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The skeletons in the basement of Trondheim Public Library. Photo: NTNU SA/Arild Juul |
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Underneath Trondheim Public Library lie the ruins of the old Olav church which was built in the middle of the 12th century. It was raised to replace the wooden church constructed on the site where the body of King Olav was kept for some time after he fell at the battle of Stiklestad in 1030.
The Olav church was the parish church from the beginning of the 14th century. The northernmost Franciscan monastery in the world was founded here early in the 1300s. The monastery stood for more than 200 years until the great fire that ravaged Trondheim in 1531 destroyed both it and the church.
In 1989, archaeological excavations were made of a small section of the Olav church churchyard. This dig was centred in what is now the atrium of the Public Library.
Here the archaeologists found the graves of 15 children and 14 adults, six men and eight women, that had been left undisturbed since the Middle Ages.
The graves can be dated to the time when the Olav church was a Franciscan monastery, that is, some time between the 14th century and the great town fire in 1531.
The location in the churchyard leads us to believe that the males were Franciscan monks. The women may have been so-called monastic lodgers, i.e. well-to-do people who paid to stay in a monastery, often as they approached old age. While the men were relatively young individuals, the female skeletons are from older women. The average height of the men was approximately 172 centimetres, while the women were around 159 centimetres.
This is how they were found
In 1989 it was decided to put four of the skeletons on permanent display in the atrium of the Public Library. The display was arranged by archaeological experts to “reconstruct” the excavation.
Four graves are included in the display:
Grave 390: Adult male, around 30-35 years, approximately 172 cm tall. This is a well developed skeleton with little trace of hard physical labour.
Grave 402: Young boy, around 15 years, approximately 165-170 cm tall. Well developed bones, fine and healthy teeth.
Grave 392: Adult female, around 30-40 years, approximately 160 cm tall. Slim bone structure. Regular, good teeth with no cavities.
Grave 397: Infant child who died immediately after birth. The child lived long enough to have been baptised. We know this because it was buried in the churchyard, where only those who had been baptised were buried. We cannot tell whether the child was a boy or a girl.
It has not been possible to determine the cause of death of any of these individuals from their skeletons.
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