A stone-lined tomb from 4,000 years ago was discovered by archaeologists in Norway during construction work in the area.
Excavation Findings
Researchers from the University Museum of Bergen have been handling excavations since April at the location of a new Selje hotel. They were able to find prehistoric dwelling hints and trash heaps containing animal bones. They were also able to discover a blade sickle, which is a type of stone tool, and some small beads of shells.
However, the most unique and distinct discovery they made is a huge stone-lined tomb. The distinct tomb was found to contain skeletons of at least five individuals.
4,000-year-old Stone-Lined Tomb
The archaeologists call the burial a cist tomb. Carbon dating has shown that it dates to between B.C. 2140 and 2000.
The tomb measures roughly 3 meters by 1.5 meters and stands at a height of one meter. It contains two chambers that hold burial evidence. These include an elderly man's remains who appeared to have arthritis, a young woman, and a toddler who was two years old. Other bones that were clustered together suggest that the remains of two other individuals were taken away in order to accommodate burials of other people.
Hints of Early Farmers
The beginning of agriculture can be traced back to the Middle East roughly 12,000 years ago. It took a while for the practices to arrive in Norway where people have practiced a fishing and nomadic lifestyle for millennia.
In Norwegian archaeology, two massive areas of interest include the identities of the earliest farmers and how agriculture took hold.
The burial's Late Neolithic dating and the blade sickle's presence serves as proof that some of the first farmers from western Norway settled in Selje.
Yvonne Dahl, who is a member of the archaeological team, explains that the cist offers the opportunity to delve into the people who became the earliest farmers. Dahl explains that it is the first kind of discovery in Norway's west coast.
However, across eastern Norway, cist tombs similar to this one are quite common, especially since people in this area were already adapting agricultural practices.
For a long time, archaeologists have thought that the stone cist funeral tradition came from Denmark's Jutland peninsula before communities of farmers brought it all the way to Sweden and Norway.
Further DNA testing on the skeletons could shed light on whether these individuals moved from the west with eastern farming knowledge or whether they were locals who chose to farm. These tests should also shed light on the possible biological relations of these people.
Dahl explains that despite being situated at the coast, Selje is a clear meeting area for individuals. Thousands of years ago, the exchange of ideas, goods, and people could have been the case.
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