[By Frid Kvalpskarmo Hansen]

This summer season, archaeologists and a metallic detectorist carried out a small survey of Herlaugshaugen at Leka within the northern a part of Trøndelag County. They discovered one thing wonderful.

The objective was to this point a burial mound and discover out if it contained a ship. They carried out the surveys on behalf of the Norwegian Directorate for Cultural Heritage and in collaboration with Trøndelag County Authority.

The archaeologists had been over the moon after they discovered massive rivets confirming that this was certainly a ship burial, and their enthusiasm didn’t subside when the finds had been not too long ago dated.

“The mound was constructed in approximately 700 CE. This is called the Merovingian period and precedes the Viking Age. This dating is really exciting because it pushes the whole tradition of ship burials quite far back in time,” mentioned Geir Grønnesby, an archaeologist on the NTNU University Museum.

Grønnesby was venture supervisor for the dig. He says the date for the ship has many penalties.

You don’t construct a ship of this dimension with out having a cause for doing so.

“It tells us that people from this area were skilled seafarers – they could build big ships – much earlier than we previously thought.”

A brand new perspective on the Viking Age

The growth of shipbuilding has performed a key function within the dialogue about when and why the Viking Age began. We can’t say that the Viking Age began earlier based mostly on this courting, however Grønnesby says that you just don’t construct a ship of this dimension with out having a cause for doing so.

Wood corroded tightly round a nail. Photo: Geir Grønnesby, NTNU University Museum.

“The burial mound itself is also a symbol of power and wealth. A wealth that has not come from farming in Ytre Namdalen. I think people in this area have been engaged in trading goods, perhaps over great distances.”

He is supported by archaeologist Lars Forseth from Trøndelag County Authority who additionally participated within the surveys this summer season.

“I think that the location along the shipping route plays a key role in understanding why Herlaugshaugen burial mound is located at Leka. We know that whetstones have been traded from Trøndelag to the continent from the mid-700s onwards, and goods transport along the route is key to understanding the Viking Age and developments in ship design before the Viking Age,” Forseth mentioned.

A seated skeleton and sword in Herlaugshaugen burial mound

The Herlaugshaugen burial mound has a diameter of over 60 meters and is likely one of the largest burial mounds in Norway.

Three grave mounds photographed in Bertnem within the Nineteen Twenties. Photo: Theodor Petersen.

The mound was excavated 3 times in the course of the late 1700s, and based on the accounts that exist, some form of wall, iron rivets, a bronze cauldron, animal bones and a seated skeleton with a sword had been discovered.

The skeleton was exhibited for some time at Trondheim Cathedral School as King Herlaug, however nobody is aware of what occurred to it.

“Unfortunately, these finds disappeared in the early 1920s. The skeleton was exhibited for a while at Trondheim Cathedral School as King Herlaug, but no one knows what happened to it,” Grønnesby mentioned.

“All the other finds have also disappeared. It is said that the bronze cauldron was melted down and made into shoe buckles,” he mentioned.

Connections to the ability elite in Sweden and England

The Herlaugshaugen burial mound has been dated to the Merovingian Period (ca. 550 to 800 CE), which is simply earlier than the Viking Age. Generally talking, not many archaeological finds are created from this era, however the first ship burials occurred throughout its early phases. Among these are the spectacular ship burials at Vendel and Valsgärde in Sweden, the place folks had been buried mendacity on down pillows with ornate weapons and helmets.

Could there have been a connection between the ruling class at Vendel and Valsgärde and the individuals who constructed the burial mound at Leka?

That just isn’t an unreasonable assumption: Not removed from Leka – additional into Namdalen valley – there are much more massive burial mounds, which archaeologists imagine are from the Merovingian Period.

“In fact, about 10 percent of all the large burial mounds in Norway are found in Namdalen. These are mounds of more than 37 meters in diameter, and it is almost inexplicable that an anonymous valley in Norway appears to be a key area for large-scale burial-mound building,” says Lars Forseth.

“We don’t know what these large mounds contain because hardly any of them have been investigated. But archaeologists have wondered for a very long time whether there is a connection between Namdalen and the areas of Vendel and Valsgärde in Sweden,” Grønnesby mentioned.

One of the ship nails after it has been cleaned up by University Museum conservators. Photo: Freia Beer, NTNU University Museum

Grønnesby provides that Vendel and Valsgärde even have similarities with the fantastically wealthy ship burial in Sutton Hoo in England. The Sutton Hoo burial can also be dated to the Merovingian Period, and is taken into account the oldest monumental ship burial.

“Should the ship in Herlaugshaugen burial mound be seen in connection with the burial mounds in Namdalen, Vendel, Valsgärde and Sutton Hoo, or is it a different phenomenon? This is a very exciting question, and something we want to explore further,” says Grønnesby.

This article seems courtesy of Gemini News and could also be present in its unique type here.