The Myklebust burial mound also known locally as Rundehogjen or Lisje Skjoratippen (Norwegian:

Nynorsk Nynorsk (; ) is one of the two official written standards of the Norwegian language, the other being Bokmål. From 12 May 1885, it became the state-sanctioned version of Ivar Aasen's standard Norwegian language (''Landsmål''), parallel to the Da ...

) or simply Mound 1 is a burial mound from the

Viking age The Viking Age (about ) was the period during the Middle Ages when Norsemen known as Vikings undertook large-scale raiding, colonising, conquest, and trading throughout Europe and reached North America. The Viking Age applies not only to their ...

. It is located in

Nordfjordeid Nordfjordeid is the administrative centre of the municipality of Stad, Norway, Stad in Vestland county, western Norway. It is located at the end of the Eidsfjorden, an arm of the main Nordfjorden (Sogn og Fjordane), Nordfjorden, west of the large ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

. The mound is one of the seven major

Viking Vikings were seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway, and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded, and settled throughout parts of Europe.Roesdahl, pp. 9� ...

burial mounds A tumulus (: tumuli) is a mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds, mounds, howes, or in Siberia and Central Asia as ''kurgans'', and may be found throughout much of the world. ...

in Norway, of which it is the only cremation grave. The mound was where the remains of the Myklebust ship was discovered; Possibly the largest Viking ship in the world. It is assumed to have been the final resting place of King Audbjørn of Firda.

Etymology

The name Myklebust comes from the

old Norse Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants ...

mikill meaning large, and bólstadr meaning farm. This name can be found several places in Norway and usually refers to the largest farm in a given area. The Myklebust farm in

was the largest in the region, and is assumed to have been the seat of power. The modern name Myklebust is an evolution of the older Myklebostad.

Location

The Myklebust mound is located on the Myklebust farm in

. The mound can be found in the town centre, west of the Eidsgata street. It is surrounded by a field that has been used primarily for grazing. The field has been scanned by

ground-penetrating radar Ground-penetrating radar (GPR) is a geophysical method that uses radar pulses to image the subsurface. It is a non-intrusive method of surveying the sub-surface to investigate underground utilities such as concrete, asphalt, metals, pipes, cables ...

showing evidence of a large farm with several structures and production establishments from the Viking age. There was a total of 5 mounds on the farm, only two remain today. The mound is approximately 250 meters north of the Sagastad Viking Center that houses a reconstruction of the Myklebust ship and an exhibition on the finds on the Myklebust farm.

Excavations

The mound has been excavated twice. The original excavation was performed in 1874 by Anders Lorange. In 2024 a second excavation was performed by the

University of Bergen The University of Bergen () is a public university, public research university in Bergen, Norway. As of 2021, the university had over 4,000 employees and 19,000 students. It was established by an act of parliament in 1946 consolidating several sci ...

in cooperation with the

Norwegian Directorate for Cultural Heritage The Directorate for Cultural Heritage ( or ''Direktoratet for kulturminneforvaltning'') is a etat, government agency responsible for the management of cultural heritage in Norway. Subordinate to the Norwegian Ministry of the Environment, it mana ...

in preparation for a possible nomination as a

UNESCO World Heritage site World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...

Original excavation in 1874

Anders Lorange was the first archaeologist at the

. Lorange travelled to Nordfjordeid in 1874 to investigate the Myklebust mound. He dug a trench into the mound, covering roughly 1/4 of the total volume. Lorange found a massive layer of coal assumed to be the remains of a Viking long ship. There was two layers of ash, Lorange assumed this was due to the ends of the ship collapsing and then being moved onto the rest of the ship. He then found around 750 iron ship rivets and nails. The length of the nails confirmed that the ship was of a formidable size. Much larger than

Gokstad The Gokstad Mound (Norwegian: Gokstadhaugen) is a large burial mound at Gokstad Farm in Sandefjord (formerly Sandar municipality) in Vestfold County, Norway. It is also known as the King's Mound (''Kongshaugen'') and is where the 9th century Gok ...

and Oseberg. In addition Lorange found a total of 44

shield boss A shield boss, or umbo (), is a round, convex or conical piece of material at the centre of a shield. Shield bosses (or sometimes, just "bosses") are usually made of thick metal but could also be made of wood. The boss was originally designed t ...

es. The number of bosses was taken as further evidence of the large size of the ship, as they give an indication of the number of rowers on the ship. The ship was named the Myklebust ship after the farm where the mound is located. In addition Lorange found an enamelled bronze vessel. The vessel contained the skeleton of a male between 30 and 35 years of age. On top of the bowl there was 12 further shield bosses that covered it. It is assumed that the 12 shield bosses belonged to the kings

Hird The hird (also named "De Håndgangne Menn" in Norwegian), in Scandinavian history, was originally an informal retinue of personal armed companions, hirdmen or housecarls. Over time, it came to mean not only the nucleus ('Guards') of the royal arm ...

