Denne artikkelen presenterer ni tilfelle der fornminne i Noreg ser ut til å vera lokaliserte på stader markerte av sol og landskap i samspel: der sola skin med ekstranummer på solkverva, der sola når lengst ned i lia på vintersolkverv, der den fyrste sola skin etter mørketida, o.l. Det dreiar seg om bautasteinar, gravrøysar, ein storhaug, ei steinblokk med helleristningar, holemaleri, m.m. Dei ni tilfella blir vurderte som nokså klåre, og håpet er at ei slik samling kan fungere som plattform for vidare forsking. Det blir òg drøfta uklåre tilfelle, likeeins ideen om at fornminne er lokaliserte på linjer som sola markerer. Forfattaren tviler på at dei aktuelle fornminna har hatt ein praktisk funksjon som kalender, og legg i staden vekt på at markering av sola er éin av mange måtar ein stad kan vera spesiell på.
Archaeologists have long shown interest in the weaving techniques of the Oseberg tapestry, dating back to 800 AD. However, there are no publications detailing the practical aspects of these techniques. The tapestry features two types of wefts: plant-based yarn, which has deteriorated, and wool threads, which remain available for study. This research investigates how these wefts might have been woven in a delimited section of one of the fragments in the tapestry, and in a band employing a similar technique. Experimental weaving with yarn and techniques has demonstrated the feasibility of creating figures of comparable minute dimensions to the originals. To achieve reconstructions with analogous visual and weaving characteristics, both the figures and the background were woven across the entire width of the selected part, employing incremental shaping and building techniques still utilised in contemporary tapestry. The use of procedurally authentic tools had minimal impact on the outcomes.
This article examines a little-known ceramic workshop from the Early Iron Age at Re in Time Municipality, Rogaland County, Norway. The study is based on archival sources from the early 20th century and an archaeological excavation carried out in 1969, which has not previously been published in a scientific context. The investigation documents a high density of ceramic finds and production waste within a limited area and interprets this in relation to several oven structures. The article argues that Re represents a previously overlooked site with possible ceramic production in the Early Iron Age and contextualizes the finds alongside other production sites such as Hølland and Augland. The study contributes new insights into ceramic production and the spatial organization of craft activities in Iron Age southwestern Norway.
Denne artikkelen presenterer ni tilfelle der fornminne i Noreg ser ut til å vera lokaliserte på stader markerte av sol og landskap i samspel: der sola skin med ekstranummer på solkverva, der sola når lengst ned i lia på vintersolkverv, der den fyrste sola skin etter mørketida, o.l. Det dreiar seg om bautasteinar, gravrøysar, ein storhaug, ei steinblokk med helleristningar, holemaleri, m.m. Dei ni tilfella blir vurderte som nokså klåre, og håpet er at ei slik samling kan fungere som plattform for vidare forsking. Det blir òg drøfta uklåre tilfelle, likeeins ideen om at fornminne er lokaliserte på linjer som sola markerer. Forfattaren tviler på at dei aktuelle fornminna har hatt ein praktisk funksjon som kalender, og legg i staden vekt på at markering av sola er éin av mange måtar ein stad kan vera spesiell på.
The introduction of iron in Norway has long been a subject of discussions. Although there are examples of objects made of or containing iron, from the beginning of the Pre-Roman Iron Age, these have often been interpreted as imports. Throughout the period, the number of iron objects remained small, and it is not until around the turn of the millennium that we see indications of iron becoming a more common commodity. The same pattern has been evident in the archaeological material related to iron production, with hardly any iron production sites dated to the Pre-Roman Iron Age. However, over the past two decades this has changed. In this article, we will examine recent excavated early iron production sites to shed new light on where and when iron extraction was introduced, what technology was used, and how the activity was organized within society.
In this study we investigate the use and distribution of jasper, a distinctive red quartz that served as a key resource for stone tool production in parts of inland Norway and Sweden during the Mesolithic. The sole known source in this region is the Flendalen quarry in Trysil, Innlandet County. Drawing on results from all excavations undertaken at the Flendalen quarry and studies of jasper from settlement sites beyond the immediate region, this article presents a comprehensive provenance study. Based on examinations involving dynamical technological classification, find contexts, and geochemical classification and provenance analysis of jasper utilizing pXRF and Raman spectroscopy, we argue that the quarry was established as early as 8000 BC. The discovery of jasper transported 200–300 km from Flendalen to coastal sites around the Inner Oslofjord and Larvik, as well as to inland locations in Oppdal and Lesja, reveals widespread distribution and an extensive network during the Middle Mesolithic. This network later contracted, with most finds concentrated within a 75 km radius of the quarry. We interpret this pattern as linked to changes in settlement organization and potentially to shifts in social significance.
