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.
"The people who lived here at Avaldsnes during the Iron Age and the Viking Age were sea kings. This was a kind of land base for those sea kings," says Dagfinn Skre.
Today, Avaldsnes is a small village with just under 3,000 residents on the west coast of Norway.
But the farm that gave this small place on Karmøy in Rogaland its name was once a centre of power. The sea kings who lived here controlled a shipping route known as Nordvegen – the very origin of the name Norway. Three of them were buried just a stone's throw from Avaldsnes, where three Viking ships have been found in burial mounds.
Skre's goal back in 2011–2012 was to find traces of the Viking Age, or even earlier periods.
"We got results, especially from the period 200-600," he says.
Annonse
But during the 1960s and 1970s, a car park was built in front of Avaldsnes Church. Skre believes that some of the remains of a royal estate from the Viking Age likely disappeared during that work. The digging of graves around the church has also probably removed many other traces.
"We found very little from the Viking Age. That was disappointing," he says.
Most of the Viking Age remains around Avaldsnes Church had disappeared.(Photo: Jonny Engelsvoll / Aerophoto Norge AS)
Enormous, impressive, and completely unknown
But just before two excavation seasons came to an end, Skre and his colleagues uncovered the remains of a building.
"A surprise from the Middle Ages suddenly appeared," says the experienced archaeologist.
At first, they did not know exactly what they had found. What emerged seemed to be a cellar belonging to a large, previously unknown stone building.
New permits and new funding were needed. Finally, in 2017, Skre was able to lead a new excavation at the site.
"We uncovered what turned out to be a previously unknown royal estate complex built of stone. Construction began in the 1250s, and it was completed shortly after 1300," says Skre.
The enormous building had once been 80 metres long and was directly connected to the church that still stands at Avaldsnes today.
"It faced the Karmsund strait, which is part of the Norvegen shipping route. Everyone sailing along Norway’s west coast passed through here. It must have been an impressive sight," says Skre.
"It wasn't what we were looking for, but it was absolutely incredible!"
An impressive sight. This is how the medieval royal estate at Avaldsnes may have looked.(Image: Arkikon, Ragnar L. Børsheim)
The enormous building was burned down, leaving behind very few traces.(Image: Arkikon, Ragnar L. Børsheim)
Like Haakon's Hall, but smaller
Avaldsnes Church was built by Haakon IV Haakonsson around 1250.
Features of the church, together with information found in the sagas and medieval letters, suggested that additional buildings had once stood beside it.
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"But no one had ever determined exactly what had been there until we discovered this complex. The church formed the northern wing, and we uncovered the eastern wing of the royal estate," says Skre.
He compares the building to Haakon’s Hall in Bergen, which was Norway's first castle and was built between 1247 and 1261. Although Haakon's Hall was larger, taller, and wider, it was not that much longer.
"So it must have been quite a building! And those were the remains we found," he says.
From the excavation of the royal estate in 2017.(Photo: Cathrine Glette)
Dagfinn Skre has led many excavations over the course of a long career, but the discovery of the previously unknown royal estate was truly special.(Photo: Private)
Filled a gap in history
Skre explains that the kings of this period fought to secure a clergy that did not answer to the bishop. King Haakon V Magnusson was granted this by the Pope in 1308, and such a clergy was established at four churches, including the one at Avaldsnes.
"It was the king’s loyal clergy who were based here. And the king visited freqeuently," Skre says.
Many royal letters were in fact written at Avaldsnes from 1308 onwards.
But the king was not only fighting the clergy, he was also in conflict with the German merchants of the Hanseatic League. The magnificent royal estate at Avaldsnes was burned down by the Hanseatic League during these conflicts in 1368.
"That was also one of the remarkable aspects of this discovery. We were able to place it directly into a known historical context. There had been a gap in the story – and we were able to fill it," he says.
The compensation the king demanded after the Hanseatic raids was exceptionally large.
"Historians have pointed out that the amount was unusually high. But now we understand why. An enormous stone building had been destroyed," Skre says.
As Norway eventually came under a shared monarchy with Denmark, Avaldsnes and western Norway became more peripheral. Ownership of what remained passed to the Church, and the site became a rectory.
Queen Sonja visits the excavation of the royal estate at Avaldsnes.(Photo: Cathrine Glette)
Dagfinn Skre during the excavation at Avaldsnes in 2017. The small site was a centre of power for thousands of years.(Photo: Cathrine Glette)
Following the discovery
After a lifetime of excavations, there have been many incredible discoveries, Skre says. For instance, he led the major excavation of the Viking town of Kaupang between 1999 and 2003. Excavations in Oslo's medieval town in 1975-76 and at Ringebu Stave Church in 1980-81 also remain vivid memories.
“The first things you discover, early in your career, are also the ones you remember especially well,” says Skre.
But there is something about the excavation at Avaldsnes, the last one for which he was responsible for the entire project, that has left a lasting impression.
“That's the nature of archaeology. You have ideas about what you're going to find. You make plans, you prepare. But you don't know what you'll find until you actually find it,” he says.
“There's an almost existential quality to archaeology, in that you have to be willing to change your thinking. You can't argue with what you find; it is what it is,” Skre adds.
He explains that the challenge is to follow where the discovery leads. To remain constantly alert to anything that does not fit your expectations, to take it seriously, and to figure out how to continue excavating in order to understand more. That is why he has always loved fieldwork.
"The encounter with the past is incredibly tangible. And the most tangible and overwhelming experience I ever had of realising that things were different from what I had believed, that was the experience of uncovering the royal estate," he says.