. In addition to this Lorange found a large amount of further items, ranging from

swords A sword is an edged, bladed weapon intended for manual cutting or thrusting. Its blade, longer than a knife or dagger, is attached to a hilt and can be straight or curved. A thrusting sword tends to have a straighter blade with a pointed ti ...

, long bows and spears to glass beads, combs, tools and animal remains. In total this was one of the richest grave finds in Norway to date. Once the excavation was completed Lorange refilled the mound leaving it as close to the original as possible. During the second excavation in 2024 the archaeologists discovered that Lorange had left a glass bottle with a letter for future archaeologists. It is speculated that the man buried here is King Audbjørn of Firda. Audbjørn lived during the mid

9th century The 9th century was a period from 801 (represented by the Roman numerals DCCCI) through 900 (CM) in accordance with the Julian calendar. The Carolingian Renaissance and the Viking raids occurred within this period. In the Middle East, the H ...

, concurrent with the dating of the artefacts. He is mentioned in Snorri's Saga on

Harald Fairhair Harald Fairhair (; – ) was a Norwegian king. According to traditions current in Norway and Iceland in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, he reigned from 872 to 930 and was the first Monarchy of Norway, King of Norway. Supposedly, two ...

. According to the sagas Audbjørn fell during the

Second battle of Solskjel The second battle of Solskjell was an engagement in Harald Fairhair's conquest of Norway. After the First Battle of Solskjel, Solve Klove, son of Huntiof, King of Nordmøre, set himself up as a pirate and spent that winter raiding and plunderi ...

in 870. The evidence in the grave confirms it is a cremation grave for someone of great importance. Many parallels can be drawn to the burial customs of the

Volga Vikings The Varangians ( ; ; ; , or )Varangian
," Online Etymology Dictionary were

Ahmad ibn Fadlan Ahmad ibn Fadlan ibn al-Abbas al-Baghdadi () or simply known as Ibn Fadlan, was a 10th-century traveler from Baghdad, Abbasid Caliphate, famous for his account of his travels as a member of an embassy of the Abbasid caliph al-Muqtadir to the king ...

in the

10th century The 10th century was the period from 901 (represented by the Roman numerals CMI) through 1000 (M) in accordance with the Julian calendar, and the last century of the 1st millennium. In China, the Song dynasty was established, with most of C ...

. As there is no other named person with the status required for such a ritual, and that the Myklebust farm was of great importance in

Firda ''Firda'' is a Norwegian daily newspaper, published in Sunnfjord, Norway. History and profile ''Firda'' was founded in 1917 by Kristian Ulltang, who also was its first editor. The paper was published twice per week in the 1960s. Its frequency ...

one can conclude that it is highly likely the burial of Audbjørn.

Second excavation in 2024

In April 2024 the Director General of the

announced that they would begin surveying whether Norway's Viking Age burial mounds should be placed on Norway's tentative list for

UNESCO World Heritage World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an international treaty A treaty is a formal, legally binding written agreement between sovereign states and/or international organizations that is governed by int ...

. The Myklebust mound was pointed out as one of the seven great mounds in Norway that were appropriate for such a nomination. As the excavation from 1874 was lacking it was decided that a new excavation would be performed. The first opening of a ship burial in over 100 years in Norway. The dig was started exactly 150 years after Lorange's excavation. The excavation was performed during October 2024. The dig followed Lorange's original trench although a slightly larger area was surveyed. The archaeologists from the

in cooperation with the

University of Stavanger The University of Stavanger ( Norwegian: '','' UiS) is a public research university located in Stavanger, Norway. It was established in 2005 when the Stavanger University College received university status. The university is organised in six f ...

made several new discoveries. Among the discoveries was an additional 600 ship rivets, 4 shield bosses, a bronze ring of Keltic origin and a glass bottle containing a message from Anders Lorange himself. Before opening the mound a survey was performed by

. The radar scans highlighted an area on the mound that was different to the rest, this was assumed to be the original trench. Once dig began this was confirmed to be correct. After surveying the dig for a week the mound was closed, and reconstructed to its original form.

Ground-penetrating radar survey

The survey indicated a Viking village was located directly north of the mound. In total the radar and

metal detector A metal detector is an instrument that detects the nearby presence of metal. Metal detectors are useful for finding metal objects on the surface, underground, and under water. A metal detector consists of a control box, an adjustable shaft, and ...

survey indicated potentially upwards of 8000 unique artefacts.

References

{{Reflist Viking Age Nordfjordeid Burial monuments and structures