Summer is peak season for archaeological excavations, and this is when many significant discoveries are made.
Sometimes, years of planning and digging are required before something spectacular is uncovered; other times, they stumble upon treasures by sheer chance. Both types of discoveries are invaluable for our understanding of the past.
Irene Baug stood in a millstone quarry deep in the forest, surrounded by mosquitoes.
It was dark and damp. Her waterproof trousers clung to her body.
She had come looking for millstones. These are stones that were used in hand mills or larger mills to grind grain into flour.
In the forest at Hyllestad in Western Norway, there had been large-scale production of such millstones from the Viking Age all the way up to the 20th century.
Baug was excavating a huge waste heap, also called spoil heaps, at one of the millstone quarries, hoping to obtain more precise dates for when the quarry was in operation.
Annonse
Then, suddenly, there was a stone cross. And another. And another.
Seven discarded stone crosses
"We were absolutely ecstatic," Baug recalls.
She found the largest cross after the others had gone to lunch.
"It was lying right on the surface of the heap – at the very edge of the trench we were excavating – with just a small part sticking out of the ground. I practically stumbled over it as I was heading to lunch. And there was no one there to tell!" she says.
In total, Baug and her colleagues found the remains of seven stone crosses. Some were small, perhaps intended for churchyards, while a couple were very large. The biggest measured 1.2 metres in length, but it would probably originally have been 2-3 metres tall if it had not broken and been thrown onto the waste heap.
"We already knew that stone crosses had been produced in Hyllestad. But to find the very quarry where the stone crosses were made – that was huge!" she says.
The spoil heap from the millstone quarry turned out to also contain remains of discarded stone crosses.(Photo: Irene Baug)
Several of the discarded crosses were lying right on the surface of the spoil heap.(Photo: Irene Baug)
Found only on Norway's west coast
The millstones were mass-produced for an anonymous market, Baug explains. There are more than 400 millstone quarries in Hyllestad.
During the Viking Age and the Middle Ages, these stone products were exported in large quantities to trading towns and cities. Hyllestad millstones have been found as far south as the Viking trading town of Hedeby in what is now northern Germany.
The stone crosses, on the other hand, were probably made to order.
"They weren't something you simply walked into a town or trading centre and bought," says Baug. "It's entirely possible that the king was involved in commissioning some of the stone crosses."
Production of stone crosses in Hyllestad probably began in the 11th century and continued throughout the Middle Ages.
"It's a very distinctive cross tradition that is found only in western Norway," says Baug.
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There were around 60 freestanding stone crosses within the legal district that originally belonged to the Gulating assembly, the core territory of Haakon the Good in the 10th century, one of the kings who brought Christianity to Norway.
"These were probably an important symbol of Christianity," says Baug. "Many were likely erected during the transition from paganism to Christianity, when the new religion was being established across the country."
One of the larger stone crosses, with the part that was meant to be set into the ground.(Photo: Irene Baug)
This cross has broken off at one end; perhaps that was why it ended up in the spoil heap.(Photo: Irene Baug)
The Hyllestad stonecutters were the best
Many of the stone crosses have disappeared over time, but we know of them through written accounts, according to Baug.
And of those that still exist today, nearly half come from Hyllestad.
Baug believes this was connected to the already established mass production of millstones during the Viking Age and the Middle Ages.
“There were already people working in the quarries who knew how to carve stone and how to transport the finished products. It was this combination of knowledge, expertise, and logistics that made Hyllestad a centre for stone cross production,” says Baug.
And they were highly skilled at stone carving.
“Of all the crosses found along the west coast of Norway, those from Hyllestad are much more finely crafted than those made elsewhere,” she says.
Irene Baug's favourite of all the stone crosses in Western Norway is the largest cross she found that day in the millstone quarry's spoil heap. "It's incredibly beautiful, and yet it was thrown away."(Photo: University of Bergen)
Inspired by Ireland?
Baug also found what she had been looking for in the millstone quarry's spoil heap. With the help of charcoal, she was able to date the production to between the 11th and 13th centuries.
It turned out, however, that the spoil heap lay on top of an even older quarry. At the bottom of the excavation trench, exposed bedrock with chisel marks appeared, showing that stone had been quarried there long before the spoil heap was created.
Baug notes that some researchers believe the inspiration for the crosses came from Germany. She herself believes the dating points more towards Ireland and British areas.
"They have a strong tradition of stone crosses there, dating back to the Viking Age. In Irish regions, you find stone crosses with Norse motifs. It appears that Scandinavian immigrants who travelled there were involved in putting up stone crosses," says Baug, adding:
"It's a fascinating blend of pagan and Christian symbolism. I think it's more likely that the reason they erected stone crosses here in Western Norway was that they had drawn inspiration from the British Isles."
Keeps returning to them
Over the years, Baug has conducted extensive research on stone products from the Viking Age and the Middle Ages. Millstones were the focus of her doctoral dissertation, while whetstones have been central to several later research projects.
Both whetstones and millstones played an important role in the Vikings' large-scale trade, which began as early as the 8th century – and therefore challenges the traditional view of when the Viking Age actually began.
But the unexpected discovery of the stone crosses has stayed with her.
"This was several years ago, but these stone crosses are still a part of me," says Baug.
She will soon publish a new research article about the stone crosses of Western Norway.
"I never really feel finished with them," she says.
