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Forgotten thousand-year-old cemetery baffles archaeologists: "Unique"
A couple of miles north of Västerås, in the village of Äs, a major archaeological excavation has been underway for some time. The finds excavated from the sand in the ridge arouse great curiosity among archaeologists. - What we found is nothing that we have seen in any early documents. We don't yet know how to interpret the finds, says Ann Vinberg, archaeologist and project manager at the Cultural Environmental Protection Foundation.
Jonas Edberg
EDITOR IN CHIEF
PUBLISHED Monday 08 July 2024 - 14:10
LAST UPDATED Tuesday 09 July 2024 - 21:50
Västerås Tidning received a question earlier in the early summer from Bishop Mikael Mogren if we wanted to go with him and visit an excavation where the archaeologists found an old church.
Of course we wanted to.
But what neither we nor the bishop knew at the time was the extent of the new discoveries made at the site.
One day in the middle of June, together with the bishop, we headed north on Salavägen. After Tillberga we came to the exit towards Äs and there we could find the site for the excavations.
On the sand ridge, among machines and work vehicles belonging to the landowner's contracting company, there was a whole team of archaeologists carefully sitting and delicately scraping out findings in the sand.
In several of the pits, skeletons and skulls were visible - which had been buried for upwards of a thousand years.
Strategic location
We were met by Ann Vinberg and her colleague Oskar Spjuth who quickly and empathetically began to tell and explain what it is where we saw.
- It is a very strategic location, in the middle of the ridge and close to the streams that lead into Lake Mälaren. Here at Åsen, the roads have always gone. In this particular place, we know that there have been settlements since at least the 2nd century AD, and there have also been finds from the Younger Bronze Age (800-900 years before Christ), they said.
What they did not know, however, was that there was a larger cemetery on the site - with an associated church.
When the first graves were discovered, archaeologists thought that a couple of hundred graves, at most, would be found.
But the more they dug - the more graves were found.
- The graves were close together and we found graves in up to four different layers. Several of the skeletons are also very well preserved because they lie in favorable conditions in the sand, says Oskar Spjuth.
Quite quickly the magnitude of the excavation was realized.
- This is a previously completely unknown - and an extremely unusual remains. We very rarely dig up medieval remains in the countryside. To then, as in this case, dig an almost completely complete cemetery is almost unique in Swedish archaeology, says Ann Vinberg.
- In most medieval cemeteries, the parish church still stands, and you normally don't dig there, he says.
The findings raise questions
What has now been found are 800 bodies that have been buried in the time from around the 11th to the 14th century - and the traces of a smaller church building.
The findings raise several questions for archaeologists. Not least: Who were all the people who were buried here? There were only three or four farms on the site, and there is no indication that this many people could have lived on the site.
And why is there nothing documented about the place? In no documents have the archaeologists been able to find traces of any church or burial place in Äs.
In addition, Romfartuna church, which is a stone's throw away, seems to have been built and put into use before this cemetery ceased to be used.
- It is very unusual for church sites to be forgotten in Sweden, says Bishop Mikael Mogren.
Traces of a wooden church on the site
In the middle of the cemetery was the church building, which was a wooden church that the archaeologists have been able to locate through post holes.
Under the church building itself, they have found four graves, some of which are children's graves. The graves under the church itself are among the oldest found at the site.
- It was often the case in those days that churches were built where great men lived, and whoever is buried under the church could be a great man who lived here.
In the excavation of the old church, the archaeologists have also found findings that may indicate that there was also an earlier building on the site - which may have been a holy place in pre-Christian times.
- We therefore believe that this may have been a place of power and cult which later became a church, says Ann Vinberg.
DNA analysis
All the material that the archaeologists get from the excavation will now be examined - and all the skeletons will be DNA analysed. In this way, they hope to get answers to several of the questions surrounding the forgotten cemetery.
Among other things, we will then get more answers about the origin of the people who were buried here - and how they felt.
What is already thought to be traces of is that at least two of the bodies that have been found seem to have originated from the East.
- We haven't found many objects in the graves, but two women we found had copper rings that may have been in their hair, which was common in Slavic culture. So there we suspect that it is two Slavic women that we have found. It was common for the upper classes to marry across borders at this time, even across larger areas, to create alliances, says Oskar Spjuth.
- So it will be very exciting to see what the DNA analysis will show. In a few years we will get an answer, says Ann Vinberg.
When the visit to the excavations begins to suffer towards the end, Bishop Mikael Mogren gets an idea. He wants to bless the place where the altar used to stand - 700 years after the old church was abandoned.
- Thank you for allowing me to come here to this place. Let us go in peace and serve the Lord with joy. Amen!