Hjortspring boat

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The Hjortspring boat is a ship from the Scandinavian Pre-Roman Iron Age that was excavated in 1921–1922 in Hjortspring Mose at Als in Sønderjylland.

It was a 13m long and 2 m wide clinker-build wooden boat with space for a crew of 22–23 men that propelled the boat with paddles.

The boat is the oldest find of a wooden plank ship in Scandinavia and its closest parallels are the thousands of petroglyph images of Nordic Bronze Age ships. When found, it contained a great many weapons, such as 131 shields of the Celtic type, 33 beautifully crafted shieldbosses, 138 spearheads of iron, 10 iron swords, and the remains of a mailcoat. Thus, its sinking has been interpreted as a deliberate war sacrifice.

[edit] Source

• Nationalencyklopedin

[edit] External links

• The guild of the Hjortspring boat
• Foteviken's page on the Hjortspring boat
• A page with a bibliography on the boat
• A review on a book about the boat
• A page on the conservation of the boat
• A history of pre-Viking Age Scandinavian ships in Swedish