Norwegians spot another Viking ship buried in the ground

By: Thomas Schmitt Attorney on November 22, 2019 / comment : 0 Archaeology, Europe, Northern Europe, Norway

Norwegian archaeologists say they have for a second time found the remains of what could be a Viking ship by using geo-radar techniques, adding it is likely more than 1,000 years old.

Overview of the area at Edøy [Credit: Manuel Gabler, NIKU]

Knut Paasche, an archaeologist with Norway’s Institute for Cultural Heritage Research, says a 13-meter (43-foot) long keel was spotted in September in a field that used to be a burial mound on the island of Edoeya about 110 kilometers (70 miles) west of Trondheim.

Geo-radar image of the Edo ship [Credit: Manuel Gabler, NIKU]

Paasche said Friday that the ship could be up to 17 meters (56 feet) long. There are no immediate plans to unearth it.


The Viking era was approximately 793-1066.

In March, a ship was found buried west of Oslo using geo-radar — a geophysical method that uses radar pulses to image the subsurface.

Source: The Associated Press [November 22, 2019]

Mysterious Viking boat graves unearthed in central Norway

By: Thomas Schmitt Attorney on November 19, 2019 / comment : 0 Archaeology, Europe, Northern Europe, Norway

In the second half of the 9th century, an important woman dies at the farm now known as Skeiet at Vinjeora, in central Norway. Her dress is fastened at the front with two large shell-shaped brooches of gilded bronze along with a crucifix-shaped brooch, made from an Irish harness fitting. She is then placed in a boat, about seven or eight metres long. Grave goods are also buried along with body, including a pearl necklace, two scissors, a spindle whorl– and a cow head.

The oldest grave is from the 8th century. But why were they buried together? [Credit: Arkikon]

So far, there is nothing extraordinary about this burial ritual. It is only when the boat is buried that the Vinjeora Vikings do something that will intrigue archaeologists more than 1000 years into the future.

Instead of digging a new grave for the woman, a boat grave from the 8th century is carefully excavated. This is a larger boat, probably between nine and ten metres long. It contains the body of a man buried with weapons. The boat with the woman is gently placed inside the man’s boat, and then they are both buried. Who were the two and why were they buried together, even though they died 100 years apart?

Archaeologists at the NTNU University Museum have been puzzling over this exact question ever since they unearthed the graves in October. The unusual find was discovered during the excavation of a burial ground of one of the Viking Age farms in this area. The excavations are being undertaken in connection with improvements to the E39 highway.

Hoping for DNA analysis

Nearly all the wood in the boats had rotted away, there was only a little left in the keel of the smallest boat. Still, the boat rivets were still in their original positions, so that by looking at the them, the archaeologists were able to determine that they had found two boats in one.

The soil in the area that was excavated was not good for  preserving human remains. Archaeologists were consequently overjoyed when they found parts of the skull of the woman in the upper boat tomb [Credit: Astrid Lorentzen, NTNU University Museum]

“I had heard about several boat graves being buried in one burial mound, but never about a boat that had been buried in another boat,” said Raymond Sauvage, an archaeologist at the NTNU University Museum and project manager for the excavation.

“I have since learned that a few double boat graves were found in the 1950s, at Tjolling, in the south of the Norwegian county of Vestfold. Still, this is essentially an unknown phenomenon,” he said

The soil properties at the dig site aren’t good for preserving bones. Archaeologists were consequently extremely happy when they found parts of the skull of the woman in the upper boat grave.

“Hopefully, we we will be able to get some DNA from the skull to provides us with more information, such as what she looked like,” says Raymond Sauvage.

Isotope analysis can be another source of knowledge about the woman. Isotopes are variants of a particular chemical element that vary between different food sources and geographical locations. Isotope analyses from teeth and skeletons can therefore give us information about where a person was born and lived during their life, and about what he or she ate.

Irish harness fitting a sign of status

The crucifix-shaped brooch in the woman’s grave says a lot about both her and the community she was part of.

This crucifix-shaped brooch was found in the woman’s grave [Credit: Raymond Sauvage, NTNU Vitenskapsmuseet]

“The decoration and the design itself tell us that it came from Ireland, and that it was once part of a harness fitting,” says researcher Aina Heen Pettersen at NTNU’s Department of Historical Studies.

Pettersen is writing a PhD about the significance and use of Irish and British artefacts that were brought to Norway during the Viking Age.

“It was common among the Vikings to split up decorative harness fittings and reuse them as jewellery. Several fastenings on the back of this brooch were preserved, and were used to attach leather straps to the harness. The new Norse owners attached a pin to one of the fastenings so it could be used as a brooch.”

Pettersen explains that brooches like these probably were quite exclusive, and that they are often found in well-equipped – though not particularly rich – graves.

This suggests that the harness fittings were distributed among people who took part in the Viking voyages or helped organize them.

“The Viking voyages – whether for raids, trading or other expeditions – were central in Norse society. That meant it was important to participate in this activity, not only for the material goods, but also to raise both your own and your family’s status,” Pettersen said.

