Gokstad ship
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The Gokstad ship is a Viking ship found in a burial mound at Gokstad farm in Sandar, Sandefjord, Vestfold, Norway.
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[edit] Discovery
The place where the boat was found, situated on arable land, had long been named Gokstadhaugen or Kongshaugen (from the Old Norse words kóngr meaning king and haugr meaning mound), although the relevance of its name had been discounted as folklore, as other sites in Norway bear similar names. Shortly after the 1880 New Year the sons of the owner of Gokstad Farm, having heard of the legends surrounding the site, uncovered the bow of a boat and its painter while digging in the still frozen ground. As word of the find got out, Nicolay Nicolaysen, the then President of the Society for the Preservation of Ancient Norwegian Monuments, reached the site on 6 February 1880 and, having ascertained that the find was indeed that of an ancient artefact, liaised for the digging to be stopped.[1]
Nicolaysen returned on March 27 and established that the mound still measured 50 metres by 43 metres, although its height had been diminished down to 5 metres by constant years of ploughing. With his team, he began excavating the mound from the side rather than from the top down, and on the second day of digging was surprised to find the bow of a ship. [2]
[edit] Construction
The Gokstad ship is clinker-built, constructed largely of oak. The ship was not intended for long voyages but for warfare, trade, transportation of people and cargo. The ship is 23.24 metres (76.2 ft) long and 5.20 m (17.1 ft) wide. It is the largest in the Viking Ship Museum in Oslo. The ship was steered by a quarter rudder fastened to a large block of wood attached to the outside of the hull and supported by an extra stout rib. The block is known as the wart, and is fastened by osiers, knotted on the outside passed through both the rudder and wart to be firmly anchored in the ship.
The ship was built to carry 32 oarsmen, and the oar holes could be hatched down when the ship was under sail. It utilized a square sail of approximately 110 square metres (1,200 sq ft), which, it is estimated, could propel the ship to over 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph). The mast could be raised and lowered. While the ship was traveling in shallow water, the rudder could be raised very quickly by undoing the fastening. Dendrochronological dating suggests that the ship was built of timber that was felled around 890 AD. The Gokstad ship was commissioned during the reign of Harald Fairhair at the end of the 9th century. The ship could carry a crew of 40 men but could carry a maximum of 70.[3]
The ship's design has been demonstrated to be very seaworthy.
[edit] Replicas
The Viking, an exact replica of the Gokstad ship, crossed the Atlantic Ocean from Bergen, Norway to be exhibited at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago during 1893. Other replicas include the Gaia, which currently has Sandefjord as its home port, the Munin, (a half scale replica) located in Vancouver, B.C., the Íslendingur in the Viking World museum, and the Hugin in Kent, England.
[edit] Human remains
During the excavations, the skeleton of a male aged between 50–70 years was recovered. The skeleton was found in a bed inside a timber-built burial chamber. Although the identity of the person buried is unknown, it has been suggested that it is that of Olaf Geirstad-Alf, a petty king of Vestfold. He was of the House of Yngling, and died about this time, according to the Heimskringla.
[edit] Grave goods
The grave was furnished with grave goods. Apart from the ship itself, they consisted of three small boats, a tent, a sledge and riding equipment. It is believed that the mound was plundered in ancient times. The excavation in 1880 showed that valuables of gold and silver had been removed. In the Viking period, weapons were considered an important part of a man's grave goods. In the case of the Gokstad ship, any such weapons were probably taken by grave robbers.
Currently the ship, the reconstructed burial chamber, two of the small boats and two tent boards from the burial chamber are displayed in the Viking Ship Museum in Oslo. Some other artifacts that survived the plundering are also on display in the museum.
[edit] In popular culture
The Gokstad is also the name of Tarvold's ship in the fictional TV-show named Viking Quest, known from the Entourage series on HBO.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Nicolaysen, N. (1882). "The Viking ship discovered at Gokstad in Norway" (in Norwegian and English). Cammermeyer. pp. 1–5. http://gdz.sub.uni-goettingen.de/dms/load/img/. Retrieved 26 September 2011.
- ^ Nicolaysen, N. (1882). "The Viking ship discovered at Gokstad in Norway" (in Norwegian and English). Cammermeyer. pp. 1–5. http://gdz.sub.uni-goettingen.de/dms/load/img/. Retrieved 26 September 2011.
- ^ T.D. Kendrick, A History of the Vikings (New York, NY: Frank Cass and Company, 1968), 24-26.
[edit] External links
- Gokstadhaugen or Kongshaugen Artificial Mound
- The Oslo Viking Ship Museum
- Gaia, a Gokstad Ship copy
- Nicolaysen, N. 1882, The Viking-Ship Discovered at Gokstad in Norway/Langskibet fra Gokstad ved Sandefjord, Christiania.
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