Viking Ships

According to the popular image of the Vikings, this people embodied a spirit of immense solidarity that resisted the yoke of Christianity and the dominance of Latin in Western Europe. This image is not without its contradictions, and while it is true that writing was unknown in Scandinavia during the early centuries of the Viking expansion, we now know that trade and colonization, as much as their famous raids, motivated the irruption of the Scandinavian people on the medieval stage. However, there is an important area where the contradictions between the image of the Vikings and archaeological data still remain intact : the Vikings ships. These ships were designed for traders, settlers, fishermen and warriors. Like the Vikings themselves, their ships reflect a genius of unparallelled originality and high performance. How did the Vikings build their ships, conferring them with such impressive symmetry, balance and finesse? The first ethnologists who studied this issue favoured ideal notions of traditions compiled over generations of builders, along with simple tips for balancing portside and starboard. Following this reductive cultural representation, they then quickly turned to the essential elements of clinker built construction: use of split planks and a great number of iron rivets, evidence of a new metallurgy. The problem with these ships is that, while their construction is made using traditional methods fitting to the popular image of the Vikings, their architectural design, deriving from very refined knowledge, contradicts the idea of an illiterate medieval Scandinavia cut off from the main centres of learning. This work focuses on the architectural design of Scandinavian ships from the eighth to the eleventh century, to show their place in high European knowledge. It then seeks to understand the links between the theoretical and practical aspects of Vikings ships : the clinker built construction and a great homogeneity over more than five centuries. Analysis of the master frames of five wrecks – three Viking ships, one Ancient wreck and a pre-Viking Scandinavian vessel – has found positive indicators of the use of geometric design principles that were formerly thought to be original in Renaissance shipbuilding treatises. Each wreck showed signs of the application of these design principles. The results show moreover that it was possible to use a transverse system of hull design for ships that were built shell-first in the clinker style.
Note: Optimised file. See the original at: http://hdl.handle.net/1866/10661

Selon l’image reçue des Vikings, ce peuple incarne l'esprit d’une immense solidarité primitive ayant su résister rudement au joug du christianisme et à la domination du Latin en Europe occidentale. Cette image n’est pas sans ses contradictions et, s’il est vrai que l’écriture était encore inconnue en Scandinavie durant les premiers siècles de l’expansion viking, on sait maintenant que le commerce et la colonisation, autant que les célèbres raids, motivèrent l’irruption des peuples scandinaves sur la scène médiévale. Quant aux navires de ces marchands, colonisateurs, pêcheurs et guerriers, ils apparaissent, un peu à l’image des Vikings eux-mêmes, sur le grand tableau de l’histoire nautique sous l’enseigne d’une originalité et d’une technicité sans parallèle. Comment les Vikings construisaient-ils leurs navires, en leur donnant une symétrie, un équilibre et une finesse si achevés? Les premiers ethnologues qui se sont intéressés à cette question ont privilégié les idées issues d'une tradition acquise par des générations de constructeurs, et d'astuces simples pour équilibrer tribord et bâbord. Puis, ils se sont rapidement tournés vers les techniques inhérentes à la construction à clin : utilisation de planches fendues et non sciées et de rivets abondants témoignant d’une sidérurgie acquise depuis peu. Le problème que présentent ces navires, est que leur construction artisanale demeure conforme à l’image reçue des Vikings, mais que leur conception architecturale, réalisée selon des connaissances théoriques très exactes, brise la notion d’une Scandinavie médiévale illettrée et coupée des grands centres du savoir. Ce travail s’intéresse précisément à la conception architecturale des navires scandinaves du VIIIe au XIe siècle pour montrer comment ils s’insèrent dans un haut savoir européen dès leur apparition. Il explore ensuite les liens qui unissent ce savoir théorique aux aspects véritablement originaux des navires vikings, en l’occurrence leur construction à clin et leur homogénéité sur une grande région à travers plus de cinq siècles. Au terme de cette recherche, l'analyse réalisée sur le maître-couple de trois épaves vikings, une épave antique et une épave scandinave pré-viking, a permis de mettre en évidence plusieurs indices de l'utilisation du système de conception géométrique apparaissant pour la première fois dans les traités d'architecture navale de la Renaissance, et ce, sur chacune de ces épaves. Les résultats obtenus démontrent qu'il est possible d'employer un système transversal de conception pour des navires vraisemblablement construits bordé premier et assemblés à clin.
NB. Fichier optimisé. Voir l'original à: http://hdl.handle.net/1866/10661

