Burial mounds from the Iron age

Here there was a burial ground in the Iron Age, from 500 BC. to about 1050 AD. There are traces of at least 17 burial mounds in Tønsåker.

During the Iron Age, the high end of society were buried in richly equipped graves. Social status, gender, profession and the changing religious situation determined what was to be brought into the grave. After the christening of Norway, Tønsåker became a church ground. The church was located about 800 meters west of the graves, in the direction of the river Vorma.

Three mounds were still preserved in 1834. The author and poet Henrik Wergeland (1808-1845) was very upset when he witnessed one of the mounds at Tønsåker being demolished. Earlier that year, Wegeland's great work The History of Norway had been published. He was filled with enthusiasm and awe for the early sagas and the ancestors, and he got the idea for a "national celebration in memory of our ancestors". Approximately 2000 people attended the celebration on the 29. September 1834 at Tønsåker with singing, dancing, drinking, and to hear Wergeland speak.