Preliminary excavations into the discovery of more Viking treasures south of Oslo have led to the hull of what archaeologists are calling the Gjellestadskip. It’s reportedly “in good shape,” and believed to be older than Norway’s famed Oseberg and Gokstad ships.
“I think the mood could be best described as more or less euphoric,” Christian Løchsen Rødsrud of the University of Oslo’s Museum of Cultural History told state broadcaster NRK on Thursday. “Everyone was jubilant.”
Rødsrud is the project leader on the dig that started just last week and will soon end, with plans calling for the ground to be covered up again while experts decide how to proceed. The hull was described as “solid wood,” leading Rødsrud to believe that it will be possible to excavate.
Right now they want to cover it all up again while they work with specimens and “test material” from the site. He said the hull was different than those of the Oseberg and Gokstad ships but he and his colleagues believe the vessel also had been used for a funeral and likely on the water as well. It may date to pre-Viking times: “We are playing with the idea that it’s older, but it’s too early to say.”
newsinenglish.no staff
