In recent years, archaeologists from the Museum of Cultural History have been digging all over Vestfold and Telemark, along new routes for the railway and four-lane motorway. The road and railway cross a former coastal landscape where people have lived since the end of the Ice Age and throughout the Stone Age. Here we present a small selection of the thousands of finds that we have collected and analysed from 2010 to 2012.
The Vestfold Railway Project (2010-2012)
- Was set up in connection with the new railway line through Vestfold and Telemark. Funded by the Norwegian National Rail Administration.
- 30 Stone Age settlement sites were studied
- The traces of Stone Age life span 7500 years, covering almost the entire Stone Age (9000-1500 BC)
- The long time span of the settlements provides us with a broad picture of the lines of development of Stone Age life in Vestfold and Telemark.
- The project gives us new information about the period when agriculture began in Norway.
The E18 road from Bommestad to Sky (2011-2012)
- A project initiated in connection with the new four-lane motorway in Vestfold. Funded by the Norwegian Public Roads Administration.
- Nine Stone Age settlement sites were studied
- The traces of Stone Age life span 500 years in the middle of the Early Stone Age in Norway (7900-7400 BC). There were previously very few excavations from this period.
- At that time the sea level was much higher than today, and the settlements were on islands in an archipelago. People lived by hunting, trapping and fishing.
- We have found traces of both short stays on the islands and larger, more permanent settlements with remains of homes.