Norwegian archaeological find of the year: 4,000-year-old grave with skeletons

People have been living in Selesanden in Western Norway for at least 4,000 years.

One of them was a one-year-old child. Another, presumably a man, lived to about 65 years of age and suffered from arthritis. The third was a young woman.

We know about these people because archaeologists found their grave in September this year. It was a so-called Neolithic gallery grave, which had never been found before in Western Norway. It contained the skeletal remains of at least five people, and possibly many more.

"This is one of the most significant finds we have made in the post-war period," Morten Ramstad, head of the department at the University Museum of Bergen, said in a press release (link in Norwegian).

"We are just beyond excited about the discovery of the tomb in the gallery," Trond Eilev Lynge, the excavation project manager, told Norwegian newspaper Bergens Tidende (link in Norwegian).

The grave gallery is more than four meters long and two meters wide. (Photo: University Museum of Bergen)

Archaeological voting

Recently, 200 archaeologists gathered for a conference in Bergen. The Norwegian Archaeological Meeting is "the premier event of the year for Archaeology-Norway", according to its own website, and has been held since 1927.

But it wasn't until last year that they thought about voting for find of the year.

The archaeologists themselves nominate what they think is the find of the year.

Last year's winner was Håkon with the Falcon, a carved knife handle possibly depicting King Håkon Håkonsson with a falcon on his arm, found during the excavation of a medieval park in Norway's capital Oslo.

Three nominations were considered this year.

The nominees were a large Iron Age courtyard in Harstad, Northern Norway (link in Norwegian), and a temple in Hove. The latter has been known for a long time, but only this year have archaeologists had the opportunity to study it properly.

According to Ingar Mørkestøl Gundersen, head of the archaeologists' assembly, the winner was decided by a clear majority of votes.

"This is a very rare find in Norwegian archaeology that will be important for future research. There are great opportunities for further analysis here. We hope to carry out DNA and isotope analysis and learn more about these people and their life history."

This is the skeleton of an old man. According to Smiarowski, it is probably the oldest complete skeleton in the grave. (Photo: Konrad Smiarowski)

Most of the skeletal fragments were brought in as samples that will be painstakingly excavated in the laboratory. Their analysis will make it possible to learn the history of those who once lived here. (Photo: Konrad Smiarowski)

Repeated burials

In 2016, the Sellier Hotel burned down. The following year, the hotel manager was convicted of arson. A new hotel had to be built, but first the owners had to conduct archaeological research.

It was assumed there might be something there, but no one thought archaeologists would find something as special as this.

The burial they found has been dated to between 2140 and 2000 BC based on radiocarbon dating of a cow skull fragment.

Similar gallery burials from the same era have been found in southern Scandinavia and eastern Norway. They were common in the second half of the Neolithic period - 4,000 years ago, when people switched to agriculture.

Konrad Smiarowski, a researcher in the Cultural Heritage Management Department of the University Museum of Bergen. He supervised the excavation of the gallery grave with Howell Roberts, also of the University Museum of Bergen.

"I don't think we fully realized how special this find was when we were digging it up. But as details emerged and we got the first carbon dating, we realized its uniqueness. With today's technology and methods, we're learning a lot more about these people than we could have learned just 50 years ago," he says.

The grave consisted of several chambers and was rebuilt and reused several times. (Photo: University Museum of Bergen)

The tomb was more than four meters long and two meters wide, lined with stone slabs on the sides and covered with slabs on top. It was rebuilt several times.

Those who lived here 4,000 years ago would open the grave when someone died, moving the bones that were already in the grave to make room and placing the most recently deceased on top.

Therefore, it is difficult to determine exactly how many people were buried in this grave.

The young woman was most likely the last person buried here. She was covered with organic material that had already decomposed but left traces. She may have been wrapped in animal skin.

Probably has to do with

The bone remains are well preserved for western Norway. According to Smiarowski, there is nothing similar in this region because preservation conditions were generally too poor.

But compared to what exists in the world, these are fragile artifacts. Most of the remains have been recovered as whole blocks of soil, which will be carefully excavated in the laboratory.

Researchers will then be able to sort and test the bone remains to determine the exact number of people buried in the grave.

They may also find remains such as beads or other objects that people may have been buried with.

Judging from gallery burials from northern Denmark and southern Sweden, where such graves are more common, archaeologists assume that the people buried here were relatives.

The skeletal remains are painstakingly excavated in Selesand. "This is the most unique Stone Age find in Norway in the last 100 years," Morten Ramstad told NRK. (Photo: University Museum of Bergen)

Will know exactly what they ate

But it's not just the grave and the people buried in it that make this find unique, Smiarowski says.

Archaeologists have also uncovered a trash heap.

The isotope analysis will allow researchers to understand the diet of those who lived here. Initial results show that their diet consisted of about 40 percent seafood.

But what kind of seafood?

"Thanks to this dump, we can reconstruct their diet based on actual meals and then compare it to the results of the isotope analysis," explains Smiarowski. "OK, they ate seafood, but what kind? Shells, fish, seals? Zooarchaeology will provide a more complete overview here."

Layers of waste will not only tell us what was eaten here in Neolithic times, but also in the Bronze Age and early Iron Age, he explains.

A combination of gallery grave and trash heap

This is Smiarowski's specialty. Over the past 15 years, he has conducted similar research in Greenland and, in particular, found evidence of a large-scale seal hunt.

"It is a unique case for Norway to be able to do this kind of analysis. This is knowledge we have been sorely lacking. What did they really eat? And because there are no skeletons preserved anywhere in Western Norway, this place will become a reference for this knowledge. What did they eat? For answers, we have to go to Sellier," he says.

"I think that's what the archaeologists who voted for us in this competition realized. The uniqueness of not only the grave gallery, but what we can achieve by combining it with the skeletal remains and surrounding finds on site."