Whereas excavating close to the ruins of a seventeenth century royal property close to the village of Sem within the Eiker district of southeastern Norway, archaeologists unearthed dozens of historical postholes unfold across the faint however unmistakable define of a Viking longhouse. The architectural construction would have been of super dimension. Early indications counsel it was in all probability constructed throughout the Viking Age, which in Norway lasted from roughly 800 AD to the 12 months 1066.

Postholes Present Clues to the Viking Longhouse’s Distinctive Structure

Postholes have been a regular characteristic of longhouses, no matter after they may need been constructed. Heavy wood posts have been wanted to assist the partitions and roofs of those large building tasks and the posts needed to be firmly anchored within the floor. However the placement of the postholes on the newly found Viking longhouse is curious and distinctive, since they have been solely set as much as assist the partitions.

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“The proportions [of the house] are very completely different,” mentioned archaeologist Christian Løchsen Rødsrud, the chief of the latest summer time excavations in Sem, in an interview with the web journal Science Norway. “In typical prehistoric buildings, the roof is supported by load-bearing posts positioned contained in the constructing. Within the constructing at Sem, plainly the partitions assist the roof. There are 9 meters between the 2 partitions. This can be a massive span, even in trendy building.”

Outdoors the define shaped by the primary set of postholes, about 11 ft (3.5 meters) away, there have been extra postholes dug in straight traces. In line with the Norwegian archaeologists, these would have supported separate roofing materials that lined passageways working alongside the skin of the principle construction. Given the gap between the outer and inside postholes, the archaeologists assume the outer posts might have been slanted inward, bracing the outer partitions to maintain them from bowing beneath the burden of the construction’s roof.

An summary image of the extraordinary home. Poles have been positioned within the publish holes. That is, nevertheless, solely a small a part of the home in response to the archaeologists. (Museum of Cultural History)

With the wooden used to make the partitions and roof of the home lengthy gone, there isn’t a method to know for certain what the home appeared like when it was in use and the way precisely it was designed. However the one factor the archaeologists can decide with certainty is the scale of the home they usually realize it was enormous by historical requirements.

From one outer posthole line to a different, the longhouse measured 52 ft (16 meters) throughout. As for its size, that’s but to be decided—however there isn’t a doubt the home was for much longer than it was vast.

“It’s a unprecedented constructing, and we haven’t excavated the entire thing,” Løchsen Rødsrud defined. He famous that the define of the home is presently bisected by a highway, and that no digging will happen within the subject on the opposite facet of the highway till subsequent 12 months.

“I anticipate the home is for much longer,” Løchsen Rødsrud mentioned. “Twice or thrice so long as it’s vast.” If this estimate is right, it means the home could possibly be as a lot as 150 ft (45 meters) lengthy from finish to finish. This is able to make it a real lengthy home, by the requirements of anyplace or time.

Excavation work documenting the postholes that are offering clues in regards to the structure of the supposedly Viking longhouse. (Museum of Cultural History)

The Hoen Hoard and Viking Historical past in Southeastern Norway

The world across the newly found longhouse and the previous royal property in Sem has been well-known because the nineteenth century. Or since 1834, to be extra actual. That was the 12 months {that a} surprised farmworker from the village of Hokkslund discovered a stable gold ring whereas digging in a bathroom on the plantation of his employer.

After the excited employee knowledgeable the landowner what he’d discovered the 2 of them dug down additional. In the long run, they recovered what would turn into the biggest and most respected Viking Age gold treasure ever present in Scandinavia.

The so-called Hoen Hoard, named for the proprietor of the farm who generously determined to separate the treasure with the laborer who discovered it, included 5.5 lbs (2.5 kg) of golden cash and golden jewellery of various sorts and sizes. The hoard is believed to have been buried between 875 to 890, which coincides with the time when Viking ships have been most energetic raiding and buying and selling up and down the European coast.

There are roughly 50 jewellery items, 200 cash and greater than 200 pearls and semi-precious stones on this priceless assortment. Whereas this gold may have been acquired by reliable buying and selling exercise, it might even have been plundered from elite European houses throughout ninth century Viking raids. The gold and stones have been recognized as coming from continental Europe and the Center East, so there isn’t a doubt it was not regionally sourced.

The village of Hokkslund, the place the Hoen Hoard was discovered, was a distinguished port metropolis within the Viking Age. The spot the place the farmers dug up the gold is simply 1.5 miles (2.5 kilometers) from the excavated seventeenth century royal property at Sem, which highlights how a lot wealth circulated by the Eiker district of southeastern Norway between the height of the Viking Age and the time when the nation was dominated by hereditary monarchs.

Consultants imagine there have been roughly 120 farms and about 3,000 folks residing on this area throughout the ninth century. The presence of an enormous Viking longhouse and probably the most invaluable Viking treasure ever discovered reveals that rich and influential folks have been well-represented amongst that quantity.

There have been undoubtedly fortunes to be made in Eiker, due to the abundance of fertile farmland and to the benefit with which massive service provider ships may journey up and down the Drammen River, which had a water stage that was 18 to twenty ft (5 to 6 meters) larger 1,000 years in the past than it’s right now. So maybe the Hoen Hoard was imported to the area after which bought to an ultra-wealthy aristocrat or landowner by the Viking merchants or raiders who’d acquired it. Or perhaps such an individual financed some Viking buying and selling or raiding missions and was entitled to take possession of probably the most invaluable objects they recovered.

The Hoen treasure, which was present in 1834, is the biggest treasure discover from the Viking Age in Norway. (Kulturhistorisk Museum / CC BY-SA 4.0)

However Was This Actually a Viking Longhouse?

In the meanwhile, the archaeologists who discovered the supposed “Viking longhouse” close to the royal property in Sem are most involved with determining its actual age. “We’re very enthusiastic about which a part of prehistoric or historic occasions it belongs to,” Løchsen Rødsrud mentioned.

As of now, the home has been tentatively recognized as a Viking Age building challenge. That is due to its architectural type, which is per different Viking fortresses that have been inbuilt Denmark within the late first millennium.

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The design of these buildings was custom-made to provide tall, lengthy and vast buildings, just like the longhouse found on the Sem web site. Such an strategy to building was most handy for Viking Age farmers, since Viking longhouses have been multi-purpose buildings that contained residing areas, workshops, cattle barns and crop storage areas all beneath one roof.

However the linking of the expansive longhouse to the Viking Age stays in query. It is because pottery shards have been discovered inside a number of the postholes, and these ceramics have been apparently manufactured a number of centuries earlier, throughout the Scandinavian Iron Age (500 BC to 800 AD).

The postholes may have been dug throughout the Viking Age on prime of a a lot older settlement, which left pottery items littered throughout the panorama. However that is just one risk. “If these shards are usually not random, the home is far older than the aforementioned homes from the Viking Age. In that case, it is fairly a sensation,” Christian Løchsen Rødsrud acknowledged.

To definitively uncover the age of the construction, the archaeologists must watch for the outcomes of radiocarbon relationship assessments which might be presently being carried out on seeds and charcoal recovered throughout the longhouse excavation. As soon as they know for certain when the home was constructed and by whom, they are going to achieve some new and invaluable insights into the development practices of at the least some historical Norwegians, be they Vikings or earlier occupants of the Eiker area.

High picture: The excavation web site at Sem the place the massive Viking Longhouse has been detected. Supply: Frank Rødberg / County Municipality

By Nathan Falde