Rare 1,000-Year-Old Viking Wooden Bowl Found By Young Boy

To most children finding something unusual and unexpected is a joy, but discovering a precious, rare ancient artefact must be a memory for a lifetime! One can only guess what goes through the mind of the youngster who has unearthed a rare 1,000-year-old bowl from the Viking Age.

The artefact was discovered by ten-year-old Erik Briskerud, who was with his father in Glomma, Norway. The father and his son were on a boat when they spotted a sandbank in the middle of the river.

Erik was surprised to see something resembling a root in the sand and decided to find out what it was. When he reached the spot, he saw a wooden object stuck in the sand. He cleared the sand with his father to find out what kind of object this was.

“When we had removed all the sand, it looked like a bowl,” he says. It would have been easy to throw away the wooden bowl, but Erik noticed someone had taken the time to create nice edges on the bowl with some carving tools.

The wooden bowl was sent to local scientists who sent a tiny sample of the object to Florida, USA, for dating. The answer came within the next few days, and everyone was excited about the results. Rooted in the sand was an 800-1,000-year-old wooden bowl dating from later Viking times.

It would be not just any bowl but one of the most special bowls found in Norway!

” I think it’s very cool. I didn’t think it was entirely from the Viking Age. Quite amazing that it is so old, Briskerud told the NRK in an interview.

“It is almost difficult to explain how special this find is, says an archaeologist at Innlandet county municipality Mildri Een Eide.

Some wooden bowls have previously been found in Norway from the Viking Age, but they are often only in small pieces or fragments.

“So this one is very special. Considering the age, she says that we do not know of any other finds of this kind in Norway. We think it is most likely made from a ball of wood or a wooden knot found on many trees and hollowed out.

We had to pinch ourselves a couple of times. We guessed the 18th century, but it turned out to be much older.”

As reported by the NRK, the “bowl is also special because it is roughly carved, which may indicate that it does not originate from the richest or most powerful.

“It is rare to find objects that belonged to ordinary Viking Age people. This is not an ornamental object”, says Een Eide.

The bowl will now be sent to the Cultural History Museum in Oslo, which will look after it for posterity. The reason why the bowl is so well preserved is most likely due to the sand.

“There is quite a little oxygen in the sand in Glomma, so it has been lying safely and well in the sand. A bit like a marsh corpse. But how it ended up there is not known. Glomma may have looked different, or it may have come with the flow.

She thinks the probability of finding more in the sandbank is small. In addition, it is challenging to dig in water. So it probably won’t happen at first,” Een Eide explained.

She praises ten-year-old Erik for realizing that this was something special.

“So we owe him a big thank you,” Een Eide says.

7,000-year-old fish traps discovered in the Norwegian mountains

Reidar Marstein was out walking in Jotunheimen this summer in June, some 850 metres above sea level when he saw something strange at the bottom of the mountain lake Tesse in Lom municipality.

The water in the lake is drained every summer in order to produce power. Hobby-archaeologist Marstein immediately realised that the short wooden poles he saw sticking up in the low water formed a pattern.

“I saw that they were placed in a particular system,” Marstein says to the Norwegian national broadcaster NRK (link in Norwegian).

The system of wooden poles were in fact Stone Age fish traps, the Museum of Cultural History in Oslo writes in a press release (link in Norwegian).

One of the poles has recently been established to be 7,000 years old, meaning it is dated to 5,000 years BC. This is the early Stone Age in a Norwegian context.

“The find is unique evidence of an ancient fishing tradition in the mountains!” the Museum writes in the press release.

Three large fish traps

Together with freshwater biologist Trygve Hesthagen, Marstein managed to get a fair overview of the poles before the lake was again filled with water over the summer.

At least three trapping chambers with guiding fences have been identified at the bottom of the lake. The guiding fences have probably led the fish into the traps, after which the catch could be collected from a boat or by somebody wading out into the water.

The fish trapping constructions in Tesse are among the oldest of this type from Northern Europe.

The wood is well preserved, and the archaeologists hope to get detailed information about the exact age of the fish traps, how many years they were in use, how often they were repaired and during which time of the year such repair work was carried out.

