Evidence of Large Vessels and Sail in Bronze Age Scandinavia

Abstract

This paper argues that the Nordic boatbuilding tradition and the use of sail in Scandinavia can be traced back to the Early Bronze Age when it developed in response to emerging chiefdoms and an associated need for long-distance trade in bronze metals. The southern Scandinavian boat imagery dated to the Bronze Age (BA) depicts different types of boats and means of propulsion, including large vessels and the use of sail. This paper focuses on crew-lines on such imagery as indicative of boat length in relation to both the 350 BC Hjortspring boat, a BA type boat and the width-to-length ratio of BA ship-settings. This comparison suggests the BA boat imagery and ship-settings depict the same type of plank-built vessels and that the BA ship-settings are likely to represent ‘real’ vessels. Centrally positioned post holes in four of these ship-settings are therefore likely to represent masts, providing a direct link with mast-like features also present in the rock art boat imagery. Available BA boatbuilding technologies, based on analysis of the Hjortspring boat, and other indirect evidence of BA boatbuilding technologies, suggests that large, sailed vessels most likely existed, propelled in combination with mainly paddling.