"The fingerprint of one of seafarers who built the oldest known wooden plank boat in Scandinavia has been discovered in the tar used to waterproof it. A new study of caulking and cordage fragments revealed the presence of the fingerprint and provided new evidence on the boat's possible origins and the techniques used to make it. First discovered by peat diggers in the Hjortspring bog on the island of Als off Jutland, Denmark, in the 1880s, it was fully excavated in 1921 and 1922."
"A large number of spearpoints and shields were deposited in the bog with it, enough to outfit about 80 warriors. Archaeologists believe raiders in up to four similar-sized boats attacked Als but were defeated. The islanders then deposited the boat and the raiders' weapons in the bog as offerings. The remains of the boat were conserved, stabilized and put on display in the National Museum of Denmark since 1937."
A tar-embedded fingerprint was found on caulking from the Hjortspring plank boat, directly linking a maker to the vessel. The Hjortspring find was recovered from a bog on Als and partially excavated in the early 1920s, allowing reconstruction of a roughly 20-meter lime-wood boat sewn with cordage. Large deposits of weapons suggest a defeated raiding force and ritual offerings. Conservation treatments prevented radiocarbon dating of treated timbers, but later C-14 samples date the craft to the 4th–3rd century B.C. Cordage analysis shows lime bast with long spin strands, indicating advanced, pliable lash techniques and skilled boatbuilding.
Read at www.thehistoryblog.com
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