“Using artefacts from Viking raids as jewellery signalled a clear difference between you and the rest of the community, because you were part of the group that took part in the voyages.”

Viking hipster?

The man in the larger boat grave was buried with a spear, a shield and a single-edged sword. These weapons enabled archaeologists to confidently date the grave to the 8th century.

The cruciform brooch was found in the woman’s grave [Credit: Raymond Sauvage, NTNU Vitenskapsmuseet]

“Sword styles change through the centuries, which means we can unambiguously date this grave to the 8th century, the period that is known as the Merovingian era in Northern Europe. That’s assuming that we are not dealing with a Viking hipster,” Sauvage said with a smile.

But what was the connection between the man and the woman? Sauvage says it’s reasonable to assume that the two were related. The Vikings on Vinjeora probably had a clear idea about who was in each burial mound, since this information most likely was passed down for many generations.

“Family was very important in Viking Age society, both to mark status and power and to consolidate property rights. The first legislation on allodial rights in the Middle Ages said you had to prove that your family had owned the land for five generations. If there was any doubt about the property right, you had to be able to trace your genus to haug og hedni – i.e. to burial mounds and paganism,” says Sauvage.

“Against this backdrop, it’s reasonable to think that the two were buried together to mark the family’s ownership to the farm, in a society that for the most part didn’t write things down,” Sauvage said.

A monument in the landscape

Two-boats-in-one and interesting grave goods are not the only thing that makes the archaeologist enthusiastic about this find. The placement of the two boat graves – at the edge of the largest mound on the burial ground – also tells a story.


“The connection between the boat graves and between the boat graves and the mound is very exciting. The two boat graves are also located right at the edge of a cliff, overlooking the fjord. This must have been a monument in the landscape,” Sauvage says.

The age of the large burial mound also makes Raymond Sauvage’s archaeologist heart skip a beat.

“The burial mound must naturally be older than the oldest boat grave, meaning early Merovingian age. This is a fascinating era in Scandinavian history, from which there are few archaeological finds.”

Unfortunately, hundreds of years of farming on the site means the large burial mound has been completely ploughed away. However, the archaeologists still hope they might find artefacts when this area is further excavated next summer.

“So far, we’ve found part of a brooch from the Merovingian era, indicating that the large burial mound once held a richly appointed woman’s grave,” Sauvage said.

Author: Frid Kvalpskarmo Hansen | Source: The Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) [November 19, 2019]

Stave churches in Norway older than thought

By: Thomas Schmitt Attorney on November 06, 2019 / comment : 0 Archaeology, Europe, Northern Europe, Norway

What's the real age of Norwegian stave churches? The usual method for dating wood is to measure the variation in the width of the tree rings and compare them to already dated samples.

Hopperstad Stave Church in Sogn og Fjordane county is dendro-dated to 1131-1132. Previously, the date was estimated at 1125-1250 [Credit: Jan Michael Stornes]

Recently, researchers have used a different measurement method called photodendrometry. With this technique, the material can be photographed in place. The method has the advantage of not needing to take core samples, and scientists can photograph large amounts of material in a protected building and procure larger amounts of data. This provides more precise knowledge of the estimated construction date, because it allows wood that cannot be core sampled to also be dated.

Through the Stave Church Preservation program headed by the Norwegian Directorate for Cultural Heritage, dendrochronologists at NTNU received money to study the country's stave churches more closely. The program has yielded results.

"We now know the age of some stave churches almost to the year," says Terje Thun. He is an associate professor at the NTNU University Museum in Trondheim. Thun is one of the country's foremost experts in dendrochronology, or tree ring dating.

Photodendrometry less invasive

Thun explains that the original dating method of measuring tree rings with a magnifying glass has some limitations. If tree rings cannot be measured on the surface or end of a plank or log, then researchers need core samples. This is not always possible—or desirable.

During the stave church program, photodendrometry was tested as a non-destructive method. The researchers photographed the wall boards in various churches, and did the actual measuring of the tree rings in the laboratory with the photos.

"In this way, researchers were able to examine all parts of the stave churches without any invasive techniques," Thun said.

Urnes Stave Church older than assumed

Over a long research career, Thun has studied wood samples from stave churches in order to more accurately pinpoint Norway's most important contribution to world architecture.

Photo from Urnes Stave Church, taken while photographing tree rings in the church choir [Credit: Jan Michael Stornes]

The stave church preservation program, which lasted until 2016, accelerated that research. Thun and his staff were able to conduct more systematic analyses of various building sections in several of the churches.

"Urnes Stave Church was especially thoroughly studied, since it's considered to be the oldest stave church in Norway," says Thun.

He and several of his colleagues and researchers in Norway and Denmark can now confirm that several of the churches are older than many historians previously believed.

Dendrodating indicates that part of Urnes Stave Church, which was estimated built before 1100, was constructed using timber from 1069 and 1070. The slightly younger part of Urnes is dated to 1129-1130.

For the sake of clarity: dendrochronology can date the year a tree was felled for the stave churches. The likelihood is that the felling year was also when the construction began.

