The Salme Ships [Viking Archaeology]

Viking Archaeology ^ | prior to November 10, 2026 | editors / unattributed

[SunkenCiv]

In 2008, workmen digging trenches for electrical cables in the Estonian island town of Salme uncovered human bones and a variety of objects that they piled next to their trench. 

At first the bones were thought to be from a soldier killed in World War II, but archaeologists realized that the objects dated to the Viking period. 

A small team of archaeologists working under Marge Konsa, an archaeologist at the University of Tartu, started excavating and soon found the hull of a ship. Nearly all of the ship's timber had rotted away, leaving behind only discolorations in the soil. But 275 of the iron rivets remained in place, allowing the archaeologists to reconstruct the outlines of the 38-foot-long craft. 

Eventually, two ships filled with the bodies of warriors were uncovered. These are unusual in that no ship burials have been found this far east, and they differ from the normal ship burials in the fact that they contain so many bodies... 

The clinker-built ships appear to have been constructed AD 650 -- 700, probably in Sweden... 

A rich assortment of items had been placed in their graves, which included elaborate armaments: swords and shields; everyday utensils: knives, whetstones, and combs, and gaming pieces and dice, mostly of whalebone, for the Viking board game called Hnefatafl.

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TOPICS: History; Science; Travel
KEYWORDS: ancientautopsies; ancientnavigation; estonia; godsgravesglyphs; middleages; salme; vikings

[SunkenCiv]

There are great images at the source, but that site apparently blocks image feeds.

(links from mass55th https://freerepublic.com/focus/chat/4402393/posts?page=11#11 )

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks for the link!