Metal detectorists unearth ancient jewelry — and find Viking ‘grave field’ in Norway
On a rocky island off the coast of Norway, metal detectorists stumbled on some ancient jewelry and led archaeologists to a forgotten Viking burial ground. The “small treasure trove” included a rare coin, “vulva-shaped” stone and more.
Metal detectorists were searching a hilltop of Skumsnes in fall 2023 when they unearthed some “Late Iron Age jewelry,” Søren Diinhoff, an archaeologist with the University Museum of Bergen, said in a news release shared with McClatchy News on Jan. 2.
The detectorists alerted archaeologists who arrived at the site and quickly recognized it as a Viking “grave field, probably with more than twenty graves,” Diinhoff, the leader of the excavation, said.
Intrigued, archaeologists returned to Skumsnes in fall 2024 and began excavating. The first grave dated back about 1,150 years, belonged to a woman and sat in “a natural crack in the mountain,” Diinhoff said.
A photo shows the Viking grave. Although looted previously, archaeologists still found part of a Norse brooch, fragments of a metal dish and a triangular clasp, both from modern-day England or Ireland.
The second grave turned out to be even more “remarkable,” Diinhoff said. The 1,160-year-old grave belonged to a powerful woman and had stones arranged in the shape of a ship, possibly the outline of an actual long-gone boat.
The central stone, used as the marker for the ship’s mast, was “clearly vulva-shaped and most likely symbolizes the deceased woman,” Diinhoff said. The stone suggested the woman “was to her family and household what the mast is for a ship.”
Buried in the grave, archaeologists found textile production tools, a house key and “high class jewelry.” The artifacts indicated the deceased woman was the leader of her household and its textile work, an “important” source of income during Viking times.
The grave also contained 46 glass beads and 11 silver coins linked to central Europe and Scandinavia. One coin, likely a rare Hedeby coin, is among “the earliest Scandinavian produced coins,” Diinhoff said.
“From a research perspective, this is a small treasure trove,” Diinhoff told Science Norway, a Norwegian news outlet. “It is remarkable to find a burial ground with such well-preserved artifacts.”
Archaeologists planned to excavate more graves in Skumsnes but ran out of time. The unexcavated graves, which number about 20, are expected to have more artifacts based on initial metal detector scans.
Skumsnes is on an island along Norway’s southwestern coast and a roughly 300-mile drive west from Oslo.
This story was originally published January 2, 2025 at 12:16 PM with the headline "Metal detectorists unearth ancient jewelry — and find Viking ‘grave field’ in Norway."
