Norway

In this interview for EXARC, Rickard Åkesson converses with fellow Viking enthusiast Vicky Mikalsen. They share how Viking history became a passion, and how they have been involved with events, conferences and living history. Many of you know Rickard Åkesson as a re-enactor for the last 20+ years...

Back in 2020, I wrote an article entitled The Shroud of Turin and the Extra Sheds of Warping Threads (Olsen, 2020). When I was studying the weaving theory, I realised that it might be possible to weave 8-end satin with five rods on the warp-weighted loom. To date, I have not encountered any historical find showing satin woven on a warp-weighted loom...

The Norwegian forum for experimental archaeology (NFEA) 2023 was held on the 15th and 16th of September at Tingvatn Fornminnepark in Agder, Norway. Tingvatn, a part of the Vestagder museum, is well known in Norway as a museum where the main focus lies on experimental archeology and historical crafts. The director of Tingvatn fornminnepark, Katja Regevik, organized the seminar...

In recent years there has been a renewed interest in the arrowheads used in the Viking Age and their distribution. The 187 excavation of Viking graves in the Black Earth of Birka region of Sweden, re-examined in 2019 by Price (Price, et al., 2019) and the finding of arrows and arrowheads where glaciers have melted in Norway, prompted my research into the forging techniques of specific arrowheads from these...

In this article, the intention is to show the documentations behind the reconstruction of a tablet woven band from the Oseberg discovery catalogued as 13B2. Parts of the band are well preserved, and it is possible to interpret motifs and techniques with considerable confidence. Some parts are poorly preserved and are not possible to interpret clearly...

Hearth formation processes are complex. They involve multiple actions, reactions, and activities before, during, and after an active fire and can also impact a wide range of materials and sediments at an archaeological site. Archaeologists approach combustion features and formation processes from multiple analytical perspectives...

After several years of archaeological excavations at Borg in Lofoten in the 1980s, Lofotr Viking Museum was established in 1995. The excavations uncovered an 83-meter longhouse dated to the Viking age. A copy of this longhouse, together with a copy of the Gokstad Viking ship, were built to make the core of the new museum above the arctic circle. Lofotr Viking Museum grew bigger as the years went by...

The ReConference 2018 took place from 2nd to 4th of November at the National Museum in Copenhagen and attracted interested people from all over the world. It was the successor to the first ReConference in 2017 in Moscow, organised by the group Ratobor, which was again involved in the organisation of the new event together with "Hands on History"...

The Norwegian Forum of Experimental Archaeology (NFEA) 2020 was held between the 18-20th of September at Midgard Viking Centre in Horten, Vestfold and Telemark County in Norway. Midgard Viking centre, one of the museums falling under Vestfoldmuseene, has a strong emphasis on living history and collaboration with volunteer groups, using living history as a tool to create an immersive experience...

Bone fishhooks have occasionally been retrieved from bone assemblages at coastal sites dating to the Middle Mesolithic phase (8300-6300 cal. BC) in Southern Norway and Western Sweden. Several studies of fishhooks from these sites have been undertaken in recent years. Fishhooks can be manufactured from different osseous materials, including antler, ribs and shafts of different long bones...