Marsholmen, Matesholm, Buholmen or just simply Holmen. A dear child has many names. So does this important fishing village in Hovden in Bø in Vesterålen.
We do not know when the first people settled on the islet, but we do know that such fishing village and settlement mounds may have roots back to the Iron Age. But it is in the Middle Ages that the mounds get their size. Houses fall down and new ones are built on top. There is a lot of activity here, the cultural layer is at least one meter thick.
Cultural layers are soil that has been worked by humans. Here, archaeologists find rubbish and other forgotten treasures. The fishermen who lived out here were specialists in “rav og rekling”; fatty strips of halibut that have been dried, and smoked or salted. This was an important commodity and delicacy.
The fishing village Mound at Buholmen is an automatically protected cultural monument and is the bright part in the middle of the picture, to the left of the sculpture RÆK III. Frugga in the background is a seabird paradise and is used as a hay field.
