After a devastating fire in 1624, the town was moved and got the new name Christiania after the Danish King Christian IV. Today, one can still see traces of the medieval town in the Medieval Park. There lie ruins of ecclesiastical and royal buildings. Several archaeological excavations in Oslo have uncovered, not only the houses of those high up in society, but also traces left behind by ordinary, working people.

Throughout the years, archaeologists have uncovered, streets, fences, wharves, and boats that help show how the topography of the town developed. Around the year 1300, the town was at it’s greatest and likely had 2-3000 citizens. At this point, it also had grander buildings made of stone such as churches and convents.

I addition, the archaeological excavations have uncovered a well of artifacts connected to everyday life in the medieval town such as tools, leather shoes, pottery, textile equipment, cooking containers, stone griddles, and so much more.

Oslogate 6

The excavations of Oslogate 6 (Oslo Street 6) occurred between 1987 and 1989. This encompassed 670 square meters and the site was situated in the northern part of what was the medieval town of Oslo. This area lay west of the Holy Cross Church and north of the Bishop’s residence and St. Hallvard’s Cathedral. The finds from Oslogate 6 show that this area had become part of the expanding town as early as the last half of the 11th century. In the layers under all this, the archaeologists uncovered traces of agriculture and an older settlement dated to the 10th/11th century.

As part of these excavations, the archaeologist uncovered more than twenty thousand artifacts which, for the most part, were used by regular people in their daily lives. Nearly half the findings are leather artifacts, and this was also the shoemaker area of the town. Between 2017 and 2019, these artifacts have been revised, and we’ve had a special focus on artifacts that relate to the production and consumption of food.