Norwegian wood: Rare Viking ship found buried in field (PHOTOS, VIDEO)

15 Oct, 2018 17:04 / Updated 5 years ago

Archaeologists have discovered traces of a Viking ship buried beneath a field in Norway, a rare find that could shed further light on the lives of Vikings.

The amazing discovery was made by archaeologists from the Norwegian Institute  for Cultural Heritage Research (NIKU) in Halden, southeast of Oslo.

“This  find is  incredibly  exciting as  we only know  three well-preserved  Viking ship finds in  Norway excavated long time  ago,” Dr Knut Paasche, head of Digital  Archaeology at NIKU said. “This new ship  will certainly be of great historical significance  as it can be investigated with all modern means of  archaeology."

Using high resolution georadar, the group detected the remains of the ship, a number of burial mounds and five longhouses. The ship was laid only 50 centimeters underground, inside a burial mound known as a tumulus.

“We  are certain  that there is  a ship there, but  how much is preserved  is hard to say before further investigation,” said Morten  Hanisch, county conservator in Østfold. 

Digital  data visualisations  reveal a 20-meter-long  ship-shaped structure, the NIKU said. The images suggest the lower part of the ship is preserved.

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The team hope to carry out more non-invasive investigations to digitally map the area. This way, they can learn more about the ship without exposing it to the elements. They haven’t ruled out eventually excavating the ship.

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