The mechanisms by which bone degrades in the burial environment are poorly understood, with large amounts of variation seen even within the same cemetery containing the same environmental and soil conditions. While it has been hypothesised since the 19th century…
It was found by a walker in a rock crevice. What is it? This spectacular sword scabbard fitting dates to the 6th century, during Norway’s Migration Period. The rectangular object measures 6cm wide by c.2cm high and is just a…
Analysis of two votive offering vessels from Pompeii is enhancing our understanding of Roman domestic rituals.
Don Hollway’s account of the life of the Norse warlord Olaf Tryggvason (king of Norway in the years c.995-1000) covers a period of momentous social and religious change in the lands bordering the Baltic Sea. The author tracks his hero’s…
Put your military history knowledge to the test with our competition.
This Viking Age figurine depicts… a man with a shrewd expression. What is it? This Viking Age figurine, which is just c.40mm tall, depicts the head and torso of a man with a shrewd expression and a distinctive hairstyle featuring…
An intriguing woman’s grave has been discovered in Bjugn, in Trøndelag County, Norway. Researchers were alerted to the burial by a metal-detectorist who came across an oval brooch of a style typical for the Viking Age and the centuries before.…
REVIEW BY JEFFREY JAMES King Harald III of Norway’s sobriquet Hardrada conjures up an image of a resolute, ruthless, no-nonsense leader, yet may in fact be a corruption of the Norse word harfagri, meaning ‘the fine or fair haired’. Nevertheless,…
Taylor Downing reviews the latest film releases.
REVIEW BY MARIANNE HEM ERIKSEN Human sacrifice constitutes a perennially fascinating topic for scholars and general audiences alike. It is also a research area where the risk of leaning into sensationalism and exoticisation can be relatively high. In the Darkest…
New research into the burial sites of 17th- and 18th-century whalers on the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard is providing rare insight into the lives of these individuals and the impact of climate change on Arctic archaeology. Project leader Lise Loktu tells us more.
Excavations in south-eastern Norway have uncovered a unique prehistoric burial field containing graves belonging almost exclusively to children. In November 2023, archaeologists from Norway’s Museum of Cultural History working in the municipality of Fredrikstad came across 41 circular formations composed…
With a diameter of 60m, the burial mound of Herlaugshaugen is one of the largest in Norway. New research has now revealed that it is older than was previously thought. The site on the island of Leka was excavated on…
Archaeological investigations at a site in the Norwegian countryside have uncovered evidence of a rich history stretching back thousands of years. Amy Brunskill spoke to Jes Martens and Christian Løchsen Rødsrud, who led the research, to find out more.
What is it? This small, carved figurine depicting a falconer was discovered in Oslo, Norway. The object, made of bone, antler, or walrus tooth, is 7.5cm long, with a flat, oval cross-section. The lower half of the figurine is hollow,…
It appears the grave was cut, and the boat – which may have accommodated one or more deceased – placed within before being covered with a burial mound.
It is a detailed depiction, with the plumes of the bird of prey marked in careful lattice-work.
Over the last decade, 64 glaciers and ice patches in the Innlandet region have produced over 3,500 archaeological finds, from hunting tools and textiles to zoological material...
As part of the project ‘Secrets of the Ice’, the Innlandet County-based Glacier Archaeology Programme (GAP) have been conducting surveys at Lendbreen since 2011, when the ice began melting away and exposing remarkable finds dating from the Roman Iron Age to the late medieval period.
• Medieval Oslo
• Rock art in Mongolia
• How Roman soldiers found their outposts
• The Torlonia marbles
• Ionian Islands: in search of the real Ithaca
• Florence: magnificent Etruscan treasures
• Egypt: a virtual tomb visit
Since 2013, the largest infrastructure project in modern Norwegian history has granted a team of more than 40 archaeologists an extraordinary glimpse of medieval Oslo. One of the biggest questions they aimed to answer is what the medieval town really looked like. Thomas Wrigglesworth shares some of their discoveries.
John Sweetman analyses the relative failure of repeated Fleet Air Arm attacks on the German battleship Tirpitz.
It is one of the great ‘what ifs?’ of World War II. What would have happened had the Nazis acquired a nuclear weapon? The consequences are unthinkable. The sabotaging of the Nazi nuclear programme was therefore one of the most…
Viking ship burial in Norway A Viking ship burial was recently discovered at Gjellestad, Norway, during a ground-penetrating radar survey. It is now being excavated by the Museum of Cultural History in Oslo. The ship is just one part of…
Boat burials emerged in northern Europe in the 1st century AD and disappeared with the introduction of Christianity in the 10th and 11th century. The ship burial reflects the ultimate display of status, wealth, and connection.
It was hit by Norwegian artillery and torpedoed by a British submarine before finally being scuttled by its own captain. But now, the long-lost wreck of the German light cruiser Karlsruhe has been identified off the coast of Norway.
Around 8000 years ago a huge underwater landslide off Norway triggered a tsunami (‘tidal wave’) that wreaked destruction along the coasts of Norway, Iceland and eastern Scotland. An archaeologist considers the contemporary (Mesolithic) Scottish scene in the next article. Here geographer David E Smith describes what Quaternary scientists know as the Storegga tsunami.