Late Iron Age boat rituals and ritual boats

The most famous ship burials in Norway are found at Oseberg and Gokstad. Beside the magnificent ships, the rich grave goods of all kinds have made these burials important sources to increase knowledge and adventure the Viking period. A boat is frequently part of the equipment of a burial in late Iron Age in Norway, even if not everywhere and in the same way. There are however various opinions among scholars on the reason for putting a boat in the grave.
The boat or ship is often forming some sort of a coffin for the body, and the place for the burial has been carefully arranged. In the case of Oseberg the funeral including preparations and closing rituals took months. But how should we interpret the boat finds that obvious were part of a ritual, but lack a body and other characteristics of a funeral?

Child in exile, Russian warlord, mercenary for the Greek Emperor, Christian warrior in the Holy Land, King of Norway; Harald Hard-ruler was many things in the course of a brilliant and blood-soaked career, but he is mostly remembered today (if he is remembered at all) as the Viking king who scuppered the chances of successful English resistance to the Normans at the battle of Hastings in 1066. But Harald, often regarded as the last of the Viking kings, deserves to be more than a mere footnote to the familiar story of the Norman Conquest. This book, an illustrated retelling of Harald’s life and legend, with factual sections exploring the Viking world, sets out to put that right.

In the autumn of 2019, there were conducted geophysical surveys at Edøy and Kuli in Smøla municipality. At Edøy, a new discovery of what appears to be a ship grave was made. The geophysics project was carried out by the Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research (NIKU) in collaboration with Smøla Municipality and Møre og Romsdal County Municipality. This is the first time a ship has been found in a burial mound on the coast of Møre, but a ship in the form of the Kvalsund ship, have previously been found in what may have been a bogland at Sunnmøre. In addition to suggesting what the shipwreck may have looked like, this article reviews all the Norwegian prehistoric shipwrecks up the Norwegian coast. These are spread all the way from the border to Sweden in the southeast to Troms and Finnmark further north. There is a total of 27 prehistoric ship finds in Norway. 23 are found as a part of burial mounds, and 17 of these are dated to the Viking Age. The article suggests that the Norse interpretation of the number of boat graves in total is far too low, and shows for instance that in Møre og Romsdal County alone there are a total of 63 boat graves. Based on the fact that the vast majority of Norwegian ship finds are dated to Viking times, a hypothetical proposal is presented for what the Edøy ship may have looked like. The starting point is a 13 meter long keel and a ship design that is most likely dated the 9th and 10th century.

In 1982, the Viking Ship Museum embarked upon its first full-scale reconstruction of a Viking ship. The vessel in question was based on the remains of Skuldelev 3, an 11 th-century coastal transport and trading vessel, which had been excavated 20 years previously. The reconstruction, Roar Ege, was launched in 1984 and retired from service in 2016, providing a complete data set over the lifespan of a reconstructed Viking ship. This article will present an object biography of Roar Ege, from the perspective of both the boatbuilder and archaeologist, detailing the manner in which the hull has deteriorated, and the components involved in its decline.

Cette communication propose de revenir sur le terme « viking » en analysant la notion de piraterie dans les sources norroises. Si les historiens sont familiers des témoignages des victimes de ces pirates du Nord, les sources norroises demeurent encore trop méconnues hors de Scandinavie. Les sagas, chroniques rédigées essentiellement au XIIIe siècle, sont des récits provenant des descendants de ces fameux Vikings et jouissant depuis ces vingt dernières années d’un regain d’intérêt de la part des historiens. 
Le mouvement de piraterie des Vikings, daté approximativement du VIIIe au XIe siècle, marqua profondément le Moyen Âge. De la route de l’ouest (vestrvegr) à la route de l’est (austrvegr), l’œkoumène des Vikings s’étendait de Terre-Neuve à Constantinople et de l’Islande au Maghreb. Ces pirates furent à l’origine de changements dans l’ensemble du monde médiéval : création d’États et de dynasties, consolidation du pouvoir, transfert des richesses, imposition de tributs aux peuples vaincus, explorations, mercenariat, etc. 
Devant la foule de problèmes soulevés par l’étude des Vikings, nous proposons ici de revenir à la notion de piraterie au sein des sources norroises. Nous tenterons tout d’abord de revenir sur la sémantique du mot víkingr et du champ lexical qui lui est associé. Puis à travers divers témoignages issus des sources norroises, nous essayerons de définir les enjeux et modalités de la piraterie vue par les Scandinaves.

