"Around the area we are working now there was digging in the 1930's when NSB (Norwegian State Railways) laid track," says Berit Sellevold, project leader at the Foundation for Cultural Heritage Research (NIKU).
Five or six skeletons will be excavated this spring from the medieval park and compared to samples dug up last year.
"The goal is to achieve better protection of skeletons and other cultural artifacts which may be found in the ground near the Maria Church," Sellevold says.
Stan Reed of NIKU kneels in a hole in the ground in the Medieval Park in Gamlebyen - the Old Town. He examines a skull.
"The jaw is quite powerful so there is a good chance that it is a man's," Reed says. "There is much to indicate that he was between the age of 20-35 when he died," the archaeologist continues, before carefully brushing off the skeleton which has probably lain buried among the ruins for at least 600 years.
"With the methods we use it is unfortunately impossible to say exactly how long the remains have been in the ground. We have to make do with 'about'," Reed says.
Reed believes the skeleton he has found was a member of the upper class, else it would not have been buried in the grounds of the king's church in medieval Oslo.
"Here they buried the rich and powerful, by and large. The average Oslo dweller was buried near the parish churches," Reed explains.
Sellevold believes that at least 1000 people were buried around the church in the period 1200-1500. The results from the excavations will be ready next year.
