New fingerprint found on Hjortspring boat might help to solve century-old mystery

New evidence has surfaced on the legendary Hjortspring boat, the oldest wooden plank boat in Scandinavia. Researchers are closer than ever to solving a century-long mystery. Who did the boat belong to?

One can imagine the dramatic crashing of the sea as the innocent Hjortspring forged forward 2,000 years ago. Except, they weren’t alone or benign. In an armada of four, these curve-ended boats, 65 feet long, carried about 80 warriors who had recently attacked the nearby island of Als. A counter-strike was gaining speed, intending to retaliate, and they would win.

Upon defeating their enemies, the defenders of their territory sank their weapons along with their sinister vessel as an offering. Researchers would dredge it up in the late 19^th century. But they could never determine the identity of these searaiders who constructed a vessel so advanced for its time.

Who were these Iron Age sea raiders? Where did they come from? Why did they attack the island of Als? That remained shrouded in mystery for over a hundred years. However, a new study examined the boat’s architecture, studying its caulking and cord materials, and found a fingerprint.

A boat that suffered a dramatic end

In the 1880s, archaeologists found the plank boat and a collection of weapons in the bog of Hjortspring Mose. The locals appeared, after succeeding in thwarting their enemies, to have sunk their ship and weapons in a ceremonial offering, as per a news release by Lund University. It was “exceptionally well-preserved.”

As a vessel, it showcased an ingenuity in shipbuilding that predated the Vikings, driving researchers to question who these ambitious searaiders were.

“The Hjortspring boat is the only intact example of a prehistoric sewn plank boat ever found in Scandinavia. Built from lime wood planks lashed together with cordage, the boat represents the maritime technology used by some of Northern Europe’s earliest seafarers,” as stated in the study.

But they left behind no other trace with which to identify who they were.

“Where these sea raiders might have come from, and why they attacked the island of Als has long been a mystery,” says Mikael Fauvelle, archaeologist at Lund University.

The recent initiative launched by Lund University researchers began when they unexpectedly identified previously unstudied sections of the boat. After conducting chemical analysis, they found, even surprisingly, that these ingenious boat builders waterproofed the vessel with pine pitch and fat. Finally, a clue.

Previously, archaeologists believed the boat might have originated in Germany, but this new piece of evidence shifted the directional arrow towards the Baltic Sea, with its abundance of pine trees.

If the boat did indeed come from “the pine forest-rich coastal regions of the Baltic Sea,” then the attackers “chose to launch a maritime raid over hundreds of kilometers of open sea,” according to Lund University. These unidentified warriors had planned this maritime mission a considerable distance away.

A fingerprint

In a fortunate turn of events, one of these early Scandinavian seamen left behind a fingerprint in the tar while building or repairing the boat. With it, researchers might at last make some real progress in cracking the longstanding mystery surrounding the sunken vessel. The imprint, alone a unique find, might hold invaluable clues about a group that, despite their violent intentions, constructed technologically advanced vessels long before scientists thought possible.

Read the study in PLOS One.