SUMMARY
Sorø Abbey’s Cemetery for Laymen.The 2006 Archaeological Excavation of Burials outside the north Transept.By Henriette RensbroPrior to the construction of a new extension on the north side of the church the National Museum excavated 24 square metres. 25 graves were discovered and 15 of them excavated. 9 skeletons were examined at the University of Copenhagen; they turned out to be five men, two women and two children. There were 6 stone-coffin graves made of brick and roofed with tiles. In one of these brick graves a woman was buried. Dating the graves was difficult: At least 8 of the graves are medieval, as brick coffins are commonly dated from the late 12th to the 14th century and two other graves are older. According to the Cistercian rule monks were buried without coffins and from what we know about the location of the monastery cemeteries, it was usually the cemetery of the laymen which was located on the north side of the church. One grave, without a coffin and older than the brick graves, had a different orientation from all the rest of the graves. Perhaps this is an indication of the location and orientation of the church’s predecessor from the abbey’s Benedictine period. It is far from the first time stone-coffin graves have been discovered and excavated at the site of Sorø Abbey. The first record in Antikvarisk-Topografisk Arkiv is from 1826. The stone coffins are made of brick, travertine or fieldstones. The grave of the archbishop and founder of the Cistercian convent in Sorø, Absalon (†1201) has been opened and examined three times – in 1536, 1827 and 1947.