Mots-clés : Vikings, piraterie, sagas, histoire maritime.

In 1961, an iron anchor was found in Sigtuna's occupational layers. Stratigraphically, it can be dated to some time before about AD 1200. It may thus be Viking Age or even older. Typological dating seems impossible due to the scarcity of finds of early anchors in northern Europe. Swedish text, English summary.

In 1921 a secondary grave was excavated in a Bronze Age burial-mound on the island of Amager in the strait of Øresund between Denmark and Sweden. Recently the material was examined in detail and the result is presented here. This grave proved to be one of the few Late Iron Age boat-graves in South Scandinavia. The boat, only preserved through a pattern of clench-nails, was 10–12 m long. It contained traces of grave-goods: sword, spear, riding-gear, bucket and chest, but no trace of a body survived. The grave is contextually dated to the first half of the 8th century.

From Samarkand to Göta river- actual archeological finds from roman iron age to early Viking age. Three important finds spots along the river. “Grönån-Wooden manufacturing center” - wooden object dated from roman iron age to Germanic iron age (“pre Viking”). Key words: Tools made of wood, objects from carriages, charts as well as boats and ships, wooden wheel, wooden bowls, ladder, basket, oarlock, oar, tools for making ropes. Next findspot is the “Brakteats of gold from Trollhättan”. Väner region brakteats and south west Norway. Göta river and magnificent falls of Trollhättan, similarity to Sorte mull (Black soil) Bornholm Denmark, brakteat and wetlands, two brakteats has runic inscription and should be read in a reversed manner, the text is: “ I the eril is named Märthief, I wrote a powerful spell”. Key words: gold, runic inscriptions, wetland, eril, earl, Oden. Next subject is “Early Viking age trading centers along the Göta river”, there are locality names that indicate early trading as “kiöping” (Grönkiöping and Kiöping). Key words: finds of weights, coins and lumps of silver, coins from the Arabic word (both from north Africa and Samarkand). Dated between around 750-869 A.D. Archaeological excavation, long-oval pit-houses dated to 660-780 A.D. Photos and figures, all text is in Swedish

An archaeological-experimental river journey along the river Daugava (Zapadnya Dvina) in Latvia and Belarus was attempted by a Swedish crew in 2001. The ancient town of Polotsk (Viking Age Scandinavian "Palteskia" or "Palteskiuborg") was visited.

Research Question: To what extent did the seafaring technology of the Vikings influence the evolution of European seafaring technology?

This was my chosen topic for my IB EE for the class of 2020. I scored a B and hoped this might help anyone who needs it. Thank you.

