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A prominent , grassy Benny Hill in Norway known as the Herlaugshagen burial pitcher was likely the site of a pre - Viking ship burial , a new analysis regain .
archeologist have long wondered whether the oversize mound in Leka , a municipality in cardinal Norway place along a lie with C - sure-enough shipping path , once housed a ship . This summer , researchers conducted surveys at the coastal site and discovered several heavy rivet that would have held the vessel together , as well as wooden remains that are likely from the ship , according toNorwegian SciTech News , a news sales outlet that provides coverage for the Norwegian University of Science and Technology ( NTNU ) and the Foundation for Industrial and Technical Research ( SINTEF ) .
An aerial view of the burial mound in central Norway.
" The sizes of the ship ’s rivets and the preserve Natalie Wood around several of the rivets show that the preservation precondition are good,“Geir Grønnesby , an archaeologist at NTNU who led the sight , secernate Live Science in an e-mail . " This is the largest sepulture mound in Trøndelag ( Central Norway ) and one of the big in Norway . "
With a diameter of about 197 feet ( 60 meters ) and a meridian of 23 feet ( 7 m ) , the mound could easily have contained a ship , the researchers concluded . ( In equivalence , most regional burial mound are much smaller , measuring about 26 to 39 foot ( 8 to 12 K ) in diam , Grønnesby state .
After carbon 14 go steady the preserved wood , archaeologists determined that the ship was reconstruct around A.D. 700 , according toNewsweek . This means the ship predates theViking Age , which traverse 793 to 1066 .
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" The unique thing about the cumulation is the early dating of a ship burial , " Grønnesby say . " The old ship burials have been dated to the death of the 8th one C . The discovery helps to exit the disruption between the Norse custom of burying the great unwashed in ship and the famousSutton Hoofind in England , " which dates to the 7th century .
Local record point that the site had been excavated multiple times during the 18th century , and written accounts show that a figure of artefact have been unearth there , include part of a rampart , iron nail , a bronze kettle , animal clappers , a level of fusain and a seated skeleton in the closet with a blade . Unfortunately , sometime in the twenties , all of these particular were lost , fit in to Norwegian SciTech News .
Despite these losses , the young research volunteer archeologist penetration into the chronicle of ship inhumation in this region .
" It is also of import that the discovery was made further northerly than many of the previously known monumental ship entombment , " Grønnesby said . " This also order us that maritime expertise and tangency over large areas was standard long before the Viking Age . "
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However , more inquiry is necessary to paint a moving-picture show of what the vessel may have look like and its mean purpose .
" Since we have not excavated the entire ship , it is hard to say what it was used for , " Grønnesby said . " The ships we know of are see ship for warrior used to plunder and warfare . However , we fuck that the exchange of goods must have been extensive at this time , and the most logical thing is that the goods were transported by ship along the slide . "
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