Metal detectorists stumble on treasure — and locate Viking boat grave. See it
Metal detectorists visited a low embankment on Senja island a few years ago and unearthed two bronze buckles shaped like bowls. In the process, they also exposed some rib bones, the Arctic University Museum of Norway said in a May 31 Facebook post.
Archaeologists initially suspected the site might be a Viking-era grave but didn't know for sure — until now.
In May, a team excavated the Senja site and identified it as a roughly 1,000-year-old Viking boat grave, the museum said. Photos show the exposed burial.
The wooden boat was about 18 feet long, mostly built without iron rivets and poorly preserved, archaeologists said. In the center of the boat were two skeletons.
The larger skeleton belonged to a deceased woman, the museum said. She was buried on her side with her knees bent and her arms in front of her. At her feet is the skeleton of a small dog, possibly her pet or companion.
Dog skeletons have been found in Viking graves before but are generally not common, archaeologist Anja Roth Niemi told Science in Norway.
Excavations also uncovered an iron sickle, stone tool, bronze pendant, a pair of beads possibly made of amber and a whalebone tool, the museum said.
The artifacts suggest the ancient woman was considered high status and important but not among the highest tier of elites, Niemi told Science in Norway.
Archaeologists plan to remove the Senja grave's contents, store their finds and eventually analyze the remains in a laboratory, the museum said.
Senja is an island off the northern coast of Norway and a roughly 1,000-mile drive northeast from Oslo.
Facebook Translate and Google Translate were used to translate the Facebook post from the Arctic University Museum of Norway. Google Translate was also used to translate the article from Science in Norway.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
an hour ago
First Australian-made rocket crashes after 14 seconds of flight in a failed attempt to reach orbit
WELLINGTON, New Zealand -- The first Australian -made rocket to attempt to reach orbit from the country's soil crashed after 14 seconds of flight on Wednesday. The rocket Eris, launched by Gilmour Space Technologies, was the first Australian-designed and manufactured orbital launch vehicle to lift off from the country and was designed to carry small satellites to orbit. It launched Wednesday morning local time in a test flight from a spaceport near the small town of Bowen in the north of Queensland state. In videos published by Australian news outlets, the 23-meter (75-foot) rocket appeared to clear the launch tower and hovered in the air before falling out of sight. Plumes of smoke were seen rising above the site. No injuries were reported. The company hailed the launch as a success in a statement posted to Facebook. A spokesperson said all four hybrid-propelled engines ignited and the maiden flight included 23 seconds of engine burn time and 14 seconds of flight. Gilmour Space Technologies had planned previous launches of the rocket, in May and earlier this month, but called off those operations because of technical issues and bad weather. CEO Adam Gilmour said in a statement he was pleased the rocket got off the launchpad. 'Of course I would have liked more flight time but happy with this,' he wrote on LinkedIn. Gilmour said in February that it was 'almost unheard of' for a private rocket company to successfully launch to orbit on its first attempt. The firm had earlier said it would consider the launch a success if the rocket left the ground. The launch site infrastructure 'remained intact,' the statement said. Mayor Ry Collins of the local Whitsunday Regional Council said the completed launch was a 'huge achievement' even though the vehicle didn't reach orbit. 'This is an important first step towards the giant leap of a future commercial space industry right here in our region,' he wrote on Facebook. Gilmour Space Technologies has private funders and was awarded a 5 million Australian dollar ($3.2 million) grant this month from the country's federal government for the development of the Eris rocket. It followed the firm's AU$52 million grant agreement with the government in 2023 to advance the development and commercialization of new space technologies in Australia. The country has been the site of hundreds of suborbital vehicle launches but there have only been two successful launches to orbit from Australia before, according to the aerospace news platform NASASpaceFlight. The maiden Eris test flight was the first orbital launch attempt from Australia in more than 50 years.
