Universitätsverlag Kiel | Kiel University Publishing eBooks, 2023
The publication at hand are the proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Archaeologica... more The publication at hand are the proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Archaeological Prospection held between March 28 and April 1, 2023, in Kiel, Germany. The content of the articles ranges from local to large-scale case studies all over the world and from various archaeological times, over methodological improvements, new processing and visualization techniques to a special session on marine and wetland prospection. Thus, the collection of articles summarizes the state of the art of prospection methods for on- and offshore archaeological investigations.
Universitätsverlag Kiel | Kiel University Publishing eBooks, 2023
Motorized multi-channel GPR investigations in Iceland in July 2022 showed great potential for lar... more Motorized multi-channel GPR investigations in Iceland in July 2022 showed great potential for large-scale archaeological geophysical surveys. Investigations on selected sites demonstrated effective fieldwork opportunities with excellent signal penetration through thick layers of ash and sand and very good contrast of turf houses towards the surrounding soil. Although Iceland has very challenging landscapes, many places are perfect suitable for motorized surveys making them very efficient for landscape archaeological investigations.
Advances in On- and Offshore Archaeological Prospection: Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Archaeological Prospection., 2023
The publication at hand are the proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Archaeologica... more The publication at hand are the proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Archaeological Prospection held between March 28 and April 1, 2023, in Kiel, Germany. The content of the articles ranges from local to large-scale case studies all over the world and from various archaeological times, over methodological improvements, new processing and visualization techniques to a special session on marine and wetland prospection. Thus, the collection of articles summarizes the state of the art of prospection methods for on- and offshore archaeological investigations.
Experiences from motorized GPR surveys in Iceland. Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Archaeological Prospection ICAP, 2023
Motorized multi-channel GPR investigations in Iceland in July 2022 showed great potential for lar... more Motorized multi-channel GPR investigations in Iceland in July 2022 showed great potential for large-scale archaeological geophysical surveys. Investigations on selected sites demonstrated effective fieldwork opportunities with excellent signal penetration through thick layers of ash and sand and very good contrast of turf houses towards the surrounding soil. Although Iceland has very challenging landscapes, many places are perfect suitable for motorized surveys making them very efficient for landscape archaeological investigations.
Advances in On- and Offshore Archaeological Prospection: Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Archaeological Prospection 2023 , 2023
The publication at hand are the proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Archaeologica... more The publication at hand are the proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Archaeological Prospection held between March 28 and April 1, 2023, in Kiel, Germany. The content of the articles ranges from local to large-scale case studies all over the world and from various archaeological times, over methodological improvements, new processing and visualization techniques to a special session on marine and wetland prospection. Thus, the collection of articles summarizes the state of the art of prospection methods for on- and offshore archaeological investigations
Statens vegvesen Vegdirektoratet og Norsk institutt for kulturminneforskning startet i 2012 et fo... more Statens vegvesen Vegdirektoratet og Norsk institutt for kulturminneforskning startet i 2012 et forsknings- og utviklingsprosjekt som ved sin avslutning har pågått i hele 10 år. Prosjektet har omhandlet bruk av inngrepsfrie avanserte metoder for registrering av arkeologiske kulturminner i forbindelse med veiutbyggingsprosjekter. Prosjektet «Arkeologi i veien?» (AiV-prosjektet) har hatt som formål å teste ut hvorvidt høyteknologiske fjernmålingsmetoder som geofysikk, LIDAR, samt satellittbilder og flyfoto kan supplere og eventuelt erstatte noen av de tradisjonelle arkeologiske metodene som brukes til registrering av kulturminner i forkant av større veiprosjekter, og på den måten begrense områder som skal sjaktes eller undersøkes på annen, konvensjonell måte. AiV-prosjektet har i perioden 2012–2020, med gode resultater, testet ut bruken av geofysiske undersøkelsesmetoder ved flere prosjekter i hele landet. Prosjektet fikk en videreføring gjennom VEMOP-prosjektet (The Vestfold monitoring project. Environmental factors in minimal-invasive Cultural Heritage Management) i Vestfold- og Telemark fylke, og blir dermed ikke endelig sluttført før 2022.