Dansk resumé
Rekonstruktion af Osebergskibet – Form, konstruktion og funktion.
Osebergskibet fra 820 e. Kr. fremstår velbevaret i udstillingen på Vikingskipshuset i Oslo, men det var betydeligt medtaget efter opholdet i gravhøjen, da det blev udgravet i 1904. Det må derfor have været en krævende opgave at genopstille og udstille skibet i en samlet form.
I 1987 blev en fuldskalarekonstruktion, Dronningen, bygget efter tegninger af det udstillede skib. Skibet forliste under de første afprøvende sejladser, hvilket gav anledning til mange spørgsmål om skibets oprindelige form og sødygtighed.
Dette forskningsprojekts formål har været at rekonstruere Osebergskibets form og konstruktion for at kunne udlede skibets oprindelige funktion og sejlegenskaber.
I nærværende arbejde er Osebergskibets skrogform rekonstrueret i en model, hvor der er taget højde for alle revner, flækker og deformationer. Arbejdet har vist, at Osebergskibet er udstillet med mange afgørende deformationer i form og konstruktion, hvilket der ikke var kompenseret for i de tegninger, der blev anvendt til bygningen af Dronningen.
Den nye rekonstruktion har ført til væsentlige ændringer i skrogformen. Skibet har oprindeligt været bredere over vandlinjen og fyldigere i undervandsskroget. En hydrodynamisk undersøgelse af en model af den nye rekonstruktion og en model af Dronningen viste, at den nye skrogform har større stabilitet og bedre sejlegenskaber end Dronningen.
I 2012 blev Saga Oseberg bygget efter nye rekonstruktionstegninger af Osebergskibet. Den første afprøvning for sejl blev gennemført efter samme retningslinjer, som traditionelle norske råsejlsriggede Nordlandsbåde og Åfjordsbåde anvender. Saga Oseberg manøvrerede dårligt, og der blev sat spørgsmålstegn ved den nye rekonstruktions troværdighed.
Skibet blev derefter afprøvet med en anden indgangsvinkel, hvor de bevarede rigspor og konstruktionsdetaljer blev anvendt analytisk til at udlede, hvordan skibet blev sejlet oprindelig. Denne metode førte til betydelig bedre sejlegenskaber.
De forskellige resultater fra afprøvningerne tydeliggjorde, at indgangsvinkel og forforståelse påvirker resultatet. Dette er afgørende for, hvordan rekonstruktionen evalueres, og i sidste ende for hvordan det arkæologiske fund tolkes.
Nærværende forskningsprojekt har påvist, at Osebergskibet i modsætning til tidligere tolkninger var teknisk avanceret og yderst sødygtigt.
 
English Summary
Reconstruction of the Oseberg ship – Form, construction and function.
The Oseberg ship from 820 AD was broken and deformed when excavated in 1904. So despite its well-preserved appearance in the Viking Ship Museum in Oslo, re-assembling the ship must have been a challenging task.
In 1987, Dronningen, a full-scale reconstruction of the ship, was built based on drawings made of the exhibited ship. Dronningen capsized and sank during the first test-sail, giving rise to many questions, concerning the ships original performance.
The purpose of the present work has been to reconstruct the ship’s form and construction in order to deduce its function and sailing capacities. The hull form was reconstructed in a model setup taking all cracks into consideration. The work showed that the exhibited ship had several deformations in many of the essential parts in the construction, which had not been compensated for in the drawings of the ship that were used for building Dronningen.
The new reconstruction led to radical changes in the hull form. The ship was originally broader above the waterline in the bow and more voluminous in the submerged part of the hull. A solid scale model of the new reconstruction and a model of Dronningen were then tested in a hydrodynamic laboratory. The new reconstruction proved considerably more stable than Dronningen and displayed an improved performance.
In 2012, the full-scale reconstruction Saga Oseberg was built based on the new reconstruction drawings. Initially, the principles employed for handling traditional square-rigged boats from Norway were used for the test-sailing. Saga Oseberg manoeuvred badly, and this was taken as proof that the new reconstruction was incorrect.
Afterwards, a second test-sailing was undertaken using a different approach: the idea that details in the ship could be analysed to deduce how it handled originally. This approach led to a marked improvement in the ship’s performance.
The different results from the two sailing trials emphasize the importance of methodology choice when testing full-scale reconstructions: different approaches and different expectations influence the result. This applies to both the interpretation of the reconstruction as well the archaeological find.
The present work disproves former scepticism and confirms that the Oseberg Ship was originally technically advanced and seaworthy.

Throughout history, the Norse people of the Viking Age (commonly referred to as “Vikings”) were known as violent marauders who raided, raped, and pillaged innocent coastal villages throughout Western Europe. While that may be true, they were also an expansive culture that established extensive trade routes, founded a number of cities that still stand today, and explored the North Atlantic further than any other European culture at the time. Few can deny the prowess of the Norse on the seas, but few realize their significant impact on oceanic exploration. The Norse people were accomplished sailors and particularly skilled navigators.

