Archaeologists at the University Museum of Bergen in Norway have made an exciting discovery – an ancient tomb that is estimated to be around 4,000 years old. This makes the tomb as old as the pyramids in Egypt.
Morten Ramstad, head of the museum’s archaeology section, said this is the first time they have found a stone coffin containing the remains of so many people in Norway. Inside the large 4-meter long stone tomb, archaeologists uncovered the skeletal remains of about five individuals.
Ramstad believes this special find will generate widespread interest across Norway and other Scandinavian countries. Discoveries like this provide new insights into the distant past.
Up until now, stone coffin burials had only been found in eastern Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and on the European continent. Finding one now in western Norway prompts us to rethink what we know about the past in this region.
Ramstad called this “one of the most important discoveries made in Norway since World War II.” It is the most significant Stone Age burial uncovered in over 100 years. The tomb may help solve the mystery of when and how agriculture arrived in western Norway.
Farming first reached Norway around 3950 BC with the establishment of Scandinavia’s earliest farming culture near Oslo Fjord. But how and when that same culture spread to the west was unknown. This discovery is starting to shed light on that question.
Hidden under layers of sand that sealed it for thousands of years, the tomb was remarkably well-preserved.
The human bones allowed researchers to determine the individuals’ ages, where they were from, and how they ended up in western Norway long ago.
According to project archaeologist Trond Eilev Linge, the sand had settled so deeply over the tomb that they had to excavate down through the sand before finding the buried stone coffin and its contents within. The tomb discovery gives a rare glimpse into the distant past in Norway.
This article was first published on our Spanish Edition on November 11, 2023. Puedes leer la versión en español en Encuentran en Noruega una tumba de piedra de hace 4.000 años, tan antigua como las pirámides de Egipto
Sources
Universitetsmuseet i Bergen | NRK
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