Every year, The Ministry of Climate and Environment, in collaboration with The Directorate for Cu... more Every year, The Ministry of Climate and Environment, in collaboration with The Directorate for Cultural Heritage (Riksantikvaren), allocates so-called National funds. These go towards providing the public sector with necessary answers on issues relating to cultural heritage management in Norway. In 2022, the Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research (NIKU) has, among other things, worked on systemising and processing material from the large medieval cities, data from archaeological geophysical surveys, and access to cultural heritage information. Archaeological knowledge about the Norwegian medieval cities has been collected for more than 100 years, and systematic archaeological surveys have been carried out there since the late 1950s. In the last 10 to 15 years, a great deal of material has also been obtained through geophysical surveys. Some in the medieval cities, but the vast majority in more rural areas, mainly on cultivated land. For cultural heritage administrators to be able to use this information purposefully, it needs to be accessible, so that existing material is easy to retrieve in the event of any planned work underground. This project concludes that to make archaeological drawings from the medieval cities and data from geophysical surveys readily available to all case managers in cultural heritage administration, they must be entered into a shared system accessible through a WMS solution. A map server that can process raster formats should be set up to make reading the data simple and practical. A dedicated user interface should be developed for this purpose, and we also recommend that the data is replicated into existing solutions such as Askeladden and/or ADED as a WMS service.
The Late Nordic Iron Age (AD 550-1050) was characterised by significant change in political, mili... more The Late Nordic Iron Age (AD 550-1050) was characterised by significant change in political, military, judicial and religious structures across Scandinavia, most clearly manifested in the appearance of high-status 'central places' in the landscape. Recent groundpenetrating radar surveys at Gjellestad in Norway have revealed a site comprising several large burial mounds-one of which contains a ship burial-in addition to a possible cult house and a feasting hall. This combination of features suggests that Gjellestad was part of a hitherto unknown central place on the eastern shores of the Oslofjord. If correct, the authors' interpretations demonstrate that the layouts of these sites were formulaic, and that central places may be more common than previously thought.
The Borre Monitoring Project investigated how environmental factors, in particular, precipitation... more The Borre Monitoring Project investigated how environmental factors, in particular, precipitation and soil moisture variation as well as different soil and sediment types, affect the quality of GPR data collected for archaeological purposes. To study these questions, regular GPR surveys were conducted over a period of 14 months across a test area covering a hall building at the Iron and Viking Age site of Borre in Norway. In order to obtain in situ measurements of environmental factors relevant for electromagnetic wave propagation including volumetric water content, bulk electrical conductivity, ground temperature, and precipitation, three monitoring stations were erected at the test site. Soil and sediment samples taken from the profiles at the respective monitoring stations were analysed to gain a basic description of their physical and chemical properties. Twelve GPR surveys were conducted roughly once a month between August 2016 and September 2017 and the results clearly indicat...
ABSTRACT It is a paradox in Norwegian archaeology – and perhaps also elsewhere – that some of the... more ABSTRACT It is a paradox in Norwegian archaeology – and perhaps also elsewhere – that some of the most outstanding archaeological monuments at the same time remain some of the least inves-tigated. In the case of the Viking Age ship burial from Gok-stad at Sandefjord, excavated in 1880, part of the explanation is the finding and subsequent excavation of the even more im-pressive Oseberg ship burial in the years 1903-04, which was to overshadow the Gokstad find for more than a century. But the paradox is caused by more than a shortage of research re-sources – it is also a result of changes internal to archaeology and cultural heritage management. Much archaeological know-ledge is today gained from large-scale, full excavations prior to extensive infrastructure projects, and we have learned to think of the past in terms of complexes and landscapes, rather than in terms of single monuments and structures. But not only do large infrastructure projects usually avoid places with monumental ar-chaeological heritage – complete destruction through excavation is rarely, if ever, an option when it comes to the investigation of such monuments. Therefore the use of non-destructive meth-ods, and especially near-surface geophysical prospection tech-niques, becomes of paramount importance when we attempt to bring our knowledge about such sites on a par with that of the more anonymous traces of the past revealed in front of the con-struction machines. The Gokstad revitalised project, focussing on a site which currently is under consideration for UNESCO's World Heritage List, is a good example for how much geophysi-cal archaeological prospection can contribute to the study of sites with high preservation value. The Gokstad Revitalised project 1 was initiated in 2008 in cooperation between the Museum of Cultural Heritage at the University of Oslo (MCH), the Cultural Heritage services (CH) in Vestfold County and the Vestfold Museums. The aim of the project is to set the Gokstad