Iron age farm
South of Bø, on the western side of Andøya, there are many housing tofts and burial mounds. It is not easy to see these relics of the the past, because they are well cocealed by grass, moss, and undergrowth.
Perhaps this is how Bakkan looked in the
Iron Age?
People have farmed here since the Stone Age, and in the Iron Age, the Sletten-Bakkan area was a large farming district. Then came the Black Death (1349), and the area was laid completely waste. An archaeological survey in about 1960 revealed that Sletten-Bakkan is of Scandinavia’s best preserved farming complexes from the Iron Age. Today, it is owned by Tromsø Museum.
Lundahaug is under excavation. A sharpened
piece of bone and a piece of flint were found here, but no trace of the
deceased was preserved. The grave was handsomely designed, surrounded by a
row of stones.