Several stave churches older than presumed

According to Thun, Urnes Stave Church is interesting in several ways.

Already in the 1950s, archaeological excavations were being carried out to learn more about this special church at the head of the Sognefjord. Norway's oldest stave church is also on the UNESCO World Heritage list, and many books have been written about the unique church building.

"Research has been done on the stave churches in the past, too, but not as systematically as under the stave church program. Over the years, dating estimates were based on construction technique and style and spanned almost a hundred years.

"Now we're sure of the age, and several of our stave churches are older than first thought," Thun says.

Using a method called photodendrometry, researchers can reduce the number of core samples they need to take for dating wooden buildings. They can now get enough information from photographs, which yields more data and more precise information. Pictured: Thomas Bartholin (at left) and Jan Michael Stornes [Credit: Leif Anker]

Researchers thoroughly examined the stave churches in Kaupanger, Hoppestad and Urnes using photodendrometry. Some parts of the Gol and Borgund stave churches were also documented using the same method.

The work of dating the stave churches has also given the researchers knowledge of building practices and material choices.

"Among other things, we can now study what kinds of forests were available at different periods," Thun says.

The preparatory work of the stave church program showed that many of the churches had serious construction problems and required a great deal of maintenance. So building historians, art historians, conservators, archaeologists, craftsmen and other professional groups were all involved in the project.

Dendrochronology method can tell us about climate

Thun's colleague, researcher Helene Lovstrand Svarva, also participated in the stave church program.

They both work at The National Laboratory for Age Determination that is part of the NTNU University Museum in Trondheim.

Svarva is particularly concerned with how climate can be studied using dendrochronology.

"Dendroclimatology is a major field of study, and here in Northern Europe we can use the trees' response to summer temperatures to find out more about climate variations over time," she says.

According to the researcher, the tree-ring chronology of the stave churches covers a climatically interesting period, which is often called the Medieval Climate Anomaly. This was a period that was assumed to be warmer than the periods before and after.

By comparing summer temperatures over time, Svarva can find out how the climate has changed throughout history.

"Long chronologies allow us to see variations over time that can give us a picture of how temperatures have changed. It's especially interesting to find out how today's climate can be seen in light of the climate almost a thousand years ago," she says.

But, Svarva points out, "trees are also affected by forces other than temperature, so we need a lot of trees as a source. We also need chronologies from many parts of the world to create a picture of how temperature has changed in time and space."

Authors: Nina Tveter & Kjersti Lunden Nilsen | Source: Norwegian University of Science and Technology [November 06, 2019]

Thousand year old arrowhead found in Norway

By: Thomas Schmitt Attorney on October 10, 2019 / comment : 0 Archaeology, Europe, Northern Europe, Norway

This 12cm-long iron arrowhead was found high up in the mountains near Eidfjord, at the end of the Hardangerfjord.

The arrowhead is about 12cm long [Credit: Hordaland fylkeskommune]

As glaciers melt and the ground changes, historical artefacts are turning up more frequently. The latest find in the mountains of Hardanger paints an interesting picture.

Around one thousand years ago, a reindeer hunter was out hunting 1,400 metres above sea level at Store Ishaug in Eidfjord, just north of what is now Hardangervidda National Park. He had with him a bow and arrow on his hunt for reindeer. But his aim was poor, and he lost an arrow into the snow.

In September 2019, a local out for a walk near his mountain cabin stumbled across the arrowhead, laying on the floor next to a snowflake. “I immediately realized that it was something special, something from before they used rifles,” said Ernst Hagen.

Hagen took the arrowhead to the archaeologists at Hordaland county council. Archaeologist Tore Slinning sais that no similar findings have been made in Hordaland before.

“This is an unusual finding and a bit of a hit. It's like finding a needle in the haystack. Such discoveries may emerge as climate change melts the ice and changes the form of the land. This arrowhead would have been covered by snow in the winter had it not been found,” he said.

If the iron arrowhead had been left exposed, it would gradually erode and eventually disappear completely. The wooden arrow itself is long gone.

“We don't know when the long arrow would have decomposed. In soil, everything rots. The arrow may have rotted away a long time ago if it was in soil. If it had been encased in snow and ice, it may have decomposed much more recently when the snow had melted. Those who are in the close proximity to glaciers that melt should look for such ancient discoveries,” Slinning says.

The arrowhead is made of iron. There has been iron extraction in the area in the past, and several villages nearby. The arrowhead was found in the mountains near to these former settlements.

The archaeologist said that such finds are not common in Hardanger, unlike several others places in Norway.

This summer, an arrow with arrowhead was found in Fresvik, while a 1,500-year-old sled was discovered on Vossaskaret.

The reason why there are relatively few discoveries in Hordaland is to do with the movement of Norway's glaciers. Objects are often crushed by the glaciers, whereas in Oppland, objects are left laying on the plains as snow melts.

The arrowhead is now being looked after by the University Museum in Bergen. The experts there will preserve it, so that no further rusting takes place, and attempt to more accurately date it. So far, the best estimates put the arrowhead at approximately 1,000 years old. That would date it to the end of the Viking Era or the Early Middle Ages.

