700 Year Old Viking Shipwreck Found at the Bottom of Norwegian Lake – ARTnews.com


During a government research mission researchers stumbled upon what they believe to be a 700-year-old shipwreck at the bottom of Norway’s largest lake, Mjøsa, reported Live Science.

The Norwegian Defence Research Establishment launched Mission Mjøsa after officials discovered unexploded bombs from World War II in the lake. They quickly drew up a plan to carefully map the lake bed to track the presence of these bombs and study their potential health effects on the water, as the lake provides 100,000 people with their potable water.

Though previous research missions have turned up 20 shipwrecks in this lake, this was the first time that the deepest parts the lake — dropping some of 1,350 feet — were explored with sonar technology.

Related Articles

“We only have the acoustic [sonar] images of the wreck,” Øyvind Ødegård, a maritime archaeologist, told Live Science. “But it appears from the data that there is the outline of something that possibly could be a stern — and if that’s the case, then that doesn’t really appear until the 1300s.”

Another clue to the age of the ship can be found in its construction, a style called clinker. In clinker ships, planks of wood are not joined side by side, like in the more common carvel style, but rather overlap, like a fan. Clinker built boats are more hydrodynamic, flexible, and light than their carvel counterparts. However, they have their restrictions. Carvel ships or boats can be made using any quality of wood, whereas clinker boats requiem specific types of wood and are typically crafted using axes that carefully condition the wood by splitting it along the grain. They are also somewhat more vulnerable to extreme weather, which was the downfall of this particular ship that was found in the middle of the Mjøsa. Clinker style boat building is a specialized craft and as such has been designated a UNESCO intangible heritage by Nordic countries.



Source link

We use cookies to give you the best online experience. By agreeing you accept the use of cookies in accordance with our cookie policy.

Close Popup
Privacy Settings saved!
Privacy Settings

When you visit any web site, it may store or retrieve information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies. Control your personal Cookie Services here.

These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems.

Technical Cookies
In order to use this website we use the following technically required cookies
  • wordpress_test_cookie
  • wordpress_logged_in_
  • wordpress_sec

WooCommerce
We use WooCommerce as a shopping system. For cart and order processing 2 cookies will be stored. This cookies are strictly necessary and can not be turned off.
  • woocommerce_cart_hash
  • woocommerce_items_in_cart

Decline all Services
Save
Accept all Services
Open Privacy settings