Large Viking cemetery with 139 graves unveiled

Archaeologists have uncovered a huge Viking cemetery with more than a hundred graves, including some in the shape of ships.

The cemetery came to light during research into an earlier Stone Age settlement in the town of Tvååker, Varberg municipality, southern Sweden.

It dates back to the Viking Age, a period in medieval history roughly between the late 8th and 11th centuries, when seafaring Norse people from Scandinavia, commonly called Vikings, raided, colonized, explored and traded throughout Europe and beyond.

In total, archaeologists have so far identified 139 cremation graves in the cemetery, although it is possible that the site is significantly larger.

“We calculated that we have only excavated six percent of the cemetery,” says Petra Nordin, project manager at Arkeologgerna, part of the National Historical Museums. Newsweek.

Intriguingly, archaeologists have also identified several ship graves at the cemetery. These include three “ship-shaped stone settings” and a ship-shaped mound.

Ship-shaped stone settings, also called stone ships or ship burials, are a type of gravestone or ceremonial structure from the Viking Age and earlier, seen in Scandinavia and other parts of Northern Europe.

These arrangements consist of large stones placed on the ground around the perimeter of a ship, sometimes as long as tens or hundreds of meters. They were mainly used as funerary monuments or memorials and symbolized the journey to the afterlife, as ships were considered vessels for transporting the dead to the next world.

These stone “vessels” vary in size and detail, ranging from simple arrangements with a few stones to elaborate settings with multiple rows of stones. Archaeologists have discovered that some stone vessels contain cremated remains or artifacts.

The largest of the ship-shaped stone graves identified at the Tvååker site are over 50 meters long, according to Nordin.

Viking Age ship mounds are burial mounds built in the shape of a ship, often with earth and stones. In some cases, these mounds contain the remains of real ships that were ritually burned.

One of the graves in the cemetery appears to contain evidence of such a practice. In grave 68, a ship burning likely took place on a “stone pack” that was about 50 feet (15 meters) long, Nordin said. In archaeology, stone packing refers to stones placed around or beneath an object, structure or feature to provide stability, protection or support.

According to Nordin, archaeologists found human remains in almost 85 percent of the graves. The deceased buried at the site would probably have been burned on pyres. But researchers also discovered a variety of other remains, including animal bones, jewelry and pottery.

Most of the objects found were severely affected by fire. One of the most intriguing finds was an Arabic silver coin dated between 795 and 806 AD, a sequence that matches well with the oldest graves at the site.

Animal bones discovered included those of dogs, birds, cattle and pigs, although in many cases it was not possible to classify them.

“After the dead were burned, unburned animals were placed on top before the graves were finally closed,” Nordin said in the press release.

Where the people buried at the site lived is still a mystery. There was probably a village in the Tvååker area that expanded greatly during the early Viking Age. But such a settlement has yet to be identified.

“It’s exciting to see what will happen in the future,” Nordin said in the press release.

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