Post by jadedsage on Jun 2, 2004 13:03:39 GMT -5
The largest excavation of a Viking burial site in 50 years is underway at a farm in Vestfold, south of Oslo. Archaeologists already started finding ship nails last week, and chances are good more Viking treasures are about to be revealed.
Expectations are high as experts start opening up ancient Viking gravesites over the next few weeks. "This is an incredibly exciting project," says Lars Erik Gjerpe of the University of Oslo's Historic Museum in Norway.
Gjerpe, in charge of the major dig at Gulli Farm in Vestfold, said he and his team expects to find weapons and jewelry, including jewelry brought back to Norway by Vikings more than 1,100 years ago.
The site lies adjacent to the busy E-18 highway, which is due to be expanded later this year. Archaeologists have the summer to find what they can following preliminary investigations last year.
Gjerpe said the wordwork from the burial ship in the first grave has rotted away, but judging from where nails were found, measurements can reveal much about the ship's size and construction.
The graves, which stem from the end of the 8th century to the middle of the 10th, have been linked to affluent relatives of farming families at Gulli. The excavation is the biggest since the Kaupang dig in the 1950s.