In a study published last week in the journal PLOS One, researchers present a new analysis of the cordage and waterproofing materials used to construct the Hjortspring boat, Scandinavia’s oldest known wooden plank boat. It survives to tell the story of a mysterious and unsuccessful raid on a Danish island in the fourth century BC.
“This boat, made of lime wood planks, represents a maritime technique used by some of the earliest sailors in Northern Europe,” the researchers write in the paper.
attack by sea
2,300 years ago, a group of four boats attacked the Danish island of Alsace and failed. The defenders loaded the enemy’s weapons into a boat and sank the entire boat in the marshes. Anyway, researchers suggest that this is what happened. This final act, presumably an offering of thanks for their victory, inadvertently prolongs the memory of their victory for thousands of years. An exceptionally preserved boat was found in the marshes of Hjortspring Mose in the 1880s. However, one important detail has been lost from the pages of history.
“Where these sea raiders might have come from and why they attacked Aals Island has long been a mystery,” Mikael Fauvel, an archaeologist at Lund University and co-author of the study, said in a university statement.
However, recent analysis by Fauvel and his team has revealed a surprisingly direct trace of these anonymous attackers – part of a fingerprint on a piece of plank boat’s sealing material, or the material used to stop leaks. In this case, tar. Although fingerprint analysis is not as useful in identifying ancient criminals as it is for modern criminals, it is still a remarkable reminder that these failed warriors of 2,000 years ago are exactly the same kind of humans we are today.
pine forests of the baltic sea
The tar itself may have added another piece to the puzzle of the boat’s origins. Its analysis revealed that “the boat was waterproofed with pine pitch, which was surprising. This suggests that the boat was built somewhere with abundant pine forests,” Fauvel reported. While researchers previously suggested the Hamburg area of modern-day Germany as the origin of the attackers and their boats, Fowley and his colleagues now think they were from the Baltic Sea region.
Furthermore, “if the boat came from the pine forest-rich coastal areas of the Baltic Sea, it means that the warriors who attacked Ales Island decided to launch a maritime attack across hundreds of kilometers of open sea,” says Mikael Fauvel. The team carbon dated the boat’s lime bust cordage to between 381 and 161 BC, confirming that it dates to the pre-Roman Iron Age.
Tree ring counting, which can link the boat’s wooden planks to where the trees were cut, would be the most definitive way to determine where the boat came from. Moving forward, “We are also hoping to be able to extract ancient DNA from the caulking tar on the boat, which may give us more detailed information about the ancient people who used this boat,” Fauvel concluded.
It remains to be seen what further research reveals about the unknown attackers. But I’m sure they’re hoping to remain anonymous because they look down on us for whatever reincarnation they believe in. I don’t want the whole world to know about my failed attempt after many centuries.
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