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An excavation in Oslo ’s former harbor has yield the stiff of a uncommon Fe gauntlet , likely lost by a medieval knight in the fourteenth C . Archaeologists with the Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research ( NIKU ) get word the piece of armor while metal detecting as part of their investigation of the former haven area .
Oslo was founded as a knightly city and harbor around 1050 . But in 1624 , after a fire ravaged the metropolis , the Norwegian king Christian IV moved Oslo across the bay . In the centuries since , development of the old seaport , including the building of piers and storage warehouse , steady expanded outward into the true laurel as the ocean retreat .
Remains of a medieval iron gauntlet discovered at Bispekiva South in Oslo, after removal from the archaeological site.
archaeologist have undertaken two major excavations of the old harbor area of Oslo , first between 2019 and 2020 and then from 2022 to 2023 . concord to NIKU archaeologistHåvard Hegdal , their discoveries include many discarded object from the medieval andRenaissanceperiods , admit shipwrecks , ceramics , footwear , rope , the corpse of butchered animals and a large number of weapon .
" The gauntlet was found some 40 meter [ 131 feet ] out in the harbor , " Hegdal told Live Science in an electronic mail . " So it could only have been dropped from a ship , though we have no good explanation how something like that could have happened . "
commonly made out of iron , these metallic element gloves , which were used to protect a person ’s hands and wrists , were cook up in the early 14th century , when European soldier and knights upgraded from chain mail to plate armor . But archaeological find of gauntlets are uncommon , particularly former examples , because alloy corrodes quickly and well in the ground and because iron was often reused and reforged in the Middle Ages . However , a well - preservedright - handed gauntletfrom the 14th one C was recently chance in Switzerland .
The gauntlet impression as it was found at the Bispekiva South excavation.
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The Oslo gauntlet may see to the same 100 . " It was found more or less directly below an area - wide layer of dreary clay which must have come from a important quick clay slide which we have date to about 1380 , " Hegdal said . " The gauntlet might have been lost in sexual congress to the landslide itself and the lead moving ridge . "
Little of the Oslo gauntlet remains , however . It is largely an imprint of the armor , with remnants of lowly nails and a potential buckle that the archaeologists were able to see inX - beam . And it is unknown whether the gantlet was raw or old at the time it was lost . forthwith pursue theBlack Death , commercial goods that were antecedently scarce — such as plate armour — became more commondue to the decimation of the universe , Hegdal order . " The gauntlet might only have been corrode and break from disregard and toss away away . "
NIKU archaeologists excavate a dagger at Bispevika South.
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But NIKU ’s excavations have also revealed many weapon system — daggers and knives for the most part , but also swords , spears and axes . " Our hypothesis is that these were put away due to a prohibition era on weapons or long blades , base on standardized regulations in other mediaeval cities , " Hegdal said , which might be an indication of a class of tradition ascendance in the haven .
full understanding chivalric Oslo , though , is complicated . Many Norwegian documents were lost in afire in 1728 , and Oslo ’s medieval city law of nature are not keep . But NIKU ’s archaeologicalexcavation , which is due to enwrap up in November of this twelvemonth , may shed new light on Oslo ’s mediaeval past .
