Radar finds legendary medieval town
Radar imaging has mapped the remains of a lost medieval Norwegian settlement exactly where legend placed it — a high‑profile example this week of how digital mapping is changing archaeology. (popularmechanics.com)
The Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research ran ground‑penetrating‑radar surveys at the Kringkastingsjordet field beside Domkirkeodden in summer 2023 and used the resulting anomalous reflections to pinpoint the lost town known from medieval sources as Hamarkaupangen. (niku.no) Targeted excavations led by NIKU and Anno Museum in 2024–2025 exposed timber remains, including a two‑room timber‑frame building with wooden floor planks, matching the rectilinear features seen in the geophysical maps. (archaeology.org) The identification follows descriptions in the 16th‑century Chronicle of Hamar that place an urban market settlement east of Hamar’s cathedral; archaeologists date Hamarkaupangen’s founding to around the mid‑11th century and note it is the only inland site among Norway’s eight known medieval towns. (archaeology.wiki) NIKU’s team deployed Guideline Geo ground‑penetrating equipment—technology similar to the GPR that revealed the Gjellestad Viking ship in 2018—and reported a dense cooking‑stone deposit up to one metre thick sitting above the medieval occupation layers. (archaeologymag.com) Project leads say earlier surveys produced little, but the 2023–24 geophysical program revealed “significant clusters of buried buildings, streets, and alleyways,” which directly guided the 2025 excavations that confirmed the radar signals. (archaeology.org)
