Med antikvar Nicolaysen i Evje og Bygland, Agder

Le résumé fourni par la source

Nicolay Nicolaysen (1817-1911) was chairman of the National Trust of Norway, a state-paid antiquarian and examined around 1400 graves in the period 1867-1902. He has been criticized for the quality of the excavations. The excavations were part of a plan in collaboration with Oluf Rygh, who was head of the University Museum of National Antiquities, to build up knowledge about the Iron Age. Until 1906, landowners were usually free to remove grave mounds and other ancient monuments, and too much has been lost. The study analyses the excavations in Evje and Hornnes municipality and Bygland municipality in 1882-1902, totaling 73 grave mounds. The conclusion is that we can trust his brief reports when it comes to measurements and observations about burial customs. On the other hand, it is clear that many finds have been lost as a result of the speed of the excavation and unskilled, locally employed excavation crew. However, the revision of the excavation presented here also revealed clear differences in the number of finds depending on the subsoil. Overall, Nicolaysen rescued many finds and much information about graves that would have been lost as a result of agriculture, road construction and other employments.

Ce résumé expose les affirmations des auteurs. BNTIC ne l’interprète pas comme une validation indépendante des résultats.