The southwest coast of Norway is considered the center of the early Viking empire and the seat of its first kings. A ship grave now discovered by means of ground-penetrating radar now supports this assumption. The burial mound, believed to date from the 8th century, contains the remains of a 20 meter long ship and is the third find of a large ship burial in this region. This represents a previously unique accumulation and underlines that the area at the Karmsund was of outstanding importance for the early Vikings, as the archaeologists report.
The Vikings dominated the seas of Europe for centuries, even reaching as far as Greenland and North America. Their settlements and trading posts, but also military fortresses covered the coastal areas of Northern Europe and the British Isles. Their close connection to the sea and shipping was also reflected in their graves: High-ranking Vikings were often buried with a ship under a burial mound. Only a few larger boat graves have been discovered in Norway so far, one of which is the Oseberg ship found in 1904, which is still considered the largest and most important find of its kind.
A region from which two larger boat graves are already known is the coastal area around the Karmsund. This waterway in south-western Norway separates the island of Karmøy from the mainland and forms an important link north along the coast. At the time of the early Vikings, the Karmsund was a strategically and economically crucial sea route, and Norway's name today derives from its old name Nordvegen. Numerous archaeological finds along the coasts of this strait testify to the early presence of the Vikings. The two ship graves Grønhaug and Storhaug are located near the Karmsund coast on the island of Karmøy.
Ground penetrating radar reveals 20 meter vessel
Archaeologists led by Håkon Reiersen from the University of Stavanger have now discovered a third large ship grave on Karmøy. In search of finds from the early Viking Age, they had investigated a flat hill, Salshaugen, where some Viking artefacts had been discovered around 100 years earlier. The size and shape of the elevation suggested that it could be the remains of a burial mound. The researchers estimate that the mound used to be five to six meters high and around 50 meters wide. “It was huge! Most of it has disappeared today, but a plateau remained that could hide the most exciting part of the tomb,” reports Reiersen.
Ground penetrating radar surveys of the plateau actually revealed a conspicuous structure. "The ground radar signals show the shape of a ship about 20 meters long," reports Reiersen. "It's quite wide and reminiscent of the Oseberg ship." The ship-shaped structure is in the middle of the hill, exactly where one would expect a ship grave to be. According to the archaeologist, everything indicates that such a ship grave is also hidden in Salshaugen. A large, round stone slab discovered on the hill around 100 years ago provides further evidence. "It could have been used as a kind of sacrificial altar," says Reiersen. "A very similar slab was found in the Storhaug burial mound."
From the time of the first Viking kings
It is still unclear how old the newly discovered ship grave in Salshaugen is. "We've only seen the shape of the ship so far," explains Reiersen. He and his team plan to conduct a test dig next to verify the find and enable dating. However, from the shape of the ship and the type of mound, the archaeologists conclude that the Salshaugen ship burial dates from the same time period as the two burial ships discovered earlier on Karmøy. The Storhaug ship is dated 770, the Grønhaug ship 780. Both were used in burials and buried about 10 to 15 years after this time. Reiersen and his team assume that the Salshaug ship is about the same age.
At that time, three high-ranking Vikings – possibly Viking kings – were buried on the east coast of the island of Karmøy. Nowhere else in Norway is there such an accumulation of large ship graves, according to the archaeologist. The three ship graves are also among the oldest in Norway. The two even more famous ship burials at Oseberg and Gokstadt date from 834 and 900 respectively. "This is a spectacular find that sheds light on the earliest Viking kings," says Reiersen. "In the early Viking Age it was this part of the country where the most important developments took place." According to the archaeologist, the Scandinavian tradition of ship graves may even have originated in this region.
Source: Science in Norway