Hjortspring boat

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A boat of the Hjortspring type.
A boat of the Hjortspring type.
Sketch with correct scaling and angels of the Danish 'Hjortspring boat' from 300-400 BC. Built more than 1400 years before the first Viking ships appeared in Scandinavia.
Sketch with correct scaling and angels of the Danish 'Hjortspring boat' from 300-400 BC. Built more than 1400 years before the first Viking ships appeared in Scandinavia.

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 21 m long outer length, 13 m inside and 2 m wide clinker-build wooden boat with space for a crew of 22–23 men that propelled the boat with paddles. Built around 300-400 BC.

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.

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