10 December 2023 The Future is the Product of the Past

Iron Age port discovered on Swedish island of Gotska Sandön

Archaeologists have discovered an Iron Age port on Gotska Sandön, an island and national park in Sweden’s Gotland district.

In the spring of 2023, archaeologists found two 2,000-year-old Roman coins on one of the island’s beaches. Archaeologists have now returned to the island and made more thrilling discoveries. These offer more clues about what the site may have been used for 2000 years ago and consist of twenty hearths on the beach where the coins were found.

Johan Rönnby, a professor of marine archaeology at Södertörn University, is participating in the dig and describes the site as a type of Iron Age port. This is not a port with quays in the modern sense, but he theorizes that people landed here, pulled up their boats, and formed an encampment.

The hearths had been found during previous digs, when poles stuck into the ground emerged blackened with carbon. One of the hearths has now been excavated and dated using the carbon-14 method, showing that the site was in use around 2,000 years ago. It can therefore be linked to the coin finds from around the same date.

Trial excavation at one of the sites. Photo: Johan Rönnby
Trial excavation at one of the sites. Photo: Johan Rönnby

Researchers are unable to say with certainty what happened here, but Rönnby’s guess is that the site may be linked to the seal hunting, which is known to have taken place.

“Seal hunters may have come from the island of Gotland and landed on Sandön to boil seal blubber. This could have been what the hearths were used for, but we don’t yet know – there may be other reasons why the site looks like it does, such as it being a trading post,” said Rönnby.

Further excavations will take place over the coming weeks to uncover more clues to the site’s past. In addition to the Roman coins, ceramics were found here a century ago. Rönnby now hopes that they will find more ceramics that the project can analyze.

The excavation project is a collaboration between Södertörn University, Uppsala University’s Campus Gotland, Gotland Museum, and the Swedish National Heritage Board. It is funded by the Voice of the Ocean Foundation.

The Swedish Research Council

Related Articles

A rare 3,300-year-old bronze helmet reaching the present from the Hittite Empire era

17 July 2022

17 July 2022

The 3,300-year-old bronze helmet, which was unearthed during the 2002 excavations in Şapinuva, one of the important cult centers of...

2,500-Year-Old Phoenician Shipwreck Being Rescued By Spanish Archaeologists

6 July 2023

6 July 2023

A 2,500-year-old Phoenician shipwreck has been found underwater in the southeastern Spanish region of Murcia. An extraordinary Phoenician shipwreck dating...

Turkish researchers use Artificial Intelligence to read cuneatic Hittite tablets

9 January 2023

9 January 2023

Thanks to a project implemented in Türkiye, 1,954 ancient Hittite tablets are being read for the first time using artificial...

An ancient structure of unknown purpose discovered in northeastern Italy

25 March 2023

25 March 2023

A mysterious structure of unknown purpose has been unearthed in the Friuli Venezia Giulia region in northeastern Italy. The discovery...

Largest Headhunting Massacre of Women and Children in Neolithic China

12 November 2023

12 November 2023

A new study discovers that ancient headless skeletons discovered in mass graves in China are the remains of victims who...

A rare Ogham inscription found on Pictish stone in Scottish Kirkyard

8 November 2022

8 November 2022

A Pictish carved stone cross slab with a rare inscription in the early medieval ogham language has been discovered in...

Remains of 240 people found beneath Ocky White department store in Wales

13 October 2022

13 October 2022

Archaeologists found skeletal remains of over more than 240 people, from beneath a former department store in Pembrokeshire in Wales,...

2000-year-old passage found after Latrina at Smyrna Theater

28 January 2022

28 January 2022

Archaeologists discovered a 2,000-year-old passage that was 26 meters long and constructed in an “L” form in the theater part...

An inscription with the name of the ancient city was found at the excavation site in Gordion, the capital of the Phrygians

8 August 2022

8 August 2022

An inscription bearing the name of the ancient city was found at the excavation site in Gordion, the capital of...

Scientists discover 4 new Nazca Geoglyphs using AI deep learning

4 June 2023

4 June 2023

Scientists from Japan used AI deep learning to discover new geoglyphs in the Arid Peruvian coastal plain, in the northern...

Mysterious and Life-size camel carvings have been found in Saudi Arabian desert

4 October 2023

4 October 2023

Archaeologists have found life-size camel carvings on a rock near the southern border of Saudi Arabia’s Nafud desert. The Neolithic...

A 2,000-year-old ancient “mirror” throws light on aristocratic life in China

17 May 2022

17 May 2022

Archeologists in Beijing have successfully reconstructed a 2,000-year-ago dressing mirror once cherished by the high nobility during the Han Dynasty....

3,500-year-old perfectly preserved ancient frozen bear found in Siberian

28 February 2023

28 February 2023

As the permafrost on Bolshoy Lyakhovsky Island in eastern Siberia melted, a mummified brown bear that lived more than three...

Grain Barns dating back 6,000 years unearthed in China

15 December 2022

15 December 2022

Chinese archaeologists have revealed a cluster of 16 ancient granaries that traced back to the mid-late period of the Yangshao...

INAH archaeologists discovered a nose ornament made of human bone in Mexico

31 August 2023

31 August 2023

Archaeologists from the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) have discovered a nose ornament made of human bone in...