Wooden building NIKU's archaeologists remove a medieval wooden building from the route of the Follo Line railway

The Follo Line Project

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The new Follo Line railway between Oslo and Ski will go through the remains of Oslo’s medieval town, in an area dominated by railway infrastructure since the 1870s. From 2013 to 2018, NIKU’s archaeologists investigated the route in preparation of the forthcoming construction of the railway culvert.

The archaeological investigations were the biggest in Oslo’s medieval town for over a hundred years, and revealed a large number of buildings, streets, and other infrastructure such as wells, drainage systems, traces of farmland, and property divisions – as well as thousands of artefacts.

NIKU is still carrying out other, smaller archaeological investigations related to the Follo Line project, outside of the main route of the railway culvert.

NIKU’s post-excavation work in connection with the Follo Line project is scheduled to continue into 2021.

  • Status
    In progress
  • Client
    Bane NOR
Graves from St. Nicholas' Church Osteoarchaeologist Anne Østergaard Jensen excavates a skeleton from a double grave.
Wall Stone wall from the Middle Ages - perhaps from the Bishop's Palace?
Street Medieval street in Oslo
Medieval wall The archaeologists believe that this stone wall is from the Bishop's Palace.
Cleaning It is important to clean the surfaces of walls - there may be mason's marks or tool marks hidden under the dirt.
A knight in shining armour Found on the excavation field. A similar figurine is at the Museum of London.
A whetstone puzzle Putting together parts of a medieval whetstone
A loomweight Archaeologist Solfrid Granum studying a loomweight.

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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.

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Rare rune finds in Oslo

In the last week before Christmas two runic inscriptions were unearthed during excavations in Oslo’s old town. One inscription is carved on bone and this is the first bone with runes found in Oslo in more than forty years. The second is carved on wood and contains a religious text in both Norse and Latin.

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Men det er ikke bare en grav, det er det som er så spesielt med den her har det vært tre individer som har vært gravlagt i samme veldig smale grav.

Mass grave mystery in Oslo

NIKU's archaeologists have made an exciting find in Oslo - a grave containing three individuals displaying weapon cuts to the head and neck. The individuals may have been combatants in Norway’s civil war (1130-1240).

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