The Oldtidsruta, the Ancient Trail, follows highway 110 and side roads through Østfold, connecting Norway's most concentrated collection of prehistoric monuments. The route loops from Skjeberg in the south through Fredrikstad to Hafslund and Sarpsborg in the north, a full day's journey with stops. Østfold has approximately 450 registered rock carving fields, the highest concentration in Norway, and Sarpsborg alone has over 600 recorded individual carvings.
The rock carvings date to the Bronze Age, roughly 1800 to 500 BC. Key sites include Hornnes, where 22 sun ships carved into rock depict vessels travelling through the sky to meet the Sun god; Begby, with ship, wagon, and sun symbols alongside two famous individual figures known as Begbymannen and Danseren, the Dancer; and Hafslund, with ships, foot traces, and sun symbols alongside Iron Age burial mounds in the adjacent manor park. Despite being found on today's farmland, around 90 percent of the carvings depict maritime subjects, because the Bronze Age coastline was far higher than today due to post-glacial land uplift.
The trail also connects major Iron Age cemetery sites. Hunn Steinringfelt, the Stone Ring Field, is considered the most spectacular monument on the route, with large stone blocks placed in ring formations marking graves from the pre-Roman Iron Age. Gunnarstorp features a steep field packed with burial monuments, crowned by a massive mound three metres high and thirty metres wide from around 1000 BC. The concentration of sites is not random: the Raet moraine created fertile, well-drained soil that attracted Bronze Age farmers, and the smooth Østfold granite provided ideal natural canvases for carving. Most rock carvings are covered November through March for frost protection.
The rock carvings date to the Bronze Age, roughly 1800 to 500 BC. Key sites include Hornnes, where 22 sun ships carved into rock depict vessels travelling through the sky to meet the Sun god; Begby, with ship, wagon, and sun symbols alongside two famous individual figures known as Begbymannen and Danseren, the Dancer; and Hafslund, with ships, foot traces, and sun symbols alongside Iron Age burial mounds in the adjacent manor park. Despite being found on today's farmland, around 90 percent of the carvings depict maritime subjects, because the Bronze Age coastline was far higher than today due to post-glacial land uplift.
The trail also connects major Iron Age cemetery sites. Hunn Steinringfelt, the Stone Ring Field, is considered the most spectacular monument on the route, with large stone blocks placed in ring formations marking graves from the pre-Roman Iron Age. Gunnarstorp features a steep field packed with burial monuments, crowned by a massive mound three metres high and thirty metres wide from around 1000 BC. The concentration of sites is not random: the Raet moraine created fertile, well-drained soil that attracted Bronze Age farmers, and the smooth Østfold granite provided ideal natural canvases for carving. Most rock carvings are covered November through March for frost protection.
