Thousands of medieval leather items uncovered beneath Oslo’s Bjørvika
Excavations by Norwegian cultural institutions recovered nearly 2,700 pieces of leather — including decorated shoes, purses and children’s footwear — preserved in clay deposits that once lay beneath the city’s historic harbor.
Archaeologists working in Oslo’s Bjørvika district have uncovered thousands of leather artifacts dating chiefly to the Middle Ages, offering an unusually detailed window on urban clothing, repair practices and everyday life in medieval Norway.
Teams from the Norwegian Maritime Museum and the Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research recovered roughly 2,900 objects during winter and spring excavations, of which about 2,700 were leather items, the maritime museum said. The work also produced nearly 3,000 animal bones interpreted as food waste.
The leather assemblage includes decorated shoes, purses, sword sheaths and blades, as well as a large number of bags — a common accessory because medieval garments lacked pockets. Of the footwear recovered, 68 pieces are children’s shoes, some small enough for a one‑year‑old and many showing the same stylistic features as adult shoes. Conservators also noted clear traces of decoration, extensive repairs and evidence that items were repeatedly reused.
Archaeologist Marja‑Liisa P. Grue of the Norwegian Maritime Museum said the quantity of leather surprised the team, given the relatively small size of the excavation field. "From some of the layers we investigated, we were just continuously picking bone and leather pieces," she said.
The preservation is attributable to the site’s geology and history. Bjørvika was originally part of the harbor and was underwater in medieval times; successive landfill operations raised the area to dry land. Objects that sank to the sea bottom were rapidly covered by clay and subsequently lay in moist, oxygen‑poor layers. Those anoxic conditions limited bacterial decay and allowed organic materials such as leather, bone and wood to survive when comparable finds in drier soils would have decomposed.
Stratigraphic analysis showed an unusual chronological sequence at the excavation area. The uppermost layers produced artifacts dating to the 1900s, but instead of yielding material from the 17th–19th centuries — as nearby sites often do — the sequence jumps directly to items typologically dated to the 13th–15th centuries. Museum researchers said further investigation will focus on why roughly 400 years of archaeological record appear absent from this locale despite historical use of the nearby river for transport into the 19th century.
Grue said many of the recovered items appear to have been transported to the find spot by the nearby Alnaelva River and accumulated in the harbor environment. Materials that float well, such as leather, bone and wood, were disproportionately represented, she said.
The footwear and accessories suggest social differences in medieval Oslo. Several objects are elaborately worked, and the assemblage overall "appears to have belonged to upper‑class medieval Osloans," Grue said. At the same time, the heavy use, repeated mending and re‑use of garments and shoes shed light on consumption and household practices across social groups: components were repaired, recycled and passed to younger siblings until no longer serviceable.
Conservators noted that the finds contribute to a growing picture of preserved textiles and leatherwork across Scandinavia. Recent discoveries in the region, including a Swedish Viking grave with surviving textile remnants, have similarly expanded understanding of clothing, ornament and burial practice when organic materials survive burial conditions.
Archaeologists said the Bjørvika finds will be subject to further laboratory study, conservation and typological analysis to refine dating and to map production techniques, use‑life and repair histories. The team also plans to investigate the taphonomic and historical reasons for the missing centuries in the local stratigraphy and to compare the Bjørvika assemblage with contemporaneous urban deposits elsewhere in Oslo and Scandinavia.
The excavation results will inform museum exhibits and scholarly research about medieval urban life in Norway, particularly how clothing and personal goods were used, maintained and discarded in a coastal trading center. Conservation teams are prioritizing stabilization of fragile leather items so they can be studied without further degradation.