It all started as a normal day trip in August of this year. Erik Briskerud (10) and dad Mathis Briskerud were in the boat swimming in Glomma near Arneberg.
After anchoring himself to a sandbar in the middle of the river, Erik sees something that looks like a root.
Since the object is covered in sand and neither father nor son understand what Erik found, they decide to sink it into the water.
– When we washed away the sand in the river we saw that it was a bowl, says the ten-year-old observer.
Was NRK Inlandet who first mentioned the matter.
Rare find
After the two delivered the item to Innlandet County Council, a small piece of the bowl was cut out for dating analysis.
The sample was sent to Florida in the United States to calculate the age of the wooden bowl.
A few days later the result arrived: the bowl was dated to the Viking age, in the period between 894 and 1030 AD.
VIKINGBOLLE: Erik and his father Mathis are often out for a walk, but they thought it was really special to have found the old wooden bowl near where they live. Photo: private
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– I didn’t think he was more than 200 years old. It was quite funny to have found such an old thing, Erik says.
Innlandet County Municipality archaeologist Mildri Een Eide can tell Dagbladet that the bowl found by the ten-year-old boy is the only Viking-era wooden bowl I know of in the county.
Since few whole wooden bowls were found during archaeological excavations in Norway, he considers the find to be particularly special.
Form of anger against the student: – Tasteless
– Many of these wooden bowls are warped or much younger than the one Erik found. You usually only find bits or pieces of such Viking-era bowls, says Een Eide.
– No decorative elements
The archaeologist states that since the bowl is roughly designed and signs of cuts can be observed inside it, there is reason to believe that it is an everyday item that was used by common people in the late Viking Age.
– Traces of high-ranking social classes from this period are usually found. This, however, is not an ornamental object. Such finds are therefore less common, which is what makes this wooden bowl particularly exciting, he says.
INCREDIBLE RESULTS: Mildri Een Eide points out that archaeologists can never be completely sure what these artifacts were used for, or who owned them. Photo: private
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Erik’s father can tell Dagbladet that the two are fond of the subject of the story earlier and that it was interesting to have found an item that several people were able to tell him about.
– We learned a lot just because we were curious, says Mathis.
Very excited
According to Een Eide, the bowl is a pine cone.
– The pine tree species can sometimes give incorrect dating as the trees can be very old, but as the dating sample is taken from one of the outermost annual rings, this has nothing to do with the accuracy of the dating , He says.
Randi Langøigjelten, Head of Culture in the Innlandet County Municipality, is very excited about the great discovery and thinks it’s especially funny that Erik found the wooden bowl.
– We want children and young people to gain interest and knowledge of our wonderful cultural heritage. Erik probably contributed to this, she says.
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When asked how to find old objects, the positive ten-year-old says it’s important to use observation skills.
– If you’re out for a walk and see something you don’t think belongs there, take a closer look, says Erik.
Archaeologist Een Eide can confirm to Dagbladet that the wooden bowl was handed over to the Oslo Museum of Cultural History for safekeeping.
