A 1,000-year-old boat with a high status Viking inside has been found at a burial site in the Scottish Highlands.
The grave is five meters long and is located on the remote Ardnamurchan Peninsula. It contains the remains of a Viking complete with axe, spear, shield boss, bronze ring-pin, and a sword with an ornately decorated hilt.
Around 200 metal rivets were also found at the site, along with other findings, such as a knife, a Norwegian whetstone, Viking pottery, and many pieces of as yet unidentified iron.
“This is a very exciting find. Though we have excavated many important artefacts over the years, I think it’s fair to say that this year the archaeology has really exceeded our expectations,” said project co-director Hannah Cobb at The University of Manchester in a press release.
“A Viking boat burial is an incredible discovery, but in addition to that, the artefacts and preservation make this one of the most important Norse graves ever excavated in Britain.
The grave is five meters long and is located on the remote Ardnamurchan Peninsula. It contains the remains of a Viking complete with axe, spear, shield boss, bronze ring-pin, and a sword with an ornately decorated hilt.
Around 200 metal rivets were also found at the site, along with other findings, such as a knife, a Norwegian whetstone, Viking pottery, and many pieces of as yet unidentified iron.
“This is a very exciting find. Though we have excavated many important artefacts over the years, I think it’s fair to say that this year the archaeology has really exceeded our expectations,” said project co-director Hannah Cobb at The University of Manchester in a press release.
“A Viking boat burial is an incredible discovery, but in addition to that, the artefacts and preservation make this one of the most important Norse graves ever excavated in Britain.
Viking specialist Colleen Batey at The University of Glasgow believes the boat is probably from the 10th century.
The site is the first intact pagan Norse grave to be excavated on the West Coast Mainland, and could also be the first of its kind excavated in mainland Scotland for three decades.
Cobb has spent the last six years excavating artifacts at the peninsula, which demonstrates 6,000 years of history. Other discoveries at the site include an Iron Age fort from between 2,500 to 1,500 years ago earlier this year.
“This project examines social change on the Ardnamurchan Peninsula from the first farmers 6,000 years ago to the Highland Clearances of the eighteenth and nineteenth century,” said Oliver Harris, project co-director at the University of Leicester in the release.
Previously, the team has found evidence for changing beliefs and lifestyles in the area through a study of burial practices in the Neolithic and Bronze age periods 6,000 to 4,500 years ago and 4,500 to 2,800 years ago respectively, Harris said.
“It has also yielded evidence for what will be one of the best dated Neolithic chambered cairns in Scotland when all of our post excavation work is complete,” he added.
“But the find we reveal today has got to be the icing on the cake.”
The site is the first intact pagan Norse grave to be excavated on the West Coast Mainland, and could also be the first of its kind excavated in mainland Scotland for three decades.
Cobb has spent the last six years excavating artifacts at the peninsula, which demonstrates 6,000 years of history. Other discoveries at the site include an Iron Age fort from between 2,500 to 1,500 years ago earlier this year.
“This project examines social change on the Ardnamurchan Peninsula from the first farmers 6,000 years ago to the Highland Clearances of the eighteenth and nineteenth century,” said Oliver Harris, project co-director at the University of Leicester in the release.
Previously, the team has found evidence for changing beliefs and lifestyles in the area through a study of burial practices in the Neolithic and Bronze age periods 6,000 to 4,500 years ago and 4,500 to 2,800 years ago respectively, Harris said.
“It has also yielded evidence for what will be one of the best dated Neolithic chambered cairns in Scotland when all of our post excavation work is complete,” he added.
“But the find we reveal today has got to be the icing on the cake.”
