Lorange’s Excavation in 1869-70 and the Message in a Bottle

The First Attempt
Anders Lorange, a 23 year old archaeologist started the archaeological investigations of Rakni’s Mound in 1869. He had great expectations for the possible contents of the grave. According to common practice at the time, he started by digging a shaft towards the centre of the mound.
Problems soon arose. One of them was the great risk of landslides triggered by the workers’ excavations because of the size and steepness of the mound. Lorange therefore had to reassess his approach. The first investigations had, however, revealed that the site consisted of several layers of timber logs in order to support the masses of soil. These logs also made the work very difficult. The work was postponed until the following spring.
The Second Attempt

A new method gave a fresh start to the work of the summer of 1870. Lorange now wanted to dig towards the centre of the grave, by digging a vertical shaft from the top of the mound. A shaft made from corner-timber 2 X 2 meters wide and as much as 20 meters deep was excavated. Lorange kept on digging until he reached the bottom of the mound, but still without discovering any evidence of a king’s burial. The most exciting discovery was the remains of a horse. At the time of discovery, there was great anticipation amongst the workers since they all knew the myths about King Rakni being buried between two white horses. Nevertheless, the finds stopped there.

Plan and section of the mound made by Anders Lorange in connection with the archaeological excavations in 1870. © Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo.

The Message in a Bottle
In disappointment, Lorange wrote a letter at the end of the 1870 season. He left this letter in the excavation shaft in a sealed bottle. Along with the letter he left some silver coins dating from the period 1755 – 1870, and two bottles of beer. The bottle was hidden within Rakni’s Mound for 70 years, until it was discovered on August 9th, 1940, during Sigurd Grieg’s archaeological investigations.
Grieg found a letter dated King Rakni’s Mound, August 8th, 1870, in the bottle. It can be translated as follows:
                                                                                           
Greetings, Honourable Archaeological Colleagues
May the goddesses of Destiny, the Norns, grant you greater rewards for your effort than they rewarded mine. I managed to get this far into King Rakni’s Mound, but had to succumb to the challenge. We dug, without success a 61 foot deep shaft from the crest of the mound. We are refilling and covering our traces, as I leave this testament to our attempt and these clues to my successors.

The letter was signed Anders Lund Lorange born in Frederikshald May 12th 1848. Ingeborg Heftye’s Friend.

Source:
Hagen, Anders.
1997 Gåten om Kong Raknes Grav. J.W. Cappelens Forlag. Oslo.
You can borrow the book in the library.