TVÅÅKER, SWEDEN—A Viking Age cemetery that contained more than 100 graves and several boat-shaped mounds known as stone ships has been found in southwestern Sweden by researchers led by Petra Nordin of Sweden’s National Historical Museums, according to a Live Science report. “The problem is that the land has been plowed and leveled to create pastures, so all the occupational levels, above-ground remains, and burials have been plowed to pieces,” Nordin said. Human and animal bones, metal objects, and ceramic vessels have been unearthed, in addition to stones that had been arranged in the shape of a boat around several of the graves. For example, the researchers recovered 17 vessels, human and animal bones, weights, and iron arrowheads from one square pit thought to have been dug to create good airflow for a cremation pyre. Nordin and her colleagues are still looking for traces of the village that was once associated with the cemetery. To read about sword hilts found protruding from the soil in a Viking cemetery near the Swedish town of Köping, go to “Standing Swords.”