This piece of wood has been dated to be 7000 years old. (Photo: Reidar Marstein)

Hunters, gatherers, and fishermen

Previous excavations around lake Tesse have found remains from the Stone Age all the way back to 7,000 years BC. It would have largely been the reindeer that drew hunters and gatherers to these mountains.

Traces of the reindeer hunting have been found en masse by the glacial archaeologists in the Secrets of the Ice programme who secure finds that melt out of glaciers in the mountains. The more the ice melts, the older the items they find – from the Bronze Age and recently also from the Stone Age.

“There have however been great insecurities around whether or not Stone Age people came to the mountains just to hunt and gather, or if they indeed were also catching trout,” the press release reads.

Well, now we know. They were definitely catching some trout.

Excavations in 2013 and 2014 revealed extensive Stone Age activity on the shores of the mountain lake Tesse, including from the time when the fish traps would have been in active use. (Photo: Birgitte Bjørkli/KHM)

Full excavation next spring

During the summer, lake Tesse has again been filled with water. The fish traps are now around 2-4 metres below the water surface. Divers from the Norwegian Maritime Museum have recently secured more samples and measurements from the poles, and also covered up some parts of the construction.

“Examinations of these wooden poles can give us knowledge about the Stone Age which we otherwise just dream of when excavating a Stone Age settlement,” the archaeologists write excitedly in the press release.

“In a Norwegian and Scandinavian context, this is a remarkable find. It’s a gift,” archaeologist Axel Mjærum from the Museum of Cultural History says to NRK.

A complete excavation is planned for spring next year.

The first of its kind? Mystery ax discovered off the coast of Arendal

Researchers have discovered a find that could be a first for Norwegian archaeology.

A hollow ax, which researchers believe dates from the Bronze Age, was discovered at a depth of 12 meters near Arendal.

The hollow ax, also known as the Celtic ax, was the main ax type of the Nordic Bronze Age (1800-500 BC). The hollow ax is attached to an angled wooden shaft, which is inserted into the opening at the end of the ax. This structure provides a functional ax and uses minimal precious metals.

“This is very exciting. We have no known shipwrecks from the Bronze Age, and if this find is dated to that time, it will be the first in the country,” archaeologist Frode Kvalø told Agderposten.

This heavy bronze ax weighing 327 grams is described as “well preserved” and maybe the first prehistoric metal object found in Norwegian waters.

The ax was discovered during connection with cultural routine registration by the Norwegian Maritime Museum.

Now, researchers are working to determine when and how the ax landed on the seabed. A theory called the ballast hypothesis is that the ax is part of a ship that is only a few hundred years old, which will still make it an important discovery in the sailing ship age.

However, the second and more exciting hypothesis is that the ax sank more than 3,000 years ago, and there was a ship passing through from southern Scandinavia, or a local ship sailing along the coast. vessel. If correct, this will make it the first known shipwreck site of the Norwegian Bronze Age.

“This could be front-page news, or it could be uninteresting, depending on what further research shows”, Sven Ahrens of the Norwegian Maritime Museum said.

Viking-Era Arrowhead Discovered in Norway

“Oh, look at this little beauty”, the team of archaeologists enthusiastically exclaim in their Facebook update, which includes a video of the three-bladed arrowhead.

“The last person who touched it was a Viking,” the post reads.

The team of glacial archaeologists from Innlandet county’s Secrets of the Ice and the Museum of Cultural History in Oslo are currently doing their annual field work up in the Norwegian mountains, where melting ice keeps on revealing lost items from our past.

The unique arrowhead is from a new site in the Jotunheimen Mountains, where the team were just doing an initial exploratory survey. Finds like this Viking Age arrowhead means they will most certainly be returning.

Was it made for hunting or war?

The arrowhead is made of iron. Its shape indicates that it is typical for the Viking Age, Lars Pilø writes in an email to sciencenorway.no.

“This type of arrowhead is known, but it is rare,” he writes.

Four such arrowheads were found in a burial mound in Sparbu in Trøndelag, and one such arrowhead has also appeared in Leirtjønnkollen in Oppdal – another glacial archaeological site.

“We haven’t tested this, obviously, but it is not unlikely that this sort of arrowhead would have had greater penetration than the arrowheads we normally find. It looks more like a war arrowhead than one made for hunting,” he writes – adding that this of course is pure speculation.

