Considerable amounts of iron nails were found inside and outside the church. They
are not from coffins, but may be from the church construction, perhaps from a board
ceiling. The church is surrounded by graves on all sides, except to the west, where the
terrain slopes abruptly. Areas without graves on the southern and northern side of the
western part of the nave may indicate doors in the nave walls. The number of graves in
the churchyard has been estimated to around 100. The graves seem to have an east–west
orientation. Just a few graves were investigated, and they turned out to differ as to
construction and other details. A few graves were found inside the church, including
four children’s graves. Men, women and children are buried in the churchyard.
The present parish church lies 1 km west of Skt Nikolaj Bjerg. This church, Sebber
church, which was probably originally part of a Benedictine monastery, was first men-
tioned in 1268 , but is probably older. It may have replaced the stone church on Skt
Nikolaj Bjerg.
DATINGSThe trade and crafts settlement came into existence around ad 700 and seems to have
existed until the early twelfth century. The settlement appears to have flourished in the
eleventh century (Christensen and Johansen 1992 : 211 f.). Scientific dating methods
indicate that the wooden church was built in the first quarter of the eleventh century
and was probably given up during the second half of the twelfth century. It is an obvious
conclusion that the building of the wooden church was connected to the activities in the
trading settlement. The church was probably built by a local chieftain. The stone church
probably existed from the late eleventh century until around 1200. Thus, the two
churches may have functioned contemporarily. If this is the case, we are facing some very
essential problems concerning the founder and users of the stone church.
BIBLIOGRAPHYBirkedahl, P.B. ( 2000 ) ‘Sebbersund’, in S. Hvass (ed.) Vor skjulte kulturarv. Arkæologien under
overfladen, Copenhagen and Højbjerg: Det Kongelige Nordiske Oldskriftsselskab og Jysk
Arkæologisk Selskab.
Birkedahl, P. and Johansen, E. ( 1993 ) ‘Nikolajbjerget’, Skalk, 1993 ( 1 ): 3 – 8.
——( 1995 ) ‘The Sebbersund boat-graves’, in O. Crumlin-Petersen and B.M. Thye (eds) The Ship
as Symbol in Prehistoric and Medieval Scandinavia (Publications from the National Museum.
Studies in Archaeology and History 1 ), Copenhagen: National Museum.
——( 2000 ) ‘The eastern Limfjord in the Germanic Iron Age and the Viking period: internal
structures and external relations’, in S.S. Hansen and K. Randsborg (eds) Vikings in the West
(= Acta Archaeologica, 71 ), Oxford: Blackwell.
Christensen, P.B. and Johansen, E. ( 1992 ) ‘En handelsplads fra yngre jernalder og vikingetid ved
Sebbersund’, Aarbøger for Nordisk Oldkyndighed og Historie ( 1991 ): 199 – 229.
Nielsen, J.N. ( 2002 ) Sebbersund. Handel, håndværk og kristendom ved Limfjorden, Aalborg: Aalborg
Historiske Museum.
——( 2004 ) ‘Sebbersund—tidlige kirker ved Limfjorden’, in N. Lund (ed.) Kristendommen i
Danmark før 1050 , Roskilde: Roskilde Museum Forlag.
–– chapter 8 ( 7 ): Sebbersund––