Preliminär redogörelse för 1987 års undersökningar i Birkas stadsvall

Abstract

This paper is a short preliminary report from the excavation on Björkö in lake Mälaren during the summer 1987. The excavation took part in the wall around Birka.

The wall assumes a central position amongst the ancient remains of Björkö, and is an important clue to the genesis of Birka.

Excavation pioved that the wall was built by stages. Finds of burnt timber in the oldest part of the construction proved that it had burnl The filling in the wall consists of material from the site and from graves. The finds and radiocarbon measures date it back to ninth-century. Beneath the wall construc-tion a culture layer with postholes was discovered, radiocarbon dated to 450 ± 70 BC.

During 1988 furtherexcavations have continued on a terraced building level in connection with the wall.