1,000-Year-Old Toy Viking Boat Unearthed in Norway

[Judi Lynn]

1,000-Year-Old Toy Viking Boat Unearthed in Norway
By Mindy Weisberger, Senior Writer | March 29, 2017 01:44pm ET


A wooden toy discovered during an excavation of an Iron Age site in central Norway hints that 1,000 years ago, a child may have imagined ferocious Viking battles by playing with a carved replica of a ship.

Found buried in a dry well at a small farm in the town of Ørland on the coastal tundra, the boat is whittled in a style resembling Viking vessels, with an uplifted prow and a hole in the center that likely held a mast for a sail.

The Viking Age, dating from around A.D. 800 to 1066, marked a time when Scandinavian sailors and explorers voyaged to Europe's coastal regions and as far as Bahdad, and their distinctive sailing vessels were well-known — apparently, even by inland farmers, who carved replicas of their boats for children. [Fierce Fighters: 7 Secrets of Viking Culture]

"This toy boat says something about the people who lived here," Ulf Fransson, a field leader for the dig and an archaeologist at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) University Museum, said in a statement.

More:
http://www.livescience.com/58456-1000-year-old-toy-viking-boat.html

[democratisphere]

1. Amazing find. The Vikings society, culture and history is one of my great interests.

Thanks for this info.