– Right now we are looking for treasures. I hope to find bones or perhaps cartridges, says junior high school student Joakim Ludvigsen. Under the old Edøy church, the Germans built bunkers and armories during the Second World War. They dumped the soil that was there next to it, and this is what the young people are investigating. – It’s absolutely great, because this mass would not have been investigated if we hadn’t. We applied for funds to investigate here, but were refused, says Heidi Rognskog Mella in Smøla municipality. The project ran for a week. Every day there was a new class. Photo: Marius André Jenssen Stenberg / news Many discoveries from the Iron Age have been made in the area. Just beyond, a Viking ship was discovered in 2019. After that, they found, among other things, 350 cooking pits, which also indicate that there was an important chieftain’s seat here. The municipality therefore hopes that these excavations can contribute to solving the historical puzzle. This is what the Edøy ship may have looked like. NIKU Teaches the art of archeology The young people dig, dig, and search for metal, and get good help from an experienced archaeologist. They learn how to interpret cultural heritage from different eras. – It’s fun to work with something other than normal school, and to be out doing things you like, says Ludvigsen, while he counts persistently. Joakim Ludvigsen thinks it’s nice to have a school day outside the classroom. Photo: Marius André Jenssen Stenberg / news The program is part of the cultural school bag, and a pilot project in Møre og Romsdal county municipality. The students receive good guidance from an experienced archaeologist. – Often when you find things in the ground, they are almost unrecognizable from what they originally were. Here the children get training in recognizing what the finds once were, says archaeologist Carl Fredrik Wahr-Hansen Vemmestad in the county municipality. Carl Fredrik Wahr-Hansen Vemmestad, archaeologist in Møre and Romsdal county municipality. Photo: Marius André Jenssen Stenberg / news Since the masses have moved on, there is a good mix from different times. – It’s always exciting when you find something here, and we find a lot. I have found parts of a horse, and many bricks, says student Sverre Strand. Found mysterious bear claw Finally, all finds are registered and archived. The students also found an ear bone and a tooth from a human. And most surprisingly, a bear claw. – It’s a bit strange, because there are no bears on Smøla today. And it is far out in the sea, so there has hardly been that much of it in the past either, says Vemmestad. One of the students at Smøla found something that is probably a bear claw. How it ended up there is unknown. Photo: Marius André Jenssen Stenberg / news In the Iron Age, important and high-ranking persons carried bear claws or skins with them in their graves. But it is not at all certain that the claw is quite that old. – It can also be from more recent times. The bear hunters in Møre and Romsdal have had a special status in society, so perhaps it is from them, says the archaeologist. Heidi Rognskog Mella, cultural adviser in Smøla municipality. Photo: Marus André Jenssen Stenberg / news More was found than they had anticipated beforehand. It can give more information about what is under the church. – The students were very clever and eager. I think it is important to engage children and young people in the region in the subject of archeology and trigger their curiosity, says Heidi Mella.
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Smøla municipality gets help from young people to carry out archaeological excavations – news Møre og Romsdal – Local news, TV and radio