Author: David Nikel | Source: Life in Norway [October 10, 2019]

Viking Age mortuary house found in central Norway

By: Thomas Schmitt Attorney on September 27, 2019 / comment : 0 Archaeology, Europe, Northern Europe, Norway

A Viking Age mortuary house was discovered during the excavation of the burial ground of one of the Viking Age farms on Vinjeora in Hemne in Trondelag. The house measured five by three meters. It had corner posts, and the walls were made of standing planks, in a building style similar to that used in early stave churches. Archaeologists could see that the building was solidly constructed, even though the only thing that remains is a rectangular ditch with a slight impression from the house and some retaining stones where the walls once stood.

The construction style of the mortuary house is similar to that used for stave churches [Credit: Raymond Sauvage, NTNU University Museum]

Even though the style of building is typical of the Viking Age, this house was far from ordinary. Archaeologists think it was most likely home to a Viking grave. Hundreds of years of farming in the area have plowed away the grave that was likely found inside the structure.

"We can see that the house once stood in the middle of a burial mound. That's how we know that there probably was a grave inside the house," said Sauvage, who is project manager for the dig.

The burial mound itself is also gone, but the ring ditch that once surrounded the mound has been filled in, rather than plowed away, and is therefore still visible.

"The ditch forms a circular depression that tells us where the burial mound was situated, which means that we also can see that the mortuary house was placed right in the middle of the mound," he said.

The mortuary house was found under an excavation of a Viking Age grave field on Vinjeora in Hemne municipality in central Norway. The dig was undertaken in preparation for road construction associated with expansion of the E39 highway.

A house for the dead

Viking Age mortuary houses are rare finds in Norway, with fewer than 15 found in the entire country. That means there's a lot we don't know about why these houses were built and what they were intended for.

"Early research has often interpreted these houses as purely functional. They've been seen as a morgue, where the Vikings stored corpses, such as when they were waiting for the ground to thaw in the spring," says Sauvage.

But this interpretation doesn't explain why the house on Vinjeora was dug into the burial mound, and why graves have been found inside mortuary houses in other locations. Now, most researchers believe that these houses played more of a symbolic role than a practical one.

Here’s what the archaeological site looks like from the air. The picture clearly shows the discolouration around the location of the house left from the ditch that surrounded the structure. The stripe that goes across the top of the picture is from a modern-day ditch [Credit: Raymond Sauvage, NTNU Vitenskapsmuseet]

"They can be compared to boat graves—a custom that was practiced at the same time as mortuary houses—where the boat has been interpreted as a vessel that will carry the deceased to the land of the dead," Sauvage said.

Why the Vinjeora Vikings wanted the dead to live in the burial mound—rather than to sail to the land of the dead—is a matter of speculation. Perhaps they wanted the spirits of the dead to stay and protect the farm and family.

In pre-Christian times, it was not unusual to believe that the dead lived in the mound, and that the living should take care of what they called the people of the mound. This would involve bringing them gifts and food, so that in return they would ensure that the crops were good and that both animals and humans were fertile. People may have believed that if the deceased had their own house in the mound, there would probably be a greater chance that they would stay there, instead of wandering around, tormenting people.

Unique opportunity

It is extremely rare for archaeologists in Norway to be able to examine an entire grave field in one excavation, as they now can at Vinjeora.


"This gives us a unique opportunity to learn about how Vikings dealt with death. There is a great deal of variation in the burial customs found in this grave field—everything from boat graves and burials in coffins to cremations and mortuary houses. It will be very interesting to explore this spectrum further," says Sauvage.

The excavation will continue throughout the autumn and into next year, as there is still quite a lot left for archaeologists to examine. Nevertheless, Sauvage is already confident that what they discover will be of great importance.

"When we've analyzed all the findings from the graves here, it will give us a deep insight into the society that existed here in the Viking Age. It will allow us to see connections that are otherwise invisible," he said. "I believe that what we find will make a considerable contribution to the Viking field as a whole."

Author: Frid Kvalpskarmo Hansen | Source: Norwegian University of Science and Technology [September 27, 2019]

Genomics provides evidence of glacial refugia in Scandinavia

By: Thomas Schmitt Attorney on September 14, 2019 / comment : 0 Climate Change, Evolution, Genetics, Norway, Palaeoclimate

Evolutionary research on a grass-like, flowering perennial called the northern single-spike sedge has offered some of the first proof of ice-free locations, or glacial refugia, in Northern Europe during Earth's most recent ice age.

Credit: University of Colorado Denver

Using genomic techniques, a team of researchers led by principal investigator Kristine Westergaard from the Norwegian Institute of Nature Research has found evidence that establishment of this species pre-dates the region's Weichselian glaciation, upending scientific thought regarding recolonization of northern Europe following the Pleistocene Epoch.

Leo P. Bruederle, professor emeritus in the department of integrative biology at CU Denver, along with colleagues at ETH Zurich, and Norwegian University of Science and Technology, co-authored the research with Westergaard. The study was published in the journal Molecular Ecology.

