Ancient Places

A new study has confirmed that the Herlaugshaugen burial mound on the island of Leka, off the coast of Norway, contains one of Scandinavia's oldest ship burials. Dated to around AD 700, the find predates the traditionally recognized start of the Viking Age by nearly a century and provides a vital chronological link between the famous early seventh-century ship burials of Anglo-Saxon England (most notably Sutton Hoo) and the later, well-known Norwegian ship mounds of the Viking Age. The discovery challenges long-held assumptions about when and where monumental ship burial traditions took hold in Scandinavia, and reveals the extent of early medieval maritime networks across the North Sea. A Mound Steeped in Legend Herlaugshaugen is one of Norway's largest burial