Illerup Ådal, excavations 1976

Abstract

Illerup Ådal, excavations 1976

The 1976 excavations of the lllerup Ådal weapon offerings were the hitherto most extensive with respect both to area and finds. The material was augmented with about 600 items and the excavated area doubled to about 1600 m2 The disposition of the finds also shows that an area of about the same size remains to be investigated.

The 1976 excavations were carried out with the purpose of rescuing artefacts from the partly destroyed area near the original lake shore and of delimiting the two offering sites.

The action went according to plan, a large part of the threatened area being investigated. One of the most important finds came from this very area. This was a shield-handle mount of bronze with a runic inscription. The runes have not been completely deciphered yet, but possibly read swarta, an Old Norse form of the word black. The inscription is one of the oldest known.

The delimitation of the two offering areas was not entirely successful on account of the large amount of material, but there is reason to hope that the younger offering place can be defined in the course of 1977.

It was in particular the older area from the time around 200 A. D. which furnished the greatest surprises. Hitherto by far the greater part of the finds from this area has consisted of weapons, while other equipment in the form of mounts, buckles, etc., has been largely lacking.

It emerged that these missing elements lay in heaps further out in the bog, where we had expected to find a clear demarcation of the artefact-bearing area. These heaps lay in fact more than 30m out in the bog, and it was soon apparent that this material could not have been cast into the Iron Age lake from the shore, but must have been sailed out and dumped overboard or laid on the frozen lake.

These new features of the offering finds from Illerup mean that we do not know how many artefacts the bog still holds, but the distribution shown in the survey plan, fig. 1, does show that we have to move further and deeper into the bog.

Our efforts have been richly rewarded. This may be seen from a couple of finds from last summer, an arm-ring of fire-gilt silver on a bronze core, fig. 9, and a brooch of bronze and silver with inlaid blue glass beads.

Jørgen Ilkjær og Jørn Lønstrup