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Dozens of iron rivets scattered around a Fannie Farmer ’s field in Norway could be part of aVikingship inhumation , archaeologists say .
In 2015 , a metal detectorist discovered three of the stud while explore Jarlsberg Manor in southeastern Norway . After the detectorist alerted assurance to the discovery , a team of archaeologists fit with alloy - detect equipment deign on the field and unearthed seven more rivets , Science Norwayreported .
Examples of some of the iron rivets archaeologists discovered in the field.
Now , nearly nine years by and by , archaeologists have unearthed a totality of 70 rivets . ground on the size of the alloy pieces , researchers conceive the rivets were used to support together wood planks measuring about 8 feet ( 2.5 metre ) long , suggesting a clean turgid Viking Age ship was forget there .
" We ’ve discover a great variation of rivet , with the long ace so big that they must have arrive from a large ship , " excavation leaderChristian Løchsen Rødsrud , an advisor for the Museum of Cultural History at the University of Oslo in Norway , state Live Science . " The bigger ones are like to other forget ships we ’ve find at Gokstad andOseberg , " two other situation with burial mounds in Norway .
Rødsrud estimates that the ship was between 49 and 75 feet ( 15 and 23 m ) long . However , researchers can not approximate a date for the ship because there is no surviving organic affair they canradiocarbon - particular date .
The excavation site is located in a farmer’s field in Norway.
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" We ’ve tested the topsoil but have n’t found anything yet , " Rødsrud said . " I would estimate that it ’s from sometime between A.D. 750 and 1000 . "
In addition to the rivets , archaeologists discovered two Equus caballus crampoon — spikes that would have been attach to the animals ' hooves for traction in " glacial conditions . " research worker are n’t surprised that they found equestrian items at the website , considering that Equus caballus swallow alongside ship is a " recurring theme in Viking Age burial customs and are a typical phenomen[on ] one would expect in a ship burial , " Science Norway describe .
In fact , there have beennumerous accountsof archaeological excavation in whichVikings have been buried with their trustworthy steeds .
There are about 15 known Viking ship entombment in Norway . Although there ’s no definitive consensus on why Vikings buried their ship , they may have believed that the vessels could be used in the hereafter , according to theUniversity of Cambridge ’s Department of Anglo - Saxon , Norse and Celtic .
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It ’s too other in the investigation to know who the ship belonged to , Rødsrud said , but some evidence points to a Viking king .
" The ship could have been Bjørn Farmann ’s , who was the Billie Jean Moffitt King of Vestfold , " Rødsrud say .
Between 1917 and 1918 , Norse archaeologist A.W. Brøgger find out a different burial mound on the other side of the field and knight it the Farmann mound . He was convert that a ship was buried here , but he uncover only spades and a coping stone during his excavation , Science Norway report .
But whether Brøgger ’s suspicion was right remains to be seen . " It ’s too soon to tell , " Rødsrud said .
