OSLO, NORWAY—The Guardian reports that a buried Viking ship, traces of eight other burial mounds, and five longhouses have been detected in farmland in southeast Norway using high-resolution ground-penetrating radar. Lars Gustavsen of the Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research (NIKU) said the study suggests the area surrounding the surviving Jelle mound had been a cemetery designed to display the power and influence of Viking leaders. The mound that once covered the newly discovered ship burial was destroyed by plowing, however, and the ship rests under just 20 inches of topsoil. The radar images show the outline of the ship’s keel and floor timbers. Gustavsen and his team plan to continue their investigation of the cemetery with non-invasive methods, but they have not ruled out the possibility of a future excavation. To read in-depth about a Viking ship burial discovered on an Estonian island, go to “The First Vikings.”