burial amid the social, cultural and political changes that occurred in the eastern part of Norway in the Viking Age by applying new scientific methods to the study of the finds from the burial, of the burial mound itself – and by expanding the scope of research to the local landscape and set-tlement. Funding was achieved from Anders Jahre's Humanitar-ian Foundation along with MCH, Vestfold County and Sande-fjord Muncipality, and in 2011 it was possible to move from archive studies and artefact analyses to field work, which will continue until 2013. At present the project involves researchers and labs from six different European countries, working within a range of different disciplines and topics from geophysics and soil analyses over dendrochronology to biochemistry. The goal is to present the results of the project in publications and special exhibitions within a five-year horizon, and to incorporate them into a new permanent Viking Age exhibition which is planned to be established in an extension of Viking Ship Museum in Oslo. The research design of the project is concentric, making the social identity of the deceased man and its staging in the burial 1 http://www.khm.uio.no/english/research/projects/gokstad/ (accessed April 1 st 2013) ritual the project's focal point. Through an investigation of the biography and network of the deceased, as far as it can be learned from studies of his remains and of the objects that followed him into the burial, it is hoped that a more well-founded understan-ding of the societal background for the construction of this and other monumental burials in Viking Age eastern Norway can be established. The field work of the project serves the same purpose and focusses on three different targets: geophysical prospection, tar-geted coring and subsequent excavations. The burial mound it-self, which was only partially excavated in 1880, and which had been investigated by GPR earlier, was target of a systematic cor-ing campaign, aiming at understanding the construction history of the mound and to explore its undisturbed turf layers as an archive over the location's environment at the time of the con-struction of the mound just around AD 900. For the geophysical prospection a consortium of partners of the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Archaeological Prospection and Virtual Archaeology (LBI ArchPro) was set up, combin-ing ZAMG Archeo Prospections R
Abstract Borre in Norway is famous for its Late Nordic Iron and Viking Age (AD 400–1050) monument... more Abstract Borre in Norway is famous for its Late Nordic Iron and Viking Age (AD 400–1050) monumental burial mounds. Recently, ground-penetrating radar (GPR) surveys have revealed three large structures close to the mound cemetery. Their unusual layout and size, and location within such a prominent burial site, suggest that they were halls—high-status buildings mentioned in the Nordic sagas. The authors present the GPR results, discuss the buildings’ typological classification and provide a preliminary chronological framework. The latter suggests that the buildings coexisted with some of the burial mounds, and raises important questions about the significance of such buildings in Nordic mound-building societies.
Noen ganger, som ved lesing av Audun Dybdahls bok om hovrebeslag fra vikingtid, foler en virkelig... more Noen ganger, som ved lesing av Audun Dybdahls bok om hovrebeslag fra vikingtid, foler en virkelig at andre har gjort jobben for en. Hovrebeslag er en gruppe artefakter fra vikingtid mange av oss arkeologer har stiftet bekjentskap med, men som de faerreste av oss likevel kjenner i detalj. Det er saledes en sann glede a lese Audun Dybdahls gjennomgang av det samlede materialet. Dybdahl har samlet hele materialet mellom to permer og gjennomfort en grundig analyse med hensyn til bade form, funksjon, stil og kronologi. De fleste funn er utforlig beskrevet pa en slik mate at det er lett a folge Dybdahls analyse, samtidig som det gis rom for at leseren selv kan vurdere materialet ut fra egne forutsetninger.
Edøyskipet, skipsgraver som kilde til Norges historie, I: Stige, Morten og Ole Risbøl (red): Kulisteinen – grensemerke i tid og rom. Oslo 2021: Institutt for sammenliknende kulturforskning, skrifter, serie B:180. Også utgitt som Nordmøre museums årbok 2021, Kristiansund N., 2021
In the autumn of 2019, there were conducted geophysical surveys at Edøy and Kuli in Smøla municip... more In the autumn of 2019, there were conducted geophysical surveys at Edøy and Kuli in Smøla municipality. At Edøy, a new discovery of what appears to be a ship grave was made. The geophysics project was carried out by the Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research (NIKU) in collaboration with Smøla Municipality and Møre og Romsdal County Municipality. This is the first time a ship has been found in a burial mound on the coast of Møre, but a ship in the form of the Kvalsund ship, have previously been found in what may have been a bogland at Sunnmøre. In addition to suggesting what the shipwreck may have looked like, this article reviews all the Norwegian prehistoric shipwrecks up the Norwegian coast. These are spread all the way from the border to Sweden in the southeast to Troms and Finnmark further north. There is a total of 27 prehistoric ship finds in Norway. 23 are found as a part of burial mounds, and 17 of these are dated to the Viking Age. The article suggests that the Norse interpretation of the number of boat graves in total is far too low, and shows for instance that in Møre og Romsdal County alone there are a total of 63 boat graves. Based on the fact that the vast majority of Norwegian ship finds are dated to Viking times, a hypothetical proposal is presented for what the Edøy ship may have looked like. The starting point is a 13 meter long keel and a ship design that is most likely dated the 9th and 10th century.
