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Jakten på Odin (Norwegian: The Search for Odin) is the project title of Thor Heyerdahl's last series of anthropological excavations, which took place in northern Europe.
His intention was to seek the origins of the Aesir, following the trade set out by Snorri Sturluson in the Ynglinga saga, from the Black Sea and the river Don (former Tanakvisl) via Saxon homelands in northern Germany, Odense on Fyn, Denmark to Old Sigtuna, ancient Sweden. When he died, the second season of excavations were just finished.
The excavations performed in Azov, Russia, near the entry of the Don into the Black Sea have shown that Azov actually did have a population at the time of the emigration of the Asas (sometime around 60 B.C., according to the references to Roman expansion into the Caucasus). Last, but not least, the idea in Scandinavia that no people like the Asas and the Van have ever existed—well, according to Heyerdahl's findings, Russian written sources from the Kaukasus area verify not only the existence of the Asas or the Iranian Ossets; the Odin people of today—but also of an ancient tribe living around the area of Lake Van in today's Turkey.
See also
Further reading
The background for the project is described in a book, Jakten på Odin—På sporet av vår fortid, written by Thor Heyerdahl himself and Per Lillieström (ISBN 82-7201-316-9).
External link
- Bjornar Storfjell's account (http://www.azer.com/aiweb/categories/magazine/ai102_folder/102_articles/102_heyerdahl_storfjell.html): A personal account of an anthropologist who worked with Thor Heyerdahl