When you purchase through link on our site , we may earn an affiliate deputation . Here ’s how it ferment .
Three Viking graves excavate in Norway hold coins from distant lands and an oddly symbolic stone carved to await like female genitalia .
The Graf , all of which seemed to belong to women , were encounter on the west slide of Norway by metal detectorists . They see back to the early 800s A.D. , during theViking Age(A.D. 793 to 1066 ) , brain archaeologistSøren Diinhoffof the University Museum of Bergentold sciencenorway.no .
Archaeologists in Norway have found a trove of rare goods at a Viking burial site, including a coin from southern Denmark, brooches and coin jewelry.
" From a research perspective , this is a small treasure trove , " Diinhoff said .
A metal demodulator survey suggests that the graves are just three of perhaps 20 at the situation , which is at a place call Skumsnes in the municipality of Fitjar . Though the bone of the inhabitants have long since disintegrate , their solemn goods — broaches , looking glass bead , coins , and stones arranged in the physique of a boat — stay . Some of the jewelry and coin originate as far away as Ireland , England and the Frankish Empire , which cover much of Western Europe at the clip . Most dramatic was a rare coin from southerly Denmark stamp with a Viking sauceboat on one side and a stag on the other .
relate : Why did n’t the Vikings colonise North America ?
Archaeologists at the site found a coin from southern Denmark stamped with a viking boat on one side and a stag on the other.(Image credit: University Museum of Bergen/Science Norway)
The discovery reveals the long - distance swop and migration occurring in Viking gild at the clip . The women in the graves had some connection to continental Europe , Diinhoff said .
" It ’s believably no coincidence , " he said . " Perhaps they come from afield and married into the local biotic community . "
Skumsnes was a farm at the time , which probably belong to a local Riley B King , according to the researchers . It was n’t far from the sea-coast and may have been a waypoint for traveler . One of the cleaning lady was buried with rock’n’roll in the material body of a 13 - foot - longsighted ( 4 meter ) boat to accompany her to the afterlife . At the spot where the mast would be , archaeologists establish a rock shaped like a vulva , which may have been used to symbolise the woman buried in the grave . It ’s possible , Diinhoff said , that the woman was n’t forget there at all , but that the grave accent was a cenotaph , or a memorial without a trunk . It ’s unmanageable to say , Diinhoff read , because the soil in western Norway does not preserve organic materials very well .
(Image credit: University Museum of Bergen/Science Norway)
— 50 Viking Age burials let on in Denmark , include a woman in a rare ' Viking black Maria '
— 1,200 - year - honest-to-goodness Viking cemetery with ' endocarp ship ' burials discovered in Sweden
— Vikings in Norway were much more potential to die violent deaths than those in Denmark
A birds-eye view of the excavation site.(Image credit: University Museum of Bergen/Science Norway)
The boat grave also admit wool shears , a hetchel ( a comb to prepare fibre for spinning and weaving ) , a spindle whorl and a weaving steel , all items used to make textiles , as well as a bronze paint . This suggests that the womanhood this grave was give to was of high - status : cloth - fashioning was esteemed , and the paint indicate she washead of a household .
Unn Pedersen , an archaeologist from the University of Oslo , told sciencenorway that textile - making was a path to wealth and security for Viking - era women .
" If not members of the elite , these women were certainly high up in the societal and economic pecking order , " she say .
Beads found at the excavation site.(Image credit: University Museum of Bergen/Science Norway)
More beads found at the excavation site.(Image credit: University Museum of Bergen/Science Norway)
A triangular brooch that was unearthed at Skumsnes.(Image credit: University Museum of Bergen/Science Norway)
A trefoil brooch was also unearthed at Skumsnes.(Image credit: University Museum of Bergen/Science Norway)
Stones arranged in the shape of a ship also marked one of the burials. One of the stones had a furrow in the back that likely is meant to represent a vulva.