Several of the people who have commented on Facebook suggest the same. Three blades would increase blood loss and stop a wound from potentially closing up. “Either way it’s military/war-related,” one reader comments.

“Yes, that is what we are thinking as well. However, it was found at a reindeer hunting site. Perhaps they just grabbed the arrows they had when they went out hunting,” Secrets of the Ice respond.

Broader than your usual combat arrow

Vegard Vike is the Head Engineer of Archaeological Conservation at the Museum of cultural history in Oslo. He is an expert in among other things weapons of the Viking Age.

Vike comments that the arrow is incredibly well preserved.

“Three-bladed arrowheads from the Viking Age are not so common in Norway, they are more commonly found in Sweden,” he writes in an email to sciencenorway.no.

These are however usually slimmer, more like arrowheads made for combat. Some of these combat arrowheads from Sweden and Denmark are decorated and fastened with noble metals.

“The one which is found here I would think is rather made for hunting, as it is so broad,” Vike concludes and explains:

“The reason why dedicated combat arrows are slim and do not have broad blades is that they needed to penetrate chain mails. More broad-bladed arrows are on the other hand perfect for hunting as they create larger wounds, which means that the animal bleeds out faster. They would however be stopped by a chain mail.”

Unique sword casts new light on Viking voyages across the North Sea

The sword was found in three pieces by two metal detector enthusiasts, independent of each other, in the Jåttå/Gausel area in Stavanger, already renowned for the grave of the so-called Gausel queen. Found in 1883, it is considered to be one of the richest women’s graves from the Viking Age.

Like the women buried in the Oseberg ship, the Gausel queen had rich artefacts from the British Isles with her in her grave.

The sword would have been one of the most spectacularly ornamented and heaviest types of swords from the Viking Age. The blade is missing, but the hilt has unique details in gold and silver, and exquisite details not previously known.

Only about 20 such swords have been found in Norway—out of a total of around 3,000 Viking sword finds.

Lavish and complicated décor

The sword is currently under conservation at the Museum of Archaeology at the University of Stavanger. It is still difficult to see the details in the hilt, but the décor includes gilded elements of the typical animal styles found during the Iron and Viking Ages, between ca. 550 and 1050.

“It is very exciting to work on a find like this. It is challenging work, but we uncover new details daily,” conservator Cora Oschmann, in charge of the conservation, says.

The hilt also contains geometrical figures in silver, made with the so-called niello technique. This means that a metallic mixture of sorts was used to make black stripes in the silver.

Both ends of the crossguard are formed as animal heads.

“The technique is of a very high quality, and both the lavish and complicated decor and the special formation of the crossguard make this a truly unique find,” archaeologist Zanette Glørstad from the museum says.

Most likely imported

This particular type of sword has been found in both Eastern and Western Europe. The few swords of this type found in Norway were most likely imported.

“But it is possible to imagine that copies of these types of swords were made by very competent sword smiths in Norway,” Zanette Glørstad points out.

“The décor suggests that the sword was made in France or England and that it can be dated to the early 800s, like the sword found on the island Eigg,” Glørstad says.

Norway and the British Isles

It has previously been speculated whether the Jåttå/Gausel-area was the starting point for extensive alliances and looting.

“The location of the find, close to the Gausel queen, means that we have to take a new look at the entire Jåttå/Gausel area,” says Håkon Reiersen, a researcher at the Museum of Archaeology in Stavanger.

“The outstanding collection of imported spectacular finds connected to both men and women in this area shows that this has been an important hub for the contact across the North Sea,” he says.

The metal detector enthusiasts immediately turned in their finds to the Cultural heritage management as Norwegian law demands. This ensured that the Museum of Archaeology at the University of Stavanger immediately could take care of the parts and start the conservation work.

The sword will be exhibited at the Museum of Archaeology at the University of Stavanger when the conservation work is finished.

Norway’s Medieval Monks Discussed Their Meals in Silence

Mealtime peace is a well-known concept in many Norwegian homes: You should sit still at the table and enjoy the food you are served. Monks back in the day took this to a new level. Speaking during meals was forbidden, and so a new sign language was born.

The monastery on a small Oslo island

Marianne Vedeler is a professor of Archeology at the Museum of Cultural History. She says that the silent meals took place on Hovedøya, a small island in the Oslofjord.

