The remains of a 1,200-year-old pagan temple to the Old Norse gods has been discovered in Norway’s seaside town of Ose. It is the first such temple found in the country, though we know what it is based on surviving temples in Denmark and Sweden. The wooden building is large for the time, about 45 feet (14 meters) long, 26 feet (8 m) wide, and up to 40 feet (12 m) high. Archaeologists think it was built sometime in the 700s, and would have been the site of sacrifices (and more mundane religious observances) during the midsummer and midwinter solstices.
The Norse began building these large “god houses” in the 500s CE. They replaced simpler cult sites, often outdoors, that had previously sufficed for worship. Larger god houses became popular as Norse society became more stratified and dominated by wealthy families, who are thought to have built god houses as part of their taking control of the cults of the gods.
The Old Norse religion was suppressed from the 1000s, when Norway’s kings forcibly imposed the Christian religion, and destroyed god houses to enforce worship in the new Christian churches. Perhaps including the one at Ose. (The one above is a reconstruction, the real site has only the foundations remaining.)
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