Hundreds of boat nails discovered during excavations in 2023 have given archaeologists reason to fundamentally rethink the founding and early history of Oslo. What for decades has been interpreted as a medieval fortress beneath the royal estate, may instead be the remains of a Viking Age boat grave, constructed around a hundred years before the city was formally founded.
Mongolian herders work together in herding groups known as Khot ail, a form of cooperation that dates back to the 12th century. Today, this traditional system has gained renewed relevance as herders confront climate change and increasing urbanisation.
Menstruation is mysterious, stigmatised, and rarely mentioned in historical sources. To understand how women handled this bloody challenge in the Middle Ages, we need to look at archaeological material. Archaeologist Sunniva Wilberg Halvorsen has studied sanitary products from a medieval latrine in Tønsberg.
An unknown medieval structure has emerged just meters from Selja Monastery. The find may shed new light on life and activity on the island during the monastic period.
Analyses of the skeleton retrieved from the well at Sverresborg in Trondheim in 2016 shed new light on a dramatic story from King Sverre’s saga. Now, researchers know how old the man was, what he looked like, and where in Norway he was from.
Call for papers for the conference Linking Places in the Emerging Viking Age in Oslo October 17-18th. The submission deadline is 31st May.
The Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research (NIKU) and AutoAgri are launching a revolutionary self-driving ground penetrating radar (GPR) for archaeological survey. The technology promises increased efficiency, climate friendly solutions, and accurate mapping of hitherto undiscovered cultural heritage.
A new international project is to explore how cultural heritage, monuments and the professionals involved in their safeguarding, can be better protected during times of war.
A major research project seeks to find out how cultural heritage in arctic and alpine environments degrade and how they can be preserved.
The Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research invites researchers, heritage professionals and other interested groups to a week of workshops and lectures based on our collaborations with partners from The University of Stirling and The University of Edinburgh.
Marius Warg Næss from NIKU’s High North Departement at The Fram Centre has received funding from the European research council as one of nine Norwegian researchers. The next five years, he will study how political complexity can evolve from small-scale cooperative groups in nomadic pastoral societies.
At Gjellestad in Norway, archaeologists from the Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research (NIKU) have found a 60 metre longhouse. There is no longer a doubt that Gjellestad, where the same team discovered a Viking ship in 2018, has been a central place in the late Nordic Iron Age. In the next few years, researchers will hopefully find the answer to how Gjellestad became such an important place.