San Francisco Chronicle
6 hours ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
First Australian-made rocket crashes after 14 seconds of flight in a failed attempt to reach orbit
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — The first Australian -made rocket to attempt to reach orbit from the country's soil crashed after 14 seconds of flight on Wednesday. The rocket Eris, launched by Gilmour Space Technologies, was the first Australian-designed and manufactured orbital launch vehicle to lift off from the country and was designed to carry small satellites to orbit. It launched Wednesday morning local time in a test flight from a spaceport near the small town of Bowen in the north of Queensland state. In videos published by Australian news outlets, the 23-meter (75-foot) rocket appeared to clear the launch tower and hovered in the air before falling out of sight. Plumes of smoke were seen rising above the site. No injuries were reported. The company hailed the launch as a success in a statement posted to Facebook. A spokesperson said all four hybrid-propelled engines ignited and the maiden flight included 23 seconds of engine burn time and 14 seconds of flight. Gilmour Space Technologies had planned previous launches of the rocket, in May and earlier this month, but called off those operations because of technical issues and bad weather. CEO Adam Gilmour said in a statement he was pleased the rocket got off the launchpad. 'Of course I would have liked more flight time but happy with this,' he wrote on LinkedIn. Gilmour said in February that it was 'almost unheard of' for a private rocket company to successfully launch to orbit on its first attempt. The firm had earlier said it would consider the launch a success if the rocket left the ground. The launch site infrastructure 'remained intact,' the statement said. Mayor Ry Collins of the local Whitsunday Regional Council said the completed launch was a 'huge achievement' even though the vehicle didn't reach orbit. 'This is an important first step towards the giant leap of a future commercial space industry right here in our region,' he wrote on Facebook. Gilmour Space Technologies has private funders and was awarded a 5 million Australian dollar ($3.2 million) grant this month from the country's federal government for the development of the Eris rocket. It followed the firm's AU$52 million grant agreement with the government in 2023 to advance the development and commercialization of new space technologies in Australia. The country has been the site of hundreds of suborbital vehicle launches but there have only been two successful launches to orbit from Australia before, according to the aerospace news platform NASASpaceFlight. The maiden Eris test flight was the first orbital launch attempt from Australia in more than 50 years.
Yahoo
20 hours ago
- Yahoo
Fact Check: Claim spread squirrels in California have turned carnivorous. We hunted down the details
Claim: Researchers have found that some squirrels in California have started hunting and eating other animals. Rating: In July 2025, a rumor spread across social media that squirrels in California were turning carnivorous, prompting people to search our site for the truth behind the claim. Multiple Facebook pages (archived), including one with more than 34 million followers (archived), posted an image claiming, "California squirrels are turning carnivorous. They are actively hunting other animals for the first time, study reveals." The image was also shared on Instagram (archived), where it was liked more than 187,000 times. While the language used in the widely shared image made the story sound more dramatic than reality, it is true a study found that squirrels in a California park were exhibiting carnivorous behavior. The study, published in December 2024, investigated the behaviors of squirrels at Briones Regional Park in Contra Costa County, California, earlier in the year. However, the researchers had been studying the long-term behavior of squirrels at the park since 2013. Over a period of 18 days, researchers observed 31 instances of squirrels hunting — defined as the active pursuit of prey — voles within the park. The behavior occurred during a peak in the vole population at the park; in 2024, the vole population peaked seven times higher than the 10-year average. Jennifer Smith, the lead author of the study and co-leader of the long-term ground squirrels project, said the team "had never seen this behavior before," according to a news release from UC Davis. The other co-leader of the squirrel project, Sonja Wild, had observed hundreds of squirrels in nature and yet she said she could "barely believe" her eyes. The researchers included a video they recorded of the squirrels hunting voles. According to the UC Davis news release, the researchers believed the squirrels' behavior was evidence of them being flexible opportunists because the squirrels began hunting voles as the latter became more abundant and the researchers did not see the squirrels hunting any other mammals. While this was the first time the researchers observed this behavior in the California ground squirrel, which is a distinct species of squirrel related to chipmunks and prairie dogs, it was not the first time scientists had seen any kind of squirrel exhibit such behavior. Southern flying squirrels, for example, "are considered one of the most carnivorous squirrels because they supplement their diet with eggs, birds, and carrion," according to the National Wildlife Federation. Similarly, in 2022, researchers in Europe presented evidence of a European ground squirrel catching and eating a sparrow. None of the above squirrels were the kind most commonly seen in American backyards and cities. Those are a kind of tree squirrel called the gray squirrel, the Organizations of American Historians has written. Kachamakova, Maria, et al. "First Evidence for Active Carnivorous Predation in the European Ground Squirrel." Acta Ethologica, vol. 25, no. 3, Springer Science+Business Media, June 2022, pp. 191–93, Accessed 28 July 2025. Kerlin, Katherine. "Carnivorous Squirrels Documented in California." UC Davis, 18 Dec. 2024, Accessed 28 July 2025. "Kinds of Squirrels - AAAC Wildlife Removal of Collin County." AAAC Wildlife Removal of Collin County, Accessed 28 July 2025. National Wildlife Federation. "Flying Squirrels | National Wildlife Federation." National Wildlife Federation, Accessed 28 July 2025. Smith, Jennifer. "Behavioral Evolutionary Ecology Research." J.E. Smith Lab, Accessed 28 July 2025. Smith, Jennifer E., et al. "Vole Hunting: Novel Predatory and Carnivorous Behavior by California Ground Squirrels." Journal of Ethology, Springer Science+Business Media, Dec. 2024, Accessed 25 July 2025. Sonja Wild. "Vole Hunting: Novel Predatory and Carnivorous Behavior by California Ground Squirrels." YouTube, 18 Dec. 2024, Accessed 28 July 2025.