Surviving the Pleistocene ice age

"Our data suggest that there were dynamic refugia in Scandinavia, where the species persisted throughout the Pleistocene," said Bruederle. Today, only three populations of this species remain in Europe, with the larger part of its range in North America.

More than two million years ago, glaciers descended on the uppermost portions of North America, Europe and Asia during the Pleistocene Epoch, Earth's most recent ice age. Tough, vascular plants remained in pockets of glacial refugia, despite extremely harsh conditions.

Norway’s northern single-spike sedge [Credit: University of Colorado Denver]

Previously, researchers believed that the northern single-spike sedge, or Carex scirpoidea Michx subsp. scirpoidea, persisted in refugia only in Beringian Alaska and/or south of the Last Glacial Maximum in western and northeastern North America. Researchers assumed the Norwegian populations originated following a post-glacial recolonization, as has been reported for other plant species.

Researchers found that the Norwegian populations of the sedge consisted of unique evolutionary lineages that diverged from those in Greenland. Their colonization of Scandinavia appears to have occurred twice, both prior to the last glacial advance, with the Norwegian plants having survived in glacial refugia in situ.

Preventing a "genetic meltdown" in an era of climate change

The sedge's existence in Norway, and understanding the ways in which plants persisted through the Pleistocene, can inform the way we think about the future effects of climate change, said Bruederle.

While the hardy plant was able to sustain frigid ice age temperatures, it may not fare as well with a warming climate. Species are usually able to survive climate changes by shifting latitude or elevation, said Bruederle, but the fragmented populations, low level of genetic diversity, and the lack of suitable habitat may lead to a "genetic meltdown" and eventual extinction of the species in Europe.

Researchers call for managing the Scandinavian populations as distinct units to include monitoring these populations, protecting their habitat, and preserving seeds and plants.

Author: Rachel Sturtz | Source: University of Colorado Denver [September 14, 2019]

Roman bronze cauldron unearthed in central Norway burial cairn

By: Thomas Schmitt Attorney on September 13, 2019 / comment : 0 Archaeology, Europe, Northern Europe, Norway

Sometime around 150-300 CE a person died at the place now called Gylland in the Gaula River valley, in southern Trondelag county. After the body was cremated, the remains were laid in a bronze vessel. This was then covered or wrapped in birch bark before being buried under several hundred kilos of stone.

The cauldron has been uncovered, and Heidi Flottum Westgaard, Ellen Grav Ellingsen and Kjell Andre Brevik carefully clean it off [Credit: Astrid Kviseth/NTNU University Museum]

And there it stayed—until this summer, when archaeologists from the NTNU University Museum lifted a stone slab and almost lost their breath from excitement when they saw what lay below it.

"We'd gone over the spot with the metal detector, and so we knew that there was something under one of the stone slabs in the burial cairn," says archaeologist Ellen Grav Ellingsen, who filmed the discovery with her mobile phone when the rock was lifted away.

"When I saw what was lying there, my hands got so shaky that I could hardly film. This is a find an archaeologist is lucky to experience once in their career!" says Ellingsen.

Heidi Flottum Westgaard (foreground) and Ellen Grav Ellingsen reveal the bowl [Credit: Astrid Kviseth/NTNU University Museum]

The gravesite in Gylland is one of two that the NTNU University Museum's archaeologists are investigating on behalf of Nye Veier in connection with the construction of the new E6 highway south of Trondheim.

The cauldron from Gylland belongs to a type of bronze vessel that goes by the name Ostlandskjele, which means "eastern boiler." The name is related to the fact that many vessels of this type are found in graves in Eastern Norway.

This kind of vessel was manufactured in Italy or in the Roman provinces of the Rhine region, and came to Scandinavia as a result of either trade or an exchange of gifts. The vessels were mass produced and possibly intended for export to the Scandinavian area. In Scandinavia they often ended up as burial urns. Although they were mass produced, this bowl is a rare find.


"The last find of a bronze bowl in central Norway was in the 1960s. Nationally, we know of about 50 vessels of this particular type," says Moe Henriksen, an archaeologist and the project manager for the excavation in Gylland.

Imported goods like bronze vessels and glass jugs were reserved for society's upper classes. The discovery in Gylland testifies to the power and prosperity in this region in Roman times.

"This wealth was probably linked to the passage of traffic and Gylland's proximity to important land resources like bog iron, which was the basis for the extensive iron production in Trondelag in Roman times," says Moe Henriksen.

The bowl is now being examined in more detail at NTNU’s conservation laboratory [Credit: Age Hojem, NTNU University Museum]

The bowl was in pretty bad shape when it was found. It's likely that the pressure from the stones compressed it. It was already well used when it was placed in the grave, and traces of repairs are visible in several places.

"The bowl is now being examined more closely in NTNU's conservation laboratory. An X-ray of the vessel shows that it doesn't contain any metal objects," says Moe Henriksen.

