10 TH. PETERSEN. [1907 



that they were all found in the upper part of Ihe mound, some 

 of them only 3 cm. below the surface. The spear-head was first 

 discovered "some metres" south of the middle, then the other 

 antiquities at the same height and in a straight line inwards to 

 about 1 m. from the centre. The examination undertaken by the 

 author confirms the correctness of this observation. By this was 

 disclosed that a boat had been buried in the upper part of the 

 mound and so near the surface that only the turf and a thin layer 

 of earth covered the gunvvale. Of the boat which had been placed 

 in a direction parallel with the river and the road, i. e. north and 

 south, the wood was, of course, quite decayed, and only the iron 

 nails remained. By an exact observation of their place tvvo metres 

 of a boat end could be traced, and the boat appeared to have been 

 composed of four boards at each side, each board being about 

 two dm. broad; judging from the construction of the remains the 

 total length may have been about 9 m.^) This buat has thus 

 been a relatively large one, most of the burial vessels discovered ■ 

 in the neighbourhood by regular excavations in the course of the 

 last years as a rule not having a greater length than 6 — 7 m. 

 Rovvs of nails belonging to a boat of a corresponding size, 9 m. 

 long, were found in the barrow No. 29 at Stor-Skomo.-) This 

 boat too was situated in the upper part of the mound; a layer of 

 coal, among which were scattered some burnt bones, being dis- 

 covered at a lower level and partially below the boat itself, seems 

 to show that the boat-grave has been a secondary one, a circum- 

 stance, which explains the elevated site of the boat. The same 

 may also possibly have been the case in the Melhus-mound. For 

 in my examination of the remains of this mound I have noticed 

 a layer of dark mould mixed with charcoal^), up to O' 18 m. in 

 thickness, at the bottom and partially just below the boat from 



1) A section is seen in the photograph tig. 2. The horizontal distance between 

 the gunvvales is here 1"6 m., and the height from the Iceel to the level of 

 the upper nail-row 0"56 m. 



2) Ab. 1905, 362 f. The distance between the Melhus-mound and the boat- 

 graves at Stor-Skomo is not greater than about 2 km. 



^) Mr. Foslie has pronounced a sample to be birch. 