Traditionally, ground‐penetrating radar (GPR) measurements for near‐surface geophysical archaeolo... more Traditionally, ground‐penetrating radar (GPR) measurements for near‐surface geophysical archaeological prospection are conducted with single‐channel systems using GPR antennae mounted in a cart similar to a pushchair, or towed like a sledge behind the operator. The spatial data sampling of such GPR devices for the non‐invasive detection and investigation of buried cultural heritage was, with very few exceptions, at best 25 cm in cross‐line direction of the measurement. With two or three persons participating in the fieldwork, coverage rates between a quarter hectare and half a hectare per day are common, while frequently considerably smaller survey areas at often coarse measurement spacing have been reported. Over the past years, the advent of novel multi‐channel GPR antenna array systems has permitted an enormous increase in survey efficiency and spatial sampling resolution. Using GPR antenna arrays with up to 16 channels operating in parallel, in combination with automatic positioning solutions based on real‐time kinematic global navigation satellite systems or robotic total‐stations, it has become possible to map several hectares per day with as little as 8 cm cross‐line and 4 cm in‐line GPR trace spacing. While this dramatic increase in coverage rate has a positive effect on the reduction of costs of GPR surveys, and thus its more widespread use in archaeology, the increased spatial sampling for the first time allows for the high‐resolution imaging of relatively small archaeological structures, such as for example 25 cm wide post‐holes of Iron Age buildings or the brick pillars of Roman floor heating systems, permitting much improved archaeological interpretations of the collected data. We present the state‐of‐the‐art in large‐scale high‐resolution archaeological GPR prospection, covering hardware and software technology and fieldwork methodology as well as the closely related issues of processing and interpretation of the huge data sets. Application examples from selected European archaeological sites illustrate the progress made.
The technical advancements of the past decade have rendered motorised, high-resolution ground-pen... more The technical advancements of the past decade have rendered motorised, high-resolution ground-penetrating radar (GPR) investigations increasingly popular for archaeological research and cultural heritage management in Norway. However, the agricultural use of most survey areas limits the time available for fieldwork in spring and autumn and thus reduces the method’s potential. An extension of the fieldwork period into the winter season would be desirable. The project “Arkeologi i veien?” aimed to develop practical solutions for efficient motorised GPR surveys on snow and to evaluate to what extent the thickness of the snow cover affects data quality. Four sites with known archaeological remains in the ground have been investigated under snowless conditions and with snow cover. The comparative data analysis showed that GPR surveys can result in useful data even on areas covered with one metre of snow. This study shows that different temperatures and resulting variable snow conditions ...
Universitätsverlag Kiel | Kiel University Publishing eBooks, 2023
The publication at hand are the proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Archaeologica... more The publication at hand are the proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Archaeological Prospection held between March 28 and April 1, 2023, in Kiel, Germany. The content of the articles ranges from local to large-scale case studies all over the world and from various archaeological times, over methodological improvements, new processing and visualization techniques to a special session on marine and wetland prospection. Thus, the collection of articles summarizes the state of the art of prospection methods for on- and offshore archaeological investigations.
Universitätsverlag Kiel | Kiel University Publishing eBooks, 2023
Motorized multi-channel GPR investigations in Iceland in July 2022 showed great potential for lar... more Motorized multi-channel GPR investigations in Iceland in July 2022 showed great potential for large-scale archaeological geophysical surveys. Investigations on selected sites demonstrated effective fieldwork opportunities with excellent signal penetration through thick layers of ash and sand and very good contrast of turf houses towards the surrounding soil. Although Iceland has very challenging landscapes, many places are perfect suitable for motorized surveys making them very efficient for landscape archaeological investigations.
Advances in On- and Offshore Archaeological Prospection: Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Archaeological Prospection., 2023
The publication at hand are the proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Archaeologica... more The publication at hand are the proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Archaeological Prospection held between March 28 and April 1, 2023, in Kiel, Germany. The content of the articles ranges from local to large-scale case studies all over the world and from various archaeological times, over methodological improvements, new processing and visualization techniques to a special session on marine and wetland prospection. Thus, the collection of articles summarizes the state of the art of prospection methods for on- and offshore archaeological investigations.
Experiences from motorized GPR surveys in Iceland. Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Archaeological Prospection ICAP, 2023
Motorized multi-channel GPR investigations in Iceland in July 2022 showed great potential for lar... more Motorized multi-channel GPR investigations in Iceland in July 2022 showed great potential for large-scale archaeological geophysical surveys. Investigations on selected sites demonstrated effective fieldwork opportunities with excellent signal penetration through thick layers of ash and sand and very good contrast of turf houses towards the surrounding soil. Although Iceland has very challenging landscapes, many places are perfect suitable for motorized surveys making them very efficient for landscape archaeological investigations.
