Archaeologists digging near Strömnäsbruk in Småland (Sweden) have uncovered a burial ground with some twenty graves thought to date back to the Iron Age. "We didn't expect to find so many," said Alexandra Nylén who, with her colleague from the Småland museum, Peter Skoglund, has been working in the area for the last two weeks. "The grave field shows that there was a permanent settlement with cultivation here in the Iron Age, from 500 BCE to 500 CE. This is from the end of the Iron Age," she said.
     The archaeologists knew that there was a so-called 'ship's barrow', a type of grave with a large stone on top, at the location. But the dig revealed many other graves identified by piles of stones. The local council must now decide whether to perform a thorough investigation of the area and whether to keep the settlement as it is.

Source: The Local (12 August 2005)