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With the help of a radar penetrating the ground, Norwegian archaeologists discovered an old Viking ship buried about twenty centimeters from the surface of a farmer's field. The 36-meter long vessel, deliberately buried during a funeral ritual, looks surprisingly intact – and could contain the skeletal remains of a high-ranking Viking warrior.
It is called the ship Jellstad and was discovered on farmland in Ostfold County, southeastern Norway. The site, known as Viksletta, is located near the large, intact Jelle burial mound, which can be seen from the busy Norwegian Rv41 highway.
Archaeologists from the Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research (NIKU), with the help of radar specialists from the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Archaeological Prospecting and Virtual Archeology (LBI ArchPro) ), detected the ship with the help of a mobile radar entering the ground. This discovery is significant as it is the fourth burial of Viking ships ever discovered, according to Knut Paasche, head of NIKU's Digital Archeology Department.
In addition to the ship, the scans revealed eight funeral mounds and several long houses. Farmers had plowed the eight mounds, but there was enough evidence below the surface for researchers to identify them as such.
In a statement, Morten Hanisch, conservative of Østfold County, said archaeologists "are certain there is a ship there, but it is difficult to say how many ships are kept before further investigations".
Researchers have not yet dug into the topsoil because they hope to perform the most non-invasive work possible using "all modern means of archeology," Paasche said. Indeed, the wood of the ship, once exposed to the elements, will begin to degrade immediately. In addition, the radar scans show the ship in its undisturbed state. The researchers plan to conduct more analyzes of the area, but they did not rule out an excavation of the ship at a later date.
The vessel rests only 50 centimeters from the topsoil and its length is about 20 meters. Preliminary analyzes suggest that the keel and the floor of the ship are still intact. Although researchers have not yet dated this site, similar sites in Norway date back to around 800 years ago.
The researchers said the ship was deliberately buried in a tumulus, which is not as extraordinary as it sounds. Boats and boats were an indelible aspect of Viking culture, used for transport, trade and conquest in northern Europe until about 1,000 years ago. Ships were valuable and considered symbols of wealth and status. Archaeologists have already found buried ships, some even containing bodies. In 2011, for example, Scottish archaeologists discovered a boat 5 meters long with a warrior inside, as well as his shield, his sword, his spear and other funerary objects.
This newly discovered ship could be part of a cemetery, which was "clearly designed to display power and influence," said archaeologist and project leader Lars Gustavsen in a statement. It is quite possible that the ship Jellstad contains the remains of a high-ranking Viking, but this remains to be proven. It is not clear at this time whether a radar penetrating the ground could detect traces of one or more bodies; for this, excavations on the ground may be necessary.
The researchers also discovered five longhouses, or halls, some of which were quite large. Scientists said the site evokes another Viking site: the Borre site in Vestfold County, on the other side of Oslof Fjord.
These results are all very preliminary and researchers are preparing for the next phase of the project, which will involve further analysis of the Viksletta site using additional non-invasive geophysical methods. The discovery of this old ship is very exciting, but the best is yet to come.
[Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research]