An archaeologist has discovered a secret message in a bottle from a Viking dig site dating back 150 years.
The bottle was discovered at a known Viking burial site in Norway, and was originally buried by another archaeologist in 1874.
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It was the Norwegian historian Jacob Bresden who made this strange discovery that Anders Lorange left behind.
The bottle was discovered buried inside the tomb of King Odbjorn, who was buried with the largest known Viking ship in the world.
Footage shared by Sagastad Centre, a Viking center in Norway, shows University of Bergen staff extracting the bottle.
The series of clips were uploaded to Instagram, showing how archaeologists carefully opened the bottle to remove its contents.
Speaking to Newsweek, Bresden said: “We haven't opened a Viking grave in Norway for the last 100 years.
“It's amazing they opened it at all.
“The main reason they did this is because this particular grave was originally excavated in 1874 by the archaeologist who left that message.
“Now, the Norwegian Ministry of Cultural Heritage wants to nominate this tomb as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
“This would require more detailed excavations than was happening at the time.”
Staff from the University of Bergen, Norway, carefully removed the bottle and other contents from the dig site – revealing the letter Lorange left behind.
The letter, translated from Norwegian, says: “This mound was excavated in 1874. By Anders Lorange, Antikvarius Norvegia.
“The mound was built over fallen men.
“They were burned in their ship along with their weapons and ornaments. Among the protrusions were 26 skuld (shield) – of 2 swords – an ax and many arrows – as well as many other ancient saws.
“The find has been handed over to the Bergens Museum.”
The strange discovery comes after the discovery of a remarkably intact Viking burial site with nearly 50 skeletons in Denmark.
The forgotten cemetery was discovered on the island of Funen during preparations to lay underground electrical cables.
Archaeologists from the Odense Museum have been working to carefully uncover dozens of human remains, as well as rare artifacts, over the past six months.
But what makes this discovery “really unusual,” according to archaeologist Michael Burri Londo, who was present at the excavation, is the presence of “so many well-preserved skeletons” in one place.
It is rare to find any human remains from the Viking Age, between about 793 and 1066 AD.
Although it is rare to find such a well-preserved grave in Scandinavia, this is due to the typically high acid levels in the soil.
Areas with high acidity will completely destroy bones.
“Normally when we dig Viking graves, we would be lucky if there were two teeth left in the grave along with the funerary objects,” Londo told Reuters. “But here we have the skeletons completely preserved.”
“The skeletons are absolutely amazing. They are well preserved,” he added.
“There are five fingers, five toes. This opens up a whole new set of possibilities for discoveries.”
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