History beneath the surface: using radar to uncover the Viking past in Norway. From the article:
In a study published this week in the journal Antiquity, researchers from the Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research (NIKU) revealed that the Viking ship wasn’t buried by itself. Per a NIKU statement, ground-penetrating radar (GPR) identified a feast hall, farmhouse, temple and traces of 13 additional nearby burial mounds—all finds that indicate the site once served as a crucial space for gathering, feasting, governing and burial.
Researchers using GPR discovered the 60-foot-long vessel hidden just 20 inches below the surface of a farming field in the fall of 2018. The ship burial likely served as the final resting place for a powerful Viking king or queen who died more than a thousand years ago, reported Andrew Curry for National Geographic at the time….
In the statement, lead author Lars Gustavsen adds, “The site seems to have belonged to the very top echelon of the Iron Age elite of the area, and would have been a focal point for the exertion of political and social control of the region.”
Some of the newly discovered burial mounds detailed in the NIKU study measure 98 feet wide, reports Mindy Weisberger for Live Science. Archaeologists used GPR to identify two large circular mounds, seven smaller mounds situated a bit to the north and four rectangular “settlement structures.” One of the largest buildings resembles other known Viking feasting halls.
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