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Lost Secrets - an adventure during Neolithic times

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<< Text Pages >> Hamresanden - Ancient Village or Settlement in Norway in Telemark

Submitted by Andy B on Sunday, 10 October 2010  Page Views: 7486

Multi-periodSite Name: Hamresanden
Country: Norway Fylke: Telemark Type: Ancient Village or Settlement
Nearest Town: Kristiansand  Nearest Village: Hamre
Latitude: 58.191060N  Longitude: 8.076040E
Condition:
5Perfect
4Almost Perfect
3Reasonable but with some damage
2Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site
1Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks
0No data.
-1Completely destroyed
no data Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
no data Access:
5Can be driven to, probably with disabled access
4Short walk on a footpath
3Requiring a bit more of a walk
2A long walk
1In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find
0No data.
no data Accuracy:
5co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates
4co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map
3co-ordinates scaled from a bad map
2co-ordinates of the nearest village
1co-ordinates of the nearest town
0no data
2
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Norwegian archaeologists have unearthed a Neolithic "mini Pompeii" at a campsite near the North Sea, they announced this week. Discovered at Hamresanden, not far from Kristiansand’s airport at Kjevik in southern Norway, the settlement has remained undisturbed for 5,500 years, buried under three feet of sand.

“We expected to find an 'ordinary' Scandinavian Stone Age site, badly preserved and small. Instead, we discovered a unique site, buried under a thick sand layer,” lead archaeologist Lars Sundström, of the Museum of Cultural History at the University in Oslo, told Discovery News.

Digging about 80 meters (262 feet) from the shoreline, in the headland formed by the river Topdalselva and the North Sea, Sundström’s team first unearthed what appears to be the remains of a walled structure.

“So far, we have evidence of a 30-meter (98.5-foot) bank made from sand mixed with clay and silt. We believe that this bank has been shoveled up against a wooden wall in order to support it," Sundström said.

The structure, whose length continues beyond the limits of the excavation trenches, is made of large stones.

"They must have been carried from some distance, since the area is devoid of stone naturally," Sundström said.

Most likely a seasonal aggregation site conveniently located between a river and the sea, the settlement is filled with shards of beaker-shaped vessels, many of which could be restored to the original state.

Highly decorated with the use of stamps, mostly cords used to form patterns, the pottery belong to the earliest phase of the Trichterrandbecherkultur (TRB) , or Funnel-Beaker Culture. This is a late Neolithic culture which spread in north-central Europe between 4000 and 2700 B.C.

“The pottery has allowed us to date the site to between 4000 – 3600 B.C. We found it on top of the cultural layer which reflects the last event of the occupation,” Sundström said.

According to the archaeologist, the way the pottery was found suggests that the seasonal Stone Age settlers left their pots with the intent of reusing them upon their return.

But a sudden, catastrophic event buried everything.

“The formation of the upper layer remains somewhat mysterious. Most probably the site was suddenly flooded, and covered with sand by the nearby river. There are no signs of occupation within this thick sand layer. This is a strong indication of a relatively quick process,” said Sundström.

Encapsulated between the sand layer and an underlying layer of silt and clay, the remains are virtually untouched.

The archaeologists, who have so far dug out about 500 square meters (5381 square feet) out of several thousand, hope to uncover much more in the following months.

“The site is lying on top of a silt and clay layer which we know preserves wood, so we have good hopes for finding buried wood from the occupation phase later on in the excavation,” Sundström said.

More, with a photo of a beaker at Discovery News

With thanks to Coldrum
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Hamresanden Tingringen
Hamresanden Tingringen submitted by kenntha88 : Site in Vest-Agder Norway (Vote or comment on this photo)

Hamresanden Tingringen
Hamresanden Tingringen submitted by kenntha88 (Vote or comment on this photo)

Hamresanden Tingringen
Hamresanden Tingringen submitted by kenntha88 (Vote or comment on this photo)

Hamresanden Tingringen
Hamresanden Tingringen submitted by kenntha88 (Vote or comment on this photo)

Hamresanden Tingringen
Hamresanden Tingringen submitted by kenntha88 (Vote or comment on this photo)

