Discover the ruins of the largest cluster of longhouses in the ancient Nordic village

Archaeologists in Norway have discovered the ruins of a cluster of Nordic longhouses, including one of the largest structures ever found.

Surveys of farmland at Gjellestad, southern Norway, about 85 kilometers southeast of Oslo, have uncovered the underground remains of at least five longhouses.

The houses about 500 meters northeast of the Viking ship's burial site were discovered in 2018 by radar scanning, according to a statement by the Norwegian Institute of Cultural Heritage (NIKU).

Remnants of Nordic longhouses found by ground-penetrating radar.

Archaeologists have yet to date the houses, but the ship buried nearby is believed to date from the late Iron Age in the area, around AD 750 to 850.

The largest long house without a roof is nearly 60 meters long and 15 meters wide. Lars Gustavsen, an archaeologist at the Norwegian Institute of Cultural Heritage (NIKU), who made the discovery with ground-penetrating radar ( GPR), suggested that the longhouse may have been uninhabited but used as a ceremonial room.

"The most likely interpretation of the house is as a hall building used for religious, social or political purposes, not residential," says Gustavsen.

It is not yet known whether the buildings preceded the burial of the ship. Gustavsen said: 'A similar house was unearthed nearby a few years ago and dates back to the Viking Age by several hundred years. If we get similar dates for the newly discovered houses, we can at least assume that Gjellestad was an important site for several centuries."

The nearby Viking ship, more than 19m long and about 5m wide, was found in a mound flattened after decades of plowing. About 20 other graves were found nearby. Archaeologists believe the ship once contained the body of a Norse king or queen, although no human remains have been discovered there.