Viking ship burial found by radar

[Duncan Head]

In Østfold, in Norway:
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/oct/15/viking-ship-burial-discovered-in-norway-just-50cm-underground

There are no immediate plans for excavation, but further non-invasive research will map the remains and assess their condition.

One to look out for in the future, then.

[Patrick Waterson]

Indeed. I wonder what 'non-invasive research' they will use.

[Tim]

C14 dating... (sorry could not resisit...)

[Imperial Dave]

possibly electrical resistance tomography as a more 'deep' survey than say standard resistivity

[Erpingham]

This report has more details and pictures.

[Imperial Dave]

amazing that it is only just beneath the soil surface

[Jim Webster]

amazing that it is only just beneath the soil surface

we have one field where the bronze age soil surface is quite literally just below the turf. In that top couple of inches you have two thousand years of 'modern' history 

[Patrick Waterson]

amazing that it is only just beneath the soil surface

we have one field where the bronze age soil surface is quite literally just below the turf. In that top couple of inches you have two thousand years of 'modern' history 

Just out of interest, would that be pasture rather than ploughland?

[Jim Webster]

amazing that it is only just beneath the soil surface

we have one field where the bronze age soil surface is quite literally just below the turf. In that top couple of inches you have two thousand years of 'modern' history 

Just out of interest, would that be pasture rather than ploughland?

that field can never have been ploughed
Indeed you wouldn't plough it as all you'd do is bury the soil under a cap of clay

[Erpingham]

Shallow stratigraphy is IIRC correctly a common phenomenon with upland pasture.  There have been sites in the downs where the archaeology consisted of lifting the turf and exposing what was cut in the chalk and I recall a field trip into the Yorkshire dales to see a long house excavation where the entire stratigraphy was 9"-1ft deep.

[Jim Webster]

Shallow stratigraphy is IIRC correctly a common phenomenon with upland pasture.  There have been sites in the downs where the archaeology consisted of lifting the turf and exposing what was cut in the chalk and I recall a field trip into the Yorkshire dales to see a long house excavation where the entire stratigraphy was 9"-1ft deep.

we're the exact opposite, ours is what's left when the sea retreated at some time in the Bronze age. But ironically there are fields between that land and the sea which have deeper soil and have been ploughed

[Erpingham]

Mud/bog v. sandbar or gravel spit?

[Jim Webster]

Mud/bog v. sandbar or gravel spit?

I've hopefully attached a map.
The field was left when the tide went out. The sea is about 1000 yards to the right now
The old raised beaches are obvious. The ground between them is heavy clay, but there was, in the area marked blue, a freshwater lake and this filled in leaving quiet a thick layer of peat on top of some clay, on top of running sand!
On the field there are at least two burnt mounds (one excavated) and probably a third.
Further upstream there is an area of willow scrub which is probably a fair age as well

[Patrick Waterson]

Interesting, Jim.  I wonder what might be hiding in there.  Not that I have any wish to foist archaeologists on you.

And thanks for the map: it does make things clear.

[Jim Webster]

Interesting, Jim.  I wonder what might be hiding in there.  Not that I have any wish to foist archaeologists on you.

And thanks for the map: it does make things clear.

I found some big pieces of roman pottery down there, in the side of the short lane at the bottom left, they revealed as the dike eroded away
Off the map about two map lengths to the south a metal detectorist found a bronze horde, thought to be a smith's hoard, which included a beautiful javelin head and axe head.
But we're a long way from a university and it's not a  fashionable area.
One lad did his degree thesis, Masters dissertation and his PhD on this area, including the burnt mound, but the bronze horde is later than that

Jim