Advances in On- and Offshore Archaeological Prospection: Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Archaeological Prospection 2023 , 2023
The publication at hand are the proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Archaeologica... more The publication at hand are the proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Archaeological Prospection held between March 28 and April 1, 2023, in Kiel, Germany. The content of the articles ranges from local to large-scale case studies all over the world and from various archaeological times, over methodological improvements, new processing and visualization techniques to a special session on marine and wetland prospection. Thus, the collection of articles summarizes the state of the art of prospection methods for on- and offshore archaeological investigations
Statens vegvesen Vegdirektoratet og Norsk institutt for kulturminneforskning startet i 2012 et fo... more Statens vegvesen Vegdirektoratet og Norsk institutt for kulturminneforskning startet i 2012 et forsknings- og utviklingsprosjekt som ved sin avslutning har pågått i hele 10 år. Prosjektet har omhandlet bruk av inngrepsfrie avanserte metoder for registrering av arkeologiske kulturminner i forbindelse med veiutbyggingsprosjekter. Prosjektet «Arkeologi i veien?» (AiV-prosjektet) har hatt som formål å teste ut hvorvidt høyteknologiske fjernmålingsmetoder som geofysikk, LIDAR, samt satellittbilder og flyfoto kan supplere og eventuelt erstatte noen av de tradisjonelle arkeologiske metodene som brukes til registrering av kulturminner i forkant av større veiprosjekter, og på den måten begrense områder som skal sjaktes eller undersøkes på annen, konvensjonell måte. AiV-prosjektet har i perioden 2012–2020, med gode resultater, testet ut bruken av geofysiske undersøkelsesmetoder ved flere prosjekter i hele landet. Prosjektet fikk en videreføring gjennom VEMOP-prosjektet (The Vestfold monitoring project. Environmental factors in minimal-invasive Cultural Heritage Management) i Vestfold- og Telemark fylke, og blir dermed ikke endelig sluttført før 2022.
Every year, The Ministry of Climate and Environment, in collaboration with The Directorate for Cu... more Every year, The Ministry of Climate and Environment, in collaboration with The Directorate for Cultural Heritage (Riksantikvaren), allocates so-called National funds. These go towards providing the public sector with necessary answers on issues relating to cultural heritage management in Norway. In 2022, the Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research (NIKU) has, among other things, worked on systemising and processing material from the large medieval cities, data from archaeological geophysical surveys, and access to cultural heritage information. Archaeological knowledge about the Norwegian medieval cities has been collected for more than 100 years, and systematic archaeological surveys have been carried out there since the late 1950s. In the last 10 to 15 years, a great deal of material has also been obtained through geophysical surveys. Some in the medieval cities, but the vast majority in more rural areas, mainly on cultivated land. For cultural heritage administrators to be able to use this information purposefully, it needs to be accessible, so that existing material is easy to retrieve in the event of any planned work underground. This project concludes that to make archaeological drawings from the medieval cities and data from geophysical surveys readily available to all case managers in cultural heritage administration, they must be entered into a shared system accessible through a WMS solution. A map server that can process raster formats should be set up to make reading the data simple and practical. A dedicated user interface should be developed for this purpose, and we also recommend that the data is replicated into existing solutions such as Askeladden and/or ADED as a WMS service.
The Late Nordic Iron Age (AD 550-1050) was characterised by significant change in political, mili... more The Late Nordic Iron Age (AD 550-1050) was characterised by significant change in political, military, judicial and religious structures across Scandinavia, most clearly manifested in the appearance of high-status 'central places' in the landscape. Recent groundpenetrating radar surveys at Gjellestad in Norway have revealed a site comprising several large burial mounds-one of which contains a ship burial-in addition to a possible cult house and a feasting hall. This combination of features suggests that Gjellestad was part of a hitherto unknown central place on the eastern shores of the Oslofjord. If correct, the authors' interpretations demonstrate that the layouts of these sites were formulaic, and that central places may be more common than previously thought.
The Borre Monitoring Project investigated how environmental factors, in particular, precipitation... more The Borre Monitoring Project investigated how environmental factors, in particular, precipitation and soil moisture variation as well as different soil and sediment types, affect the quality of GPR data collected for archaeological purposes. To study these questions, regular GPR surveys were conducted over a period of 14 months across a test area covering a hall building at the Iron and Viking Age site of Borre in Norway. In order to obtain in situ measurements of environmental factors relevant for electromagnetic wave propagation including volumetric water content, bulk electrical conductivity, ground temperature, and precipitation, three monitoring stations were erected at the test site. Soil and sediment samples taken from the profiles at the respective monitoring stations were analysed to gain a basic description of their physical and chemical properties. Twelve GPR surveys were conducted roughly once a month between August 2016 and September 2017 and the results clearly indicat...
