Archaeologists have been carrying out excavations on the Svinesund plateau ahead of plans to develop a large industrial area. Their aim is to identify any archaeological remains before construction begins.
Using wedges and stone slabs weighing several hundred kilograms, people built a gallery grave here a very long time ago. Archaeologists believe it could be around 4,000 years old.
The construction impressed the archaeologists. It is carefully made, with neatly placed stones forming a floor at the bottom. It was probably built by some of Norway’s early farmers.
However, the gallery grave in Halden is not quite like the others that have been found in Norway.
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“Flint daggers have been found in every such grave from the same periods,” Rosenvinge tells Science Norway.
Arrowheads are also common, she says. In Halden, they found one arrowhead, but no daggers. This points to the theory that many of the gallery graves may have contained warriors.
“So there is something a little different about this one,” she says.
Archaeologist Carine Rosenvinge says that several things about the stone tomb in Halden are somewhat unusual.(Photo: University of Oslo)
A possible cremation
The estimated age of 4,000 years is currently based on comparisons with similar discoveries. The analyses are not yet complete.
But a small amount of charcoal gives them hope that they will be able to learn more about both the age of the grave and who was buried there.
The latter possibility is particularly exciting. Archaeologists are considering whether the grave may represent a combination of an ordinary burial and a cremation burial.
Before they finished excavating the site, they found some charcoal remains.
“We are wondering whether these could be burned bone remains from a cremation,” says Rosenvinge.
Burned bone remains can provide a precise date.
The charcoal remains may originate from the time when the grave was first constructed, or it could indicate that a cremation took place there at a later date, she explains.
But why would different burial practices have been used in the same grave?
Rosenvinge stresses that there is no definitive answer.
“But we can imagine that different burial customs may have been used for different social groups, or for people who held different roles,” she says.
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An amber bead and a fragment of pottery decorated with so-called cord-marked patternswere also found in the grave.
The stone blocks weigh several hundred kilograms. No human bones were found.(Photo: Museum of Cultural History)
The archaeologists are working their way down to the bottom of the grave.(Photo: Museum of Cultural History)
Dating remains uncertain
“An exciting find,” says Morten Ramstad, an archaeologist and head of section at the University Museum of Bergen.
He says the gallery grave on the Svinesund plateau was discovered in an area where finds of this kind might be expected. Nevertheless, considerably more have been found in Sweden than in Norway. Around 2,000 are known from Sweden, compared with approximately 20 in Norway. Denmark, meanwhile, has around 150.
Ramstad says it is difficult to determine exactly how old the Halden grave is without obtaining a specific date. For now, its estimated age is based on comparisons with similar finds that researchers have already been able to date.
"Dating is important in this context. These types of graves were used from the end of the Stone Age to the beginning of the Early Bronze Age," says Ramstad.
The archaeologists responsible for the excavation say they have collected soil samples in the hope of obtaining more answers.
Lived in longhouses
Gallery graves are associated with the period when early farming culture finally gained a foothold in Norway, Ramstad explains.
The third millennium BCE was a period of considerable change across Europe. People were migrating, and new groups arrived in Scandinavia from areas farther south on the continent.
The early farmers brought new religious beliefs, burial customs, and ways of organising society. They also introduced new forms of housing, according to Ramstad.
"They lived in two-aisled longhouses. These are post-supported houses that differ from those in which hunter-gatherers in Norway had previously lived," he says.
Settlements became more permanent. This was necessary once people began cultivating fields. Settlements were located close to fields and livestock, and everyday life became closely tied to the farm and the cultivated landscape.
The grave seen from above – not yet fully excavated.(Photo: Museum of Cultural History)
Some archaeologists have argued that such graves were graves for warriors. Ramstad is less certain. The discoveries at Selje, at least, point toward a different interpretation.
"Nothing suggests that particular individuals were given greater prominence than others through grave goods, and several women and children were buried in the same grave," he says.
The gallery grave at Selje also highlights the importance of permanent settlements to the communities that constructed these graves.
"The grave is a kind of mausoleum. Many people were buried there over several generations," he says.
The grave was located close to the settlement area.
The archaeologists found an amber bead in the grave in Halden.(Photo: Museum of Cultural History)
A challenging type of grave
Smaller gallery graves, such as the one in Halden, may have contained fewer burials, Ramstad says. There also appear to have been regional differences within Norway, he adds.
Perhaps people in western Norway had more contact with Danish settlements in Jutland, while people in eastern Norway were influenced by the customs in what is now Sweden?
But gallery graves are difficult to study, says Ramstad. In many cases, no biological material survives. Without such material, researchers cannot conduct DNA analyses to learn more about the people who were buried there. It can also make determining the age of a grave impossible.
Many of the gallery graves found in Norway were also excavated more than 100 years ago, according to Ramstad. At that time, the technology needed to collect and analyse the kinds of samples researchers use today did not exist. This makes it difficult to draw firm conclusions from many of those earlier discoveries.
Ramstad says several university projects are now examining skeletal remains recovered from these graves.Hopefully, this will eventually provide us with more definitive answers.
