The discovery was made from bones taken from a complex of more than 40 circular stone graves. They were discovered in the autumn of 2023 on the outskirts of Fredrikstad. This confirmed the existence of Norway’s thousand-year-old children’s cemetery.
Archaeologists discovered circle after circle made of meticulously placed stones. The circles were about one to two meters wide. The stones were placed close together, like paving stones on a street. Several of the graves had a large stone in the center. Beneath them, archaeologists found remains of pottery and burned bones.
High mortality
After examining the bones, the experts were able to announce the biggest surprise: Almost all of the graves belonged to children, except for two graves for adults outside the burial site, according to a statement from the Norwegian History Museum.
Many had died as infants, while others were between three and six years old when they died. The infant mortality rate was probably high in this period. This children’s cemetery is unique in the Norwegian context. It opens up many questions to which the answer is still unknown: Why were children buried in a separate place? Why here? And how was this tradition maintained for several hundred years?
The exhibition includes a reconstructed stone tomb. It offers an insight into the delicate and sometimes emotional work process of the archaeologists who carried out the excavations. Through photographs and video material, visitors can gain insight into the context and significance of the find – and also into the life and death of our predecessors.
Sun cults
The children’s graves date back to the transition between the Bronze Age and the Iron Age. Most of them were buried between 800 and 200 BC. The children’s graves were found in an area rich in cultural heritage, including many rock carvings from this period that speak of travel and sun worship. The newly discovered children’s graves open up new questions about the people who lived at that time.
These excavations began because a local quarry was to be expanded. Archaeologists believed they would find traces of the Stone Age. They had no suspicion that they would find graves from the transition between the Bronze Age and the Iron Age. Norway’s thousand-year-old children’s cemetery was there to surprise them.