ABSTRACT It is a paradox in Norwegian archaeology – and perhaps also elsewhere – that some of the... more ABSTRACT It is a paradox in Norwegian archaeology – and perhaps also elsewhere – that some of the most outstanding archaeological monuments at the same time remain some of the least inves-tigated. In the case of the Viking Age ship burial from Gok-stad at Sandefjord, excavated in 1880, part of the explanation is the finding and subsequent excavation of the even more im-pressive Oseberg ship burial in the years 1903-04, which was to overshadow the Gokstad find for more than a century. But the paradox is caused by more than a shortage of research re-sources – it is also a result of changes internal to archaeology and cultural heritage management. Much archaeological know-ledge is today gained from large-scale, full excavations prior to extensive infrastructure projects, and we have learned to think of the past in terms of complexes and landscapes, rather than in terms of single monuments and structures. But not only do large infrastructure projects usually avoid places with monumental ar-chaeological heritage – complete destruction through excavation is rarely, if ever, an option when it comes to the investigation of such monuments. Therefore the use of non-destructive meth-ods, and especially near-surface geophysical prospection tech-niques, becomes of paramount importance when we attempt to bring our knowledge about such sites on a par with that of the more anonymous traces of the past revealed in front of the con-struction machines. The Gokstad revitalised project, focussing on a site which currently is under consideration for UNESCO's World Heritage List, is a good example for how much geophysi-cal archaeological prospection can contribute to the study of sites with high preservation value. The Gokstad Revitalised project 1 was initiated in 2008 in cooperation between the Museum of Cultural Heritage at the University of Oslo (MCH), the Cultural Heritage services (CH) in Vestfold County and the Vestfold Museums. The aim of the project is to set the Gokstad burial amid the social, cultural and political changes that occurred in the eastern part of Norway in the Viking Age by applying new scientific methods to the study of the finds from the burial, of the burial mound itself – and by expanding the scope of research to the local landscape and set-tlement. Funding was achieved from Anders Jahre's Humanitar-ian Foundation along with MCH, Vestfold County and Sande-fjord Muncipality, and in 2011 it was possible to move from archive studies and artefact analyses to field work, which will continue until 2013. At present the project involves researchers and labs from six different European countries, working within a range of different disciplines and topics from geophysics and soil analyses over dendrochronology to biochemistry. The goal is to present the results of the project in publications and special exhibitions within a five-year horizon, and to incorporate them into a new permanent Viking Age exhibition which is planned to be established in an extension of Viking Ship Museum in Oslo. The research design of the project is concentric, making the social identity of the deceased man and its staging in the burial 1 http://www.khm.uio.no/english/research/projects/gokstad/ (accessed April 1 st 2013) ritual the project's focal point. Through an investigation of the biography and network of the deceased, as far as it can be learned from studies of his remains and of the objects that followed him into the burial, it is hoped that a more well-founded understan-ding of the societal background for the construction of this and other monumental burials in Viking Age eastern Norway can be established. The field work of the project serves the same purpose and focusses on three different targets: geophysical prospection, tar-geted coring and subsequent excavations. The burial mound it-self, which was only partially excavated in 1880, and which had been investigated by GPR earlier, was target of a systematic cor-ing campaign, aiming at understanding the construction history of the mound and to explore its undisturbed turf layers as an archive over the location's environment at the time of the con-struction of the mound just around AD 900. For the geophysical prospection a consortium of partners of the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Archaeological Prospection and Virtual Archaeology (LBI ArchPro) was set up, combin-ing ZAMG Archeo Prospections R
Abstract Borre in Norway is famous for its Late Nordic Iron and Viking Age (AD 400–1050) monument... more Abstract Borre in Norway is famous for its Late Nordic Iron and Viking Age (AD 400–1050) monumental burial mounds. Recently, ground-penetrating radar (GPR) surveys have revealed three large structures close to the mound cemetery. Their unusual layout and size, and location within such a prominent burial site, suggest that they were halls—high-status buildings mentioned in the Nordic sagas. The authors present the GPR results, discuss the buildings’ typological classification and provide a preliminary chronological framework. The latter suggests that the buildings coexisted with some of the burial mounds, and raises important questions about the significance of such buildings in Nordic mound-building societies.
Noen ganger, som ved lesing av Audun Dybdahls bok om hovrebeslag fra vikingtid, foler en virkelig... more Noen ganger, som ved lesing av Audun Dybdahls bok om hovrebeslag fra vikingtid, foler en virkelig at andre har gjort jobben for en. Hovrebeslag er en gruppe artefakter fra vikingtid mange av oss arkeologer har stiftet bekjentskap med, men som de faerreste av oss likevel kjenner i detalj. Det er saledes en sann glede a lese Audun Dybdahls gjennomgang av det samlede materialet. Dybdahl har samlet hele materialet mellom to permer og gjennomfort en grundig analyse med hensyn til bade form, funksjon, stil og kronologi. De fleste funn er utforlig beskrevet pa en slik mate at det er lett a folge Dybdahls analyse, samtidig som det gis rom for at leseren selv kan vurdere materialet ut fra egne forutsetninger.