The Viking Age is conventionally seen as a tumultuous time when hordes of fierce warriors from Scandinavia wreaked havoc across the European continent and Norse merchants travelled to distant corners of the world in pursuit of riches. Until recently, archaeologists and textual scholars tended to weave a male-dominated image of this pivotal period in world history, dismissing or substantially downplaying women's roles in Norse society. Today, however, there is ample evidence to suggest that many of the most spectacular achievements of Viking Age Scandinavians would not have been possiblewithout women.

This pioneering and beautifully illustrated monograph provides an in-depth exploration of women's associations with the martial sphere of life in the Viking Age. The motivations and circumstances thatled women to engage in armed conflict or other activities are illuminated and interpreted through an interdisciplinary approach to medieval literature and archaeological evidence from the Viking world. Additional cross-cultural excursions into the lives and legends of female warriors in other past and present cultural milieus - from the Asiatic steppes to the savannas of Africa and European battlefields –lead to a nuanced understanding of the idea of the armed woman and its embodiments in Norse literature, myth and archaeological reality.

Deep ploughing near Kilclief, County Down, near the site of an early monastery, disturbed a large quantity of buried stones. One of these displayed a Viking-type ship with a furled sail. Decorative artwork on the stone suggests an 11th-century date. The ship displays close similarities to Viking ship graffiti in Viking Dublin and in the Scandinavian homelands. This article describes the decorated stone and suggests that it represents an Irish ship constructed in the Viking style. Documentary sources indicate that ships were being granted by an Irish over-king to a local king of this area at this time.

Analysis of the technical evidence provided by images of ships from the Viking Age reveals that most of these depict warships equipped with a very wide and low square sail. This depiction stands, however, in clear contrast to present-day reconstructions of Viking Age warships which are fitted with a higher type of square sail, inspired to a very considerable degree by the Norwegian square-rigged vessels of the 19th century. Consequently, an item of ethnographic reference material has come to occupy a central role at the cost of evidence from the archaeological record.

In typical imaginings of the Viking Age, the Viking warrior often takes pride of place. With or without horned helmets, the Viking is the archetypal axe-wielding barbarian – slaughtering monks, plundering churches and dragging the innocent to slavery. Horned helmets aside, there is some truth in this stereotype – at least of some Vikings at certain times. But of all the iconic images of the Viking age, there is one that looms blackly above every scene of plunder and devastation, and one which played a profound role in the success of the Vikings as warriors and, indeed, of the Viking Age as a whole: the Viking ship.

In the ninth to twelfth centuries the Dublin fleet was one of the most formidable war machines in the Irish Sea area. I analyse the annalistic and archaeological evidence for Hiberno-Norse naval power in Dublin around 1000 AD. Drawing on comparative information from Scandinavia and England, I consider the manpower needed for the fleet, and the financial and monetary implications of the size of the fleet.

As the politico-economic exploits of vikings in and around the Frankish realm remain, to a considerable extent, obscured by the constraints of a fragmentary and biased corpus of (near-)contemporary evidence, this volume approaches the available interdisciplinary data on a cumulative and conceptual level, allowing overall spatiotemporal patterns of viking activity to be detected and defined – and thereby challenging the notion that these movements were capricious, haphazard, and gratuitous in character.

Set against a backdrop of continuous commerce and knowledge exchange, this overarching survey demonstrates the existence of a relatively uniform, sequential framework of wealth extraction, encampment, and political engagement, within which Scandinavian fleets operated as adaptable, ambulant polities – or ‘hydrarchies’. By delineating and visualising this framework, a four-phased conceptual development model of hydrarchic conduct and consequence is established, whose validity is substantiated by its application to a number of distinct regional case studies. The parameters of this abstract model affirm that Scandinavian movements across Francia were the result of prudent and expedient decision-making processes, contingent on exchanged intelligence, cumulative experience, and the ongoing individual and collective need for socioeconomic subsistence and enrichment.

'Monarchs and Hydrarchs' will appeal to both students and specialists of the Viking Age, whilst serving as an equally valuable resource to those investigating early medieval Francia, Scandinavia, and the North Sea world as a whole.

