JARLSBERG, NORWAY—According to a Science Norway report, initial excavations at a site in southeastern Norway where rivets were discovered in 2018 have uncovered a total of 70 ship-sized rivets. “This discovery adds a new landmark to the map, once a significant site during the Viking age,” said archaeologist Christian Løchsen Rødsrud of the University of Oslo. He explained that the ship and its mound were plowed into pieces long ago. Upon closer examination, two of the rivets were found to be crampons that would have been worn by horses in icy conditions. “Finding horse crampons in the material suggests that the rest of the grave goods are also in the field,” Rødsrud said. Larger and smaller boat graves have been identified on hills around the site, which Rødsrud thinks may have been the focal point of the Viking Age landscape. “This landscape, with its numerous ship burial sites, remains somewhat unknown and could benefit from further exploration and research,” he concluded. For more on Viking ship burials, go to “Sailing the Viking Seas.”
