Gjellestad ship

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The Gjellestad ship is an archaeological find from the early Viking Age (800–900 AD) in the hamlet of Gjellestad in the municipality of Halden in the province of Viken in southeastern Norway . The find is a ship grave of a Viking ship in the immediate vicinity of the Jellhaugen burial mound . The burial site was discovered in 2018 during archaeological soil surveys using geophysical methods.

location

The nearby burial mound Jellhaugen

The remains of the ship lie on an agricultural area near the hamlet of Gjellestad east of the E6 , around 6 km from the border with Sweden . Originally there was a burial mound above the ship's grave, which was leveled at the end of the 19th century through agricultural use. The ship's grave is located about 200 meters north of the Jellhaugen burial mound, which is dated between 400 and 600 and does not come from the Viking Age. This burial mound with a height of nine meters dominates the flat surrounding area.

The place of the ship's grave is today about one kilometer from the Oslofjord . Since the mainland has been raised by 4.5 m since the Viking Age as a result of the post-glacial land uplift , the coastline has changed significantly and was only about 650 m away at that time.

description

The remains of the ship uncovered by an excavation indicate that the hull was originally 23 to 24 meters long and 4 meters wide. The condition of the wood was poor. Essentially, the keel has been preserved from the hull . Remnants of the ship's planks can still be seen as dark discoloration of the floor. It is not yet known whether it was a rowing or a sailing ship . The narrow keel suggests more of a rowing ship .

During excavations, around 8,000 objects were found inside the ship, mainly iron fragments. In addition, skeletal remains of a large animal were found. No human remains have yet been found.

A dendrochronological examination of the wooden keel showed that the tree used for it was felled after 732. This means that the ship was built around the second half of the 8th century to the beginning of the 9th century.

Research history

In 2017, a farmer intended to dig drainage ditches on his field right next to the prehistoric burial mound of Jellhaugen. Since further finds were to be expected in the area, archaeologists carried out geophysical investigations from spring 2018. Using ground penetrating radar , they discovered the ship's grave in a leveled burial mound as well as other leveled burial mounds that were previously unknown. In addition, there were post pits of four long houses with a length of up to 40 meters. The discoveries were announced to the public on October 15, 2018.

In 2019 there were several probe cuts on the site, affecting the localized buildings and the hull. The probe on the ship revealed that the preserved keel of the ship was suffering from mold infestation . To save the find, the researchers pleaded for an early excavation of the entire ship. The Norwegian government subsequently changed its budget and made 15.6 million Norwegian kroner available.

In 2020, the ship was excavated for several months . Of the remains uncovered, only the lower parts of the ship were in good condition, while the upper areas had crumbled and rotten. According to the archaeologists, the preserved parts are suitable for a museum exhibition.

importance

The ensemble, consisting of the Gjellestad ship as well as several burial mounds and longhouses, is interpreted by archaeologists as an Iron Age central location , which served as a burial place and cult site. In the late Nordic Iron Age between 550 and 1050 there were significant changes in the political, military, legal and religious structures in Scandinavia. They show up most clearly through high-ranking “central locations” in the landscape.

According to the Norwegian Environment Minister Sveinung Rotevatn , who broke ground during the excavation in 2020 , the discovery of the Gjellestad ship is of national and international importance. The excavation was the first archaeological investigation of a Viking ship since the uncovering of the Oseberg ship in 1904.

Because of its poor state of preservation, the Gjellestad ship has less visual value as an exhibition object than the Viking ships from Oseberg, Gokstad and Tune that were excavated over 100 years ago . Nevertheless, the ship find is to be shown in Vikingskipshuset in Oslo and the surroundings of the site are to be presented holistically. Researchers attribute great research value to the ship that has been recovered and examined using modern methods.

See also

literature

  • Lars Gustavsen, Per Erik Gjesvold, Sigrid Mannsåker Gundersen, Alois Hinterleitner, Erich Nau, Knut Paasche: Gjellestad: a newly discovered “central place” in south-east Norway in: Antiquity from November 11, 2020 ( https://doi.org /10.15184/aqy.2020.39 )
  • Sigrid Mannsåker Gundersen, Jan Berge, Ole Kjos, Morten Bertheussen: Rapport frå Arkeologisk Registrering , (excavation report 2019, Norwegian, online )

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Abdirahman Hassan: Arkeologer graver fram vikingskip - nå gjenstår kun 15 centimeters at Verdens Gang on November 20, 2020
  2. ↑ Gjellestadskipet: Har funnet treverk som kan løftes ut at NRK from December 3, 2020
  3. ↑ Hva var det i det store huset ved vikinggraven på Gjellestad? at forskning.no from November 12, 2020
  4. ↑ Gjellestadskipet er trolig fra tidlig vikingtid - og angrepet av sopp at NRK on January 17, 2020
  5. ↑ Derfor mener arkeologene at Gjellestad-skipet må graves ut snart at forskning.no from May 19, 2020
  6. ↑ Utgravningen av Gjellestadskipet er i gang at forskning.no from June 26, 2020
  7. ↑ See literature Lars Gustavsen: Gjellestad: a newly discovered "central place" in south-east Norway
  8. ^ Excavation of Viking ship started on ORF on June 27, 2020
  9. ↑ Mari Parelius Wammer: Dette vet vi om Gjellestadskipet nå at Kulturhistorisk Museum from January 17, 2020

Coordinates: 59 ° 8 ′ 55.1 ″  N , 11 ° 15 ′ 0.9 ″  E