Using the «winter hall» of medieval Oslo’s bishop's manor as a point of departure, this article explores materials that can access how indoor spaces in urban buildings were adapted to seasonal needs. From a material of 17 buildings and constructions excavated at Follobanen Bispegata (2017–2018), a site spanning parts of a house plot, the Bishop’s Road and the outer court of the bishop’s manor, adjustments targeting seasonal factors like the temperature and humidity of indoor spaces are examined. It is suggested that architectural adaptations, aiding both permanent and seasonal functions, can be found in several types of urban buildings that vary in construction and use. Furthermore, the article discusses how storage of food and equipment, as well as livestock housing and craft activities, were influenced by seasonal rhythms. In addition to architectural features, artefacts, plant remains, and insect assemblages contribute to illustrating these usage patterns.
Our knowledge of Viking Age clothing comes primarily from textile fragments preserved in graves and occasionally as stray finds. However, the interpretation of these fragments relies heavily on prevailing theories about the clothing’s appearance, which are subject to change as new evidence emerges. This is particularly true for the smokkr, a garment suspended from the characteristic oval brooches. This article outlines the evolution of various theories regarding the smokkr, and presents an example of how this affects the interpretation of the evidence in a grave. The grave used as an example, T16136 from Værnes in Trondheim, was initially interpreted by Charlotte Blindheim eighty years ago. Reinterpreting the evidence according to current theories about the construction of the smokkr provides a significantly better fit with the textile stratigraphy, and suggests that the fastening of smokkrs in Norway and Sweden may not have differed as significantly as Blindheim proposed.
This study investigates the obliteration of the burial mounds at Skeiet in Vinjeøra, Trøndelag, Norway. The cemetery was in use from 600 to 950 AD, comprising a variety of burial customs. While many burial mounds have been removed in recent times, radiocarbon dating suggests that the mounds at Skeiet were removed during the early Christian Middle Ages. The study examines the reasons behind this removal and the parties responsible. It discusses whether the removal was driven by religious, political, or property-related motivations. While the increasing influence of the church and a desire to suppress pagan practices may have played a role, it is more likely that kinship and property rights were the primary factors. The study concludes that the removal of the burial mounds was a deliberate act aimed at altering the symbolic and political significance of the landscape. This may have been a strategy to erase previous power structures and family influences.
The 13th century saw an increase in reindeer hunting in southern Norway, characterised by the use of intricate trapping systems and pitfalls to capture the animals. However, much remains unknown about the practical organisation of these hunts. An excavation in Buheii, Kvinesdal, Agder, uncovered a complete hunting station from this period, located at a natural landscape bottleneck at 700 masl. The site offers new insights into the medieval hunting practices and enables a new perspective on the organisation of the mountain hunt in the medieval period. The station included a rock shelter divided into four rooms by walls constructed from stones quarried on-site. Each room served specific purposes, such as living, storage, and as shooting blinds. Based on the organisation of the site, as well as faunal remains and artefacts, the site is interpreted as a well-organised, seasonal hunting and trapping station, established and frequented in the early to late-13th century by valley farmers.
This study examines the Viking Age chamber grave discovered at Hestnes in Valsøyfjord, Trøndelag, Norway. The grave contained a richly equipped female burial with well-preserved textiles and jewellery, offering rare insights into this burial practice. Radiocarbon dating and typological analysis date the burial to between 850 and 920 AD. The grave's construction involved a wooden chamber with corner posts and horizontal planks. The deceased was placed with the upper body raised and dressed in an embroidered cape. The findings are compared with other Scandinavian chamber graves, highlighting both commonalities and unique features. The study discusses the social and symbolic significance of chamber graves, focusing on funerary display and the social function of the burial scene. It suggests that chamber burials were a way to stage the deceased as continuing to live within the chamber. The Hestnes grave provides valuable insights into the complexity and variability of Viking Age burial practices and their societal roles.
The formative years of Stone Age research in Jæren (Southwest Norway) 1895–1920, with later contributions and future challenges This paper presents an overview of the efforts and scientific results of Stone Age research in Rogaland 1895–1920 by the archaeologists Gabriel Gustafson, Anton Brøgger and Helge Gjessing, and the entomologist Tor Helliesen, in investigating and trying to understand the early human settlement on the coastal plain of Jæren in Southwest Norway. They all were, in different respects, true pioneers working through a formative period of research 100–130 years ago, influenced and inspired by earlier achievements of Danish archaeology and biology. The results of the first excavations of the open-air site Holeheia in Klepp 1898–1901 and the Svarthåla (Viste) cave in Randaberg 1907–1910 are presented and evaluated in the light of later field investigations, analyses and radiocarbon dating of the actual sites and a few comparable Stone Age localities. Finally, the present status of research, some recent trends and future archaeological prospects in the Jæren region are emphasized.
