The Vordingborg Boat: Investigation, Presentation and Interpretation of a 14th-Century Boat-Find from Vordingborg Castle, Denmark

Aoife Daly, Arne Jouttijärvi, Lars Meldgaard Sass Jensen, Tom Nicolajsen, Morten Ravn*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

2 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

In 2012, a mechanical excavator unearthed the remains of a 14th-century boat while restoring the moat at Vordingborg Castle, Denmark. The boat-find was documented and both dendrochronological and metallurgical investigations were conducted. The trees that were used to build the boat were felled 1355–1366 in the region around Gdańsk, Poland. However, the building of the boat was probably conducted near Vordingborg Castle in the second half of the 14th century. It is suggested that the boat was built, mainly using imported leftover materials originally intended for crafting the castle’s interior features. Concluding the article, we discuss 14th-century Baltic timber trade.
Original languageEnglish
JournalInternational Journal of Nautical Archaeology
Volume50
Issue number1
Pages (from-to)97-115
Number of pages19
ISSN1057-2414
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2021

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
Aoife Daly’s research project Northern Europe’s Timber Resource–Chronology, Origin and Exploitation (TIMBER) has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement no. 677152). Thanks to Christian Lemée for his detailed excavation rapport. Thanks to Vibeke Bischoff for building the reconstruction model and for commenting on article drafts.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Nautical Archaeology Society.

Keywords

  • 14th-century Baltic power politics
  • 14th-century boat-find
  • 14th-century boatbuilding
  • Denmark
  • exploitation of resources
  • medieval timber trade
  • Vordingborg Castle

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