“A small group of monks came here in the 12th century. They had travelled from Kirkstead in England and wanted to establish a monastery here in Norway. They were Cistercian monks and had a very strict monastic order,” she says.

The rules covered all aspects of how they should live and were regulated down to how much bread they could eat per day.

“The rules were written down, so we know a lot about how these monks lived in the Middle Ages,” Vedeler says.

The regulations for Cistercian monks were international and thus followed them to Hovedøya in Oslo.

“Here they were to live like the Cistercian monks in monasteries in France and England. And the monasteries were to be designed according to the same template,” Vedeler says.

She has examined ruins, food remains, and fish bones that remain after the monks on the island Hovedøya.

Silent since the 6th century

The Monastic monks’ motto was “Ora et labora” – to pray and work. This was to occupy most of the day. It was generally desirable to minimise talking as much as possible. Their thoughts were to be turned towards God.

The two daily meals were also important. Everyone sat on one side of the table. By doing this, they avoided a possible conversation partner in front of them.

According to an article in the scientific journal Gastronomica, the rules of silent meals were introduced as early as the 6th century with ‘The Rule of Saint Benedict’. Saint Benedict encouraged the monks to communicate in other ways than using their voices during meals.

To accomplish this, monks at the mighty and prosperous Monastery of Cluny in France began remaining silent throughout their meals. The article in Gastronomica makes references to a biography in which Vikings captured a group of monks that they tried to force to speak. They were unsuccessful.

Monk sign language

Vedeler says that the ban on talking may have led to the monks enjoying their meals more. It was important for the monks to find a place to live where they could sustain themselves by fishing and growing fruit and vegetables. They were pescatarians and ate seafood in addition to a largely vegetarian diet.

“This is why Hovedøya was an ideal place to set up the monastery,” she says.

In addition to what could be captured in the sea, the monks constructed a fish farm on land where they could keep freshwater fish. These species of fish have their own specific signs in the sign language.

Kirk Ambrose, a professor at the University of Colorado Boulder, has created a list of how different foods were communicated through sign language. The monks had signs for, amongst other things, honey, beans, eggs, and seven different species of fish.

To signal fish, the monks moved their hands like a fishtail in water. For squid, they would spread their fingers and wave them. If you wanted an eel, your hands had to be held together as if you were holding an eel. Pike could be communicated using the same sign as for fish, but with a faster movement because the pike is a fast swimmer.

Ambrose further writes that some of the signs are used by Cistercian monks even to this day.

Damaged pieces of rare Viking sword reunited after 1,200 years apart

Two pieces of an ornate Viking sword that had been separated for about 1,200 years have been reunited and still fit together like a puzzle. The pieces were discovered a year apart by amateur treasure hunters in Norway.

The first finding occurred last year, when a metal detectorist in Stavanger, along Norway’s west coast, uncovered a small, odd piece of metal while poking around a farm.

The man handed the fragment over to the local archaeological museum and was unsure what it was — until this spring when his friend and fellow metal detectorist unearthed the rest of the artefact nearby.

Those two small chunks of metal turned out to be part of a massive Viking Age sword.

The sword is “of a rare type, known from Scandinavia but also found in Western Europe (in the areas known today as France, Britain and Ireland) and Eastern Europe, e.g. Hungary,” Ann Zanette Glørstad, an archaeologist at the University of Oslo in Norway, told Live Science in an email.

Though the blade is missing, the sword’s hilt is richly decorated with intricate carvings and gold and silver details. Each end of the cross-guard is shaped like an unidentified animal.

Based on its ornamentation, Glørstad thinks that the sword may have been forged in the Frankish Empire or England around 800 A.D.

However, it could possibly have been forged by a talented Norwegian smith who was inspired by Frankish weapons, she noted. Of the roughly 3,000 Viking swords recovered in Norway, only about 20 match the newly discovered weapon’s profile — and its owner remains a mystery. 

“We can only speculate as to whom it belonged,” Glørstad said.

“However, it was a highly decorative and impressive sword, and it must have belonged to someone with the means to acquire it, as well as someone who wanted to demonstrate their social status.” 

Swords from this era sometimes had their owner’s names inscribed on the blade, according to the Art Institute Chicago(opens in new tab), but because this weapon’s blade is lost, archaeologists will have to rely on other clues to infer its owner’s identity.

