The letter 's' is described at app 4:46. More lessons can be found here, but the playlist is all out of order.
"The long s can be traced back to Roman times, when the lowercase s typical took an elongated form in cursive writing in Latin. According to librarians at the New York Academy of Medicine, people were using the long s at the beginning and middle of words by the 12th century." Source: Live Science.
"It is no exaggeration to say that we owe most of our knowledge of ancient Egypt to the work of her scribes. The ancient Egyptians covered their temples and tombs with hieroglyphs, but they also employed scribes to record everything from the stocks held in the stores for workers, the proceedings in court, magic spells, wills and other legal contracts, medical procedures, tax records and genealogies. Scribes were central to the functioning of centralised administration, the army and the priesthood and in truth very little happened in ancient Egypt which did not involve a scribe in some manner." Source: Ancient Egypt Online.
Note: "The last great mystery of the pyramids could be closer to being found thanks to a robot built in Leeds," according to the Daily Mail (2011)
"Images captured by a new 'micro snake' camera traveling deep within the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt reveal small hieroglyphs written in red paint on the floor of a small, hidden chamber.
"Egyptologists believe that if deciphered the markings could unlock the secrets of why tunnels, doors and secret chambers were built within pyramids such as this one."
"New discoveries made at the Klasies River Cave in South Africa's southern Cape, where charred food remains from hearths were found, provide the first archaeological evidence that anatomically modern humans were roasting and eating plant starches, such as those from tubers and rhizomes, as early as 120,000 years ago." Source: Science Daily.
"What kind of beer did the Pharaohs drink? In ancient times, beer was an important ingredient in people's daily diet. Great powers were attributed to beer in the ancient world, particularly for religious worship and healing properties. The pottery used to produce beer in antiquity served as the basis for this new research. The research was led by Dr. Ronen Hazan and Dr. Michael Klutstein, microbiologists from the School of Dental Medicine at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI). They examined the colonies of yeast that formed and settled in the pottery's nano-pores. Ultimately, they were able to resurrect this yeast to create a high-quality beer...that's approximately 5,000 years old." Source: Science Daily.
"A unique bark shield, thought to have been constructed with wooden laths during the Iron Age, has provided new insight into the construction and design of prehistoric weaponry." Source: Science Daily.
"The only one of its kind ever found in Europe, the shield was found south of Leicester on the Everards Meadows site, in what is believed to have been a livestock watering hole.
"Following analysis of the construction of the shield by Michael Bamforth at the University of York, it became apparent that the shield had been carefully constructed with wooden laths to stiffen the structure, a wooden edging rim, and a woven boss to protect the wooden handle."
Note: This is the Enderby Shield, radiocarbon-dated to sometime between 395 and 255 BC. Discovered in 2015, the "shield was made in the Middle Iron Age when local people lived in roundhouses in farmsteads and small villages, tended fields of wheat and barley and raised sheep and cattle. Excavations nearby, have revealed a busy farming landscape along the Soar Valley, used and managed by Iron Age and Roman communities, with small farmsteads scattered along the drier high ground of the valley sides overlooking meadows and controlled grazing along the valley floor. The Roman Fosse Way road also runs close by." Source: University of Leicester.
According to Live Science, the shield "was crafted from either alder, willow, poplar, hazel or spindle bark and stiffened to withstand pressure with strips of either apple, pear, quince or hawthorn wood. It also had a woven boss, or a round piece of material that shields against blows, that protected its handle. The outside of the shield sported a checkerboard pattern in red mineral paint."
"Many important traditions that would characterise the Viking Age were originally assimilated from Roman practices – although through cultural osmosis rather than direct colonisation. These included the concept of the Danish regions as loosely-allied, equal political units; the ‘ting’, a regularly-scheduled civic meeting; a social code balancing civilians with the military hierarchy; and an entrenched tradition of long-distance trade." Source: The Copenhagen Post (2016).
"It also seems as though those most Scandinavian of artefacts – runes – in fact resulted from Roman inspiration, since they first appear between the second and third centuries AD, after centuries of interaction with the Romans. The runic alphabet shows such striking similarities to Latin and other southern European ones that there is little possibility of it being coincidental."
Note: "[The] runic alphabet, also called futhark, [is a] writing system of uncertain origin used by Germanic peoples of northern Europe, Britain, Scandinavia, and Iceland from about the 3rd century to the 16th or 17th century ad. Runic writing appeared rather late in the history of writing and is clearly derived from one of the alphabets of the Mediterranean area." Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica.