This article discusses a certain type of ship known from Scandinavian Viking Age and Merovingian Period iconography. This type of ship has a vertical stem and stern that meet the keel at right angles, sometimes with an extension filling the space under a sloping forefoot and a similar extension at the rear end of the keel. This design seems to be connected to the earliest sailing ships and it has been suggested that the extensions were invented to meet the increased need for lateral resistance when sailing. Additional arguments for this view are explored which suggest that this design was a transitional stage between rowing ships with steering oars at both ends and specialized sailing ships with more sophisticated designs for sideways resistance: the extensions are the steering oars' anti-leeway properties 'built into the hull'. The authors also suggest that this type of ship was referred to in Old Norse as beit, which is a term that seems to date from the Early Viking Age. In Modern Norwegian, lobeit 'windward beit' refers to a ship's ability to avoid leeway and is probably related to the verb beita 'to sail upwind', which seems to derive from a comparison of the keel with a cutting tool. This would fit well with the discussed ship type and its extensions.

This article considers the reputation and career of Alfred the Great, supposed first king of England, alongside the activities of the Viking Great Army in the ninth century. It examines Viking camps, military responses to the Vikings and the ideological responses in the form of a literary programme. It features the Alfred Jewel, the Watlington hoard and the text Ohthere's Voyage.
[Caitlin Ellis, 'Alfred versus the Viking Great Army', The Historian 139 (autumn 2018), 16–22]

In this article, the author attempts to sift out from Old Norse (ON) written sources the early Viking Age terms for ship types and to link them to actual ships and ship depictions from that period. The author argues that knǫrr, beit, skeið, kjóll, askr, and elliði were the main ship types of the early Viking Age in Scandinavia, at least in the west, and that knerrir referred during this period to warships like Oseberg and only later to cargo ships like Skuldelev 1. ‘A ship with a backwards curved stem’ seems to have been the original meaning of knǫrr. Kjólar were heavy, all-round ships like Gokstad, the author argues, and beit were very early ships with angular stems known from depictions. Skeiðar were low, narrow ships like Ladby. Askar were also very early, small, light ships with stitched planking, whereas elliðar were combined inland / sea vessels, originally Eastern  European.

This book is based on our translation from two mediaeval sources. Part of Egil’s saga telling the story of Thorolf Kveldúlfsson and his fate in Norway, and him sending a trading ship to England at the time when King Alfred the Great was in power in England.
The second source is King Alfred’s Anglo-Saxon version of The Compendious History of the World by Orosius, which includes the account given by Ohthere and Wulfstan to King Alfred the Great around the year 890 in England. We have also translated the text here as the concepts in these accounts are hopefully enhanced from previous publications.
This book is a sequel to the book; „Brunanburh Located Through Egil‘s Saga“ , which dealt with the part of Egil’s saga when the brothers Egill and Thorolf stayed with King Athelstan and fought beside him in the battle of Brunanburh.

Der Primelberg – eine flache Erhebung in der Wiesenniederung auf der historischen Grenze zwischen den Gemarkungen Dierkow und Gehlsdorf – war in den letzten Jahren Mittelpunkt umfangreicher geoarchäologischer, geophysikalischer und vor allem archäologischer Forschungen. Diese Untersuchungen hatten das Ziel, die Geschichte eines im Laufe des 8. Jahrhunderts auf dem Primelberg gegründeten Handelsplatzes zu rekonstruieren und den ältesten Hafen Rostocks zu lokalisieren. Die wichtigsten neuen Erkenntnisse, die aufwendige Baumaßnahmen im Hafenviertel, umfangreiche Handwerksgewerbe und weitreichende Handelskontakte belegen, werden mit dieser Publikation erstmals einer breiten Öffentlichkeit präsentiert und bilden einen vorläufigen Schlusspunkt der Erforschung des Seehandelsplatzes.

As part of the presentation of the ship finds from the harbour at Hedeby, elements of ship’s equipment counted among the find material from the excavations in Hedeby and Schleswig were published. Finds of bone, horn and antler, however, were not taken into consideration as potential pieces of ship’s equipment. An object – now lost – made from the antler of a red deer and found in the settlement excavation of Hedeby could be identified as an oarlock. Among the material from medieval Schleswig was an object made from the tooth of a sperm whale, which must be characterised as a vaðbein and was used in deep-sea fishing with draglines. Parallels for these objects, rare in southern Scandinavia, point to western Norway and the North Atlantic.