Edøyskipet, skipsgraver som kilde til Norges historie, I: Stige, Morten og Ole Risbøl (red): Kulisteinen – grensemerke i tid og rom. Oslo 2021: Institutt for sammenliknende kulturforskning, skrifter, serie B:180. Også utgitt som Nordmøre museums årbok 2021, Kristiansund N., 2021
In the autumn of 2019, there were conducted geophysical surveys at Edøy and Kuli in Smøla municip... more In the autumn of 2019, there were conducted geophysical surveys at Edøy and Kuli in Smøla municipality. At Edøy, a new discovery of what appears to be a ship grave was made. The geophysics project was carried out by the Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research (NIKU) in collaboration with Smøla Municipality and Møre og Romsdal County Municipality. This is the first time a ship has been found in a burial mound on the coast of Møre, but a ship in the form of the Kvalsund ship, have previously been found in what may have been a bogland at Sunnmøre. In addition to suggesting what the shipwreck may have looked like, this article reviews all the Norwegian prehistoric shipwrecks up the Norwegian coast. These are spread all the way from the border to Sweden in the southeast to Troms and Finnmark further north. There is a total of 27 prehistoric ship finds in Norway. 23 are found as a part of burial mounds, and 17 of these are dated to the Viking Age. The article suggests that the Norse interpretation of the number of boat graves in total is far too low, and shows for instance that in Møre og Romsdal County alone there are a total of 63 boat graves. Based on the fact that the vast majority of Norwegian ship finds are dated to Viking times, a hypothetical proposal is presented for what the Edøy ship may have looked like. The starting point is a 13 meter long keel and a ship design that is most likely dated the 9th and 10th century.
Traditionally, ground‐penetrating radar (GPR) measurements for near‐surface geophysical archaeolo... more Traditionally, ground‐penetrating radar (GPR) measurements for near‐surface geophysical archaeological prospection are conducted with single‐channel systems using GPR antennae mounted in a cart similar to a pushchair, or towed like a sledge behind the operator. The spatial data sampling of such GPR devices for the non‐invasive detection and investigation of buried cultural heritage was, with very few exceptions, at best 25 cm in cross‐line direction of the measurement. With two or three persons participating in the fieldwork, coverage rates between a quarter hectare and half a hectare per day are common, while frequently considerably smaller survey areas at often coarse measurement spacing have been reported. Over the past years, the advent of novel multi‐channel GPR antenna array systems has permitted an enormous increase in survey efficiency and spatial sampling resolution. Using GPR antenna arrays with up to 16 channels operating in parallel, in combination with automatic positioning solutions based on real‐time kinematic global navigation satellite systems or robotic total‐stations, it has become possible to map several hectares per day with as little as 8 cm cross‐line and 4 cm in‐line GPR trace spacing. While this dramatic increase in coverage rate has a positive effect on the reduction of costs of GPR surveys, and thus its more widespread use in archaeology, the increased spatial sampling for the first time allows for the high‐resolution imaging of relatively small archaeological structures, such as for example 25 cm wide post‐holes of Iron Age buildings or the brick pillars of Roman floor heating systems, permitting much improved archaeological interpretations of the collected data. We present the state‐of‐the‐art in large‐scale high‐resolution archaeological GPR prospection, covering hardware and software technology and fieldwork methodology as well as the closely related issues of processing and interpretation of the huge data sets. Application examples from selected European archaeological sites illustrate the progress made.
The technical advancements of the past decade have rendered motorised, high-resolution ground-pen... more The technical advancements of the past decade have rendered motorised, high-resolution ground-penetrating radar (GPR) investigations increasingly popular for archaeological research and cultural heritage management in Norway. However, the agricultural use of most survey areas limits the time available for fieldwork in spring and autumn and thus reduces the method’s potential. An extension of the fieldwork period into the winter season would be desirable. The project “Arkeologi i veien?” aimed to develop practical solutions for efficient motorised GPR surveys on snow and to evaluate to what extent the thickness of the snow cover affects data quality. Four sites with known archaeological remains in the ground have been investigated under snowless conditions and with snow cover. The comparative data analysis showed that GPR surveys can result in useful data even on areas covered with one metre of snow. This study shows that different temperatures and resulting variable snow conditions ...
The story of the Oseberg ship, Knut Paasche and Carl Barks. This book is made up of two parts, on... more The story of the Oseberg ship, Knut Paasche and Carl Barks. This book is made up of two parts, one with facts about the ancient viking ships that have been found by archaeologist in Norway, and one with the two classical Carl Barks Donald Duck comics: The Golden Helmet and Luck of the North - both dealing with the theme of ancient viking ships.
