A new analysis has concluded that a large, grassy hill in Norway known as the Herlaugshagen burial mound was likely the site of a pre-Viking ship burial. What is fascinating is that the site was excavated three times during the late 18th century and no one found the ship within the mound. 

The Herlaug mound, on the island of Leka in Central Norway, has a diameter of over 60 meters and is one of the largest burial mounds in the country. In the prior excavations, artifacts were discovered including a kind of wall, iron nails, a bronze cauldron, animal bones, and a seated skeleton with a sword. 

The skeleton, notionally identified as King Herlaug, was put on display for a time at Trondheim Katedralskole. Unfortunately, the skeleton and artifacts related to the Herlaugshagen mound disappeared sometime during the 1920s. 

This summer, archaeologists and a metal detector carried out a small survey of the mound on behalf of the National Archives, and in collaboration with Trøndelag County Municipality. They found that the ship itself had largely rotten away, but the archaeologists discovered large rivets, which confirmed that the mound contained a ship burial.  

“The sizes of the ship’s rivets and the preserved wood around several of the rivets show that the preservation conditions are good,” Geir Grønnesby, an archaeologist at NTNU who led the surveys, told Live Science. “This is the largest burial mound in Trøndelag (Central Norway) and one of the largest in Norway.”

After radiocarbon dating the preserved wood, archaeologists determined that the ship was constructed around A.D. 700, according to Newsweek. This means the ship predates the Viking Age, which spanned 793 to 1066.

“The unique thing about the mound is the early dating of a ship burial,” Grønnesby said. “The oldest ship burials have been dated to the end of the 8th century. The find helps to close the gap between the Scandinavian tradition of burying people in ships and the famous Sutton Hoo find in England,” which dates to the seventh century.

Archaeologists unearth remains of 1,300-year-old ship at Norwegian burial mound

Thanks to Alaric Bond for contributing to this post.