Three Mind-Blown Viking Excavations
The Viking seems never to disappoint us either in written history or in the artifacts they left on this planet. This blog post is to reveal three mind-blown Viking excavations ever.
Oseberg Burial Mound
If ever asked about the most awesome Viking excavation, the first to pop up in my mind is the Oseberg burial mound. Whatever found inside this burial mound is excellent and provides a missing piece for the Viking history. What the archaeologists found inside the burial mound is not merely a grave with some goods, it consists of a very luxurious grave with goods, textiles, horses, and a ship - the Oseberg ship.
Viking Oseberg ship when excavated
This Oseberg by far is the most beautiful Viking ship ever excavated. This historical ship also marked on itself the Viking Oseberg style of the gripping beast.
This Viking Oserberg ship is a Karve which is a small type of longship with a broad hull. This kind of ship is used for both good transport and war also. Most of the ship is made from oak. The ship is 70.8ft (21.58meters) in length and 16.7ft (5.10 meters) in width. With a sail of 90 square meters, the ship could reach a speed of up to 10 knots. The Oseberg has 15 pairs of oar holes meaning that about 30 people could row this ship.
Viking Oseberg now on display
Remains of two women were found inside the burial site. They were all women - an old woman and a younger one. The old woman was seemingly at her 80 years old and she had many complicated illnesses according to the archaeologists. This old lady lived quite a long life in the Viking age because the average age of people in this era was about 50 years old.
The younger lady was about her 30-50 years old when she died. Although this young lady had some marks on her teeth - she could have used toothpicks (only the wealthy ones could use toothpicks in the Viking Age), she was believed to be a part of human sacrifice. This is because the archaeologists found out that the young lady had broken collarbones.
The Buddha Bucket inside the burial mound
Inside the Oseberg burial mound, the archaeologists also found out some awesome artifacts such as the Buddha bucket, a large cart, and especially the Oseberg textile. This unique textile demonstrated the formal ceremony in the Viking age.
Ship and building burial in Norway
Back to the time 2018, a team of archaeologists found out that there has been a large burial under the ground thanks to the georadar. This burial including many Viking buildings and a Viking ship.
The ship, according to the archaeologists, was a part of a Viking grave. The time of discovery was 2018 but it was not until 2019 that the team of archaeologists finally confirmed that the ship was a part of the Viking age thanks to the study of the ring size of timber in the ship.
The site of the Viking community traits found in Norway. According to the latest news, the Norwegian government has approved to excavate the ship for preservation reasons.
Nearby the burial site is likely to be a commercial site where there are many houses. Although everything is still under the ground, the georadar image is really mind-blowing.
Five Viking ships sunken at the same place
The last one to be mentioned in the list must be the Skuldelev Viking ships.
The site consisted of five original Viking ships unearthed from the waterway of Peberrenden at Skuldelev. The site was about 20 km to the north of Roskilde in Denmark. During four consecutive months, a team of archaeologists managed to unearthed the ship from the waterway.
The site where archaeologists excavated five Skuldelev Viking ships
They have found five types of Viking ships and all of them dated back to the 11th century. At first, they thought there were six Viking ships in the area. But later, there were actually five. Pieces of Skuldelev 2 and Skuldelev 4 were parts of one ship.
Five of them were sunken at the same area. According to the historians, the Vikings sunk the ships there so that they could protect themselves against the external attacks. So five Viking ships sunken at the same spot was a part of military tactics.
Skuldelev ship on display
