Thread by @AntiquityJ

🆕 #archaeology: A previously unknown elite Viking ritual centre - including a feast hall, cult house, and ship burial - has been found in 🇳🇴 using ground-penetrating radar.

Here's an #AntiquityThread on the find, published today in Antiquity 🆓 buff.ly/35iDY4C 1/ 🧵

The discovery was made at Gjellestad, which is is home to the Jell Mound. This is one of the largest Iron Age funerary mounds in all of Scandinavia. 2/

📷: Archaeologists carrying out GPR analysis in front of the Jell Mound

Ground-penetrating radar (GPR) was used to map features below the surface. This survey began in 2017 to determine if construction plans would put any archaeology near the Jell Mound at risk. 3/

📷: Colder archaeologists carrying out GPR analysis in front of the Jell Mound.

Historical records indicate three other funeral mounds at the site were demolished in the 19th century, suggesting there is more to the site than meets the eye. Sure enough, the found a Viking ship burial at the site, reported earlier this year 4/

📷: GPR of the ship burial.

However, it turns out that this was just the tip of the iceberg. The research revealed that 13 burial mounds once existed at Gjellestad, some over 30 metres wide 5/

📷: GPR data of the site.

Additionally, the researchers found a farmhouse, a large building (likely a feast hall) and another hall that does not appear intended for habitation. Instead, it may be a cult house or other religious structure. 6/

📷: Overview of the site. 🟥 = mounds, 🟨= structures

“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,” said Lars Gustavsen, lead author of the research, from @NIKUnorway 7/

The range of structures and burials at the site suggests it has a long history of use. Whilst, the Jell Mound is from ~5th century AD, the ship burial is part of a Viking tradition from centuries later. 8/

📷: Gold pendant found at the site, common in burials from AD 1-400

“We suggest that the site has its origins in an ordinary mound cemetery, which was later transformed into a high-status cemetery represented by monumental burial mounds, hall buildings and a ship burial,” the researchers wrote. 9/

📷: Map and GPR data of the burial area

As such, this site may span a key period of Scandanavian history, from the political turmoil following the collapse of the Western Roman Empire to the rise of the Vikings. 10/

“It forms a stepping stone for further research into the development and character of social, political, religious, and economic structures in this tumultuous period,” said Mr Gustavsen. 11/

Test excavations have been conducted and a full excavation of the ship burial is underway. This is the first time a Viking ship burial has been excavated in almost 100 years, offering a chance to do it with modern scientific techniques. 12/12

Whilst we have to wait for the results of the excavation of the ship, you can read the research into the GPR data 🆓:

Gustavsen et al. 'Gjellestad: a newly discovered ‘central place’ in south-east Norway' doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2…