DarkLab members have published a new article detailing excavations in the Gullåkra wetland outside of Lund. In the 1840s, a remarkable discovery was made in the wetland: a bronze lur dated to c. 1300 BCE, along with a boat and the bones of a large animal offering. As Bronze Age boats are exceedingly rare, this discovery makes the site highly significant for early Scandinavian maritime history. Recent excavations were carried out with the goal of relocating the boat discovered in the 19th century and assessing any additional remains within the wetland. Although the boat could not be found, interdisciplinary methods, including dendrochronology, carbon dating, and sediment analysis, enabled the reconstruction of the wetland’s trans-Holocene history.
One interesting find was a Mesolithic log with broad-headed metal axe marks. The authors suggest that these marks may have been left by the 19th century excavators of the bronze lur, providing evidence of this important early archaeological event. This unique log was documented and scanned by DarkLab members and the model can be seen in the included image.
Read the related article:
Fauvelle, M., Ling, J., Artursson, M., Lagerås, P., Potter, R., Linderson, H., Rundgren, M., Campanaro, D., Blaesild, P., von Arbin, S., Nielsen, A. B., & Horn, C. (2025). Storms, ships, and shovels: A trans-Holocene history of the Gullåkra wetland. The Holocene, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/09596836251340846