Archaeologists hopeful after two possible Viking boat burial sites found on UK island
Archaeologists are returning to a Scottish island to find out whether two mounds are Viking burial sites (Image: Argyll Archaeology)
Archaeologists will be digging up two possible Viking burial sites in the UK to settle their true identity after previously finding a number of artefacts at the same location
Archaeologists will soon begin a dig to investigate two possible Viking boat burial sites, say reports.
A group of volunteers and professionals plan to excavate two elongated mounds at Lephin on the Isle of Mull in the Inner Hebrides this month after artefacts were found at the site three years earlier.
The team on Lephin Dig 2022 will be working to establish whether the mounds are naturally occurring or a result of a medieval burial.
High-ranking Vikings who died between the ninth and eleventh centuries were customarily buried along with a ship and various assorted 'grave goods'.
These often included small items like clothes and weapons as well as kitchen goods and furniture.
Fragments were previously found on digs at Lephin, Isle of Mull in 2018 and 2019 ( Image: Argyll Archaeology)
The dig, organised by Mull Museum and Argyll Archaeology project andled by archaeologist Dr Clare Ellis, will also be hoping to unearth artefacts from long-goneNorse settlements.
Norse and Viking finds were made at the same site in previous digs in 2018 and 2019, according to BBC News, with evidence of a turf and timber structure being among the most significant.
Other discoveries included a Norse antler comb and cover which bore striking similarities to those previously found back in their Scandinavian homeland, while various fragments of pottery, metal objects and rubbish were also found.
A dig in Ardnamurchan, Scotland back in 2011 found a Viking chief buried along with a boat, sword and axe ( Image: Getty Images)
Back in 2011, archaeologists unearthed a Viking chief buried along with a boat, axe, sword and spear on the remote peninsula of Ardnamurchan.
The discovery of the grave, which was found to be 16 feet long, was the first time an intact find of its kind had ever been made on the mainland United Kingdom.
Archaeologists also dug up a shield boss, a thick round piece of metal placed in the middle of a shield, and a bronze ring-pin buried.
Pieces of pottery, a knife, and a whetstone also turned up elsewhere on the Ardnamurchan site.