Day 19, 12.07.2018

Today is our last day of work at the excavation site since we are leaving Borre tomorrow morning. Until lunch time we finished the excavation and documentation of the last archaeological features. Ingrid took the last photographs of the campaign, Fabian documented the bottom surfaces with the 3D laser scanner and Martin surveyed the last points with the total station. Meanwhile the students finished their written descriptions of the final pits and all our findings are being photographed. The whole documentation data and the finds will remain in Norway.

After the lunch break it is time for cleaning all our tools and technical equipment, remove our big tent and store everything in the containers for the long journey to Vienna. It is a busy afternoon and everybody is a bit sentimental and blue – these four weeks in Borre passed so quickly. Despite the hard work and the unnatural hot summer weather we had a fun and exciting time and learned a lot for our future life in archaeology. Thanks to our Professor Dr. Wolfgang Neubauer and the norwegian colleagues in Vestfold, who arranged so many unique experiences, interesting trips and lectures besides the excavation, it became a true viking experience. Although we did not actually find much from the Viking Age at our excavation site.

Day 18, 11.07.2018

We can´t believe it, but today is actually one of the last days of work on the site. There are still some archaeological structures that have to be unearthed before we document the area for the last time and leave the site for destruction. In the northern part Marco, Julie and Vali are still working on their pits and also the flak has to be cleaned for the final photographic documentation. Meanwhile a excavator is already digging into the drainage and we are checking it for any remains. Besides that some of us are working on smaller pits all around or sieving the earth from the cooking pit.

Today the filmcrew made the last shots with the documentation team and interviewed Dr. Wolfgang Neubauer. Today we had nearly 35 degrees on the excavation site, so Wolfgang brought us some ice cream (to keep the motivation high). After work we decided to go to the beach at Åsgårdstrand to cool off and relax a little.

Day 17, 10.07.2018

In the next two days a filmcrew from ORF and Interspot Film is going to shoot on our excavation site. They are currently filming for the (austrian) documentation series Universum History on an international special about the Viking Age slave trade. The working title for the documentation is “Victims of the Vikings” and is going to be released in 2020.

At our site they are filming the whole excavation process, from the first scratch to the final documentation with the 3D laser scanner and photography. The main piece in the filming process is the excavation of the cooking pit in the northern part of our site, which is excavated by Julie and Marco. The pit contained a lot of charcoal and stones and we found many small animal bones in it. Because of the tiny parts we had to sieve the whole earth we took out of the pit.

Day 16, 09.07.2018

The last week of our excavation started with the weather we all longed for in the last couple of weeks – we had 20 degrees and it was cloudy the whole day long. Good conditions for the photo documentation (no shadows and diffuse light) and also the excavating itself got a little easier. But unfortunately an impressive thunderstorm broke out in the afternoon and we had to clear the site and save the unfinished objects under covers. On the one hand we were glad to finish at 4pm, but on the other hand we only have two days left for completing the whole excavation area. Are we going to finish in time? It is going to be exciting…

Day 15, 06.07.2018

It is the end of the third week and everyone is a little exhausted from the hot summer weather (nearly 30 degrees every day). We definitly need some fun and relaxation to clear our minds. Therefor Wolfgang and Kari suggested to spend our lunch break at the nearby viking market that is currently taking place at Borre park. The whole team was stunned by the atmosphere and the superfriendly people at the market, so we decided to come back after work. We spend some time straying through the market, get to know some of the viking reenactors and the merchants and tasting some viking delights.

A special thanks to Erich Draganits and his drone we have great pictures of our entire excvation site from above.

Day 13, 04.07.2018, Part I

Today we welcomed visitors and the press to our open excavation day at site. Terje Gansum and Wolfgang Neubauer presented the whole site and some special archaeological structures. The interns of the LBI ArchPro presented the highlights of our finds at Borre and gave a quick presentation of the digital documentation on site.

Samuel, who is responsible for the finds, displayed a couple of them, while Fabian gave a short introduction to 3D Laserscanning. Inside our tent Leo and Ingrid gave a quick overview about the importance of documentation on excavations, photographic documentation and the Harris Matrix composer. 

Day 12, 03.07.2018

This week geologist Erich Draganits from the University of Vienna spends some time with us at the excavation site. He already had a significant role in the discovery of the Borre harbor facility by assigning the rock material found in the two bulwarks to the remains of a former glacier. By examining the excavation area, he hopes to be able to date the different rock depositions of the prehistoric shoreline in Borre more precisely.

Tomorrow is going to be the open excavation day, where interested visitors have the chance to take a look into the archaeological work at Borre. We are going to present our site, the first results of the investigation and the findings, as well as an insight into digital documentation methods.

>> Special thanks to Kari from Midgard Vikingsenter, whos been cooking so many real delicious things for us. Today she made a turkey (with a tasty filling), pasta salad and veggies for lunch.

Day 11, 02.07.2018

Today a deligation from the documentation department of the Cultural Museum in Oslo visited our excavation site. Our team of interns gave an insight into our documentation methods and procedures, as well as the technical equipment we are using. Fabian scanned the whole group on site to show them how quick our 3D scanner and its software works. Terje Gansum and Wolfgang Neubauer also presented the recent discoveries and finds at our site.

After our visitors from Oslo left, the work continued as usual – and Clemens had to realize how deep a post hole can be. On the photo above you can see Clemens cleaning the hole with a vacuum cleaner for the photo documentation afterwards.

Day 10, 29.06.2018

Today the students completed the excavation of some smaller archaeological structures such as pits and postholes. In the meantime we teamed up to work on the large circular structure in the middle of the trench. Based on the shape and findings within, the structure could be identified as part of an air defense system from World War II (anti-aircraft gun). A variety of military artifacts from World War II were examined and unearthed in this area. Among them were the rusty parts of the anti-aircraft artillery, iron lids of ammunition boxes, shells, granades and wires. In addition, a layer of tar paper, a broken glass bottle, melted glass and large pieces of wood were found. The finds were documented „in situ“, meaning that the artifacts were photographed and surveyed in their original position before being removed. Together we have made great progress this week. Hopefully, we will finally be able to complete the excavation at the flak position in the upcoming week.

After a long and productive week it is time for the well-earned weekend.

Day 9, 29.06.2018

At our excavation site we use a terrestrial long range 3D Laser Scanner from RIEGL (VZ400i) to survey every archaeological structure before and after we excavate it. The laser scanner generates a high-resolution point cloud of its surroundings with a range of about 800m in just a few minutes. In the evening the interns from LBI ArchPro are postprocessing the data. Quite often the Scanner captures funny moments: On the scan above we can see Leo moisturizing the soil for the photographic documentation, while Christer Tonning (Kulturarv) is measuring the outline from a structure and a team of students documenting.

In the evening we had a very interesting lecture with Ragnar Orten Lie from Kulturarv/Vestfold fylkeskommune. He told us of blacksmiths, their ambiguous role in society and the connection between smithies and caves in Norway. As a second topic he presented the problems with finds from modern day Viking Markets and (Black Metal) Festivals on historic ground. At the historic site of Borre the archaeologists have to struggle with lots of items, for example Thors hammer pendants, which are manufactured by present day smiths and lost by reenactors, merchants and visitors during these annual festivals.