The bodies were found in a Viking burial mound and were reburied in the late 1940s in the mound in an aluminum casket. Scientists decided to dig them up after the recent discovery that the casket had been damaged and was partly covered with water.

Scientists hope that modern techniques, including DNA analysis, will reveal more information than was possible 60 years ago. They might even be able to pin down the two women’s identities.

The bodies were discovered in the Oseberg burial mound near Oslo, which yielded one of the Viking ships now on display in the museum. They are believed to be those of Queen Asa and her daughter or possibly a Viking chieftain‘s wife and her servant.

Later this week, experts plan to exhume a man’s body from the nearby Gokstad burial mound, another ship burial site.