The Emergence of Shielings as Archaeological Heritage Archaeological sites are not simply found. They emerge through a step-by-step process, between archaeologists and the landscapes in which they operate, and may thus be affected by various discourses, practices, tools and methods. Based on interviews and questbacks, I argue that in parts of Norway, shielings are underrepresented in the National database of Cultural Heritage (Askeladden). This bias is not primarily due to variation in modern development rates, but to differing emphasis and strategies within Regional Cultural Heritage Management. However, we cannot rule out that the shieling system was in fact more widespread across Western Norway. As material actors, sites and landscapes also participate in the creation and maintenance of regional discourses, blurring the line between the spatial distribution maps on the one hand and past realities on the other. By reflecting on our own practice, however, we may approach a better understanding of the past.
Mouth-Deposited Coins in Medieval Burials The intentionally deposited coin in a late medieval grave in the ruins of St Mary's Church in Tønsberg raised issues such as: how common was it to be buried with coins in the medieval period, and who and why was someone buried with coins? It does not seem that the custom can be linked to gender, age or geography, and possibly not to social status. However, human remains with traces of diseases have been observed, and there are several children buried with coins. It may be that the dead were selected because they were vulnerable, both before and after death. The chosen ones may have been exposed because they died suddenly, and that the required rituals were not implemented. It may appear that the burial practice was linked to folk magic concerning revenants in combination with Christian beliefs about the afterlife.
The field is located on the large moraine at the mouth of the Langesund Fjord in Vestfold County. It comprises 26 large cairns up to 30 m in diameter and 45 m in length, and approximately 183 small cairns 1–2 m in diameter, all 6,5–20 m above sea-level. The great cairn D27 is 6,5 m above sea-level. Fifteen of the cairns have been excavated. The finds are few including remnants of a burnt ship burial in boat-shaped grave D100 C-14 dated to Roman Iron Age and Migration Period. The author suggests the crates in the large cairns represent either looting pits or a burial custom, and the small cairns are rests of trapping facilities for birds. The beach grave-field dates to early Iron Age and Viking Age and has its closest analogues in the grave-fields on the Jærkysten in Rogaland.
For a long time the interpretation of insular artefacts found in the context of Norwegian Viking Age has been that these resulted from plundering in the British Isles. To investigate this further, I have reviewed the Annals of Ulster for the period 795 to 1066 to see what they say about the Viking plundering in Ireland. Captives, sold as slaves, were most common, along with livestock, especially cattle. From churches and monasteries is mentioned a few times that the relics and relic caskets of Irish saints and book shrines were stolen and partially destroyed. Gold and silver were plundered from the rich monasteries of Clonmacnoise and Kells, but probably as raw materials. With references to my 2019 monograph "Looting or Missioning", I alternatively claim that the insular material has mainly come with Irish and other British missionaries to Norway. Such presence is documented in places like Selja and Kinn and the place names “Pape Fioerd” and “S Brigid”. From written sources we know that monks and bishops repeatedly directed their missionary activities towards central places in Scandinavia, but that they were often chased away or killed. The sacral objects they brought with them were then confiscated and ended up in pagan Viking Age graves in a local community, as more or less fixed sets of object types.
On the dating of the Great Jelling Stone The great Jelling stone has played a central role in Viking Age archaeology. Usually, it is taken for granted that the stone was erected by Harald Bluetooth in the period 960–986 AD. A reinterpretation of the different dateable elements, casts doubt on king Harald as the commissioner of this monument. Instead, it is suggested that bishop Absalon can have erected the stone at the end of the 12th century. Absalon was the mightiest statesman in Denmark under king Valdemar the Great (1146–1182) and his succeeding son Knut’s reign (1182–1202). He acted as a counsellor and deputy for king Knut. He had good reasons to raise such a stone as part of the consolidation of the Danish state. He also had enough resources and education to order the making of such a stone – a piece of many arts that required a scholarly attitude both to commission and understand.
Hylestad Stave Church Resurrected - Stories, GPR, and Reconstruction This article examines Hylestad Stave Church in Setesdal, Agder. The church is considered an abandoned medieval church site and is no longer visible on the surface today. The Hylestad Portal, the most famous of medieval stave church portals in Norway, comes from this site. Medieval church sites are complex archaeological and historical locations, often with roots in pre-Christian practices. Many of these abandoned church sites lack precise location information and risk damage from modern interventions. This is also the case at Hylestad. There is no comprehensive review of the church site's history, and the source material is fragmented and incomplete. A GPR survey conducted in 2021 has renewed interest in the site for further research, along with older source materials. This article explores how the new geophysical surveys contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of the existing archaeological and written sources from the church site, and how they enhance the understanding of the stave church as an important archaeological and historical source.