A short review of what is published to date about the two boat burials from Salme on the island of Saaremaa (aka Ösel), by their Estonian excavators. The graves were dug in 2008 and 2010/11, respectively. Also some own comments on early sailing in the Baltic and the possible relations to the boats on Gotland's picture stones and other Iron Age craft from the Baltic region. In Swedish.

The Ormen Friske, a Swedish replica of the Viking ship from Gokstad, Norway, sank in the North Sea in June 1950, drowning all 15 on board. The fatal voyage started from the Viking Age site of Birka in Lake Mälaren. Having successfully sailed across the Baltic Sea and having been towed through the Kiel Canal, the ship set sail for Rotterdam but perished near Helgoland.
An inquiry by a German official, supported by eyewitness accounts, showed that the ship had been caught in bad weather. The crew steered for shelter at Helgoland, but at that moment U.S. aircraft commenced a high-altitude practice bombing run, targeting the evacuated island, thus apparently preventing the ship from reaching it. Swedish officials suppressed the role that the bombing may have had in the disaster and re-jected the conclusions of the German inquiry. Sweden also declined proposals for an inspection of the wreck by experts, and none was made. Nor was a message in a bottle, testifying to the bombing, examined. The disaster was instead blamed on the ship’s alleged deficiencies and the crew’s inexperience.
During the Cold War, the government of non-allied Sweden cooperated closely in military and intelligence matters with the U.S. and Britain. The reason for the cover-up was to avoid annoying these powers.
Most of the ship’s wreckage was cleared away. But a small number of parts and artifacts were safeguarded, some of which still survive in museums, archives and private homes. A register of all known
remains, both discarded and still existing, has been compiled. They are discussed in terms of the varying meaning attributed to them by the different authorities and people involved. Also, the remaining artifacts have their sentimental value thanks to their accompanying narratives. Sources also include documents in public archives and private files, press and amateur photos, newspaper reports as well as personal communication with elderly people who were once involved with the construction of the ship or related to its crewmen.
See also www.majken.tk/ormenfriske/

The study of the Viking Age has recently intensified in the eastern areas of the Viking diaspora, including the eastern littoral of the Baltic Sea, where several new finds and improved access to the international academic arena has gradually started to change the existing vision. A closer study of pre-Viking And Viking Age finds in the Eastern Baltic makes it possible to see different modes of overseas communication in the northern and southern half of the region, thus shedding lights on different forms the eastern Viking expansions could take.
The find of two Pre-Viking Age ship burials at Salme in the Estonian island of Saaremaa has, so far, been interpreted as the result of a failed military campaign that ended with a mass burial of fallen warriors. However, taking local burial customs and artefactual evidence into account, a different interpretation emerges. The collective ship burials coincided with an initial phase for the formation of a shared culture sphere, made up by first and foremost warriors along the shores of the Baltic Sea. A material culture and particular burial custom which united local with foreign features, were conspicuous cultural means of communication for groups of Pre-Viking period warriors and sea-farers bearing similar culture values. 

For full-text, please write [email protected].

More and more students in mari time archaeology, that mea ns more and more opportunity for maritime archaeo logica l projects, now and in the future. Such projects can take very different forms as th e Newsletter, including this 25th ed ition, shows . Submerged landscapes and fasc inating f li nt are more than ever at the centre of attention, as An ders Fi scher reports. Others, such as the gra nd o ld man of D anish maritime archaeo logy, O le Crum lin Pedersen do not think fl ints are fasci nating at all. At least, that was one of the things he sa id whi le presenting his new book Archaeology and the Sea, in Roskilde -w here else?

'Viking Age kings' is the first comprehensive presentation of the Norse genealogy. The chronology and genealogy of the Norse kings is here based on the contemporary literary texts describing family relationships.

'Vikingetidens konger' er den første samlede fremstilling af vikingernes slægtshistorie. Vikingekongernes kronologi og slægts­forhold tager her afsæt i samtidens litterære tekster, hvor familie­forholdene beskrives.