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| Europe |
| Researchers zero in on 'new' Viking ship |
| 2006-03-09 |
| Pulse levels are rising among Norwegian researchers who think they may have found the country's fourth intact Viking ship buried in a mound near Toensberg. The site is just next to the spot where the famed Gokstad ship was found in 1880. Researchers from the University of Oslo have been using radar to examine the Viking burial site. Photos have revealed an oval shape lying about a meter under the pile of stones atop the mound, called a gravroeysa in Norwegian. Newspaper VG reported Tuesday that the pictures may denote another Viking longship buried with its owners' possessions in the traditional manner. Researchers also think the ship may be intact. Clay in the area preserved the Gokstad ship for more than a thousand years, so it's entirely possible that conditions have allowed the perservation of another ship as well. The Gokstad Ship, now one of the crown jewels in Oslo's Viking Ships Museum on the Bygdoey peninsula, was found just a kilometer-and-a-half away. It's believed to have been built around 890 and likely belonged to a king or chieftain. Archaeologist Trude Aga Brun of Vestfold County wants to examine the site as soon as possible. She said officials will try to undertake a focused excavation this autumn. "If we're lucky, we'll find some woodwork," she told VG. Many Viking ship graves have been found in Norway over the years, but most of the vessels had rotted away and graves also had been plundered in earlier centuries. |
| Posted by:Sheling Omatle7459 |
| #6 Maybe they can send it to bangladesh for scrap? How much asbestos is in it? |
| Posted by: tu3031 2006-03-09 14:11 |
| #5 Have the Chinese made an offer for it? |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2006-03-09 14:01 |
| #4 The site is just next to the spot where the famed Gokstad ship was found in 1880. And it took 'em till now to find it? Those archaelogists must not have gotten the gov't grant they needed, mojo, lol! |
| Posted by: BA 2006-03-09 13:58 |
| #3 The site is just next to the spot where the famed Gokstad ship was found in 1880. And it took 'em till now to find it? |
| Posted by: mojo 2006-03-09 11:55 |
| #2 Somethings never change. In a millenium we'll be reading about how the Islamists were involved in more legitimate trade than plunder. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2006-03-09 11:24 |
| #1 I have been to the museum and it is very cool. Learned is a Hollywood fabrication that the Vikings set their ships on fire for burial. Also learned the Vikings were pretty consevative when "plundering" as a lost man meant a lost "rower" for the trip back home. They rarely took on a hardened target, but took advantage of less defended/ more doable plunders. Nasty lot, but it is a myth that they were world beating thugs. They were involved in more legitimate trade than plunder. |
| Posted by: capsu78 2006-03-09 11:15 |