Age graves for south-eastern Norway. They were cremation graves only, rather rich in
weapons and brooches, but without indications of any ‘royal’ connection, or of abundant
wealth or extensive trade (Nicolaysen 1868 ; cf. Blindheim et al. 1981 , 1999 ).
Nicolaysen’s limited results may have been the reason why archaeologists kept away
from Kaupang for many decades. Some minor excavations were conducted, but sub-
stantial progress was not made until Charlotte Blindheim began excavations in 1950.
The low, rocky ridge Bikjholberget had only one small grave mound, but Blindheim
discovered that the number of graves there was higher than in Nicolaysen’s cemetery.
During the following seven years she excavated seventy-four of them, all inhumations in
flat graves, the majority of them in boats. The precise number of excavated graves is hard
to determine, since every small piece of land was utilised for burial, and the digging of
new graves had destroyed some of the older ones.
Flat grave inhumations in boats are rather rare in the region and the number here was
extraordinary, indicating, along with the comparable wealth and abundance of imports,
that the community that buried their dead at Bikjholberget was of a special kind. The
hypothesis that Kaupang was Ohthere’s Skíringssalr was substantiated through these
finds. Bikjholberget still contains many unexcavated graves and Lamøya, the peninsula
east of the harbour, still contains some 94 grave mounds. In addition Blindheim has
collected information about several areas with flat graves at Lamøya. She has estimated
the original number of graves at Kaupang to be about 1 , 000.
Only an excavation of the settlement area could give a definite answer as to whether
Ohthere’s Skíringssalr is to be found at Kaupang. In 1956 Blindheim dug the first
trench in the area she believed to be the settlement area – a gentle slope on the opposite
side of the shallow bay. Over the following eleven years Blindheim excavated close to
1 , 500 m^2 of the settlement, which she estimated to have covered some 40 , 000 m^2. On
the basis of 10 , 000 artefacts she dated the start to the late eighth century and the
abandonment to c. 900 (Tollnes 1998 ). The start date coincided with the earliest datings
of the cemeteries. But the lack of tenth-century finds from the settlement was some-
thing of a puzzle, since both of the excavated cemeteries contained burials right up to
the mid-tenth century.
Despite the discrepancies in datings, the evidence for a substantial non-agrarian
ninth-century settlement at Kaupang was overwhelming. And when Blindheim
published the first summing up of her results in 1969 , she concluded that Ohthere’s
Skíringssalr had been found (see also Blindheim and Tollnes 1972 : 91 ).
WHAT IS SKÍRINGSSALR?But what kind of place is Skíringssalr and what is the meaning of the Old English word
port? Munch ( 1850 ) was the first to confront this issue, followed by Storm ( 1901 ), and it
is these two who have produced the main contributions based on the written evidence.
Blindheim’s excavations created a new basis for discussing these questions. Excavations
and surveys in 1998 – 2003 led by the present author provided even more relevant
evidence, which will be considered in the following.
Blindheim’s excavations brought for the first time substantial information about the
settlement. She found remains that she and her collaborator, architect Roar L. Tollnes
( 1998 ), interpreted as those of five houses, none of which had a permanent hearth. It
would therefore have been impossible to cook there and also to live in them through the
–– Dagfinn Skre––