notes the farm Kaupang in the same parish. The name of this farm, which literally means
‘trade-bay’, indicates, he writes, that there was once a harbour for trade and seaways
transport there (Kraft 1822 ).
The cartographer and historian Gerhard Munthe, who came to Kaupang in the mid-
1830 s, was the first to link Kraft’s information to Ohthere’s account. In his study of
geographical details in the sagas of the Norse kings he provides additional information
about the excellent harbour and the enormous number of grave mounds on the farm
(Munthe 1838 ). Peter Andreas Munch ( 1850 ) drew further on this information,
involving a number of written sources, and pointing out the possibility of several
Ynglinga kings, the mythical lineage of the Norwegian kings, being buried there. He
strongly supported Munthe’s conclusion that Ohthere’s port is to be found at Kaupang,
and it is fair to say that this contribution exhausted the potential in the written sources
for reaching a decision on the matter.
In 1866 the antiquarian Nicolay Nicolaysen began a series of large annual
excavations. Solving the Skíringssalr puzzle must have been high on his agenda. In 1867
he began his excavations at Kaupang. In four weeks he excavated 71 of the then 115
remaining mounds north of the settlement and 8 mounds on a small cemetery south of
the settlement. Nicolaysen must have hoped to find the royal graves that Munch had
suggested should be there. The results were disappointing in both respects. Half the
mounds were without finds and the rest contained what may be called ‘normal’ Viking
Figure 8. 3. 1 Digital model of the Kaupang area looking towards the north. The Viking Age sea level,
3. 5 m above present, is recreated. The settlement area is surrounded by vast cemeteries. About 1 km
north of the settlement, at Huseby, an aristocratic residence was excavated. The hall was built a few
decades before the town was established and it was taken down some time at the beginning of the tenth
century. A further kilometre north is an ancient assembly site named Þjóðalyng. The assembly site is
situated on the shore of a lake called Vítrir or Vettrir, which probably means ‘the lake where vættr
(supernatural beings) dwell’. A cliff on the shore of the lake bears the name Helgefjell, ‘the holy
mountain’. This complex of assembly place, sacred lake and mountain probably goes back to the Iron Age
(second to sixth centuries). (Copyright © Kaupang Excavation Project, University of Oslo.)
–– chapter 8 ( 3 ): Kaupang – ‘Skíringssalr’––