16 February 2025 The Future is the Product of the Past

Unique Iron & Viking-Age Mortuary Houses Found in Norway

While building a road in the village of Vinjeøra in central Norway, three ancient mortuary houses dating back to the Iron and Viking Ages were discovered. What’s more, not a single person was buried in them!

Mortuary houses date between 500 and 950 CE and these discoveries, described in their recent work published in Medieval Archaeology, reveal a fascinating glimpse into the mysterious funerary rituals of the past.

The analysis of the 3 Vinjeøra mortuary houses is published in the journal Medieval Archaeology. Recent work published by Dr. Raymond Sauvage and Dr. Richard Macphail describes the excavation and interpretation of three Iron- and Viking-Age mortuary houses in central Norway, Skeiet, in the village of Vinjeøra.

Discovered in a test pit excavated in 1996, the pre-Christian cemetery was verified by excavation. However, three mortuary houses were unexpectedly discovered by excavators more recently, next to the leveled burial mounds.

Mortuary houses are small, house-like structures, often found within ancient cemeteries. They might contain graves, tombs, or perhaps even the cremated remains of the deceased. These houses weren’t just for the dead; they were places where the living could visit, leave offerings, and perhaps even worship their ancestors.

Excavations revealed the mortuary houses are unique among the 12 others in Norway and 1 in Sweden which have previously been identified.

The construction style of the mortuary house is similar to that used for stave churches. Photo: Raymond Sauvage, NTNU University Museum
The construction style of the mortuary house is similar to that used for stave churches. Photo: Raymond Sauvage, NTNU University Museum

These mortuary houses had no permanent occupants, meaning that no evidence of a buried person was discovered within, despite being constructed for the dead. These homes had doors and entrances as if beckoning the living to enter. Visitors had to crouch to enter due to the low entrances, which made entering these cramped, dim areas feel intimate and almost reverent.

“I think that the most surprising thing was that we did not find any evidence of a permanent tomb or a buried person inside the houses,” says author Raymond Sauvage, an archaeologist from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. “Also, the fact that they had doors and entrances that may have led into the mortuary house and burial mound was something I had not thought of prior to the analysis.”

The presence of entrances suggests that the mortuary houses were always open for living people to revisit. Trampled soil at the entrances confirms this.

The earliest of the three dates back to around 450–600 AD, during the Iron Age. The most common method of interring the dead at this time was cremation. Built between 600 and 800, the second structure would have come around the time that burials were becoming more common. The third mortuary house was erected 800–950 CE when the local people had shifted completely from cremation to burying their dead.

From above, the imprint of one of the houses, discovered in 2019. Photo: Raymond Sauvage, NTNU University Museum

For almost 100–200 years each, these mortuary houses remained an essential component of the funerary rites despite changes in the manner in which the deceased were interred. Even though no graves were discovered within, the archaeologists did find some interesting artifacts, including nails, arrowheads, and pieces of bone.

The mortuary houses, built to resemble contemporary dwellings, might reflect the belief that the dead continued to “live” in their burial mounds.

The fact that no actual burials have taken place in these houses, however, suggests another possibility: maybe they functioned as the dead’s temporary resting places while their bodies were being prepared for a more permanent burial, akin to the Norse burial ritual that the traveler Ibn Fadlan described in the tenth century.

The mortuary houses of Norway are still very enigmatic and more research will be needed to truly understand their function.

https://doi.org/10.1080/00766097.2024.2347753

Cover Image: Artist’s interpretation of one of the Skeiet mortuary houses. The burial mound is indicated by the conjectured lines. Credit: Sauvage and Macphail 2024; illustration by Arkikon, NTNU University Museum

Related Articles

Norwegian Boy in Search of Granddad’s Wedding Ring Finds 1500-year-old Roman Jewellery

11 August 2021

11 August 2021

Sander Magnus Vang (12) needed to find his grandfather’s lost wedding ring. Instead, he found a 1500-year-old ring. The golden...

Archaeologists Discovered a Mysterious Ancient Bone Floor in Alkmaar, the Netherlands

16 December 2024

16 December 2024

Archaeologists found a part of a floor made of animal bones in Alkmaar, North Holland, the Netherlands. Experts are intrigued...

Europe’s oldest grave of a newborn girl found in İtaly

15 December 2021

15 December 2021

An international team of researchers has found Europe’s oldest tomb of a newborn girl, dating back 10,000 years, in Liguria....

The Largest Ancient Floor Mosaic in Cappadocia and Central Anatolia Region Uncovered -600 square meters-

12 November 2023

12 November 2023

The structure with the largest floor mosaic in Cappadocia and Central Anatolia Region was unearthed during the excavations carried out...

Crowned figure holding a 13th-century falcon found in Oslo

17 December 2021

17 December 2021

Archaeologist Ann-Ingeborg Floa Grindhaug discovered a three-inch-long figure carved from bone or antler amid the ruins of a fortified royal...

‘4,200-year-old Zombie grave’ discovered in Germany

22 April 2024

22 April 2024

Archaeologists excavating in East Germany have found a 4,200-year-old grave near Oppin in Saxony-Anhalt containing the skeleton of a man...

A cemetery belonging to 54 children was found during the excavation in the old quarry in Diyarbakır, Türkiye

4 January 2024

4 January 2024

During the archaeological excavation carried out in the area considered to be an old quarry in the Kulp district of...

A rare sheep carriage and ancient chariots found near mausoleum of China’s first emperor

28 October 2023

28 October 2023

A rare “six-sheep” carriage and a four-wheeled wooden chariot were discovered near the mausoleum of Qinshihuang, China’s first Emperor during...

Analysis Of Roman Coins sheds light on the Roman financial crisis

17 April 2022

17 April 2022

New scientific analysis of the composition of Roman denarii has brought fresh understanding to a financial crisis briefly mentioned by...

Archaeologists Uncover Roman London’s First Basilica Beneath an Office Basement

13 February 2025

13 February 2025

Archaeologists have made a groundbreaking discovery beneath an office building in London, unearthing a substantial section of the ancient city’s...

Royal-Memorial Inscription Attributed to King Sargon II Discovered in Western Iran

25 April 2021

25 April 2021

In western Iran, Iranian archaeologists discovered a part of a royal memorial inscription attributed to the Neo-Assyrian king Sargon II....

Restoration of the Duomo of Florence has revealed original polychrome paint

1 December 2022

1 December 2022

During the restoration of the Porta dei Cornacchini and the marble cladding of the northern side of Florence’s Duomo, extensive...

1700-year-old weaving workshop discovered in southeast Turkey

4 December 2021

4 December 2021

Excavations carried out in the ancient city of Perre in the southeastern province of Adıyaman have unearthed a 1,700-year-old weaving...

Denisovans or Homo Sapiens: Who Were the First to Settle Permanently on the Tibetan Plateau?

8 December 2021

8 December 2021

The Tibetan Plateau has long been considered one of the last places to be populated by people in their migration...

“Important discovery” showing that the Hittite city of Büklükale close ties with the Hurrian society

21 October 2022

21 October 2022

According to Japanese archaeologists, an ancient clay tablet discovered at the Büklükale ruins in central Turkey suggests that a little-known...