It was a small reform. Nothing special. Move some soil from the garden to lower the slope of the lot and thus gain space in the back of your house. But just after removing the grass and starting to dig, Oddbjørn Holum Heiland came across an oblong stone.
This father of a family who lives in a house built in 1740 in the municipality of Setesdal, in southern Norway, did not pay much attention to his find, but it was the prelude to a spectacular discovery in his backyard: an entire Viking burial late 9th century and early 10th century.
After digging up the stone and setting it aside, Holum continued his work until his shovel struck something metal. It looked like the blade of a sword. And when he put the object inside a bucket, the handle suddenly fell off, explains Science in Norway.
Surprised, it occurred to him to Google information about his find and what he saw was an almost identical sword, from the Viking age, that had turned up elsewhere in Norway. That was when he thought that the oblong stone could be the headstone of an ancient grave. And he hit the nail on the head.
Oddbjørn Holum Heiland was sensible. He stopped digging, kept the pieces found in his house and called the municipal officials. Within 24 hours, county archaeologist Joakim Wintervoll and Jo-Simon Frøshaug Stokke of Oslo’s Museum of Cultural History came to analyze the discovery.
The researchers quickly realized that they were looking at a grave, a very rare find. It was the marks on the hilt of the sword, with a blade 70 centimeters long, that made it possible to date the discovery burial. Her artistic style placed her around the late 800s and early 900s.
Living in such an old house, it was really strange that no one had found the tomb before. Especially since Holum’s in-laws carried out some excavations at the house in the 1970s. But the exact location of the remains went unnoticed.
Inside the burial, in addition to the sword and the possible tombstone, a long spear designed to be used while riding a horse has been found. Golden glass beads, a belt buckle and a bronze brooch with a typical Viking animal motif were also found.
“It is very rare to discover weapon graves from that time, and this grave is a bit richer than what we are used to. The objects are also a bit better preserved than we normally have to work with,” says archaeologist Jo-Simon Frøshaug Stokke.
Setesdal is an area where other graves from the same period and with similar weapons have been previously found. Although, usually one or two items are found, not a complete sword and spear set. That shows that the garden grave was for someone who belonged to the highest levels of society.
The Setesdal tomb bears no trace of a mound. Still, archaeologists at the Museum of Cultural History have decided to dig more this coming week. They don’t expect to find much but are interested in perhaps finding a bone that will allow the gender of its owner to be determined.
