A Norwegian couple repairing their home discovered a Viking burial beneath the floor. In a country as old as Norway, with a Viking heritage, building might uncover not just outmoded décor, but also rare, valuable archaeological artifacts.
It happened earlier this year when a rare Roman coin was found on Donner Island, and it happened again recently, near the northern Norwegian town of Bodo. A house built in 1914 has turned out to have been constructed on a significant Viking burial site, much to the shock of the couple for whom it is a family home, and who were getting ready to pull up the wood floors to lay insulation. The remodeling has instead become an archaeological excavation of a ninth century Viking burial ground.
When the home’s owners initially started remodeling, they uncovered a little glass item they mistook for a wheel from a child’s toy truck or automobile. Soon after, they discovered an iron axe head and other antique relics, realizing they had discovered something more than just the old foundation beneath the wooden floor boards.
They quickly alerted local authorities, who in turn contacted the Tromso Museum. Experts investigated the discovery and began extracting antiques to examine them more attentively. As the excavation progressed, they discovered human bones, an iron spearhead, and other precious items from the Viking Age, which lasted from 800 to 1100 A.D. Those artefacts, as well as others discovered, are currently being studied by historians and archaeologists at the University of Tromso. The excavation at the site is still occurring as of this writing.
(Image: © ORCA Archaeology)
Although Viking burial sites are occasionally discovered by chance during other construction projects in Norway, researchers claim this one is unusual. Jorn Erik Henriksen, a university archaeologist, told the media that he had seen Viking burial cairns before, but nothing like this. “This is the first time I have seen something like this (that appeared) under a house,” Henriksen stated.
If the objects are certified as antiquities, the site can be thoroughly investigated under a Norwegian rule that requires any site with evidence of human activity previous to 1537 to be studied and protected. A cairn is a type of burial monument, a gathering of stones or other accoutrements put by people burying someone to identify the location where the deceased lay. Cairns were forerunners of the stone tablets or memorials that many civilizations now utilize in graves.
Other Viking Age items have been discovered around Norway, including parts of a Roman board game discovered last year north of Bergen. Similar fragments were discovered in Lindisfarne, which is located off the coast of northeast England. That is the site of one of the first Viking invasions known to researchers.
The couple has willingly handed up ownership of the house to professionals until the excavation is finished and archaeologists are confident they have retrieved all of the antiquities beneath it. After all, not everyone’s home is the location of a significant historical and archaeological find, and theirs surely qualifies.