"But the remains of organic material, like combs and bone needles, may still be hidden in the soil inside the bowl. In the next few weeks we should know whether other objects accompanied the deceased into the grave," she adds.


The burial cairns in Gylland are large, and recent dating shows that they were used as burial sites for hundreds of years. Although the bones contained in this bowl are dated to younger Roman times—about 150-300 CE—discoveries have been made at deeper levels that are considerably older, dating to 490-360 BCE.

"We haven't yet reached the bottom of the burial site, so it may be that we'll make new discoveries that are even older. That would be very interesting, because we know so little about burial customs that far back in time," says Moe Henriksen.

Author: Frid Kvalpskarmo Hansen | Source: Norwegian University of Science and Technology [September 13, 2019]

Archaeologists find hull of Viking ship

By: Thomas Schmitt Attorney on September 10, 2019 / comment : 0 Archaeology, Europe, Northern Europe, Norway

Preliminary excavations into the discovery of more Viking treasures south of Oslo have led to the hull of what archaeologists are calling the Gjellestadskip. It’s reportedly “in good shape,” and believed to be older than Norway’s famed Oseberg and Gokstad ships.

Archaeologists from the Cultural History Museum (UiO) and the county conservator in Østfold county municipality dug in to the keel of what was a 20-metre long Viking ship [Credit: Sigrid Mannsåker Gundersen,  county conservator in Østfold county municipality]

“I think the mood could be best described as more or less euphoric,” Christian Løchsen Rødsrud of the University of Oslo’s Museum of Cultural History told state broadcaster NRK on Thursday. “Everyone was jubilant.”

Three nails of the ship buried at Gjellestad [Credit: Fredrik Norland, Østfold Fylkeskommune]

The picture shows the imprint of the bucket [Credit: Christian Rødsrud]

Rødsrud is the project leader on the dig that started just last week and will soon end, with plans calling for the ground to be covered up again while experts decide how to proceed. The hull was described as “solid wood,” leading Rødsrud to believe that it will be possible to excavate.

Archaeologists have uncovered a number of ships rivets representing joints between planks in the ship [Credit: Christian Rødsrud]

The keel of the Gjellestad ship [Credit: Christian Rødsrud]

Right now they want to cover it all up again while they work with specimens and “test material” from the site. He said the hull was different than those of the Oseberg and Gokstad ships but he and his colleagues believe the vessel also had been used for a funeral and likely on the water as well. It may date to pre-Viking times: “We are playing with the idea that it’s older, but it’s too early to say.”

Source: News in English [September 10, 2019]

200 medieval skeletons found in Trondheim

By: Thomas Schmitt Attorney on September 08, 2019 / comment : 0 Archaeology, Europe, Northern Europe, Norway

Archaeologists in Trondheim, a city on the Trondheim Fjord in central Norway, believe they have both found one of the oldest graveyards along with traces of its relocation in the 17th or 18th century.

Credit: Norwegian Institute of Cultural Heritage

How is it that in the very heart of Trondheim's oldest neighbourhood is a pit with over 200 skeletons from the Middle Ages? That's the question archeologists now want to answer after the discovery described by the Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage (NIKU) described as “stunning.”

Kjopmannsgata in downtown Trondheim is home to the colourful trading houses that line the Nidelva river. It's an area that has long been home to commerce, and it's known there was a cemetery nearby.

A reburial pit, not a mass grave

Around 200 individuals have been discovered so far. So is this a mass grave? Archaeologist and excavation leader Ingeborg Sæhle explains that it's more likely a respectfully performed reburial.

“It might look brutal with layers upon layers of skeletons gathered in a pit. But when we examined the collection of skeletons more closely, we discovered how they are placed in an elaborate wooden box, almost like a coffin. They have been re-buried so that they could still be in consecrated ground.”

Credit: Norwegian Institute of Cultural Heritage

Exactly when the removal of the individuals from the cemetery was done is not known. Archaeologists assume that it happened in connection with mass construction work in the 17th and 18th centuries.

Sæhle says that the moving of graves isn't uncommon, but truly rare on this scale. With its scale and good state of preservation, the bone material in the pit constitutes an important and exciting research material on human life and living conditions in Trondheim in the Middle Ages.

Learning about the medieval cemetery

In addition to the skeleton put, archaeologists also found three tombs from the Middle Ages. The project manager for the excavation, Silje Rullestad, says that they knew there was a cemetery nearby: “We know that there has been a cemetery south of our excavation area, but based on previous smaller investigations it appeared that we were north of this. When the area was excavated in the 19th century, skeletons, coffins and a tombstone from the 1100s were all found, but farther south. We didn't know how exactly how far north the cemetery was, but the discovery of these tombs helps us place it more precisely.”

Credit: Norwegian Institute of Cultural Heritage

The next step is to examine the intact tombs to hopefully date the cemetery. The team are also hoping for discoveries that may say something about the size of the cemetery.

Trondheim's history continues to be revealed

The archaeological dig is being carried out before the new home of Kjopmannsgata Ung Kunst (KUK) is built on the site.

