This also for anyone intrested. The pictures that i'll post is of 2 different sites at borg, the first set is dated to 1500 to 1750. It is the original priest house when foreign religions hit the islands and became well established. The second set of pictures is of a longhouse that was built after the Chieftan Olav left for Iceland, in the very early part of the 10th century. Not sure but i think it was around the year 925-50. The original longhouse was built around the yr. 500, and added onto a few times thru the centuries. What has been found but i didn't get a chance to get to today was a bronze age site that is right on the far edge of the chieftans longhouse. Excavation will be next yr or the following yr. The other thing i didn't get to today is 2 bronze age burial sites that have been found a few yrs back, and also 3 viking ship burial mounds with the boats and body still resting in their places. So heres the pics. This is the original site of the priest house. Those are whats left of the original stones use to make the home. The rest is believed to be used for other later homes or wall fences for animals. This is also the priest house but the one built around the turn of the 18th century,,,circa 1700, notice the 2 trees, biologists have dated those trees to be over 300 yrs old. Planted to when the 2nd house was built. also the stones in the front of the pic are whats left of the original doorway. This next group of pics is to the longhouse that was found a few yrs ago after the original longhouse (500 ad) was discovered and rebuilt for touring. Here is a map that can be refered to as i point out where i am taking the pics. short explaination Okay this is the main entrance to the longhouse, the second double arrows on the right of the pic. These are the original stones that were placed into the entry. You can the remains of the walls. The stones in the walls are still visiable in places and so are timbers here and there. They have been preserved. At the very bottom of the map, if there was a wall still standing i would be flat against it taking this pic. It is the 3 firepits that are still visiable. They have been filled in with rocks to preserve the original wells. You can see the little map tower up in the right corner, that is the location of the 3rd pit and also the main entry way i showed above. You can get an idea of just how big this longhouse is. Here i am standing at the top of the longhouse at the junction to the annex at the top and the barn next to it. All which is connected to the main house. You can still see portions of the inner walls, but not to good on these pics, in places the stones were still visiable. Next trip up there i will find all the ship burials, and the bronze age burials, and a few other little surprises. Hope these are good for you, Duncan, and anyone else who is intrested. I'll try to get better pics when its not raining out,,lol.
Biita that is awesome! IS that near where you live? I love historical things like that especially archeology. It also involves one thing that truly intersty me, vikings. I am not very well versed in viking history but I have begun to read as much about it as I can get my hands on. One of the reasons is that I am very big into tattoos and have several on me. All of them have a theme or nationallity thing to them. I know vikings or icelandics have certain symbols and marking that I find fascinating. Thank you for sharing and keep us updated!
Wow, Biita. Have you ever just sat at one of those locations and imagined what was going on there all those hundreds of years ago? I have done that when we are out in the countryside near where my Mom lives and also a few years ago when we went to the Alamo. Sometimes you can almost feel the energy that is still there. Pete, if you haven't already then you need to read Biita's and Droopy's blogs. They have both shared so much Viking and Norwegian history with us.
I'm glad you all like it. Pete that is where my husband works, and its less than a mile away from where i live. i'm glad your intrested in Viking way of life. If you do plan on using Runic symbols or other Norwegian symbols as tattoo's, please be careful what you get. When combining the symbols, certain patterns are put into motion and if someone or you, don't know what your doing and just put what you think it might mean from a book, well, i'll be blunt here,,, your screwed. So please find someone or research yourself before using those symbols. If you want to talk more on that, you can always PM me and we can talk. Toni,, i do that all the time, get the feel of the land, the way it is, and just feel the surroundings and energy from a place. To me its the only way a person can truly understand the real meaning behind what they are looking at. I always look around and try to imagine the people doing what ever it is they did on a daily basis, or getting ready for a festival of somekind. To me that makes it more intresting than just looking and seeing some bumps and stones in the ground,,,lol.
Biita thank you so much for doing this for Duncan. He will be over the moon to see your post. Sorry I can't say much more at the moment as I'm trying to splint a hedgehogs leg but I'll get back to you ASAP.
I love the tour, Biita, thank you! It's fascinating to try and imagine what they were up to so long ago, and even more fascinating to imagine what they would think if they saw what we're up to now. Hedgehog, Eileen? I hope you'll manage to help it, poor thing.
This is another very interesting posting, Biita. It is incredible what all the archeologists have discovered and can tell folks. Thanks for posting this very much.
Duncan leaves tomorrow to go back up to the dig in Skye for the week-end. He 'phoned and said that he'll be taking your photgraphs and information with him again to let the other archeologists see them Biita. :-D He is so grateful that you take the time to do this for him and has asked me to pass his thanks on to you. I must admit that I'm getting even more interested in Viking history myself as it comes from someone who actually knows what they are talking about. We'll both look forward to seeing the ship and bronze age burials.
