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The Hedeby 1, also known as the Ship from Haithabu Harbour, was a Viking longship that was excavated from the harbor of Hedeby, a Viking trading center located near the southern end of the Jutland Peninsula, now in the Schleswig-Flensburg district of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany.
It was one of three ships that were pulled up from the harbor of Hedeby with the initial discovery of the ship being in 1953 when a diving team recovered timbers from the floor of the harbor. [1] Excavation would not continue until 1979 when a group of archaeologists under the direction of Ole-Crumlin Pedersen picked up the project and finished the excavation. [2] To do so the team built a temporary dam around the site and pumped the water out from around the site. [1] To dig up the items without both injuring the items and themselves a system of beams and planks were used to cross the bottom of the harbor's floor. [3] This excavation proved much more successful finding parts of the keel (a structural beam that runs down the middle the length of the boat) as well as parts of the frame of the port side and floor of the ship all of which showed ample signs of having been burnt. [4]
After pulling up the frame and thorough testing of the parts of the ship recovered it was found that the ship proved an important discovery due to its construction. Evidence suggests that the ship originated from the Hedeby area with further evidence suggesting that it was built in the town itself due to the type of wood that was used in its construction correlating with trees in the area. [5] Hedeby the town during the time was under the rule of Svein Forkbeard who we know from a rune stone located in the town, retook the town in 982CE. [6] It is important to note as well that who had previously had control of the town is contested with sources saying it was either the Holy Roman Empire and Otto II or it was taken over by Swedish King Erik the Victorious. This knowledge plus further testing of the planks recovered from the ship showed that the ship was built sometime in 985CE. [5] The builder of the ship is not known, but due to the higher quality materials and construction of the ship it is suggested that the ship was built for some type of Danish royal with further evidence suggesting that it was built for the Danish king. [5] For the actual construction of the ship, It was a skeid style longship (Norse: Skeið meaning, that which cuts through the water) [7] meaning that it was a larger ship meant for transporting troops typically used for war. The ship measured overall at a length of 30.9 metres (101 ft 5 in) and a width of 2.7 m (8 ft 10 in) making it the narrowest longship ever found. [8] The ship was very skillfully built using planks that were made of radially cloven oak wood and in some cases, they were more than 10 m (33 ft) long. Over the length of the ship there were 35 frames which allowed for up to 31 pairs of oars between 54 to 62 rowers. [9] Due to the type of materials used as well as the fact that much of its construction when compared to other ships crafted from the time such as the Ladby and Skuldelev ships the quality of the Hedeby 1 was more luxurious, gaining it the description of a longship of royal standard. [9] Evidence further shows that this was often a common occurrence for royal ships to be larger than most longship as those of high standing of the Viking age would often compete with one another about who had the longest and most magnificently decorated warships. [10] This type of royal ship was one of a kind due to its abnormal length and width, as such its construction has been an important insight into how ships of the upper-class in Danish society were built in the late 10th century-early 11th century.
It was not just the construction that was important for historians either though as the destruction of the ship played a major role in the decline of Hedeby, the town proper. The town of Hedeby was a significant commercial center of the Viking age and acted as an important transit highway for most of the Baltic Sea. [11] As such, the town was constantly under attack from various groups such as the Holy Roman Empire or Sweden, who both wanted the town for its strategic advantage. [12] The Hedeby 1 ship lasted for about 10–20 years, having been used fairly frequently as told by the wear and tear found on the ship. During the time of its life Hedeby was flourishing as a trading town It eventually met its end sometime between the years 990 and 1010 as it was used as a fire ship (a large wooden vessel set on fire to be used against enemy ships during a ramming) in an attack on the town of Hedeby. [13] It is not known who exactly attacked the town, but evidence from Skaldic verse and rune stones shows that the town was raided on multiple occasions due to its economic and strategic value. [14] This raid happened sometime around 990 to 1010 and with the destruction of the ship and harbor marking a downturn for the trading town of Hedeby. Due to both its constant attacking, as well as a need for deeper harbors due to a shift to larger ships, most of the functions of Hedeby steadily started to be moved to the nearby town of Schleswig. [15] Hedeby would finally meet its end in 1049 when the Norwegian king Harald Hardruler attacked and burned the city down. [16]
Hedeby was an important Danish Viking Age trading settlement near the southern end of the Jutland Peninsula, now in the Schleswig-Flensburg district of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. Around 965, chronicler Abraham ben Jacob visited Hedeby and described it as, "a very large city at the very end of the world's ocean."