Hamresanden Tingringen
Hamresanden Tingringen submitted by kenntha88

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Nearby sites listing. In the following links * = Image available
 549m ENE 68° Hamresanden Tingringen* Stone Circle
 5.1km SW 233° Pjolterhaugen* Round Barrow(s)
 5.1km SW 227° Oddernes Runestone* Carving
 15.8km NNE 25° The Mollestad Oak* Natural Stone / Erratic / Other Natural Feature
 16.0km NE 38° Skillsteinene* Stone Row / Alignment
 16.9km WSW 238° Tingsteinen* Ring Cairn
 17.8km SW 231° Tangvall cist* Cist
 17.8km SW 231° Søgne Runestone* Carving
 19.1km WNW 288° Stallemo* Barrow Cemetery
 32.1km WSW 239° Harkmark stone circle* Stone Circle
 32.6km W 271° Heddelandsmonen* Barrow Cemetery
 32.7km WSW 256° Stovelandsfeltet* Barrow Cemetery
 33.4km WSW 256° Røsesteinen* Standing Stone (Menhir)
 34.5km ENE 58° Dømmesmoen* Barrow Cemetery
 34.7km ENE 61° Bringsvær Hellekistegraver* Cist
 36.2km ENE 57° Fjære* Barrow Cemetery
 37.4km WNW 301° Trygsland* Carving
 37.6km ENE 58° Vik (Grimstad)* Stone Circle
 37.7km ENE 57° Bringsvær* Barrow Cemetery
 38.0km ENE 58° Fevikveien stone circle* Stone Circle
 38.3km WNW 303° Bjelland* Barrow Cemetery
 38.9km ENE 62° Ytre Grevstad* Stone Circle
 41.0km ENE 59° Øvre Fevik* Barrow Cemetery
 41.3km ENE 59° Fevikmoen* Barrow Cemetery
 42.9km ENE 60° Kvennbekkrøysa* Cairn
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Re: Hamresanden by Andy B on Sunday, 10 October 2010
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Archaeologists find ‘mini-Pompeii’

The most well-preserved pottery from the Stone Age ever found in Norway has turned up in an unspoiled dwelling site not far from Kristiansand. The find is considered an archaeological sensation.

The discovery of a “sealed” Stone Age house site from 3500 BC has stirred great excitement among archaeologists from Norway’s Museum of Cultural History at the University in Oslo. The settlement site at Hamresanden, close to Kristiansand’s airport at Kjevik in Southern Norway, looks like it was covered by a sandstorm, possibly in the course of a few hours.

The catastrophe for the Stone Age occupants has given archaeologists an untouched “mini-Pompeii,” containing both whole and reparable pots.

“This is the first time we’ve made a find like this in Norway,” the spokesperson for the Hamresanden excavation, assistant professor Håkon Glørstad, told newspaper Aftenposten.

“Usually, clay pots from this period, which we call traktbegerkulturen, (literally, “the funnel beaker culture”) are broken and in tiny pieces,” Glørstad said. “Here we find them almost intact. One entirely complete vessel, 25 to 30 cm deep, with a 35-cm diameter at the rim, has been taken out of the ground packed in its clod of soil.”

‘Sensation’
Glørstad it will be “carefully and finally stripped of the last of the earth, in about the same way that one uncovers a dinosaur skeleton.” He added that the team working on the site at Hamresanden has discovered so many large shards of pottery that they think they can put together as many as eight beaker-shaped vessels.

“This is an archaeological sensation,” Glørstad claimed.

The dwelling site lies 11 meters over sea level today, but was at the water’s edge 5,500 years ago. The find is located at the modern Hamresanden camping site, some 70 to 80 meters from today’s shoreline.

Excavations were started prior to building retirement homes on the land. The discoveries were made at a depth of two meters below ground. So far around 300 square meters have been excavated, resulting in the need to transport enormous amounts of soil.

Dry times
“During this period, Norway was much drier than today, and sandstorms were far from rare, as various strata of sand deposits at the site show,” Glørstad told Aftenposten. “Last year’s pilot survey suggested that we might find something here. The site is ideally situated for a coastal settlement, next to the mouth of a river of significant proportions.”

He said the archaeologists have also found as many as 20 arrowheads and tailings from tool production, including “complete wooden artifacts.”

The excavations at Hamresanden may yield new information not only about this particular site, but also about how the shoreline has changed in this part of Southern Norway. When this site was inhabited, it was nine meters lower than today, while the Oslo area was 37 meters lower in the same period, since the innland regions were weighed down further under the weight of ice from the Ice Age.

“As the sea level was even lower in times preceding this, we can expect to find much older dwelling sites under water in the same area,” says Glørstad to Aftenposten.

http://www.newsinenglish.no/2010/10/01/archaeologists-find-mini-pompeii/
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