Archaeologist believes he found legendary Viking ruler's lost grave in remote spot: 'This is rare'

An independent researcher believes he's discovered a legendary ruler's burial site - a find that could be the first monumental Viking ship burial identified in England.

Steve Dickinson, a British archaeologist, has identified a mound in Cumbria in northwest England that he believes may have been a Viking ship burial, in which elite individuals were laid to rest in a boat or ship.

The mound, he believes, may hold the lost grave of Ivar the Boneless, the Viking leader who died around 873 A.D.

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Dickinson calls the structure the King's Mound - a translation of its Latin name Cuningishou - and its exact location has been kept confidential as his studies continue.

Speaking to Fox News Digital, Dickinson said the Viking Icelandic saga literature indicates that Ivar was buried "in England, in a mound on a boundary."

He and his team pinpointed the mound's location from medieval documents and identified 39 smaller mounds around it.

Excavators have found "significant" artifacts, Dickinson said, including ship rivets and roves - evidence of a ship - as well as lead weights used in trade. 

All appear to be consistent with a Viking ship burial.

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While such ship burials have been found in Scandinavia, none in Britain have been definitively linked to a named Viking ruler, Dickinson said.

Sutton Hoo, the most famous monumental ship burial in England, dates to the pre-Viking Anglo-Saxon period, he noted.

"This is rare, and, should my theory prove to be correct, it is the first such Viking ship burial to be found in Britain," the researcher observed.

Dickinson has also found fleet bases and post-holes from the Viking Age, remains he believes were part of a 210-foot-by-43-foot royal palace.

All pieces of evidence "give the strongest connections with him and his grave," he said.

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Historians are still divided over how Ivar earned the nickname "the Boneless," Dickinson said.

"It is thought, from later historical records, that the epithet 'boneless' refers to some kind of genetic disorder," he noted.

"Ivar also has some other nicknames, though: 'The Legless' and 'The Dragon.'"

Known for establishing a major settlement in modern-day Dublin, Ivar was part of the kingdom of Laithlind, a realm whose true location has long been contested.

"Though some scholars have suggested the kingdom of Laithlind lies in northern and western Scotland or southwest Norway, its name means 'marsh/lake-land,'" Dickinson continued. 

"This description fits the part of Cumbria where I located the King's Mound."

Future fieldwork is planned for this summer, with opportunities for volunteers to take part.

"We aim to conduct scans of the King's Mound using ground-penetrating radar and geophysics later this year to let us 'see' inside it," he said.

"We do not, at present, plan to excavate it. The sheer logistics and financing of this, and reasons of conservation and privacy, all lead to this."