The area has seen its share of Viking royalty; in 1883, the grave of a rich Viking queen was unearthed not far from where the sword was discovered.

“We knew that this area was of special importance, but that we should find something like this was very unexpected!” Håkon Reiersen, the acting head of the museum’s collection department, said in a translated statement(opens in new tab).

The sword has joined the collection at the Stavanger Museum of Archaeology, where it will be on display once it has been properly restored and preserved.

In the meantime, archaeology enthusiasts can follow the museum’s website(opens in new tab), and Instagram(opens in new tab) for updates on the sword’s restoration.

New Huge Viking Ship Discovered By Radar In Øye, Norway – What Is Hidden Beneath The Ground?

A new Viking Age ship has been discovered by archaeologists in Norway during a ground-penetrating radar (GPR) survey. This exciting find reveals a huge Viking boat buried beneath the ground in Øye, in Kvinesdal.

This archaeological discovery is highly significant not only because Viking ship burials are rarely found, but also due to the fact that Kvinesdal was once the home to one of Southern Norway’s largest known burial sites from the Iron and Viking Ages.

Archaeologists from the Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research (NIKU) said the ancient boat was spotted while researchers conducted geophysical surveys in the area as part of the road-building project E39 led by Nye Veier.

The surveys are a part of the research project “Arkeologi på Ney Veier” (Archaeology on new roads). Based on preliminary reports, archaeologists estimate the Viking boat to be between 8 to 9 meters long.

Niku researchers inform that in addition to the boat burial there are traces of several other burial mounds.

At present, it is still unknown how much of the Viking boat remains. Excavations must be carried out and hopefully, the new road project will not interfere with archaeologists’ work. As previously explained on AncientPages.com, Viking burials were very complex which is the reason why so few boat burials have been unearthed.

When a great Viking chieftain died, he received a ship burial. This involved placing the deceased on the ship, sailing him out to sea, and setting the Viking ship on fire. People could watch flames dance high in the air as they embraced the mighty warrior on his way to the afterlife.

By modern standards, it might sound crude, but Viking burials were intended to be a spectacular ritual. Viking funeral traditions involved burning ships and complex ancient rituals. Based on discovered archaeological evidence it seems that the funeral boat or wagon was a practice reserved for the wealthy.

This type of burial was not common however and was likely reserved for sea captains, noble Vikings, and the very wealthy. In Old Norse times, boats proper boats took several months to construct and would not have been wasted without a valid cause or a suitable amount of status.

Another option was that the Vikings was burned, and cremation was rather common during the early Viking Age. Ashes were later spread over the waters. The vast majority of the burial finds throughout the Viking world are cremations.

Archaeological discoveries such as the finding of the magnificent Gokstad Viking ship discovered in 1880 offer more insight into the world of the Vikings. When scientists re-opened and examined the grave in 2007 we could finally learn more about the man who became known as one of the most famous Vikings in Norway – the Gokstad Viking Chief and his remarkable ship.

The Gokstad ship was built in about 850, at the height of the Viking period. In those days there was a need for ships that could serve many purposes, and the Gokstad ship could have been used for voyages of exploration, trade, and Viking raids. The ship could be both sailed and rowed. There are 16 oar holes on each side of the ship. With oarsmen, steersmen, and lookout, that would have meant a crew of 34.

In recent years there have been exciting reports of unearthed Viking Age burial ships in Sweden and Norway.

The giant Gjellestad Viking ship burial in Norway found some years ago has given a unique opportunity to see the world through the eyes of the Vikings.

The discoveries were made by archaeologists from the Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research (NIKU) with technology developed by the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Archaeological Prospection and Virtual Archaeology (LBI ArchPro).

– We are certain that there is a ship there, but how much is preserved is hard to say before further investigation”, Morten Hanisch, county conservator in Østfold said at the time.

Later, scientists using modern technology put together an outstanding virtual tour of the Gjellestad Viking ship burial site, allowing viewers to see what the place looked like in ancient times.

The new radar discovery in Øye is promising and hopefully, researchers will be able to unearth and examine the remains of the Viking ship. Once they accomplish this, we will learn more about the boat and its history. Maybe remains of a Viking Chief will also be found.