Wikipedia has an excellent description of the runic alphabet. The runes had magical and prophetic properties, so if you search YouTube you'll find a bunch of Wicca-ish, New Age crap with quasi-mystical (or Norwegian death metal) background music which could easily drive you insane. According to Wikipedia, "runes are popular in Germanic neopaganism, and to a lesser extent in other forms of Neopaganism and New Age esotericism. Various systems of Runic divination have been published since the 1980s, notably by Ralph Blum (1982), Stephen Flowers (1984, onward), Stephan Grundy (1990), and Nigel Pennick (1995)."
A detailed introduction which includes the names, pictures and meaning of various runic systems can be found here.
"There are several excavations of Iron Age settlements around Tissø [Denmark] and in 1976 a large golden ornamental ring manufactured in the 10th century, was unearthed during a regular field-plowing. The Tissø Ring is a neck-ring with a diameter of 30 cm and at 1.83 kg (originally 2 kg), it is one of the largest gold finds in Denmark. This led to professional investigations and remains of a Viking estate was discovered at the site now known as 'Kalmargården', near Fugledegård on the western lakebrink. In 1995-2003 large scale excavations revealed, that the total settlement covered c. 500,000 m2 (50 ha), centered around a 12 x 48 m hall and with several buildings and structures believed to have ritualistic purposes. In 2012 remains of another large hall measuring 8 x 35 m was discovered. The magnates residence of Kalmargården, greatly resemble the residences excavated at 'Old Lejre' in central Zealand and at Järrestad in Scania. It has been suggested that Kalmargården served as a seasonal residence for the royal family based in Old Lejre." Source: Wikipedia.
"Archaeologists from Aarhus University and Southwest Jutland Museums (Denmark) have been excavating the Viking city as part of the Northern Emporium Project in minute detail."
Finds include "everything from beads, amulets, coins, and lost combs, to dog excrement and gnawed bones." Next video shows a comb inscribed with runes which was discovered in Ribe (I'm not sure when). According to Science Nordic (2018), "[t]he comb dates to the early Viking Age around 800 CE. Just a handful of runic texts from this period exist."
"Ribe is the oldest extant town in Denmark, established in the early eighth century in the Germanic Iron Age." (Wikipedia) "...When Ansgar the Archbishop of Hamburg-Bremen, set out on the 'Mission to bring Christianity to the North', he made a request in about 860, to King Horik II of Denmark, that the first Scandinavian church be built in Ribe. This was not coincidental, since Ribe already at that point was one of the most important trade cities in Scandinavia. However the presence of a bishop, and thus a cathedral, in Ribe can only be confirmed from the year 948."
Video above is from the fantastic Riba Viking Center YouTube channel. Lots of material here. For instance, the next video is a short documentary on the construction of Riba harbor. (Closed captions available).
Note: I'm not sure what the current "immigrant" situation is in Ribe, but Denmark, luckily, isn't as insane as Sweden:
"Despite a reputation for progressive politics, humanitarianism and a generous welfare state, Denmark has some of the most aggressive anti-immigrant policies in Europe. That has included taking out foreign-newspaper adverts warning potential migrants that they are not welcome, and authorizing police to seize cash and valuables from arriving asylum seekers to offset the cost of their maintenance." Source: Time (2019).
"The Foteviken Museum ... is an archaeological open-air museum on the Höllviken peninsula in southern Skåne, Sweden. It contains a reconstruction of a large Viking Age settlement and a 'viking reservation', and visitors participate in living history reenactments; it also performs research and functions as the municipal museum of Vellinge Municipality and part of Fotevikens Kulturcenter, a group of cultural facilities on the peninsula." Source: Wikipedia.
"The Viking Reserve of Foteviken is created in order to illustrate what a densely built-up settlement might have looked like during the late Viking Age and early Middle age. This area is being developed gradually and it will look more and more like a little early medieval city." Source: Fotovikens Museum. (This page has descriptions and photos of all the major buildings in the open-air museum).
"Semicircular defence earthworks enclose the conurbation. The wall opens toward the beach of Höllviken to the west. In the north and south there are two town gates, with the main street of the town running between them. From this smaller streets lead down to the structures east of the main road. Buildings of various dimensions and styles crowd the area. In front of the town hall there's an open square for gathering."
Foteviken was the site of the Battle of Fotevik in 1134. The Foteviken Museum "recreates" this battle periodically, but from what I've seen their reenactments are particularly authentic since cavalry was involved in the actual fight.
The museum has recreated an authentic Viking ship, the Erik Emune:
"In the early 1980s five sunk viking ships were discovered in a barrier in the mouth of the Bay of Foteviken just north of where the Viking town now lies. During a marine archaeological examination one of the ships was recovered and it is this ship that Foteviken Museum has recreated a full scale copy of. The 11 meters long ship is named Erik Emune after the king who stood victorious at the Battle of Foteviken in 1134 AD." (Foteviken Museum) Next video shows the ship being launched in 2009.