Older and Recent Research around Rakni’s Mound

What did the Excavations of 1869 – 70 and 1939 – 40 Reveal?
Large parts of Rakni’s Mound have been excavated. The first excavation took place in 1869 -1870, and was carried out by Anders Lorange. Sigurd Grieg undertook the second excavation. His investigations from 1839 – 40 were particularly extensive. He discovered a layer of coal with fragments of sculls from a cremated human at the bottom of the mound. The deceased was a man or a woman between the ages of 20 to 35 years. Whether the whole body or just the head has been buried here, is not known. Neither of the two investigations resulted in finds of burial gifts. A couple of spades and a bar were found, but these could have been used for the construction of the mound. The mound was reconstructed in 1948 – 49 and in 1963. It was difficult to make exact calculations for the original height of the mound when reconstructing it. The result being that Rakni’s mound is approximately 4 meters lower than the original construction.

The spade which was found during Grieg’s investigations. © Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo.

The mound is built of close to 75. 000 logs of timber, stacked in three pyramidal-shaped layers. On top of these are layers of sand and soil. The sand was collected from deep ditches around the mound. Growth ring analyses and radiocarbon dating show that the timbers were cut within the same year as the mound was raised. It must have taken place some time between 533 and 551, some time towards the end of the Migration Period.

Most probably, there were between 450 and 600 men working on building the mound throughout the whole summer period. The cutting and transportation of timber have kept 40 to 50 persons occupied the previous winter. We do not know how the work was organised, but the extent of the works tells us a lot about the deceased’s esteem and power in Romerike.

Excavations in 1993
In 1993, Dagfinn Skre performed yet another archaeological investigation. It was carried out by reopening one of Grieg’s smaller shafts in the outer layer of the mound.

Photograph from the 1993 excavation. Photo: D. Skre 1997

The investigations from 1993 confirmed that the crossing traces Grieg had discovered at the bottom of Rakni’s Mound in 1940 were traces of ard (a primitive plough). It could be traces of agriculture, or traces from ritual arding prior to the construction of the mound. We know, at least, that Rakni’s Mound was built on a field. Pollen samples from Ljøgottjern testified that the area has been cultivated since approximately 2000 BC (the New Stone Age), and that continuous and intensive farming has taken place since approximately 700 BC (the Later Bronze Age).

Skre’s follow up of Grieg’s investigations support the theory that the pits which were found under Rakni’s Mound in 1939 and -40 most probably are cooking pits. These could be traces of ritual meals. Sectional drawings show that the pits are older than the field, and thus, probably not connected to Rakni’s Mound. They could, however, be contemporary to the cooking pits from the Roman Age which were found by Hovin School.

Rakni’s Mound: Grave mound or Memorial?
The lack of finds in Rakni’s Mound has previously given rise to the question as to whether Rakni’s Mound is a grave or a memorial mound. Another suggestion is that Rakni’s Mound could have been a thing mound (legislative assembly point).

Some burnt fragments of bones were discovered during Grieg’s excavations. At the time, there were no scientific methods to determine whether the bones belonged to a human or an animal. The bone material was examined again in 1992. The conclusion was that the bone material belonged to a human scull. The examination could not tell the sex of the person buried in Rakni’s Mound, but the individual was between 20 to 35/40 years old when he or she was cremated. Rakni’s Mound is therefore a grave! The amount of bones in the grave is so miniscule that it might just have been the head which was buried here.

Age
Anders Lorange thought Rakni’s Mound dated to the Viking Age (between approximately 800 – 1039). Sigurd Grieg, on the other hand, found it more likely that the mound was older. He thought it to be from the Migration Period (between 400 – 600). The development of the C14 method from the late 1940s made way for new methods of dating Rakni’s Mound. The timbers from the mound were the first to be analysed with this method here in Norway. Investigations from 1956 – 57 dated the mound to the period between 440 and 625. Grieg’s assumptions were thus correct. The mound has been dated at a later point using more refined methods. The latest results tell us that Rakni’s Mound was built sometime during the 6th century BC, probably some time between 533 and 551.