Borre burial ground

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
One of the burial mounds in Borrepark
One of the burial mounds in Borrepark

The large mounds in the Viking Age burial ground of Borre ( Norwegian Borrehaugene ) in Horten in Vestfold og Telemark on the western bank of the Oslofjord in Norway are supposedly the burial places of Ynglinger kings, who otherwise belong to the Swedish legend kings , but represent the unification of Norway , and how there were connected to the god Freyr .

description

The Vestfold region was a Viking Age center of power for a larger area around the Oslo Fjord. Borre, the eponymous for the Borre style was the 9th and 10th century, has parallels to Uppsala in Sweden and Jelling in Denmark in terms of both age and because of the monumental grave mounds . Uppsala and Jelling were also the seats of royal families that stood for the merger in both countries.

Originally, on the burial ground nine large hill and at least 26 small grave mound raised by Borre. The large mounds were up to 45 m in diameter and over 6 m in height. Two of these large burial mounds have been completely destroyed. During the removal of one of them, in 1852 to extract material for road construction, traces of a ship at least 17 m long and valuable grave goods , dated to around 900 AD, belonging to a man were found.

The Borre burial mounds examined in 1852, as well as the archaeological excavations of Oseberg and Gokstad in the same county, suggest that other burial mounds of Borre may also be ship graves.

Borre's oldest burial mounds date from the 7th century and the burial ground was in use for about 400 years. The Icelandic historian Snorri Sturluson wrote that u. a. Halfdan Svarte (829–860) were buried near Borre. Apparently the Vestfold kings lived in Borre. The approximately three meter high Spellemannshaugen (also called Kjellervenda) has a diameter of about 30.0 m and is located south of the burial ground.

Hall buildings and port

In 2007, a geophysical prospecting was carried out on behalf of the Vestfold Provincial Administration just outside Borrepark . The measurements with ground penetrating radar and magnetometer led to the discovery of the remains of two large hall buildings . These were the first significant archaeological finds of settlement traces made in the Borre area.

In 2013, large-scale ground radar measurements carried out with a snowmobile led to the discovery of remains of another large hall hidden in the ground . The investigations are part of an international research and development project for non-destructive, large-scale prospecting by the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Archaeological Prospection and Virtual Archeology (LBI ArchPro) in cooperation with its European partners, in Norway the Norwegian Institute for Monument Research (NIKU) and Vestfold Provincial Administration.

In 2015 Erich Draganits et al. the localization of the prehistoric port of Borre based on the analysis of geomorphological structures.

The Borre style (or gripping animal style) is one of the early medieval art from the 9th to 10th century style resulting phase it is named after Borre.

literature

  • Bjørn Myhre: For Viken ble Norge. Borregravfeltet the religious and political arena arena. Norske Oldfunn XXXI Tønsberg 2015

Web links

Commons : Borreparken  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kongsgård funnet i Borre , December 5, 2007 (Norwegian)
  2. ↑ Fant Kongsgården på Borre , Aftenposten, December 5, 2007 (Norwegian)
  3. ↑ Sensasjonsfunn på Borre etter søk med snøscooter , Tønsberg Blad, May 24, 2013 (Norwegian)
  4. ^ Port of the Chiefs - Kingdom of the Dead Press release of the LBI ArchPro
  5. ↑ Erich Draganits et al .: The late Nordic Iron Age and Viking Age royal burial site of Borre in Norway: ALS- and GPR-based landscape reconstruction and harbor location at an uplifting coastal area , Quaternary International 367, 2015, p. 96– 110 (English)

Coordinates: 59 ° 22 ′ 57.2 ″  N , 10 ° 28 ′ 18 ″  E