Excavations at Helgö I: Report for 1954-1956

Through the discovery of the Iron Age settlement on the island of Helgö in Lake Mälaren, Sweden has acquired a prehistoric monument which is of the greatest importance from the point of view of cultural history. The archaeological investigations at Helgö have now been in progress for seven years and an unusually large quantity of new and interesting material in the form both of finds and of building foundations and graves has come to light. On this seemingly inexhaustible site there are still, however, many prehistoric remains which have not yet been dealt with by the investigators, and it will certainly be a considerable time before the results can be pieced together to make a definitive picture of the whole. In the meantime I thought it appropriate, and indeed necessary, to take steps to make the important material available to scientific researchers in the form of reports and catalogues. In this way it has been possible to reproduce the impressions gained from the field observations in a more exact and detailed form. I hope also that it will serve to prevent the changes, confusions and other errors that tend to occur if too long a time elapses between investigation and publication. The present volume constitutes a presentation of the observations during the first three excavation seasons, i.e. the years 1954-1956, together with the catalogue of finds for the same period. The excavations of 1957 and 1958 will be presented in a second volume, and after that there are plans for a continuing series of annual reports until the archaeological investigation is concluded.