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Archaeologists are cannonball along against the clock to keep the cadaver of a buriedVikingship from a ruthless foe : fungus .
If the task is successful , the 65 - foot - long ( 20 meters ) oak tree vessel — called the Gjellestad ship — will become the first Viking ship to be excavated in Norway in 115 years , said Sveinung Rotevatn , the Norwegian Minister of Climate and Environment .
A radar device attached to this vehicle helped archaeologists discover the buried Viking ship.(Image credit: Norwegian Institute of Cultural Heritage)
" Norway has a very special responsibility safeguarding our Viking Age inheritance , " Rotevatn told Live Science in an electronic mail . " Now , we are choosing to excavate to protect what remains of the find , and secure important knowledge about the Viking Age for succeeding generation . "
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Theship is buried at a well - known Viking archaeological siteat Gjellestad , near Halden , a town in southeast Norway . But scientist discovered the vessel only latterly , in the fall of 2018 , by using radar scans that can detect structures underground . The scans revealed not only the ship , but also the Viking burial site where it was ritually buried .
A radar device attached to this vehicle helped archaeologists discover the buried Viking ship.(Image credit: Norwegian Institute of Cultural Heritage)
The team determined that the Gjellestad ship was built between the end of the 8th century and the beginning of the tenth century . The vessel was likely made for journey long distances at ocean , suppose Sigrid Mannsåker Gundersen , anarchaeologistwith the Viken County Council .
At the time , archaeologist were hesitating to dig the ship , because buried wet woodwind instrument can be damaged when break to the open tune , Live Science antecedently reported . After a run excavation in 2019 , however , archaeologists memorize that they would have to dig up the ship presently , or lose it to decay .
The narrow trench they excavated showed that the ship was very decomposed . " Only the imprints of the plank — or ' strakes ' — were entrust , together with the iron nails , " Mannsåker Gundersen tell Live Science in an electronic mail . " The only part that was still substantial wood was the keel . "
An overview of the site. Gjellestad also has the 1,500-year-old mound burial of a Viking king who, according to a local story, was named Jell.(Image credit: Norwegian Institute of Cultural Heritage)
But even the keel is in forged conformation ; an analysis showed it is taint with fungus and very brittle , probable from menstruum of drought .
" To deliver whatever Sir Henry Joseph Wood is left before it is too later , and to gain as much information about the ship and the tomb as possible , it is important to excavate now , " Mannsåker Gundersen said .
Archaeologists go for to find oneself some preserved Grant Wood , " but even if there are only lowly amount of organic material left , the excavation will provide valuable information about the ship and the tomb , " Mannsåker Gundersen say . " A lot can be made out of imprint , objects and different analyses of the soils and cloth left . "
Only the keel still had solid wood, and even that was in bad shape.(Image credit: Viken County Council)
Excavation and preservation
The excavation is scheduled to start in June , barring any complicatedness from the COVID-19pandemic . The process will begin with archeologist stripping off the topsoil and then sift that scandal , just in eccentric it holds any archaeological treasures that were plow by farmers over the century .
Then , the team will set up a tent to protect the ship ’s clay and begin removing the solid ground that make full the ship after its burial . At the same time , the archaeologists will document every level of the remain wood and take 3D scans of it , said Christian Løchsen Rødsrud , an archeologist at the Museum of Cultural History in Norway .
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Archaeologists did a test excavation of the Viking ship in 2019.(Image credit: Viken County Council)
Some of the ship ’s remains will be seeable only as impression in the ground ; these will also be 3D - scan , Løchsen Rødsrud recite Live Science in an email . " The wooden remains of the ship will have to be kept blind drunk during excavation . " subsequently , the remain wooden objects and ship parts will be keep up with polyethylene glycol — a substance that can give stinky wood solidness and speciality , he add .
It ’s likely that the ship was made both for sailplaning and rowing , " although we still do n’t acknowledge for sure if it had a mast , " Mannsåker Gundersen state . " This is one of the interrogation we hope will be do during the archeological site this class . "
Originally publish onLive Science .
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