A06_14

A case of mysterious identity: one of the earliest churches of medieval Trondheim, Norway

Nadeau M¹,  Petersén A², Sæhle I², Svarva H¹, Seiler M¹

¹National Laboratory for Age Determination, NTNU University Museum, Trondheim, Norway, ²NIKU, Trondheim, Norway

Christianity was introduced in Norway during the 10th Century. King Olav Haraldsson built St Clement’s Church in Trondheim in 1015 AD and played an important role in the transition from paganism to Christianity. According to the sagas “… after a while, the coffin miraculously rose out of the earth. It was then moved and buried anew at St. Clement’s Church …… it looked as if Olav was simply sleeping …” The saga of Olav Haraldsson and the legend surrounding his sainthood soon became central to the Norwegian national identity. The locality of this church has intrigued historians for centuries.

In 2016-2017, an archaeological excavation conducted in the historical part of Trondheim revealed amazing features distributed over 15 phases from the 10th century onward. The earlier phases contain urban occupation and secular buildings, representing the late Viking Age/ early Medieval period, capped by a thick burnt layer. A sequence of five wooden churches were uncovered above this layer. The earliest church could be considered a candidate for the St. Clement’s Church.

Several methods were used to date this difficult site. Posts from secular buildings and churches were dated both by dendrochronology and radiocarbon wiggle matching. The posts that include the 994 AD Miyake event were dated separately using this event. In addition, single radiocarbon results were obtained on human, wood, and plant remains. We present here a model used to establish a chronology for the whole site and discuss whether it could contain the early 11th century St. Clement’s Church.