Spiral decorations in the hall!

During the excavations in the early 1990s were a couple of complete and fragmentary iron spirals and other decoration fragments found. They were made of flat, bended pieces and resembled in some degree for example the iron decorations found on medieval church doors. There was however some debate whether the pieces belonged to the magnificent building or if they were considerably later in date. During the spring work we washed of tens of kilos of bunt clay from the post holes of the previous excavations. A couple of small, flat iron fragments turned up among. Thus we strongly suspected that the house indeed was decorated with some very unusual metal ornaments.

On friday was the question finally answered. The major parts of a spiral was found in a wall trench, and shortly thereafter  a secondwas found. This hall has not only been very striking due to its size and position on a artificial plateau. It has also been decorated with some elaborate details in metal. We now ask us where these spirals have been placed. Have they been placed in the stern and aft as similar but considerably smaller spirals on the Valsgärde 7 and Ultuna boats, or is there some other explanations. We also have other iron decorations in the shape of a spear head and other forms. Those will be dealt with on another occasion as they were found in the 19th c. plough layer.

P.S. We have also found the first bead in the hall. It seems to be a 8th c. variant which fits rather nice with the dating of the house.

The spiral

/John

Gropar, diken och väggar.

Efter hand som vi gräver ut fler anläggningar och kulturlager blir ytan nedanför södra platån allt tydligare. Men antagligen kommer vi inte få en full förståelse förrän i rapportfasen. Anläggningar från järnålder till modern tid ligger otroligt tätt tillsammans och det finns inga tjocka kulturlager som separerar tidshorisonterna från varandra.

Ett mönster som blir allt tydligare är att det under åtminstone en fas många gropar som pendlar kring strax under eller över en meter i storlek. Vissa är runda, andra mer avlånga. Dateringarna är i det stora hela osäkert, men det lutar åt att järnåldern dominerar. De dateringar vi har ligger mellan folkvandringstid och vendeltid. I två av groparna kommer gjutformsfragment.

Mycket intressanta är ett par rännor, den ena antagligen omgrävd som löper utmed sluttningen och som av allt att döma är från järnålder. Är de avsedda för dränering eller är det också parcellering? Hursomhelst blir det allt tydligare att vi har att göra med en ekonomiyta. Om den även rymt större hus under någon fas återstår att se. Det finns ganska mycket stolphål också.

/John

Viking age finds and reaching the hall layer

Part of a equal armed brooch from the 10th century. A Viking age find made i a post Medieval layer.

Beginning to find a hall

The excavation is steadily progressing in three trenches. Below the terrace we are removing a culture layer and quite disturbing 18th c. arder marks. On monday will probably the documentation of a cellar pit be finished. We do not really know when it was built, but the large amounts of pottery in the fill seems to belong to about 1550-1600 AD. This is actually one of the very few well dated and fairly large constructions from the pre 17th century in the area. Some of the finds from the pit are very nice and most striking is two knives with preserved bone or wood handles. Other interesting details comes from the brick material. It contains not only ordinary "stortegel" but also smaller pieces as well as glazed and profiled bricks. We have not had time to compare pieces with Late Medieval phases of the church, and one might ask if there has been other partly brick built constructions in the area.

On the southern plateau has the team removed much more of the turf layer and reached blach plastic sheets placed in the trench from 1992. During the final hours on friday they also found the first stones for the stone frame along the plateaus edges as well as concentrations of clay indicating the first post hole. The next few days will reveal some really exiting constructions

/John

Excavations on terrace have begun

Yesterday we began to remove the turf on the northern edge of the southern house terrace. Beneath a fairly thick turf layer has emerges a layer with loads of pieces of burnt daub. The team has only begun to clean up the trench from the topsoil layer but some things can already be stated. First of all it seems like the daub pieces are highly fragmented, and it seems likely tha the area has been cultivated in some degree. Secondly is the burnt clay surprisingly poorly burnt in comparison with pieces from other, preciously excavated parts of the building In those part has the clay even melted which means around at least 1000 degrees. In short do the fire temperature seem to have been quite varied. That could mean that the presevation conditions for other finds are better in the northern gable area.

Below the terrace is the excavation proceeding. The bone material is fantastic, when considering the preservation conditions. We try to water sieve all the features which means that fish bones are turning up regularly. Other interesting finds that have turned up during the last days are for example a few pieces of possible moulds and today a piece of worked antler, perhaps for comb production.

/John

Features, features, features

Today we have at last removed all recent layers, photographed most surfaces and finally begun to excavate the many features and layers from at least the Migration Period and onwards. The culture layer thickness is almost non existant, but the accumulation of features is very dense. As you can see on the picture, there is almost no free space at all with yellow sand between the dark colorations. Even the sand has today proved to be partly belonging to the fill around post-marks.

The character of this area has probably changed during the centuries. In some degree is does however seem to be a activity area of the manor. The preservation conditions for bones is extremely good and we hope to find some really good evidence of specialised crafts. So far there is however no evident concentrations of finds belonging to metal working or features that on the survace seem to be furnaces. Occasional finds of slag and moulds do however tell that a workshop is to be found nearby.

Most surprising finds of today were some very nice knives with preserved handles in a rubbish pit from probably the 16th or 17th century. It was quite hard to stop some students from digging more today.

During next week will the excavations on the hall building begin.

Lägg till bildtext

/John

Fifth day of excavation

The excavation has now proceeded for five days and we have experienced some very changing weather. The first day it was barely nine degrees and windy. Everyone worked very hard just keep warm. Today it was more than 23 degrees and the sandy soil dries out very quickly. We have been very busy with removing the turf and going down through a fairly recent plow layer and thick ackumulated layers from last centuries, partly accumulated by nearby gravel digging activities. The students are doing a magnificent work!

During the last two days have more and more interesting archaeology begun to appear. We are continuously uncovering surfaces of both coarse and fine glacial ridge sediments which are literarelly peppered with features. So are also more and more finds of older dates beginning to appear. As usual it is mostly bones and pottery, but there are also some really nice stuff. Todays most exiting find was a tooth plate of a Migration Period comb and there are other objects that will mentioned further on. It is very satisfying to make finds from the period preceding the excavated royal mounds and the probably earliest phase of the manor.

The first cut...

A trench day 4

In slightly more than a week we will begin to uncover the northern gable of the perhaps 50 m long southern house terrace building, the 8th century hall.