Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research

The Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research (Norwegian: Norsk institutt for kulturminneforskning, NIKU) is a cultural heritage research institute based in Oslo, Norway.

The institute has nearly 80 employees and regional offices in Bergen, Trondheim, Tønsberg and Tromsø.[1] Following a restructuring in 2014 it consists of 7 research departments:[2]

  • Archaeological Excavations
  • Digital Documentation
  • Conservation
  • Buildings
  • Urbanism and Planning
  • Policy, Management and Society
  • High North

The chair is Knut Grøholt and the deputy chair is Berit Skarholt.[3] The current director general is Carsten Paludan-Müller.

NIKU was created in 1994 as a split from the Norwegian Directorate for Cultural Heritage.[1] From 1994 to 2003, the institute shared board of directors with the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research under the moniker NINA•NIKU.[4]

In 2019, archaeologists from NIKU, using large-scale high-resolution georadar technology, determined that a 17 meter long Viking ship was buried beside Edøy Church on the island of Edøya. Traces of a small settlement were also found. NIKU estimates the ship's age as over 1,000 years: from the Merovingian or Viking period. The group plans to conduct additional searches in the area. A similar buried ship was found previously by a NIKU group in 2018, in Gjellestad.[5]

Gjellestad ship burial
A Viking burial mound at Gjellestad.

The Gjellestad[6] (Norwegian pronunciation: [ˈjɛlːɛˌstɑd]) ship, also spelt Jellestad, is the remains of a Viking age longship found at the farm of Gjellestad in Halden municipality in Norway in 2018 by the archeologists Lars Gustavsen and Erich Nau. A 2019 examination by the University of Oslo has dated it to earliest AD 733.[7] Originally interred beneath a burial mound, in the present day the ship lies 50 centimetres below the topsoil due to years of plowing.[8]

Due to extensive fungus damage to the hull caused by field drainage, drought and exposure to the air, archaeologists called for an immediate dig to save the ship.[9] Excavation of the ship at Gjellestad began in June 2020,[10] overseen by Professor Knut Paasche from the Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research. It is estimated to be over 20 metres long, although only parts of the keel have survived.[11] This would mean that the boat is of a similar size to the Gokstad ship.[12] The identity of the boat's occupant has not yet been confirmed, but experts have speculated that it may have belonged to a king or queen.[13]

References
  1. Henriksen, Petter, ed. (2007). "Norsk institutt for kulturminneforskning". Store norske leksikon (in Norwegian). Oslo: Kunnskapsforlaget. Retrieved 5 May 2009.
  2. "Organisation". Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research. Retrieved 3 October 2014.
  3. "Styret" (in Norwegian). Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research. Retrieved 3 October 2014.
  4. "NINANIKU - Årsmelding 2002" (in Norwegian). NINA-NIKU. Retrieved 3 October 2014.
  5. "Ancient Viking ship discovered buried next to church using breakthrough georadar technology". The Independent. 27 November 2019. Retrieved 27 November 2019. This will certainly be of great historical significance, archaeologists say
  6. https://www.sprakradet.no/Vi-og-vart/hva-skjer/Aktuelt-ord/gjellestadskipet/
  7. https://www.khm.uio.no/om/presse/skipsgraven-fra-gjellestad.html
  8. Jellestad Ship
  9. Science Norway
  10. Gjellestad excavation
  11. BBC News
  12. Historic excavation now underway
  13. SFL Times



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