A large Viking Age burial ground in Tvååker in Halland gives the archaeologists new knowledge

Archaeologists from The National Historical Museums in Sweden should have been excavating a stone age settlement but instead stumbled over a gigantic burial ground from the Viking Age. The remains of 139 graves were identified. Finds included animal and human bones, metal brooches, ceramic vessels, cremation sites and ship form stone settings.
”We have only excavated six percent of the burial ground”, says Petra Nordin, Project Leader.

When the excavation began in May 2017, it looked on paper to be a normal preliminary excavation of a stone age settlement. The local council planned to build a roundabout and lay new waterpipes on the site, these works were to be carried out in stages. The excavations uncovered a furnace and some flint finds, but the area turned out to be hiding an even greater secret.

Petra Nordin realised that the site was much bigger than imagined during the first year of excavations, when they began finding remains of Viking Age burials.

”When we did the preliminary excavation in May 2017 we found 5 graves, on layers of fire waste and bone fragments from humans and dogs. Then we realised that there was a large Viking burial ground that we had to focus on”.

The burial ground was strategically well placed up on a flat ridge along two important transport routes. To the east flows the Tvååker river (formerly Uttran) which flows out to sea at Galtabäck. The old main road (on which iron was transported) from Spannarp to Gamla Köpstad also runs over the burial ground. The name of the village – Tvååker – and place names such as Järnmölle, Järnvirke, Gamla köpstad, Vare, Galtabäck and Utteros are all mentioned in early historical sources.

”The problem is that the land has been ploughed and levelled to create pastures, so all the occupation levels, former above ground remains and burials have been ploughed to pieces. This meant we have had to interpret everything from heavily truncated remains. However, we did investigate where the cremation pyres were, and amongst other things we found what we interpreted as a 50 meter long ship formed stone setting up on the ridge” says Petra Nordin and adds:

”We often found remains of dogs on small round cremation pyres and human remains on oblong cremation pyres. The dog was a companion and accompanied the person on the pyre”.

In total, the archaeologists found three large ship form stone settings and a ship form mound. A large part of the burial ground probably lays under modern buildings, it is estimated that only six percent of the burial ground was excavated.

Petra Nordin believes that the project is unique in the scientific way in which it has been carried out.

“Normally when excavating, you already have an idea of how big a grave is from the beginning, but here, where the graves have been so heavily damaged the focus becomes less about the graves and more about the cremation sites. We have interpreted one area as the place where people have dug down and built a fire. In another location we found a square pit with three large fire pits and a layer of fire cracked stones. In the grave were 17 placed vessels, human and animal bones as well as woven weights and iron arrowheads. We have interpreted the square pit as a construction to help create good airflow for a pyre above ground” she says.

It was difficult to try to interpret what appeared when the soil was removed.

Looking for bones and finding pits where standing stones may have stood or bottoms of mounds where the superstructure is missing, is exciting, but incredibly difficult. “Sometimes we have gone with a metal detector and found objects in a place that allow us to say that this is probably actually a grave” says Anders Kjellin at the Archaeologists.

Most of the artefacts were heavily affected by fire. Among the finds were buckles such as fibulae and clasp buckles, ceramics, and a clipped Arab silver coin. The coin is dated to between 795 and 806 AD, which agrees well with the oldest graves at the site. Animal bones of birds, dogs, cattle and pigs as well as human bones have also been found. The most common thing was to burn their dead on a pyre during this time period.

“After the dead have been burned, unburnt animals have been placed on top, before the graves are finally closed. The most common animal bones were cattle such as cows, and it is probably about food sacrifices” says Petra Nordin.

But where did the people who were buried here live? It's something that still baffles archaeologists. There was probably a village in the Tvååker area that had already expanded extensively during the older Viking Age. The burial ground thus becomes an important piece of the puzzle for Iron Age studies in the area. Petra Nordin says that it is still a mystery where the village has been, but that there are theories about its location.

“There has been talk, amongst other things, that there may have been a Viking era trading post at Gamla Köpstad south of the town of Varberg, or at Galtabäck harbour. Is the village located at the mouth of Tvååker or is it near the burial ground? We don't know. But it is exciting to see what will emerge in the future”.

Interested in knowing more? See the report in Swedish ‘Ett vikingatida gravfält och förhistoriska boplatslämning’ (A Viking Age burial ground and prehistoric settlement remains).

Arkeologerna

Arkeologerna, Statens historiska museer, Box 5428, 114 84 Stockholm. Tfn 010-480 80 00. www.arkeologerna.com

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