It has been considered for a long period of time that the stave churches was an exclusive Norwegian method of construction, because there have not been found sills as the basis of the construction in other places. The staves are embedded in holes in the ground, and, consequently, these posts have had a great possibility to rotten. Archaelogists have found post holes under Romanesque churches, which still are placed on places where old churches have been constructed.

However, the oldest Norwegian stave churches are not constructed with sills. In modern Norwegian such a church are called stolpekirke ( en stolpe = a post, en kirke = a church). In English such a church is called a post church. There are found remnants of posts, which have been embedded in holes in the ground, under the present Urnes stave church in Sogn. The Urnes stave church is dated from 1130. In other words, an older chuch has been constructed here. There are also found remnants of a post church under the ruins of Mariakirken (kirken = the chuch) in Oslo. The stone church Mariakirken is dated from 1050 in the reign of Harald Hardråde from 1046 to 1066, because some coins have been found in the archaeological site. The English adaption of Hardråde is Hardrada.