The Hedeby shipfinds

Abstract

The Hedeby shipfinds

In 1897 the Danish archaeologist Sophus Müller suggested that the town of Hedeby (German: Haithabu) on the border between Viking-Age Denmark and Saxony had been situated within the semicircular earthwall at Haddebyer Noor, opposite the town of Schleswig in the present Land Schleswig­Holstein. Extensive excavations in the course of the following century by archaeologists from Kiel, Schleswig, Aarhus and elsewhere have now provided evidence for a wide range of activities in Hedeby in the 9th to 11th centuries and in Schleswig from the 11th century onwards. The earthworks of Danevirke, spanning the narrow land-bridge of the Jylland peninsula and forming an extensive complex with various building phases from the 7th to the 19th century, have also been studied in detail. Numerous publications dealing with various aspects of this border zone have appeared. ^1-9

The first serious attempt to deal with the maritime aspects of Hedeby was a campaign in 1953 when a helmet-diver was sent down to walk through the mud at the bottom of the former harbour basin of Hedeby.¹⁰ He reported on his many finds (fig. 1), which included the wreck of a Viking ship. This was published by the present author in 1969 ¹¹ and plans were worked out for the excavation of the ship. This took place in 1979 within a cofferdam. On the same occasion an area between the ship and the Viking-Age shore was excavated, and in 1980 the excavation was expanded to cover a total of c. 2,000 m² of the former harbour basin. Further investigations were carried out by seismic recording ¹², which led to the localization and raising of a church-bell, two logboats and parts of two more ships of Viking-Age date, as well as numerous groups of pilings from piers and harbour palisades (fig. 2).

The three ships from the harbour, as well as the logboats and the many loose parts of ships and boats found in the excavations in Hedeby and Schleswig, have now been extensively published ¹³, together with the ship depictions on some of the so-called Hedeby-coins of the early 9th century (figs. 3-4). These coins have been discussed as sources for the hull and rig of the early Viking-Age ships. ^14-18 Recently, the coins with Nordic motifs have been interpreted as a reflection of an anti-Frankian manifestation by the sons of king Godfred after they had expelled the pro-Frankian Harald Klak in 827 . ¹⁹ In this context the ship is probably the lucky ship Skiblaðnir of the god Freyr. ²⁰

In 1908 a large grave was excavated at Hedeby, which contained a ship positioned above a chamber grave for three men. ^1-2 (fig. 5). The burial has been interpreted as the grave of a royal person, possibly Harald Klak, accompanied by his marshal and cup­bearer. ^23-24 It may be seen as one of the large royal ship burials characteristic of the transition period leading up to Christianization in 7th-century East Anglia ²² and in Southern Norway, where the Oseberg mound was erected c. 834 in the period of Harald Klak's missionary efforts in that area. The Hedeby burial ship itself is not preserved, only a plan of the iron rivets, indicating a ship of the Ladby- and Skuldelev 5-types.

The smallest among the three ships in the harbour, Hedeby 2, was a 9-12m-long clinkerbuilt vessel with ironfastened oak planking (as used in Scandinavia) in the bottom, and side planks of beech and pine fastened with small wooden dowels (as used by the Slavs) (fig. 6). The frames were reused from another vessel. This vessel seems to have been built locally by a Slav (or Saxon) boat­builder, influenced by Danish traditions, in the final quarter of the 10th century. The reused frames and the use of beech planks indicate that access to the best oak trees for shipbuilding was limited. This interpretation is supported by the fact that one of the two logboats found in the harbour is of beech, ²⁷ the earliest example of the common use of this species of wood for logboats in medieval Denmark.

The wreck Hedeby 3 was located during the seismic survey in the southern part of the harbour, and divers recovered several parts of the internal timbers and a few pieces of planking. Dendroanalysis has demonstrated that the ship was built locally c. 1025. It was a sturdily built cargoship of a type similar to Skuldelev 1 but with a cargo capacity of as much as c. 60 tons, according to the hypothetical reconstruction (figs. 7-8) giving a length of c. 22 m and a width of 6.25 m. The internal timbers of the ship were made from a broad range of wood species. A good parallel to this large cargoship from Hedeby/Schleswig is found in the Life of Thomas of Canterbury from c. 1175, describing the problems of launching a new cargoship built at Schleswig by a local merchant in company with the king. ³² In both cases the ships were no doubt examples of the Danish ships built for the expanding Baltic trade in the 11th-12th centuries (fig. 9).

The wreck excavated within the coffer­dam, Hedeby 1, was the remains of a longship of elegant construction. Only parts of the midship and forward port side were preserved, with extensive traces of charring along the upper edge of the fourth port plank (fig. 10). Evidently the ship had been used as a fireship in an attack on the harbour defences, burning with a heap of inflammable materials stacked onboard (fig. 11). The ship was built from exceptionally long oak planks, up to c. 10 m long, radially split planks, assembled with carefully shaped tongue-scarfs. Loose elements of frames, beams and knees were found and these provided evidence for the reconstruction of the original layout of the ship as a very long and narrow ship, c. 30.9 m in length and only 2.7 min width, possibly a Danish royal longship of the skeid type (fig. 12). The building materials for the ship had been felled locally within a few years after AD 982 and the ship had been repaired, indicating an age for the ship of 5-25 years at the time of its sinking, thus dating the attack on the town to the period c. 990-1010.

There are three different sources that may bear testimony to this event. One is the report by bishop Eckehard of Hedeby /Schleswig and Aldenburg to a church meeting in Gandersheim in 1000 that his episcopal seat had been sacked by heathens and destroyed. The other two are the runic stones Haddeby 1 and 3, both found near Hedeby and both commemorating warriors who died at Hedeby, serving King Svein. These stones have been seen in relation to either Svein Forkbeard (c. 986-1014) or Svein Estridsen (1047-1076) and they have been discussed primarily in relation to events at Hedeby in 982-983 and c. 1050 (44-46).

The Haddeby 1 stone (fig. 13) commemorates Erik, who died when 'drenge' (= Nordic warriors) besieged Hedeby. This might indicate that the heathens reported by Eckehard were Norwegians, and the fact that a fine slender Danish longship was burned in the attack would thus be understandable, as this ship-type built for the sheltered Danish waters was not suitable for general use along the coast of Norway.

Thus the shipfinds from Hedeby serve us as important primary sources for important aspects of the history of this border region, trade and the defence of the country, and they reflect the religious conflicts and the ethnic variety of this North European trading centre.

Ole Crumlin-Pedersen