A new discovery has completely changed what scientists thought they understood.
Scientists have been wrong for over 200 years: These Viking ships at the bottom of the sea turned out to be something else
Archaeologists from the Stockholm Shipwreck Museum are seeking funding to continue their research and excavation of a relatively well-preserved vessel discovered 20 km off the coast—with several masts still intact—that they now suspect may not be a Viking ship after all.
“This ship represents a fascinating transition from medieval to modern shipbuilding.” Viking Age ships (and all other ships from the Nordic countries before that) were built with clinker, long planks of the hull overlapping each other; but in hand-built ships, they lie side by side.
Originating in the Mediterranean around the seventh century, this technique reinforced ship hulls — a feature that became vital once cannons emerged as the dominant naval weapon and began wreaking havoc.
Since the 19th century, researchers believe that five ships from the Swedish archipelago date back to the Viking Age. New research, including 3D surveys, shows they are much younger and that one of them is likely the first of its kind in the Nordic region.
According to the latest archaeological research, four of the ships date from the 17th and 18th centuries, one of them being significantly older. Archaeologists at the Vrak Shipwreck Museum in Stockholm estimate that one of the remains dates back to between 1460 and 1480.
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