Longships were a type of specialised Scandinavian warships that have a long history in Scandinavia, with their existence being archaeologically proven and documented from at least the fourth century BC. Originally invented and used by the Norsemen for commerce, exploration, and warfare during the Viking Age, many of the longship's characteristics were adopted by other cultures, like Anglo-Saxons, and continued to influence shipbuilding for centuries.
Truso was a Viking Age port of trade (emporium) set up by the Scandinavians at the banks of the Nogat delta branch of the Vistula River, close to a bay, where it emptied into the shallow and brackish Vistula Lagoon. This sizeable lagoon is separated from the Gdańsk Bay by the Vistula Spit at the southern Baltic Sea coast. In the 9th century, the merchant Wulfstan of Hedeby travelled to Truso in the service of the English King Alfred the Great and wrote his account of the place at a prominent location of the Amber Road, which attracted merchants from central and southern Europe, who supplied the markets in the Mediterranean and the Middle East with the highly valued commodity.
Viking ships were marine vessels of unique structure, used in Scandinavia from the Viking Age throughout the Middle Ages. The boat-types were quite varied, depending on what the ship was intended for, but they were generally characterized as being slender and flexible boats, with symmetrical ends with true keel. They were clinker built, which is the overlapping of planks riveted together. Some might have had a dragon's head or other circular object protruding from the bow and stern for design, although this is only inferred from historical sources. Viking ships were used both for military purposes and for long-distance trade, exploration and colonization.
The Gokstad ship is a 9th-century Viking ship found in a burial mound at Gokstad in Sandar, Sandefjord, Vestfold, Norway. It is displayed at the Viking Ship Museum in Oslo, Norway. It is the largest preserved Viking ship in Norway.
Clinker-built is a method of boat building in which the edges of hull planks overlap each other. Where necessary in larger craft, shorter planks can be joined end to end, creating a longer strake or hull plank.
Olof was, according to Adam of Bremen, a Swedish chieftain who conquered Denmark c. 900 and founded the House of Olaf. Evidence for his historicity is only circumstantial, since he belongs to a period of Danish history when very little is known from textual sources.
Viking art, also known commonly as Norse art, is a term widely accepted for the art of Scandinavian Norsemen and Viking settlements further afield—particularly in the British Isles and Iceland—during the Viking Age of the 8th-11th centuries. Viking art has many design elements in common with Celtic, Germanic, the later Romanesque and Eastern European art, sharing many influences with each of these traditions.
The Hjortspring boat is a vessel designed as a large canoe, from the Scandinavian Pre-Roman Iron Age. It was built circa 400–300 BC. The hull and remains were rediscovered and excavated in 1921–1922 from the bog of Hjortspring Mose on the island of Als in Sønderjylland, southern Denmark. The boat is the oldest find of a wooden plank ship in Scandinavia and it closely resembles the thousands of petroglyph images of Nordic Bronze Age ships found throughout Scandinavia. The vessel is a clinker-built wooden boat of more than 19 metres length overall, 13.6 metres long inside, and 2 metres wide. Ten thwarts that could have served as seats, span the boat with room for two persons each; this suggests space for a crew of at least 20 who propelled the boat with paddles. The boat would have weighed an estimated 530 kilograms, making it easily portable by its crew.
