. I wonder why?’’ I ponder, more to myself.

‘’Because humans always strive for better, never settling for adequate,’’ Kai’ine replies.

‘’That might be true, but why did they change their way of dress and material culture? That doesn’t point to better, it just points to evolution of material culture,’’ I reply back.

‘’People come up with new ideas. Some get popular, some does not. Every culture is like that,’’ Zuki responds.

’’But why is it like that?’’ I muse.

Zuuri chuckles as he rises from the stool. ‘’We can discuss that for years on end, but I do not think we will find an answer,’’

Zuki gets up, too.

‘’Thanks for the archaeology lesson, Ma’ari,’’ Zuuri says with a smile. ‘’I’ll see you tomorrow,’’ he says as he heads for the exit.

Zuki winks at me and follow her twin brother.

Leaving me all alone with Kai’ine.