For hundreds of years, Norwegians thought they knew who and what was buried in the massive tombs on Reka Island, off Norway's northern coast, overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. The grassy hill is named after King Herlaug, a 9th-century Viking monarch. According to Norse lore, rather than suffer a certain defeat by a rival ruler, he buried himself and 11 of his companions alive.
Stories of mass suicide have been considered potentially true since the late 1700s, when three tunnels were drilled into the tomb, revealing a skeleton sitting holding a nail, animal bones, a bronze cauldron and a sword. The human remains, conceptually identified as Herlaug, were displayed together with other artifacts from the tomb for a time in the nearby Trondheim Cathedral School, before disappearing completely in the early 1920s, leaving behind an unsolved mystery. Apparently the cauldron melted into a shoe buckle.
Last summer, archaeologists and a metal detectorist conducted a small survey of the mound on behalf of the Norwegian Department of Cultural Heritage. They attempted to determine whether the ship was anchored in the tomb, which was originally 41 feet high and 230 feet in diameter, as scholars had long suspected. “None of these large mounds have ever been investigated, so we know very little about what they contain,” said Geir Grønnesby, an archaeologist at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology who oversaw the excavation.
Researchers dug three shallow trenches at the site and unearthed pieces of wood and sheet metal rivets that are thought to have once been part of the ship. Although the vessel was largely rotted, radiocarbon dating of wood around some of the rivets and two layers of charcoal high up on the mound indicated that the vessel was buried around 700 AD, the earliest known burial of a ship in Scandinavia. It has become an example. .
“We don’t know whether the ship was sailing on the sea, i.e. crossing the North Sea to England,” Dr Grønnesby said. “But she had the sea power to go along the coast to the continent.”
The ship's grave predates the Viking Age, which lasted from 793 AD to 1066 AD, by several generations, refuting the theory that the site, known as Herlaugshaugen, was the final resting place of King Herlaug and his suicide squad. But the discovery demonstrates that the residents of the mid-north coast in the 8th century were “skilled sailors who could build large ships,” Dr Grønnesby said. It also challenges the historical narrative by pushing back against the Norwegian ship-grave tradition and aligning it with dramatic earlier examples such as the boat burial at Valsgärde in the Swedish province of Uppland and the ship burial at Sutton Hoo in County Suffolk. , uk. Archaeologists distinguish between ancient Norse boats and ships based on their length, but there is no agreement on where the line should be drawn. Some say 39 feet, others say 46 feet.
Today Valsgärde is a farm near the Fyris River, and from the 6th to the 11th century it hosted a series of burials in boats equipped with all the necessities a great warrior would need in the afterlife, including cooking equipment, horses, ornate shields, helmets and weapons. , feather beds and pillows.
There are about 20 burial mounds at Sutton Hoo, one of which contains the remains of an 89-foot clinker rowboat from the 7th century. Historians generally agree that Sutton Hoo was the burial site of the Wuffingas, a dynasty from East Anglia, and that the ship burials at Mound One commemorated the death of Raedwald, an Anglo-Saxon king who converted to Christianity in AD 624. Full confidence – he kept a sanctuary with altars to both Christ and pagan gods. On the second hill, damaged by marauders, was his son or nephew, and possibly a small boat.
Jan Bill, curator of the Viking Ship Collection at the University of Oslo and not involved in the Herlaugshaugen project, said that if the schedule is maintained, the results “will become part of a growing body of evidence about the use of Viking ships.” Ship symbolism in royal burials began in Scandinavia as early as the late 6th or 7th century. The earliest examples in Norway date back only to the 8th century.”
tomb building
There are many tombs in Norway. A 2017 study found that nearly 2,300 of these mounds were wider than 66 feet at the base. Some, like those standing in other places in Inderøy, had a fairy-tale mystique. According to legend, the king conquered Inderøy in battle and placed dogs named Saurs on the throne. The locals used magic to imbue the animals with the knowledge of the three wise men, and their enchanted rule lasted for many years. When the dog eventually found its owner, it was buried in a tomb called Sakshaug, Norse for Mound of Saur.
Dog graves appear to have been less common than boat graves, which were once a fairly standard funerary structure throughout Scandinavia. Here, the deceased was placed in a vessel and offerings were made to the grave according to social status. To create a grave, stones and mounds of earth were typically placed on top of the body. Dr Grønnesby said many of ancient Norway's monumental burial mounds were built for the powerful elite as symbols of wealth and prestige and were located in places that passers-by could not miss.
Herlaugshaugen, located on the coast, was a major point of trade for goods to mainland Europe and was visible to all who passed by. “We could probably say that the mound was built as a display of grandeur and that the ship was linked to religious ideas about life after death,” Dr. Grønnesby said. “Ships were a means of transportation to the underworld.”
The discovery at Herlaugshaugen sheds new light on the Merovingian period, which lasted from approximately 550 to 793 and was a precursor to the Viking Age. Despite sparking a craze for ship burials, the area's history remains a very murky period, with few archaeological remains available. In Norway, many of today's farms are located in the same places they were 1,400 years ago. “But we have done very little excavation of the farmyard,” Dr. Grønnesby said.
What has been unearthed are huge, multi-functional Scandinavian long houses like those in the ancient British epic “Beowulf.” The work begins with a description of how Sylde-Köping, the mythical first king of the Danes, was placed in a well-furnished funeral. The boat was thrown into the sea from whence it came. “These halls often contain so-called gilded figurines, that is, small gold plates with pagan symbols,” Dr. Grønnesby said. “Often the plates depict a woman holding a cup and a man facing each other.”
Similar decorative plates with a larger, more saber-rattling design were found on the helmets of Valsgärde and Sutton Hoo. “These motifs are usually interpreted in terms of Norse mythology,” said Dr. Grønnesby.
The bronze cauldron of Herlaugshaugen was discovered during the first excavations in 1755, when the mound was thought to contain the remains of a giant named Herlo. Little is known about the ships believed to have been buried there, but recently discovered rivets indicate the length of two 9th-century vessels discovered in the mound: the Oseberg, which was 71 and 78 feet long, and the Gokstad, which was 78 feet long. It is estimated to be similar to )). In Vestpol, Norway. “The first excavations at Herlaugshaugen in 1755 discovered a hole through the mound,” Dr. Grønnesby said. “In light of the legend, this was interpreted as a vent.” Current theories suggest that the hole is the remains of a mast, and that, in any case, the ship was placed on the mound at least 150 years before the royal burial.
or it won't
The 13th-century Icelandic sage Snorri Sturluson, in “Heimskringla,” a bloody and chilling account of the ancient Norse kings, refers to Herlaug and Herlaug, who jointly ruled the small kingdom of Naumudal, which included the island of Reka. We talked about the Hrolaug brothers. The kings had the misfortune of ruling during the time of the ambitious warlord Harald Fairhair. He vowed not to cut his hair until all of Norway was united under one monarchy. This oath earned him the nickname Lufa or Shockhead.
According to Sturluson, Herlaug and Hrollaug spent three summers building a massive tomb of stone, lime, and wood. No sooner had the work been completed than news came that Harald and his mighty army were heading thither. Having given up on defeat, Hrollaug joined the enemy. But Herlaug refused to obey and instead brought huge quantities of meat and drink to the tomb. He then went inside with 11 of his men and ordered them to seal the shelter as a last act of resistance.
Throughout history, many rulers have figuratively dug their own graves, but perhaps only King Herlaug did so literally.