Arkeologi vid en strandkant – En presentation av de medeltida fartygsfynden i Varberg

Abstract

Between October 2019 and June 2022, an urban archaeological excavation was conducted as part of a large infrastructure project called Varbergstunneln in Varberg, county Halland on the Swedish west coast. The construction site affects an area that used to be Varberg’s coastal zone before the railway and the harbor expansion. This is the first time such a large scale urban archaeological project is done in this town. Although only a few patches of the long excavation area contained archaeological remains, some of the finds are quite amazing. In 2021 and 2022 the remains of six shipwrecks in total were excavated. The two oldest ships are of the type cog, a medieval merchant vessel closely connected to the Hanseatic League but was common in northern Europe 1150–1450. About thirty cogs in total have been found in Europe and seven out of those are in Sweden. Until now. We have added two more during the excavation. The wrecks were situated 200 meters west from the medieval town Getakärr. The cogs are an important piece of the puzzle in understanding the towns trading connections with Europe during the 14th century.