English: Some hundred years before the Varnhem monastery was built around 1150 by the Cistercians, the same place already brandished one of the oldest Christian churches in Sweden. During the year 2005 the Museum of Västergötland started an excavation of this old stone church (estimated to be from around 1020-1040) and found indications of a wood chapel standing there before. More than 1000 skeletons were found. Surrounding the oldest church, women and children graves were found on the north side while men on the south, but later the graves were placed on the south side only, the richest people however closest to the church. Around this old church ruin there are Iron Age burial mounds and indications of some kind of village. A silver hord has been found in the same area. Pictures are from the excavation, summer of 2007.