<< Our Photo Pages >> Ytre Moa - Ancient Village or Settlement in Norway in Sogn og Fjordane
Submitted by kenntha88 on Wednesday, 01 October 2014 Page Views: 2137
Multi-periodSite Name: Ytre MoaCountry: Norway
NOTE: This site is 43.944 km away from the location you searched for.
Fylke: Sogn og Fjordane Type: Ancient Village or Settlement
Nearest Village: Øvre Årdal
Latitude: 61.316653N Longitude: 7.826042E
Condition:
5 | Perfect |
4 | Almost Perfect |
3 | Reasonable but with some damage |
2 | Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site |
1 | Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks |
0 | No data. |
-1 | Completely destroyed |
5 | Superb |
4 | Good |
3 | Ordinary |
2 | Not Good |
1 | Awful |
0 | No data. |
5 | Can be driven to, probably with disabled access |
4 | Short walk on a footpath |
3 | Requiring a bit more of a walk |
2 | A long walk |
1 | In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find |
0 | No data. |
5 | co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates |
4 | co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map |
3 | co-ordinates scaled from a bad map |
2 | co-ordinates of the nearest village |
1 | co-ordinates of the nearest town |
0 | no data |
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Ancient Settlement in Sogn og Fjordane
The settlement at Ytre Moa is a large and beautifully preserved settlement from the later Iron Age, around 800-1000AD. It is one of the most comprehensive settlements from late iron age in Norway. The settlement is located on the south-east part of a large flat, sandy and forest covered natural plateau with very steep rocky cliffs with an almost 30-40metres drop to the south and west. To the north and north west is another steep cliff side up to the mountain called Moakamben. From the site is a beautiful view over the fjord and the mountain!
The farm complex consists of 6 remains of housings, 26 barrow cairns (11 elongated cairns and 15 round cairns) and one standing stone. It does not however seems that the housings have been laid out in a arranged pattern, they are spread out with the opening in several directions with variable distance from each other. The barrow cairns are spread out between the housings in no ordained pattern, however six of them are oriented in a line from east to west in the east part of the settlement and the largest cairn outside the settlement to the east.
The housings are rectangular shaped and range from 8 to 12 metres in length and from 7 to 10 metres wide. They are all very easy to see and are visible as U-shaped mounds of stone and earth. In all the housing remains, the stones that made up the walls are still visible.
The largest cairn is around 11 metres in diameter and around 1,5 metres in height. It is located to the east of the settlement. The rest of the round cairns are from 5 to 8 metres in diameter and 0,3 to 1 metre in height. The largest elongated cairn is 15 metres long and the other long barrows are from 10 to 12 metres in length and around 0,3 to 1 metre in height.
The small standing stone is located to the south east of the settlement at the edge of the very steep rock cliff. It is around 80cm in height and around 30 cm wide. It has a rounded cross-section and is tilting slightly.
The location on the plateau with the steep rock cliffs to the south and the mountain to the north must have made it a perfect site for defence and it would have been possible to observe any movement at the inner parts of the fjord and the lowlands to the south. Along the dangerous cliff drop along the sites south edge it has been built a tall fence to keep people from falling down the cliff. The standing stone is located on the outside of the fence almost at the rock edge.
There is only one way to get up to the plateau, it is a small path leading from the country road to the east and leading up to the site. Some signposts have been placed here and the brush and vegetation have been cut down to make it easy to observe the site. Only short grass and some spread out trees are growing at the site, however the rest of the plateau are covered with a tight birch tree forest.
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