Walker stumbles on bones sticking out of field — and finds Viking-era grave in Norway
A freshly plowed field, an observant walker and a distinctive artifact led archaeologists to a Viking-era grave in Norway. Photos show the historic site.
A metal detectorist decided to visit a vegetable field in Austrått in April to search for old-looking items, the Trøndelag County Municipality said in an Aug. 18 Facebook post. Walking along the plowed soil, he spotted some bones sticking out.
The brownish bones looked human, so the walker reported the find to officials.
Archaeologists arrived and identified the bones as parts of a human arm, leg and ribs. They suspected the remains were part of an old grave but didn’t know for sure.
The timing and location of the find coincided with an archaeology course from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, officials said. The students visited the site to document the bones and search the surrounding area with metal detectors.
Scanning the shell-filled soil, the students unearthed a small metal buckle from the eighth century, or the early Viking Age, the county said. The buckle was used to hold fabric together, comparable to a modern-day safety pin, and typically linked to burials.
A photo shows the thick metal buckle with its wavy edges, pointed ends and relatively symmetrical design.
The buckle confirmed archaeologists’ suspicions: the bones were part of a Viking-era grave.
Despite the field being continuously cultivated for years, the grave remained buried until this year’s plowing, officials said. Bones tend to deteriorate quickly in the air, indicating the remains were exposed for just a short time before the walker noticed them.
Archaeologists collected the visible bones and metal buckle for further analysis and conservation. They hope to excavate the rest of the grave in the future. Until then, the field’s owner agreed to leave the gravesite untouched, officials said.
Austrått is a small coastal town in Trøndelag and a roughly 350-mile drive north from Oslo.
Google Translate and Facebook Translate were used to translate the Facebook post from the Trøndelag County Municipality.
This story was originally published August 30, 2024 at 1:05 PM with the headline "Walker stumbles on bones sticking out of field — and finds Viking-era grave in Norway."