It's not the first surprise that recent excavations in connection with new buildings have turned up. Since the 1970s, there have been regulations that require a thorough excavation on construction sites before building can take place.


Back in 2016, the wooden remains of what is believed to have been St Clements Church was found on Krambugata. It's just a short distance away from where the skeleton pit was found.

It's the church in which Olav Haraldsson was first enshrined as a saint. The sainthood of the former Viking King played a major role in the conversion of Norway to Christianity.

In addition to the wooden foundations and a vast cemetery with hundreds of graves, the team discovered a bronze crucifix. The item was incredibly well-preserved and hiding just below the surface.

Author: David Nikel | Source: Life in Norway [September 08, 2019]

Six medieval ships unearthed in Norwegian capital

By: Thomas Schmitt Attorney on July 17, 2019 / comment : 0 Archaeology, Europe, Northern Europe, Norway

Six ships from the Middle Ages have been uncovered in a series of excavations in central Oslo, providing researchers with new knowledge on Norwegian maritime history.

Credit: Lars Dønvold-Myhre/NRK

The ships dating from between the 1300s to the 1600s, were unearthed in the modern Bjørvika district situated at the Oslo Fjord in connection with urban development and the construction of a high-speed railway.

“In Norway, this is completely unique. There is no doubt about that”, project manager and archaeologist Elling Utvik Wammer of the Norwegian Maritime Museum told the daily newspaper Aftenposten describing the spate of findings “archaeological adventure”.

Credit: Lars Dønvold-Myhre/NRK

The last ship found in Bjørvika is about ten metres long. According to the archaeologists, its wood is in fantastic condition, given that the ship is about 500 years old.

According to Wammer, this is most likely a cargo ship, as lumber was 16th-century Norway's main export. Fellow archaeologist Marja-Liisa Grue assumed that it could have also been used to ship stones to nearby Akershus Fortress, one of Oslo's main sights.

Credit: Lars Dønvold-Myhre/NRK

The archaeologist crew stressed that the findings will shed more light upon a little-known period in the Norwegian capital's history, namely the Reformation and the great city fire of 1624. At that time, Norway was part of the Dano-Norwegian realm. After the deadly fire, Oslo was renamed Christiania after Christian IV of Denmark.

Since the start of massive urban development in Bjørvika, a total of 40 shipwrecks have been found. According to Wammer, the findings dating back from the Middle Ages and early modern times are “unique in European context”.


Eventually, some of the shipwrecks will be exhibited at the Norwegian Maritime Museum and 3D models of how the ships looked will also be made.

During the excavations, a number of discoveries were made, including flutes and other instruments, golden rings, a medieval seal and an ink-well of bone decorated with a small star-shaped flower.


Since the 2000s, Bjørvika has undergone vigorous re-development, being transformed from a container port to Oslo's new cultural and urban centre. Up to 5,000 homes and commercial buildings with room for 20,000 employees will be built.

Source: Sputnik News [July 17, 2019]

More cracks found in 1000-year-old Viking ship

By: Thomas Schmitt Attorney on May 07, 2019 / comment : 0 Archaeology, Europe, Heritage, Northern Europe, Norway

Officials at Oslo’s famed Viking Ship Museum have found more cracks in the wooden Gokstad ship that’s been on public display since 1932. Anxious experts have added to its support apparatus, in the hopes of preventing the ancient vessel from collapsing.

The Gokstad ship at The Viking Ship Museum [Credit: Museum of Cultural History]

“When 1,000-year-old ship planks begin to weaken, the situation is extremely serious,” said Hakon Glorstad, director of the University of Oslo’s Museum of Cultural History that’s responsible for the Viking ships. “Wood that’s so old doesn’t have the same flexibility as modern wood and can totally collapse, quickly and without warnng.”

Crack in the hull of the Gokstad ship [Credit: Dan P. Neegaard]

Glorstad told newspaper Aftenposten on Monday that in its current location, “we can’t develop the overall support systems needed to secure the ship’s entire hull.” He said the current base is no longer adequate and the space around the ship too confined.

Carefully placed supports with sensors mitigate and monitor the cracking [Credit: Dan P. Neegaard]

The University of Oslo's David Hauer monitors Gokstad ship movement [Credit: Dan P. Neegaard]

The museum has been sounding alarms for months, even years, about the condition of the vessels and has been promised new surroundings for its three Viking ships found in Vestfold between 1857 and 1904. The government has granted project funding but not funding for the actual construction of an expanded Viking ship museum at its current location at Bygdoy, meaning no new facility to better preserve the ships will be finished before 2025 at the earliest.

Source: newsinenglish.no [May 07, 2019]

When the extreme becomes the norm for Arctic animals

By: Thomas Schmitt Attorney on April 08, 2019 / comment : 0 Climate Change, Ecosystems, Environment, Natural Heritage, Norway, Wildlife

Think of reindeer on Norway's Svalbard archipelago as the arctic equivalent of sloths. It's not a perfect analogy except that like tropical sloths, Svalbard reindeer move as little as possible to conserve energy.

