One of the richest iron ore deposits at Norberg is Mossgruvan, where the mining museum is situated today. The visitor is given an idea of how it was to work and live by a mine more than a hundred years ago. The correct name is Risbergs konstschakt and the building was raised in 1876 over a 114 metre deep mine shaft. The shaft was originally sunk in the18th century.
A very important function of the shaft was to drain the mine. From the shaft it was possible to keep several adjoining pits free from water. The pump equipment was operated using power transmitted from a water wheel by means of a ”stånggång”, a long wooden construction.
The old pumping station has been restored. Visitors are today shown how water is pumped up from the mine. They can also look down the mine shaft.
Apart from the pumping station, a cable operated lift car to carry the miners as well as a canteen, a small foreman’s office and a forge are shown in the pit head building. Visitors can see the tools used by the smith and the old machine used to plane wood, still in working order. A visit to the mining museum may be combined with a tour of Mossgruveparken, a museum park with a signposted walk leading between the old water filled mine holes.
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The Goseck circle is a Neolithic circle structure. It may be the oldest and best known of the Circular Enclosures associated with the Central European Neolithic. It also may be one of the oldest Solar observatories in the world. It consists of a set of concentric ditches 75 metres across and two palisade rings containing gates in places aligned with sunrise and sunset on the solstice days.
Its construction is dated to c. 4900 BC, and it seems to have remained in use until 4600 BC. This corresponds to the transitional phase between the Neolithic Linear Pottery and Stroke-ornamented ware cultures. It is one of a larger group of so-called Circular Enclosures in the Elbe and Danube region, most of which show similar alignments.
Excavators also found the remains of what may have been ritual fires, animal and human bones, and a headless skeleton near the southeastern gate, that could be interpreted as traces of human sacrifice or specific burial ritual. There is no sign of fire or of other destruction, so why the site was abandoned is unknown. Later villagers built a defensive moat following the ditches of the old enclosure.
The Goseck ring is one of the best preserved and extensively investigated of the many similar structures built at around the same time. Traces of the original configuration reveal that the Goseck ring consisted of four concentric circles, a mound, a ditch, and two wooden palisades. The palisades had three sets of gates facing southeast, southwest, and north. At the winter solstice, observers at the center would have seen the sun rise and set through the southeast and southwest gates.
Archaeologists generally agree that Goseck circle was used for observation of the course of the Sun in the course of the solar year. Together with calendar calculations, it allowed coordinating an easily judged lunar calendar with the more demanding measurements of a solar calendar.