A knarr is a type of Norse merchant ship used by the Vikings for long sea voyages and during the Viking expansion. The knarr was a cargo ship; the hull was wider, deeper and shorter than a longship, and could take more cargo and be operated by smaller crews. It was primarily used to transport trading goods like walrus ivory, wool, timber, wheat, furs and pelts, armour, slaves, honey, and weapons. It was also used to supply food, drink, weapons and armour to warriors and traders along their journeys across the Baltic, the Mediterranean and other seas. Knarrs routinely crossed the North Atlantic carrying livestock such as sheep and horses, and stores to Norse settlements in Iceland, Greenland and Vinland as well as trading goods to trading posts in the British Isles, Continental Europe and possibly the Middle East. The knarr was constructed using the same clinker-built method as longships, karves, and faerings.
The Stone of Eric, listed as DR 1 in the Rundata catalog, is a memorial runestone that was found in Northern Germany. This area was part of Denmark during the Viking Age.
The two Sigtrygg Runestones, designated as DR 2 and DR 4 in the Rundata catalog, are two of the Hedeby stones that were found in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, which during the Viking Age was part of Denmark. The runestones were raised after the Danish king Sigtrygg Gnupasson by his mother Ásfriðr. Together with the account of Adam of Bremen, the two inscriptions constitute evidence for the House of Olaf on the Danish throne.
Medieval ships were the vessels used in Europe during the Middle Ages. Like ships from antiquity, they were moved by sails, oar or a combination of the two. There was a large variety, mostly based on much older, conservative designs. Although wider and more frequent communications within Europe meant exposure to a variety of improvements, experimental failures were costly and rarely attempted. Ships in the north were influenced by Viking vessels, while those in the south by classical or Roman vessels. However, there was technological change. The different traditions used different construction methods; clinker in the north, carvel in the south. By the end of the period, carvel construction would come to dominate the building of large ships. The period would also see a shift from the steering oar or side rudder to the stern rudder and the development from single-masted to multi-masted ships. As the area is connected by water, people in the Mediterranean built different kinds of ships to accommodate different sea levels and climates. Within the Mediterranean area during the Medieval times ships were used for a multitude of reasons, like war, trade, and exploration.
The Hedeby stones are four runestones from the 10th century found at the town of Hedeby in Northern Germany. This area was part of Denmark during the Viking Age.
Sebbe Als is a replica of a Viking ship, Skuldelev wreck no. 5. She is the oldest sailing 'fiver' in Denmark.
This runic inscription, designated as U Fv1976;104 in the Rundata catalog, is on a Viking Age memorial runestone that is located at the Uppsala Cathedral, Uppland, Sweden.
Östergötland Runic Inscription MÖLM1960;230 or Ög MÖLM1960;230 is the Rundata catalog number for a memorial runestone that is located near a church in Törnevalla, which is 2 kilometers east of Linghem, Östergötland County, Sweden, which was in the historic province of Östergötland. The runestone has an inscription which refers to a Viking Age mercantile guild and depicts a ship.
The Bjälbo runestones are three Viking Age memorial runestones, one of which has been lost, located at Bjälbo, which is a village in Mjölby Municipality, Östergötland, Sweden. One of the inscriptions provides evidence of the existence of guilds in Sweden during this period.
The term "Viking Age" refers to the period roughly from 790s to the late 11th century in Europe, though the Norse raided Scotland's western isles well into the 12th century. In this era, Viking activity started with raids on Christian lands in England and eventually expanded to mainland Europe, including parts of present-day Belarus, Russia and Ukraine.
Maritime travel experienced a large leap in the capabilities of seafaring vessels thanks to technological improvements in shipbuilding in the early modern era. Europe, Asia, and the Middle East all saw improvements on prior construction techniques, contributing to the Age of Discovery. As a result, the introduction of these technologies in the production of naval vessels was critical as they allowed nations that utilized these advancements to ascend to a state that could expand its influence at a far greater range. In military engagements, the exploration of new lands and potential colonies, or the transportation of goods for trade, better shipbuilding techniques coincided with prosperity. It is during this time that the practice of naval architecture appeared, as skilled designers could produce designs that had an enormous impact in ship performance and capabilities.