Denne utgaven av VITARK har sin bakgrunn i forskningsprosjektet. ”The post-medieval archaeologica... more Denne utgaven av VITARK har sin bakgrunn i forskningsprosjektet. ”The post-medieval archaeological resource in and around Norwegian towns: heritage potential, protection and management”. Norsk institutt for kulturminneforskning (NIKU) har gjennom prosjektleder Knut Paasche ledet prosjektet. Finansieringen har hovedsakelig kommet gjennom Forskningsrådets Miljø 2015 prosjekt, et miljøforskningsprogram med hovedfinansiering fra Miljøverndepartementet. Hoveddeltagere i prosjektet har vært NIKU, NTNU, Sør-Trøndelag fylkeskommune, det Svenske Riksantikvarieämbetet og Riksantikvaren. Artiklene i denne antologien har som utgangspunkt seminaret «Over og under bakken, Verneverdig bebyggelse og arkeologiske kulturminner fra tiden etter 1537» holdt på Bergstadens Hotell Røros våren 2013. Prosjektet som helhet har drøftet problemstillinger knyttet til forvaltningen av og forskningen på kulturlag fra tiden etter 1537, med eksempler hentet først og fremst fra en urban kontekst. Hvordan fungerer forvaltningen av den arkeologiske kunnskapen som ligger i kulturlagene fra 16- til 1800-tallet, og ikke minst hvilket potensial ligger det her for å skrive ny og spennende historie?
Seminaret «1537 – kontinuitet eller brudd» trakk mer enn 70 deltagere fra hele landet, både fra u... more Seminaret «1537 – kontinuitet eller brudd» trakk mer enn 70 deltagere fra hele landet, både fra universitetsmiljøene, instituttsektoren og ikke minst kulturminneforvaltningen både sentralt og lokalt. Her foreligger 14 av foredragene på trykk. Artiklene beveger seg rundt følgende hovedtemaer: Historisk kontinuitet og brudd, lovverket og den historiske arkeologien, byen som fenomen – over og under bakken og 1537 belyst gjennom byarkeologisk empiri.
Redaksjonen: Lise-Marie B Johansen; Jan Brendalsmo; Knut Paasche & Egil Marstein Bauer (red.) har... more Redaksjonen: Lise-Marie B Johansen; Jan Brendalsmo; Knut Paasche & Egil Marstein Bauer (red.) har den store glede å kunne presentere et festskrift til jubilant Petter B. Molaug. Tanken på en gavebok til jubilanten ble møtt med stor entusiasme fra kolleger og venner over det ganske land. Noen har arbeidet sammen med ham siden tidlig på 1970-tallet, da han var ansatt hos riksantikvaren, andre har møtt ham først i de senere årene da han ledet flere av de store utgravingene i Bjørvika som prosjektleder ved Norsk institutt for kulturminneforskning. Mange er de som har kommet i kontakt med Petter gjennom hans artikler og foredrag, og det er utrolig mange som har vært med på hans omvisninger høyt og lavt i gamlebyen. Så å si alle middelalderarkeologer i Skandinavia, samt en rekke andre forskere i Nord-Europa har vært i faglig kontakt med Petter i løpet av en meget lang arkeologisk karriere. Ikledd signalgult verneutstyr har Petter nesten daglig vært å se nede i smale grøfter eller i større utgravningsfelt i gamlebyen. Hans kunnskap om Oslos middelalder har vært til glede og nytte for alle arkeologer som har møtt ham i forbindelse med feltarbeid. Enten vi kjenner ham som foreleser, skribent, sjef, veileder eller sensor har vi alle hatt stor glede av et utrolig faglig engasjement. Denne gaven er således en takk til en sprudlende fagperson med en fantastisk evne til å dele dette engasjementet med alle oss andre.
Redaktør for Klink og seil - Festskrift til Arne Emil Christensen
Torstein Arisholm, Knut Paasche... more Redaktør for Klink og seil - Festskrift til Arne Emil Christensen Torstein Arisholm, Knut Paasche og Trine Lise Wahl (Red)
With the aid of some good colleagues, we've have made an overview over all published articles uti... more With the aid of some good colleagues, we've have made an overview over all published articles utilizing geophysical methods on Norwegian archaeological sites (reports not included). I know its not entirely up to date, and want to invite you all to comment if you know some articles that are not mentioned and should be included in this list. Thank you all in advance. All the best - Arne. LAst updater 02.october 2024
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Papers by Knut Paasche
Torstein Arisholm, Knut Paasche og Trine Lise Wahl (Red)