Hanne Lovise Aannestad of the Museum of Cultural History in Oslo points at the footprint of a bored Viking. The footprint is enhanced by ScienceNordic. (Photo: Hanne Jakobsen/Per Byhring)
Posted on 05/18/2013 11:41:07 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
Maybe it was a teenager engaged in a Viking version of tagging a school desk. In any case, someone took out his knife, bent down and traced the outline of his foot on the deck of the Gokstad Ship.
Today, 1,100 years later, researcher and storage manager Hanne Lovise Aannestad shows us a couple of deck planks that are among her favourite artefacts at the Museum of Cultural History in Oslo...
The Gokstad Ship was excavated in the late 1800s and is a permanent feature of the Viking Ship Museum at Bygdøy in Oslo.
For about a decade, from 890 to 900, the ship sailed on ocean voyages. The holes cut for oars along the upper hull are well worn, evidence that the ship had been used for more than just a funeral ceremony.
The ship’s deck was fitted with loose floorboards. These could be lifted up so that supplies and plundered treasure could be stored below deck. The outline of a foot covers two of these floorboards. ..
There are two outlines of feet on the Gokstad Ship. One is a distinct right foot. The other is a weaker outline of a left foot on a different floorboard.
The ship was buried on land in a massive grave and the loose floorboards were helter-skelter when it was excavated. So we don’t know whether the planks with left and right feet had been originally next to each other or had been the capricious result of two separate individuals...
The outlines weren’t discovered until 2009. The floorboards were being moved from the museum at Bygdøy when one of Aannestad’s colleagues spotted the carved footprints.
So even 130 years after its excavation, researchers continue to make discoveries about one of Norway’s most famous and thoroughly studied vessels.
(Excerpt) Read more at sciencenordic.com ...
Hanne Lovise Aannestad of the Museum of Cultural History in Oslo points at the footprint of a bored Viking. The footprint is enhanced by ScienceNordic. (Photo: Hanne Jakobsen/Per Byhring)
|
|
|
| GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach | |
|
|
To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. |
|
|
|
|
Vikings had Sharpie markers?
And tiny feet too.
Vikings had Sharpie markers?
That’s charcoal.
I would think on a boat with oars you could avoid the doldrums.
Chuckle.
Aren’t doldrums Barbie’s bongos?
Early Polka lessons?
Awesome! Thanks!
What gorgeous craftsmanship went into building that ship! Exquisite.
One of my ancesters came here twice in the mid 1600s to found and settle New Sweden. (Philadelphia and Delaware area before the Dutch took it away from them.) He came, first, as a hired sea hand and stayed to become the skipper of the governor’s yacht. The Governor lived on an island and needed a yacht to get around.
My ancestor had to travel back — first to Amsterdam — and then to Sweden to collect his wages and a wife before he returned to stay forever. I cannot imagine what it took to cross the Atlantic TWICE to find and establish a home on a new continent under those primitive conditions.
The other side of my family came earlier (1608 Jamestowne) but they stayed once they got here. However, the Swedes were traveling men and saw no obstacle to going back and forth.
The Kalmar Nykel -- 1638. Obviously Scandnavian shipbuilding had progressed between 900 and 1638. Actually, I think the KN was Dutch built, but owned by Sweden in 1638. This replica is berthed in Delaware and sails periodically in the summer time.
I hope my 11xgggg grandfather traced his foot on the deck during the voyage. He was just a teen on his first crossing.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