Reindeer on Norway's Svalbard archipelago are experiencing the extremes of climate change, with increasingly frequent rain-on-snow events during the winter. But instead causing the population to crash, the reindeer population is able to adapt [Credit: Erik Ropstad]

This, combined with the fact that they don't have any predators, allows them to stay in the same area year round, nibbling on the tiny grasses, herbs and sedges they can find.

When snow comes, they simply paw it away and keep nibbling. It's a lifestyle that has allowed Svalbard reindeer to persist over the millennia, long enough for them to adapt physiologically and evolve into a separate subspecies.

But over the last few decades, the warming climate has brought more rain and less snow in some winters. These rain-on-snow (ROS) events can cause ice to form on the ground. The ice coats the reindeer's preferred food and causes them to starve-- a potential catastrophe.

In a study just published in Nature Communications, researcher Brage Bremset Hansen, from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology's Centre for Biodiversity Dynamics (CBD) and colleagues describe how they modeled the effects on reindeer population dynamics if icing becomes the norm, rather than an extreme event.

In other words, will climate change make Svalbard's reindeer go extinct?

"In the past, some rare icing events have been shown to cause population crashes," the researchers said. "An intuitive expectation would be to predict more population crashes and hence a greater extinction risk with continued warming."

But as is often the case with life, it wasn't that simple.

Decades of reindeer -- and rain -- data

To explore this question, the researchers relied on reindeer data collected each year since 1994 by their co-authors from the James Hutton Institute (UK), the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research, and the Norwegian University of Life Sciences. During that time, reindeer calves were captured and marked each spring and re-sighted in August.

Using this information and a biological model called an Integrated Population Model, or IPM, the researchers created what amounts to a detailed picture of the Svalbard reindeer population --with annual population sizes, survival and reproduction rates for six female age classes.

They also used historical data on the yearly amount of ROS since 1962 to obtain what they called an icing, or "winter harshness" proxy, which allowed them to look at how ROS affects population dynamics.

Equipped with these tools, the researchers were able to make projections of how the reindeer population they studied would change given different future ROS scenarios.

Saved from oblivion by extremes?

When the researchers ran the models to see what would happen, they found that the reindeer population behaved in a counterintuitive way under future scenarios where conditions were harsher, meaning when the ROS frequency increased.

"If ROS conditions remain the same as observed in the past, the probability that the population goes extinct is actually much higher than under the likely future scenario of very high ROS frequencies," said Marlène Gamelon, a CBD researcher who was also the co-first author of the paper with Hansen.

The key, the researchers found, was that extremely harsh winters with ROS events could only cause a population crash if animal density was high, because that was when competition for food was great.

Even under these conditions, only the most vulnerable animals, the youngest and the oldest, die. Females, weakened by the lack of food, were less likely to have calves.

The entire population was not only smaller following a crash, with less competition for food, but was also composed of prime-aged animals, less vulnerable to subsequent ROS events.

If one bad winter with lots of icing followed almost right after the first, the researchers found it essentially had no effect on the population. The small, robust population hadn't aged that much and was not at risk of starvation.

"The interactions between climate effects, density and age structure explain why our study population did not crash in recent icy winters," the researchers said. "In other words, internal population restructuring modifies and buffers the effects from climate change."

Several good years could lead to a crash

The model estimated that only after several good years in a row, the Svalbard reindeer population would have grown enough, with enough vulnerable young and old individuals, that a bad winter would cause the population to crash.

"One important message from our study, supported by past observations of this population, is that the impact of a harsh winter on the population is far less dramatic if it happens soon after a previous harsh winter," the researchers said.

Steve Albon, from the James Hutton Institute, initiated the Anglo-Norwegian reindeer study south of Longyearbyen 25 years ago.

"When we started our studies, rapid climate warming of the magnitude seen in recent decades was unimaginable," he said. "But without following hundreds of individual reindeer throughout their long lives we would never have acquired the data to understand their responses to the changing environment."

"Nonetheless, however detailed our data, without the novel population models that showed us the nuances of the likely consequences of continuing climate change, our predictions of the future population dynamics of this charismatic animal would be very likely wrong."

Finding may have relevance across the Arctic

And so, for this reindeer population, anyway, a series of icy winters one right after the other may not necessarily be such a bad thing.

"This study provides the first evidence that fluctuations in population size of long-lived species are actually dampened when extreme climate events become frequent," the researchers said.

They think that this kind of buffering by internal mechanisms is probably not specific to reindeer. Given that, "(it) should be considered when scientists predict the ecological effects of changes in climate, and especially changes in extreme events."

But as the researchers also point out, Svalbard is a "hotspot for winter climate change."

Other parts of the Arctic are lagging behind and will likely see more ROS events as global temperatures continue to rise, but as long as these extreme weather events still happen infrequently, that could cause populations to crash.

"These kinds of crashes are exactly what has been observed recently in some caribou and reindeer populations across the Arctic, but they are unlikely to reflect future population dynamics," Hansen said. "The more common these events, the less dramatic the fluctuations."

Source: Norwegian University of Science and Technology [April 08, 2019]