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A man dig in his yard to build an extension of his house in southern Norway has unearthed the 1,100 - year - old grave of a Viking warrior who was bury with weapons .
The finds admit a hoary iron sword in two pieces ; its hilt style enabled archaeologist to date the burial to the late 800s or other 900s , during theViking Age , Joakim Wintervoll — an archeologist who works for the local political science ofAgder County , where the relics were found — tell Live Science .
The sword was found in a yard belonging to Anne and Oddbjørn Holum Heiland, where they were clearing land to build an extension to their house.
" We have a good record of how the ' fashion ' in the shapes of sword handles developed in Norway , from former ages up to more modern eras , " he said . " Comparing it to other known brand handgrip , we conceive this sword is from the late ninth C to the 10th hundred . "
Other artifacts found in the grave included a recollective spear designed to be used on hogback , called a lance ; glass beads and a belt buckle gilded with atomic number 79 ; and a bronze brooch . Neither human being nor animate being stay have yet been discovered there .
The artifacts seem to have belong to a Viking warrior . " The fizgig suggests that this was someone that was proficient in combat from horseback , " Wintervoll said . And the warrior was " definitely someone of means , based on the gold - gilded jewellery . "
The sword and other artifacts are from a Viking Age grave. A similar Viking grave was found in the 1930s at a farm nearby.
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Viking burial
The grave and its artifacts were discovered in former June in the pace of a house in the mainly rural district of Setesdal , beside a lake about 125 miles ( 200 kilometers ) southwest of Oslo . Homeowner Oddbjørn Holum Heiland had started using a mechanically skillful digger to remove the point in his yard where he and his wife Anne plan to carry their house , according to Science Norway .
" I was n’t work to dig a circle , just a trivial bit in the slope behind the house , to get some more space between the house and the solid ground , " he severalise the news outlet .
He first found an oblong slab just below the surface ; it ’s now been recognise as a gravestone . Further digging unwrap the hilt of the sword ; Holum Heiland then realize his thou must take other Viking artifacts , so he stopped digging and ring the county archaeologist .
The grave can be dated from the style of the sword’s hilt, which indicates it was made at the turn of the ninth and 10th centuries.(Image credit: Joakim Wintervoll)
Wintervoll andJo - Simon Frøshaug Stokke , an archeologist from Oslo ’s Museum of Cultural History , visited the site a few day later on . No Viking artefact had been found before at the property , Wintervoll said , but a Viking tomb containing a sword , spear , trash beads and a horse cavalry check were divulge on a nearby farm in the thirties .
Although it ’s " a flake too early to say " whether these two tomb have a connection , " it is interesting that they are comparatively close and have almost monovular finds in them , " he said .
Ancient claim
It is possible that a Viking warrior was bury at the site as a agency for their descendants to take possession of the commonwealth around it , Wintervoll read . Or , perhaps it had only family significance .
" No grave mound was known to have been on this homestead , " Wintervoll said . In Norway , this type of grave is know as a " flatmarksgrav , " which translates to " matte subject grave , " he tally .
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The blade of a lance — a long spear designed to be used from horseback — was also found in the grave, but no human or animal remains were found.(Image credit: Joakim Wintervoll)
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The person inhume there might have been swallow whole , or cremated ash may have been laid down in the grave . " At this item in time , the exercise vary a scrap from billet to position , but we have yet to find any burnt bones , " he say .
Although rare, the Viking sword is not unique. Viking graves often contained a warrior’s weapons, and more than 3,000 have been found in Norway.(Image credit: Joakim Wintervoll)
The grave seems to have been savvy on an almost east - west axis , which would ordinate with sunrise and sundown , and the only grave marker seems to have been the oblong gem above it .
" decent now , we do n’t think this is a grave that was intend to be seeable at a swell distance , " Wintervoll said . " These types of graves might have a more family line or private function . "
Other artifacts from the Viking grave include a bronze brooch, part of a metal belt buckle and glass beads gilded with gold.(Image credit: Joakim Wintervoll)
