Hjortspring Boat

ship · Denmark · Nordic

A slender light war canoe of linden wood, about 18 meters long, dug from a bog on the island of Als, Denmark, in 1921 along with the shields, swords, and spears of a defeated army. Built around 350 BCE, it held perhaps twenty paddlers and was offered up after a battle, likely as a sacrifice of the enemy's arms. Its sewn and lashed plank construction shows a northern boat-building tradition far older than the Viking ships. It is the oldest and finest of the Nordic war boats and rests in the National Museum of Denmark.

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